Taormina, Sicily - Lodging Location

Everyone uses the cable car. When we were there other passengers were commuting to work.
We walked along the beachfront. Nice enough but nothing special. I would not stay in Taormina so long. I recommend for a week stay that you go to Ortigia. Honestly we couldn’t wait to get out of Taormina, mobs of tourists everywhere. It lacked the real, local feeling of the rest of Sicily.

And yet we loved Taormina. Everyone is different. We were in Ortiga also. For one week I think Taormina has more to offer. We took a fabulous cooking class with Chef Massimo. Such a fun afternoon and our food was delicious and plentiful. We toured the Ancient Greek theatre which was interesting. We wandered the beautiful parks and enjoyed our 2 night stay. Wish we had more time there. We just loved the energy of the town.

I sort of agree that a week's stay might be too long, but when we visited Taormina I wished we had stayed down at the beach. If I return, that's where I will be. We also go carless. But staying "in between" town and the beach I'm not so sure of. I hope someone who's walked it will chime in. If it's easy to walk from your lodging down to the beach and take the cable car, that should work.

We stayed above town in an apartment. We would walk to town by walking along a little road for a couple of minutes and then taking a series of staircases that led right down to the entrance to the town. The stairs were fine. One afternoon we walked down from the town on similar sets of stairs and those were fine also.

This coming October, we are returning to Taormina for the first time in 13 years, where we celebrated our 30th anniversary. In October 2010, we stayed at Hotel Villa Schuler, a beautifully-restored pink hotel overlooking the Ionian Sea. It was about 250 Euro/night then, which I thought was high. And this was when the Euro/Dollar ratio was 1.43:1.

Now it's over 800 Euro/night. No way. I've got my eye on a great AirBnB that if it is what they say it is--always a worry--the cost will be a fraction of that. Again, like the OP says, there is the very real concern over how close to Corso Umberto, how many steps. They should also factor in the grade factor. It may say oh, only 30 steps, but it ends up being like the staircase in an old house. And I am not as ambulatory as I was back then, so the logistics aspect is a main priority now.

That being said, Taormina is marvelous, views that match any I've seen on the Amalfi Coast. Probably not worth 7 days unless you really wanted to explore--we took the 'Godfather Tour', if you like the movie it's a Mecca. However, the old medieval Sicilian hamlets like Savoca, Forza D'Agro & Castelmola, where the picture was shot, was almost better than any museum. So primitive and so cool.

We'll be basing there for 3 nights, after being in Siracusa/Ortigia for 3 nights and taking the train up to Taormina. From there, we take the train to the ferry that traverses the Strait of Messina, and next stop is Salerno, where we will do genealogical research & hopefully meet with distant family. Finally, we wind down by taking the train to Rome for 5 days of R&R before flying home.

And Barbara--I think we're going to book with Chef Massimo!

It is a considerable hill to have to walk on a regular basis and busses seem few and far between. You can use the stairs which are a lot and then you have you walk along the road for a bit. Narrow road. We were there in offseason so I don’t know about traffic as you walk in high season.
I thought the town was one of the least liked spots we visited. Once you do the Main Street and get the views you are pretty much done. There were enough people for me in off season (a February) that in season seems like it would be really crowded.
Unless you are a walker, good knees, used to stairs and an uphill walk, I would consider staying in the main town over a halfway place.

We stayed at a hotel towards the top of the hill. We walked to the main part of town in about 10 minutes from it. Part of the walk was along the road Ugandan the rest was via steps. To go down to the beach we took the cable car. Two days in Taormina was sufficient especially if cruise ships are in port.

We were in Taormina last September. For the very first time ever, we rented an AirBNB. It was amazing. Really close to the center of town, but on a totally quiet street, no cars, no noise at night. The location was super close to the main street of town, grocery, places to eat. We walked down to the beach, and it's a hike to get there.

Choose between a beach vacation, or a being in town.

There are stairs/steps to get from town to the "beach", but what we found was, the free beaches were ROCKS, not sand. If you paid for a day at the beach, about 20E, that's your option to have a more pleasant location.

We took the cable car one day just to experience it. Ehh....

If you stay in the town above the beach, there seems to be to be more options.

We took a bus tour to Mt Etna and that was a great day out, especially since were really want to say we were there. Being in town, it was easy to walk to the bus terminal area and back to our apartment.

Also in town, you can walk up to the castle, but when we were there it was still closed for renovations. also from town, you can explore the Roman theatre..that offers an amazing view.

Ellen, would you be willing to share the AirBNB that you stayed at? Planning a trip next year and it sounds like it might be what we are looking for. Thanks for considering.

We stayed for two nights in what (for us) was a splurge - and loved it. Absolutely enchanting views, multiple balconies, and we had a kitchen stocked with essentials. Third floor, but worth every step - and penny (about $250 per night). Very centrally located. We enjoyed Taormina - yes we were there in high season (Sept) but the people watching is amazing. The town is adorable, yes touristy but empties out in the evening. We even attended an opera concert in a small theatre with champagne at intermission and lots of kind locals. The cable car was fun, the beach is all rocks (as stated above), and still a considerable stair walk to the beach after you exit the cable car. One thing we did not get a chance to do (and would if it weren't raining) was taking the bus up to the town above Taormina, called Castelmola, as recommended in Rick's newest Sicily guidebook (well worth buying). Here is the link (if it doesn't work, the lodging is called "Greek Theater Apartment - hosted by Maria):
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/32759246?source_impression_id=p3_1676818728_NaJqbr0wN%2FD1sPcE
Have fun!

Thanks Joan, I looked at where you stayed and it’s great. The views are amazing and the location central. Appreciate it!

Donna, you're welcome. Happy to share the info. Now if you have any plans to stay in Scicli, I have an even better place for you (well better because it's much cheaper lol and still gorgeous).