Thoughts on my Itinerary as a Solo Traveler - First Time to Sicily 9/11-9/26

I always advise 2 nights in Agrigento because it is a full day and you want to get there early. Arrive in the late afternoon/early evening, eat and sleep, then a full day there and maybe the museum if you have energy, eat, sleep and leave the next morning for wherever....maybe a lunch stopover at the Roman Villa del Casale to view the mosaics.

No personal experience but a lot of people do Taormina as a daytrip from Catania. That probably frees up that extra day for Agrigento.

Palermo deserves an extra night but it's a good itinerary. If it were me, I'd add days in general but not everyone has that freedom.
1 day - an extra night in Palermo
3 days - + Hill towns
5 days + Southwest Coast or an Island hop.

We rented a car when leaving Siracusa and returned it to Palermo airport. It worked well. We took the train into Palermo and I would advise not driving there.

I think you have a very balanced itinerary. You do not,in my opinion, want to be a day tripper to Taormina. That is most crowded part of day.

We went to the temples at Agrigento in early evening and it really was lovely. We joined a small group for a tour and it was really worth it. We would not have even found all the temples!

We spent one night there and were happy with that.

Maybe cut a night of each from Catania and Trapani inorder to add to Agrigento and Palermo.

We are doing something sort of similar (see my post above), minus Agrigento. The Agrigento/Trapani section does seem a bit rushed, but doable. All the checking in and out takes some of your time.

I'm curious though (because you've given me a good idea); who are you renting a car from in Syracuse? I've been searching for car rentals from there with a drop off in Palermo and find very limited and expensive choices. You are renting on a Sunday I think, which seems almost impossible. We need an automatic, so that may be the issue. If you've already gotten the car figured out, would you mind sharing the info?

I'm wondering if skipping Taormina altogether and adding those days elsewhere would work for you? Maybe do a day trip from Catania to save on another lodging change.

Looks solid! I would do everything possible to see Villa Romana en route to Agrigento. It might make for a long day, but worth it. You could still see Valley of the Temples either later in the day, or the next morning (likely fewer visitors then anyways.) if you feel squeezed for time, I thought the archaeological museum in Agrigento was a bust compared to Museo Di Orsi in Siracusa, and was skippable.

Otherwise, I would advise looking at bus instead of train. Idk about those specific lines, but trains generally not on the same level as the rest of Western Europe. Really, everyone in Sicily gets around on the bus and these usually pick-up drop in more convenient places.

We rented from Avis in Siracusa. There are several rental car places right by the train station.

We did go to Villa Romana del Casale on our way to Agrigento. It definitely worth a stop. My only hesitation for you is the roads then to Agrigento are not great and you are in the middle of no where. I am not sure I would want to drive it solo.

We did not go to Catania at all so I hesitate to comment on its value in terms of length of time there. Part of it is how much your afternoon arrival will allow you to see. I will tell you we had four nights in Palermo and didn’t see all of what we had hoped to see. Now we did do a day trip by train to Cefalu which did eat into our time.

The problem with Sicily is there is too much to see! We spent 16 nights there and just last night we discussing that we ought to return.

I haven’t been beyond Palermo & Cefalu, so I can only advise on that section. I would definitely give Palermo at least an extra day. Right now you have Monreale & Cefalu taking parts of two days. There’s a lot to see & do in Palermo.

So I revised my itinerary based on the feedback! What do you all think? I decided to pull out Catania from my trip since I didn't see good feedback for it online. Just concerned about if I have enough time in each place? Thoughts?

Sep 12 (Sat) — Early departure for the 9:45 Perugina chocolate factory tour at San Sisto, just outside Perugia. Afternoon flight Perugia → Catania. Pick up rental car at Catania airport, drive to Taormina (~1h). Transport: Rome → Perugia (undecided, see open questions) · flight to Catania · rental car Sleep: Taormina

Sep 13 (Sun) — Taormina. Corso Umberto, Piazza IX Aprile, Greek Theatre, Isola Bella, Castelmola. Sleep: Taormina

Sep 14 (Mon) — Mt Etna. Drive to Rifugio Sapienza on the south side (~1h45), funivia up, 4x4 + guide to the crater zone. Late lunch on the way back. Transport: own car Sleep: Taormina

Sep 15 (Tue) — Drive Taormina → Milazzo (~1h). Car into a port garage for three nights. Hydrofoil to Lipari (~1h). Transport: car, then Liberty Lines hydrofoil Sleep: Lipari

Sep 16 (Wed) — Aeolian boat day. Panarea, then Stromboli for the eruption at dusk. Sleep: Lipari

Sep 17 (Thu) — Vulcano or Salina. Sleep: Lipari

Sep 18 (Fri) — Morning hydrofoil back to Milazzo, collect the car, drive to Syracuse (~2h30). Arrive mid-afternoon. Transport: hydrofoil, then car Sleep: Ortigia

Sep 19 (Sat) — Syracuse. Neapolis archaeological park, Ortigia, Castello Maniace, the Duomo. Sleep: Ortigia

Sep 20 (Sun) — Drive Syracuse → Agrigento (~3h), leaving late morning. Valley of the Temples at sunset. Transport: own car Sleep: Agrigento, near the temples rather than up in the modern town

Sep 21 (Mon) — Punta Bianca in the morning, then drive to Palermo (~2h15). Car into a garage. Transport: own car Sleep: Palermo

Sep 22 (Tue) — Day trip to Erice (~1h40 each way). Castello di Venere, the Balio gardens, the town. Return the rental car that evening. Transport: own car, returned in Palermo Sleep: Palermo

Sep 23 (Wed) — Palermo. Palatine Chapel, Quattro Canti, cathedral, Ballarò market. Sleep: Palermo

Sep 24 (Thu) — Cefalù by train (~1h each way). Norman cathedral, La Rocca, the beach, dinner in town. Transport: Trenitalia from Palermo Centrale Sleep: Palermo

Sep 25 (Fri) — Monreale in the morning (bus 389 or taxi). Palermo the rest of the day. Sleep: Palermo

Sep 26 (Sat) — Fly home from Palermo.

Great that you have Cefalu and Erice. And IMHO, Ortygia needs more time. I spent a month in Sicily with a car and found it the most charming of all places we visited. Ortygia is a peninsula distinct from Siracusa and def worth a whole night. Check out also Teatro Massima in Palermo and see if there is an opera being performed.

@ wmmoeck

Erice is a loss?

Maybe others will feel different but I think this new version is pretty phrenetic. You have maybe 9 1/4 days of seeing sights and doing things on your 15 day trip. You are really moving around and seeing a lot of stuff. It's likely you're underestimating the amount of time it takes to get everywhere and you have zero days to get up late, chill and soak up vibes.

But not everybody travels like I do. For you, this pace might be awesome and maybe you like having a lot of transit times to decompress and chill in the car or transit.

I thought it was pretty balanced originally, most feedback seemed to support that. I mean, you do you but adding Millazo, Stromboli, etc changes everything. This current itinerary sounds exhausting, with tons of driving and it means you need a car the entire time. It seems like a big shift in focus, and if that’s your goal then scale back to support it. Like, a 2hr drive day trip to Erice should be time shifted back to the East instead.

Ortigia is lovely and has a great vibe. It has a lot to see and just soak in the atmosphere. Palermo is a wonderful city and I agree with a poster above that you are losing 2 half days with Cefalu and Monreale. I personally thought the first itinerary was a bit less hectic. On the other hand, I know that feeling of trying to fit everything in if this will be your one and only trip to Sicily. One more point, not everything goes like clockwork there. I found that plans often needed to be altered for events like traffic, navigation snafus, long leisurely lunches, last minute additions to sites, etc.

I adored Sicily. Have a great time!

You appear to be paying for a lot of rental car time when it’s parked in a garage or otherwise unused. Haven’t been to the Lipari Islands so no comment on them. Ortigia was fine but a couple hours was enough. Monreale is a must see, Cefalu is not. Whatever you saw critical of Catania was wrong, it’s nice, but ok, you can’t see everything, time is getting short, not much time to make big changes in your plans. Palermo is great, spend as much time there as you reasonably can.