Planning on flying into Palermo staying in Sicily for 3 days with a rental car rthen taking the train to Naples. How does this sound? Anyone have suggestions or done this route before? From Naples we will continue north until we get to Venice. Is the train ride from Messina to Naples like 7 hrs? Would it be faster with a car?
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
If you are spending three days in/near Palermo, why not fly from Palermo to Naples? Seven hours driving time is optimistic - at Messina you have to load the car onto the ferry and then wait until everything else (including buses and trains) gets loaded. This can take almost an hour. If you plan to go to the eastern side of Sicily, you could fly out of Catania.
Posted by
Centennial, CO, USA
1898 posts
Flying is much faster...or for a new adventure, take the over night ferry from Palermo to Naples....
Posted by
Pueblo, CO
31 posts
We took the train from Naples to Taormina a few years ago. The trip from Palermo to Naples should be similar. It does take 7-8 hours, but we found the trip to be scenic, fun and interesting. So...if you have the time I would recommend the train, but if not the plane would be the way to go.
Posted by
OP
Thibodaux, LA
20 posts
Thanks this is soo helpful! Has anyone done the overnight boat from Palermo to Naples sounds interesting
Posted by
Centennial, CO, USA
1898 posts
We did the overnight ferry from Palermo to Naples. The boat left the port @6PM and arrived @6AM to Naples. We were on our way to Sorrento, so we caught the fast ferry from Naples to continue. We booked a interior room, it was pretty inexpensive. There were 2 or 3 places to eat dinner, which they started to serve about 7PM. We stood on deck for a while, until the sun set, and it got cool (it was May) and then went into our berth for the night. We booked the ferry before we left the US, as we knew that was our plan. We had flown from Rome to Palermo on the way over, as we were touring eastern Sicily on our bike. We finished with 3 nights in Sorrento to see the Amalfi coast and Pompeii and Vesuvio.
Posted by
OP
Thibodaux, LA
20 posts
What were the conditions of the boat? Was it nice? Would you do it again or would you choose to fly? I am worried about really tight quarters, being hot and getting motion sickness.
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
The ferries have air-conditioning, but they are ferries - not cruise ships. They travel faster than a cruise ship and thus are more prone to cause motion sickness if the weather is rough.