We want to stay in two places while there. What two cities would best and most practical to stay while there? We will use Palermo as our airport. We want to visit Trapani, Agrigento, Siricusa, Ortegia, Catania, Taormina Catania.
We leave be there in May of 2017. Any B&B or hotel recommendations and sites are appreciated
Thank you!
MaryAnne
Here is website I used to find out all about Sicily . There are hundreds of links on this site.
I like your list, but would also recommend Cefalu, it is a seaside town on the north coast and I was there 3 night. Very relaxing and a lovely town to walk around in, climb "The Rock", go to the beach,
saw a puppet show and history of puppet making in Italy.
In Cefalu we stayed in Hotel Ristorante La Giara - There is even a deck/patio on the roof.
Are you renting a car?
You can't visit Sicily from two places. It's too big.
Palermo is good for 3 nights.
If you don't rent a car stay in Palermo to visit Western Sicily.
Siracusa is another base.
Taormina/Giardini Naxos another.
Agrigento is far from all of the above. You might need to stay there too depending on how much you want to see.
First, count nights rather than days. A night is always a night, a day can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a full day for sightseeing. Transportation in Sicilia takes time.
I would spend two nights in Agrigento, the archeological zone is extensive and there is a good museum across the street from it. Taormina would be another shorter stop. Siracusa and Palermo would be my main bases.
Ortigia is the old town of Siracusa, so no need to add both. Cefalu can be a daytrip from Palermo.
Catania is convenient to fly out of (no backtracking to Palermo), but if you mainly want to see Mount Etna, you can do that from Tairmina.
If you really want only two bases, you will have to give up something, perhaps stay in Ortigia and Palermo with some long daytrips.
I was in Sicily in April/May of 2014. My VERY extensive trip report, including accommodation recommendations, is here: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/sicily-palermo-caltanisetta-siracusa-taormina
You've gotten good advice, so I'll reiterate the main important points.
Catania is a larger airport than Palermo, with more flight options, and if you want to see various parts of the island, you'll do better to fly into one airport and out of the other to avoid backtracking.
Sicily is large, and in 11 days you will rush around to see everything on your wish list. You'll see in my report that we completely missed everything west of Palermo (like Trapani) and we were rushing around to see what we did. Don't forget to account for driving time between places; as you'll see in my report, this always took longer than anticipated. And if you're not renting a car, you really have to cut back the number of destinations.
If the weather in May 2017 is anything like the weather was in May 2014, you'll have a great time!
Bus service on Sundays is thin to non-existent, so be sure to plan for that.
I had 18 full days in Sicily in 2015, using public transportation. I completely skipped the SW area (Agrigento, Segesta) and had to rush more than I would have liked to see as much as I did. Don't try to cover the full extent of the island in 11 days.
Thank you all for such wonderful recommendations and trip advice. Yes, we will have a car while in Sicily. Any recommendations for rental car agencies
We are now thinking of using Catania Airport on arrival and Palermo airport for departure.( That was a great idea to save time!)
We also may add one more night in Agrigento.
Thanks again.! we love reading your trip report! Also, we appreciate the Best Of Sicily website. We will devour that.
We have traveled quite a bit and have seen many ruins and churches. We love the idea of seeing the puppet factory and other unique places. We welcome any other ideas of places to see along those line,(ie cheesemaking et al).
With a car, definitely visit Segesta, not far from Palermo (I think acraven meant that he skipped Selinunte, closer to Agrigento in the south).
We really enjoyed Cefalù, very relaxing and lovely swimable beach with sand. We stayed in Cinisi for a couple of nights as it is very near the airport, the B and B was great! TAM Casa Vacanze, great reviews on TripAdvisor.
Zoe, I skipped all the Greek sites except for Siracusa [[oops--and Taormina] and was too lazy to check the map before posting!
