Taormina for 6 nights - Suggestions for day trips?

Why did you choose Taormina? I suppose you realize how the cruise ship tours overpower it during the day. You can take the gondola down to the beach below. There is a different feel to Taormina than in the rest of Sicily, more upscale and polished as well as very crowded. October is a good month for Sicily. Not hot as earlier months although you may have some rain.
Definitely visit Siracusa and it’s charming Ortigia Island, connected to mainland by bridges. We spent a week there last October.
Noto is near Siracusa, 20-30 minutes. Connected by train and bus.
There are wine tours to Mt. Etna. Look at Sicily Life. Excellent private tours throughout Sicily. We bird them twice for transfers.
Agrigento is an amazing site. Drive or go on a day tour. We’ve toured most of Sicily on two trips there and it is the number one antiquities site we’ve seen there. There is a very worthwhile archeological museum there too.
Enjoy your trip and do take day trips to see more of Sicily.

Thanks Suki, I guess the "Why" really doesn't matter as we are booked :-). Overall, Family is a major reason for choices. We are looking forward to our trip, and hoping we get some good suggestions. I have heard many positive and negative things about Siracusa, and I am trying to hear from personal experiences for choices.

Thanks Again!

Glenn

Taormina is lovely, but I would probably not make it the base for the entire 6 nights, but to consider splitting your time if you can. The reasons are: it's really compact, it's really expensive (much more so than rest of Sicily), it's super crowded (although probably better in October), and there's not enough to do just there for that long. Siracusa has much more to do for multiple days (at least 2- 2.5 full days), so I would have a 2nd base there if possible (from there you can get to Noto in 1 hour and Ragusa and Modica in 2 hours - all three are really nice). By the way, a bus is a better choice for getting in and out of Taormina than the train. The reason is that the station is on the hill right outside one of the main town gates, whereas the train is down below (maybe a mile away) down a very steep road. I took a bus on my last day from Siracusa to Taormina and then back to Catania Airport. I think it took about 2.5 hours or so one way. Noto is 1 hour away by bus from Siracusa (I think the bus works better there too, from what I remember, in terms of dropping you off at a more central location). You can do a wine tour somewhere by Mt. Etna.

I used Lonely Planet when I went, but this is a good website to start (ignore all the ads):
http://www.bestofsicily.com/index.htm

Thank you Agnes! Appreciate the suggestions. We are locked in with Taormina, so we are looking at day trips. My concern with Siracusa is can it work as a day trip? I realize many love to stay multiple nights there - I am wondering if it a possible in a day trip.

Glenn

As much as we loved Taormina we spent 3 nights there at the end of a Southern Italy tour. We did a day tour to Mt. Etna & winery tour. On our own following the tour we took the train to Siracusa and spent 4 nights in magical Ortigia. We hired a driver and did a day tour of Noto, Ragusa and Modica. We hit all the highlights. We took the train to Catania, spent the day and flew out the next morning. Due to the brevity of our time in Sicily we will return and stay about a month.

My concern with Siracusa is can it work as a day trip?

Sure, if you don't mind at least 2 hours each way to get there and limiting yourself to what you see (it took me like a half day just for the archeological museum, but not everyone has the same interests). I've taken day trips like that where I head out early AM and come back late - those are very long days. The one issue is that you really can't have a proper dinner that night because you're working around the public transport schedule (I like to eat dinner late and not having to worry about "timing" the bus).

On the other hand, I think Agrigento could take you about 3 hours each way, so that may be too much.

Thanks again Agnes!! I am leaning towards leaving Agrigento for another trip, for the reasons you state. I will do some research on Siracusa as well, wrt trains, what we can accomplish in the day, etc.

Some additional info - We are combining our drive to Cefalu with a pilgrimage to my GrandMother's home town, Montemaggiore Belsito. I am concerned with having a car in Cefalu, but i understand there may be parking outside of town.

Our stay in Taormina is after 4 nights in Rome - been to Rome many times, but first time to Sicily.

Glenn

Maybe the below link could help get you started with horseback riding ideas (I thought of the Nebrodi mountains, but there are other areas as well). You may have to dig around a bit to find actual outfitters (sorry, Italian websites are just plain crappy so you need some patience)
http://www.visitsicily.info/en/horseback-riding-in-sicily/