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One week in Sicily

artnbarb

1000+ Posts
Looks like our vacation within a vacation next summer is going to be Sicily, at long last. We'll fly RyanAir into Catania and will rent a car. Just how much moving around should we try to - or need to - do?

I'm thinking the end of Sept or beginning of October is better than late Aug to mid September.

I'm just starting to research, please point me in the right direction!
 
We once had a 1 weeker in Aeolian Islands which gives you nice diversity with the island hopping. We had a taxi from Catania airport to Milazzo for the ferry. This extra cost should nicely offset against not having car hire.

However otherwise it seems there is plenty to excite on the main island that a car would be ideal for.
 
How many days will you spend here in Sicily? Will you depart from Catania or Palermo's airport? and yes, end Sept is better than the end of August!
Part of how long we'll stay depends on where we fly into, and what's within reasonable driving distance from our base. It looks like for now, RyanAir flies into Catania, but that could change.
 
In my opinion, to be able to enjoy the best sites available you should consider Sicily divided into 2 portions. Although an island, Sicily is very large as a region and there are many sites of interest; so assuming that you will fly in and out from Catania, east Sicily would be the best part to visit (not knowing how long you'll be here).
Catania or the surroundings would be a perfect base to reach many of those sites; Mount Etna and the wineries very close, Taormina and Castelmola (53km), Savoca and Forza D'Agro' (72 km), Siracusa (65 km), Caltagirone (70 km), Noto (90 km), Ragusa (103 km), Modica (118 km), Piazza Arrmerina (98 km), Marzamemi (107 km). These are some of the most important sites; of course, there are some others as well and in any case among the ones I wrote to you, some of those can be incorporated into a single visit (Siracusa and Noto for example). In case you could have 2 bases available throughout the trip (Catania and Ragusa for example) the journey would be even easier.
 
Thank you! Art wanted 3-4 days, but I can't see staying less than a full week! Then the challenge is - one base, or two? Changing hotels is so time consuming, and if we stay a full week we could probably rent an apartment. But maybe such a short time makes two bases more practical.
 
We had a good trip to Sicily a few years ago and I wrote a trip report. There are some other trip reports in the Italy Trip Reports forum.

I wrote some Day Trips for the things we loved.
https://www.sloweurope.com/daytrips/italy/sicily/

I posted this on your other thread - Consider driving to Sicily!
I read the trip report, and a few others as well, thanks to everyone. It feels like a week in Sicily will be very busy!
 
Our trip was 10 nights and we missed most of western Sicily. I wanted to see the Greek temples and explore those Baroque towns. Everything that we saw was magnificent.
 
One week will give you only an opportunity to sample a small part of Sicily...the island is so rich in attractions and distances are challenging. I would pick either the southeast (Siracusa/Baroque cities), the northwest (Palermo and Trapani) or the southeast (Agrigento, Selinunte, Marsala). The northeast is a possibility...Taormina and Cefalu...but I am not a fan of Taormina anymore.

Don't try and do too much.....We have spent a total of 8 weeks in Sicily over three trips and we don't think we are finished. :)
 
Have you found the detailed report I wrote for the week I spent in Sicily last year? It was part of a guided tour so we only hit the high spots and didn't have as long to relax and enjoy places as I would have liked. I felt there was a lot we were driving past that I was missing!

You could split bvetween two bases - say Agrigento in the east and Palermo in the west but it is going to take a day to drive between the two. That effectively only gives you three days in each place - not very long...Have a look at what there is to do and see for each and if there is enough to fully occupy a week with one base.
 

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