When is water warm enough to swim in Sicily (traveling with young children)

May of 2022 we traveled throughout Sicily. People were swimming in Cefalù but it was way too cold for us to go in deeper than our knees. Check out www.seatemperature.org.

Mid June was our first swim last year in the Puglia region of Italy.
Unfortunately when the sea is warm enough the cities are hot.

1. Warm is a subjective attribute. I see people around here in San Francisco that swim in the ocean in summer even though around here water temperature never reaches 16 C (60F). Water temperature in Sicily is in the low to mid 70s F June through Sept. May it would be cool water (in the 60s to maybe 70F toward the end of the month.
2. I’ve been in Sicily in June and it was pleasant, at least near the coast. In the interior it gets hotter. You can check average temperatures in any city worldwide in many websites.
3. May of which year? You can check historic weather series and also averages for any city you wish in numerous websites. But the best bet is to check the weather just before going since not all years are equal. Generally May in Rome is pleasant (temps in the 70s to low 80s) but some years it is unseasonably cold and others unseasonably hot.

Ocean water warms up relatively slowly; it also cools relatively slowly, so it tends to lag the daytime high temperatures a bit. Of course it depends on each year's weather, and a lot depends on the person (and how much they want to get in the water). It also varies from place to place - at beaches that have white, sandy bottoms, in shallow, sheltered coves where the water gets a chance to "sit" relatively undisturbed, things will heat up a bit in the afternoons (compared to places with a lot of water flowing in/out) - but it may be hard to find those perfect conditions.

For Sicily, May is probably the transition month. Unless you/your kids are willing to put up with cool water, you probably aren't going swimming there until end of May, or into early June. If you are trying to beat the heat (and beat the crowds), best bet would be later in September - but it's always a roll of the dice with weather. The air fares are high during beach time for a reason.

Trying to pick a "shoulder season" that works for being in the water, I think right after peak summer heat will give you a better shot than right before it (because of the way water temps lag behind air temps).

Personally, I'm planning a trip to Malta (which is due south of Sicily) and have targeted late September into early/mid-October, hoping for the elusive sweet spot, when peak summer crowds will have abated, but with warm (not oppressively hot) weather, and sea temperatures still warm enough to swim comfortably (we will be doing some SCUBA diving there, actually). From my research, last week of September/first week of October looks to fit that bill. But you have to just take your chances and roll the dice. We will see!

My husband has a colleague from near Palermo. We will be in the area in May and were discussing swimming. He said only northern Europeans swim in Cefalu in May-that it is too cold for everyone else. April, of course, will be colder. He said Italians only swim in July and August but that June would be swim able.

I looked at average sea temperatures in May and they were the same as off the coast of Crete (Libyan Sea) we visited last year. My husband went in the water but I did not. I don't like cold water. But then, we live in Florida.

If I were you, I would consider going in April when it is cheaper and would guess your young children would be just as happy playing in the sand. It seems to me to make sense to travel when those with school age children cannot easily.

Thanks for all of the replies guys; I so appreciate it. Looking at going this year, so April/ May 2023 or Aug/Sept 2023. I know it's late planning but my husband had a last minute deal close in 2022 that will provide a large bonus and he's given me a healthy budget for vacation. It's our 10 year anniversary this year and his 40th birthday so going to combine that those occasions.

My husband can probably take 3 weeks off anytime spring up until Sept when it's his busy time at work. He can go in Sept if we combine the 3 weeks with the last week in Aug with first 2 weeks in Sept, which is what we did in the past but it's always so hot. I worry it will be too hot with very young children to travel then.

So for going to Sicily in April/ May and swimming- kids are so young at 1 and 3 that if the ocean is cold to an adult, I'm going to assume it's too cold for them. I may rethink things. I don't think we can handle July-Aug heat for swimmable beaches. My husband and I have been to Italy 2 times but never further south than Rome, never to the water and never outside Aug-Sept when its really hot. I think my young kids would be miserable in that heat, then we would be miserable in that heat. We've been to Nice at the end of August and the French Rivera was lovely, but I've read France is harder to travel with young kids vs Italy. We don't have childcare to vacation without them and we miss our vacations in Europe.

Our previous two trips to Italy have been a week in Montepulciano and Rome each, then few days in other cities (Venice, Lucca etc). We would probably stay in Rome again because we love it and it's the only direct flight from DFW. I guess one option is still fly to Rome, stay there for a week, fly to Sicily and stay for 2 weeks in Spring. Enjoy the island but know it's too cold to swim for kids unless we get a heated pool with hotel. Or scrap Sicily and beach vacation idea and we could see sights from mainland Italy. For example, we've only done day trips to Florence. My husband and I adore all things history and art, so I know we can do a week there easy. Not sure if kids would enjoy it as much though. I know we can't do Venice with stroller.

Not looking for an answer necessarily. Just typing my thoughts out. My first thought for vacation was 2 weeks in Hawaii to be easy with kids but my husband said we have to get back to Europe and he has to have history/art back in his vacations. He won't be happy just on a beach. Europe is my husband and my happy place. And we are hoping that we don't have to wait another 8 years or so until the kids are older to go back.