Travelling to Sicily, Malta and Gozo

Where will you be staying in Sicily? My Must sees in Sicily are the Greek temples outside Agrigento, followed by the Greek theatre and its backdrop of Mt. Edna at Taormina , also the English Garden, the small Norman cathedral and must enjoying Taormina itself. The cathedral at Cefelu. Malta is a small island and unless you are staying on Gozo everything is within an easy bus or taxi ride (megalithic temples for example). Valletta and its harbour are worth a look - take a boat tour around the harbour.

You can get some ideas for dividing your time in Sicily from Rick's tour itinerary, which spends 10 nights in Sicily. Guidebooks I prefer are Lonely Planet and Michelin Green Guides specific to those regions (not the all-Italy version, in this case).

When you say "ancient sights" what do you mean exactly? Greek, Roman, Norman...all sorts of groups have lived in these islands, and left various traces. I wanted to get a taste of various periods and cultures, but if there's one you favor, post it and people may have more specific suggestions.

I was in Sicily in April/May 2014, and wrote a very lengthy trip report, here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina

With only 10-12 days, I wouldn't try to see both Sicily and Malta. As you see from my report, we rushed around to see just the "highlights" of Sicily in that time (and missed a lot too, including Trapani, Erice, and Cefalu). And you'll lose most of a day getting to or from Malta.

I loved Malta but I would agree that trying to do both will shortchange one or both. Are you planning to rent a car for Sicily?

Using rome2rio.com, I find two ways to travel from one to the other - fly from Catania or ferry from Pozallo. Most of the ancient Greek sights are on the western side of Sicily, Catania and Pozallo are on the eastern side. If you have a car, you can get to either in a few hours. You could return a rental car at the Catania airport, then fly to Malta. If you want to take the ferry, you'll have to get there by bus.

Gozo is a day trip from Valetta or Rabat. The best option would be either a guide with a car or a group tour. The ruins at Gozo are extremely impressive, but, frankly, to the untrained eye, they are pretty much piles of rocks. I don't remember other ancient sites in Malta except the quite good archaeology museum in Valetta.

On the eastern side of Sicily is the major ancient Greek city of Siracusa. A little further north is the Villa Romana del Casale. Taormina has the Ancient Greek theatre and nearby, Naxos has the ruins of one of the oldest Greek settlements in Sicily.

I have used this service for two trips to Sicily (East Side) twice, with two separate groups of friends: legendofsicily.com
They offer apartments and BnB's in Taormina and also do tours of ancient sites, including the huge Theatre in Syracuse and Mt. Etna. We also took their wine tour, which was excellent. Both groups of friends absolutely raved about the tours! They're based in Taormina, which is nice - because there is also a splendid Greek Theatre in Taormina. Our contact (Claudio Puglisi) who is the rental agent/tour scheduler was so very personable! He walked us all through Taormina and pointed out all kinds of points of interest, and explained who built this wall/and when, etc., when this Church was built........perfect English, very Sentimental about his Home Town, and kind beyond words. Tell Claudio I said hello if you decide to book through them.

Two tour guides I can highly recommend: Palermo area is Jacqueline Alio at: [email protected] and in Catania - Messina area is Tommaso Pante at : [email protected]
Disclaimer - We are going to Sicily in a couple months and we have only arranged tours with Jacqueline and Tommaso. However, they came highly recommended to me and I have enjoyed booking tours with each of them. They are very helpful.

Thank you all so much. Your advice is very helpful. I would really love to see the Ancient Greek and Roman sites in Sicily. I also hear there are some fantastic Cathedrals. I know that doing both Sicily and Malta/Gozo in 10 to 12 days is really busy. I would rather do a few fantastic sites then do a death march. I know that I won't be able to see everything, but I figure that this won't be my last trip to these islands. I would just like to get a sampling of them. I would hate to go all the way to Sicily and miss seeing some of the sites in Malta/Gozo.

Any other advice you can give me is great. Where to stay, where to eat. Places to go that I would not have thought of. Books to read about the areas etc...

Thank you all again!
Tracy

In Palermo I stayed at Palace Centrale - it is an OLD Palace, a sweet charmer within walking distance to most of the most important sites in Palermo, we took a two day vacation from our vacation and stayed in Cefalu at Hotel LeCalette - got both reservations from booking.com. I will tell you that the Cefalu stop was after three days in Rome, and five days in Taormina - taking day tours, and we were ready for a rest. Our jaws absolutely dropped at the view at Hotel le Calette! In Taormina we rented an apartment through
legendofsicily.com. Sicilian food is unbeatable, but if you'd like restaurant recs for Taormina I will send some via PM.