We're doing our first Rick Steves tour in Sicily this year! We'll also be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary there.
Anyone have any tips to prepare for this trip? I've done some reading on this part of Italy and am brushing up on my sadly rudimentary Italian. Any other suggestions for us? We will be arriving a couple of days before the tour begins, and any suggestions/advice is welcome. Thanks!
Where will you arrive?
I enjoyed the Off-Season Sicily in February 2016 so much that I took my husband in May, 2017 on the regular tour! Since the tours start in Palermo, I would guess that you are arriving there, correct? I made sure both times to make a reservation at the tour hotel as soon as I had the name. For pre-tour planning if you go to "Our Tours" and your off-peak tour where it shows a list of options such as dates and prices, all the way down Rick has "Pre-Tour Planning" which will list sights that are not covered on the tour.
Have a fabulous time...It's an outstanding tour!
Where will you arrive?
We fly into Rome and change planes to arrive in Palermo. Well, assuming that Alitalia is still flying then. I've read that they has major issues, but I booked our tickets before I read about their financial issues. If there's no connecting flight, I'll be looking at train tickets from Rome to Palermo.
I enjoyed the Off-Season Sicily in February 2016 so much that I took my husband in May, 2017 on the regular tour! Since the tours start in Palermo, I would guess that you are arriving there, correct? I made sure both times to make a reservation at the tour hotel as soon as I had the name. For pre-tour planning if you go to "Our Tours" and your off-peak tour where it shows a list of options such as dates and prices, all the way down Rick has "Pre-Tour Planning" which will list sights that are not covered on the tour.
Thanks for the suggestions! And, yes, we start in Palermo. I made a reservation at the starting hotel as soon as I had a name to go with it, too! :-)
We went on this tour in April 2016 and had a great time. We stayed in Rome before and after the tour and stayed in the Palermo tour hotel for one night before the tour started. Our Aer Lingus flight to and from Rome was so inexpensive that it paid for the extra nights in the eternal city. In Palermo we visited the art museum -Galleria D'Arte Moderna (GAM), which was a good way to get some exposure to Sicilian culture and history. As is true in much of Europe modern art at the Palermo museum is from the 1800s to the present. I downloaded a Lonely Planet Sicily guidebook, since the Rick Steves Italy book does not include Sicily (I understand that Rick Steves is working on a Sicily guidebook).
Thanks for the suggestions, Bob!
B&B delle Vittorie if you can't get nights at the tour hotel. Just off Via Maqueda.
I am sure you will love the tour!
When is your tour? I'm on the one that begins October 15!
