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Three weeks in Sicily by Train/Bus questions

Hi friends,

I'm new to the forum but a seasoned traveller - but my partner and I (mid 40's from NZ) have recently started doing some shorter trips together. We are massive foodie travelers, but love to just explore on foot and spend a few days at least in each place really getting to know it and making day trips on public transport around a base.

We have three weeks booked in Sicily and itinerary is currently as such (and believe me, I know we are missing alot of the island on this trip but being able to travel shorter distances on public transport was something we wanted for this particular trip):

Palermo 4 nights
Cefalu 3 nights
Milazzo 1 night
Lipari (Aeolian Islands) 4 nights
Taormina 4 nights
Ortigia Siracusa 3 nights

We think this is a nice amount of time in each place to account for travel times to and from, and day trips (ex Etna wineries, Noto down south, exploring the Aeolian....etc)

Open to any suggestions but real question at the moment is that our travel itinerary means we have to get back to Palermo to fly out (our ticket couldn't leave from Catania) so question is - from Siracusa - should we take the direct bus back to Palermo for the last three nights and continue to enjoy the city and day trips around (it would really only be two more days) or take a day/night in Catania en route back? Or any other suggestion we are missing?

Of course places like Ragusa, Agrigento, and Trapani were on our list, but we don't want to be traveling all the time so thought to save that part of the Island for next time.

But open to all suggestions!

Thanks!

Posted by
2787 posts

My suggestion would be to save your days in Palermo for the end. Cefalu is an easy train ride from Palermo so you could go from the airport and then to Cefalu. That would save you one hotel change. We did that when we went to Palermo-although after returning a car at the airport rather than an international flight.

And I would go back from Siracusa. I would also add time to Siracusa-at least a night if you want to make day trips from there. We spent 4 nights in Siracusa and did not do any day trips. We had planned to go to Noto but it was a beautiful day and we just enjoyed being in Siracusa (Ortigia). You could make a day trip also by train to Ragusa if you wanted. But you would need to allocate more time to Siracusa to do that.

You also can do a day trip to Agrigento from Palermo by train or there are tour companies that go there.