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Sicily: Day trips from Palermo to Erice, Segesta and Cefalu

Sicily: Day trips from Palermo to Erice, Segesta and Cefalu

Old Aug 26th, 2015, 05:11 PM
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Sicily: Day trips from Palermo to Erice, Segesta and Cefalu

We will be spending 11 days next May driving between Siracusa, Noto and the other Baroque towns, Agrigento and Selinunte. Following that swing across the south, we would also like to visit Erice, Sagesta, Monreale and probably Cefalù but are thinking of doing that while basing in Palermo. We don't like moving from hotel to hotel more than necessary but are not sure whether driving in and out of Palermo several days in a row would be a nightmare.

The original idea was to stay at the Grand Hotel et des Palmes in central Palermo, but I'm wondering whether the driving might be easier if we were to stay outside of town at the Villa Igiea and taxi into central Palermo to see the city on non-daytrip days. Or am I wrong that the Villa Igiea is outside of central Palermo?

Another alternative would be to give up our rental car when we reach Palermo and do the day trips via public transport. As I understand it, Segesta might not be reachable that way, is that true? Maybe use guides to visit the places we'd like to see and rely on them for transport?

As for how much time to spend in Palermo, including day trips to the places mentioned, we are thinking 4 or 5 nights. Is this enough, too much, too little? I don't think we can spend more than that, so what should we cut out if we need to cut somewhere?

We would appreciate thoughts, advice, etc. from folks who know the area or have done similar trips. Thanks in advance for any help.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 08:43 AM
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Any Sicily experts who can help?
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 09:48 AM
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"am I wrong that the Villa Igiea (sic) is outside of central Palermo?"

No: it's about 4 miles from the Quattro Canti, most people's definition of central Palermo. Can easily take half an hour on a busy Saturday night.

By Greater Palermo standards, it's easily accessible from the motorway system (and therefore all the western side of Sicily), and there's an adequate bus service into town as well as cheap taxis. The problem is there's absolutely nothing in the immediate vicinity except for a couple of verging on tacky bars. The Villa Igea itself - which has certainly seen better days, and they were 75 years ago, though its gardens are nice - isn't particularly good for eating in. It's also one of those annoying hotels which keep on telling you their history - which there isn't very much of and what there is is frankly drfab.

But under no circumstances try driving into central Palermo. Either stay at somewhere like the Villa Igea (or the Mondello Palace) or dump the car.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 10:21 AM
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I'd drop the car upon arrival at Palermo. Take the train to Cefalu.

Take a day trip to Erice and Segesta. This site (which I found by googling and have no prior knowledge of) offers tours to both from Palermo. http://www.toursofsicily.com/

Four nites would be the minimum if you are taking two day trips from Palermo. I'd stay five so that you'd have two full days to see the rest of what Palermo has to offer.

Take buses to the rest of the things in Palermo (e.g. Monreale, Norman Palace with Cappella Palatina are the big things, but there is a lot more)

Palermo was one of the most pleasant surprises in our travels.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 10:33 AM
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Thanks flanneruk. We don't really want to stay at the Villa Igea, it just seemed a better bet if we were doing day trips with the rental car. However it doesn't seem worth dealing with either a hotel we don't want or with horrendous traffic just to avoid changing hotels once more.

So on further thought we might stay a day or two in Trapani to visit there and Erice and Segesta before going on to Palermo and dropping the car at the airport and then busing or taxiing into the center. We can decide about Cefalù once there and take the train if we want to go there.

Still open to opinions from you or anyone else...
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 10:37 AM
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I enjoyed staing in Trapani. (Of course, I enjoyed staying in Erice, too.) I would drop the car in Trapani, there is a perfectly good bus to central Palermo.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 10:38 AM
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Thanks dwdvagamundo, I think we will take your advice and get rid of the car upon arrival in Palermo. I am however tempted to stay in Trapani to visit Erice and Segesta since we really don't like tours. Maybe public transport from Palermo? Do you know if that's relatively easy to do from central Palermo?
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 12:04 PM
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We based in Palermo and visited Agrigento by bus from there on a long day trip. It was on a Sunday and the bus and traffic were absolutely mobbed going back to Palermo. After walking to the ruins from the bus stop and back, we still had time to walk to the high point in the town and thought it would be a nice place to stay for relaxing.

In Palermo, DH made a deal with a taxi driver and on his day off, he took us to Monreale and the old market for a flat rate and for lunch. There is a local bus for Monreale though.

We used a local bus for Mondello and it was straight forward. If you and your DH are competent drivers, I think you would be fine for Cefalu from Grand Hotel et des Palmes. Look at Google maps.

I agree about 4 nights for Palermo. Monreale, Norman Palace with Cappella Palatina mentioned above are truly outstanding.

Please let everyone know how it goes.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 01:38 PM
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We based near Trapani and visited Erice and Segesta from there. Then we moved further south and at the end of our trip we based in Cefalù and daytripped to Palermo (by train).
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 02:17 PM
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We visited Sicily five years ago, one of our best trips ever. Because its wonderful sights are everywhere, circling the island is often the best way to go if you have time. Leaving Agrigento, you could stop at Selinunte on your way to Trapani as your hub for Erice and Segesta. Luggage left in the car at Selinunte is an issue you'd have to consider. Then drop the car off at the Palermo airport. You can easily get to Monreale and Cefalu from Palermo.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 05:23 PM
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Thanks all. Thursdaysd, it never occurred to me to drop the car in Trapani and bus to Palermo. Would this be easier than driving to the Palermo airport to return the car after leaving Trapani? It's usually pretty easy to find airports; it's the driving into a crowded town that freaks me out.

TDudette, we used to be competent drivers but the last few years it's more and more of a burden in Europe and on unknown roads. We definitely need a car for most of the itinerary but would love to avoid it for the last leg.

Bon_voyage, we are in fact going to stay a couple of days at La Forestiera just outside Selinunte and drive north from there.

Myriam, thanks for the idea, but we like being in cities at night rather than just visiting for the day. A nap before dinner, a drink in a caffé, a walk to the trattoria, that's what we look forward to doing ( not to mention the eating!). I realize we could do that in Cefalù but it's Palermo we really want to spend the time in.

Checking for return air from Palermo area to Paris, our next stop, it would appear that Ryanair out of Trapani airport might be the best bet (i.e. least expensive), although they don't fly that route every day and we'd have to adjust our schedule to theirs. Might work though, in which case we'd go first to Palermo, stay 3 days and then spend the last 2 in Trapani.

Out of Palermo airport the low-cost Spanish airline Vueling has relatively low fares but the reviews on line are horrifying and I'd prefer to avoid them.

I think Cefalù has fallen by the wayside as were getting short on time and prefer to see less rather than to rush.

Once it's pinned down I'm going to do a separate post with a more detailed itinerary, including hotels and number of days in each location and ask for feedback. I look forward to hearing from you on that as well!

I really appreciate your help.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 05:58 PM
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You’ve gotten some great advice already, but I must admit that I’m confused – do you have only 11 days for your time in Sicily, or 11 days for this segment?

“how much time to spend in Palermo”

That depends entirely on what you want to see (in Palermo and elsewhere), your pace of travel, etc. I recommend that you consult some good guidebooks (always a worthy investment, IME, or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, note their opening/closing times, and mark them on a calendar. Then pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together. FWIW, I wish I'd given Palermo itself (not counting any day trips) MUCH more than the 2.5 days I gave it....

I agree that you should consider giving up your rental at the earliest possible opportunity.

Hope that helps!
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 07:32 PM
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Hi kja, sorry to have confused you.

We will be spending 11 days in southern Sicily, arriving at Catania and visiting Siracusa, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Scicli, then a quick jaunt to Piazza Armerina to see the Roman mosaics at Villa Casale. From there we go to Agrigento and to Selinunte, where we stay a couple of nights at La Forestiera.

This was the original extent of our trip but we decided that going west and north for Trapani, Erice and Palermo might be a good idea, flying out from there. Since we've already committed so much time to the south, in which I am more interested, we have only 3-5 days more to allocate.
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Old Aug 27th, 2015, 07:46 PM
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"we have only 3-5 days more to allocate"

Thanks for clarifying!

In that case, I would tilt toward time in / around Palermo -- but of course that's just me. Do NOT miss Monreale's cathedral (IMO)!

it's hard to comment without seeing your full itinerary, but overall, I think you have a nice distribution of time.

One question: Do you have time anywhere that will give you a good view of Mt. Etna? I was glad to have made that part of my time in the area.

Enjoy!
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Old Aug 28th, 2015, 02:42 AM
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I second the request for a trip report
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 10:27 AM
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shellio--we did what Myriam and bon voyage are suggesting, but in reverse: that is, picked up a car in Palermo, drove to Segesta, then to Erice for one nite, then the next day visted Selinunte and had lunch there, and arrived at Agrigento before the sun went down. It worked quite well.

I'd allocate one of the days from Palermo to Trapani or Erice (they're pretty much next to each other), then you'd have three full days in Palermo, one of which you could use to go to Cefalu. Monreale is right outside Palermo and easily reachable by bus; allow half a day to see it.

You should be able to see Mt Etna on the road to Piazza Armerina
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 12:20 PM
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Thanks, dwd. We're still thinking about how many days we will have in that area. It appears that Ryanair flies from Trapani to Paris (our next stop) only twice a week so we may need to cut Sicily short a couple of days to make the flight. Other airline prices are way too high as far as I can tell.

I'm trying to avoid the "since I'm here I have to see everything" syndrome. Seems to me coming back to Sicily wouldn't be so bad, based on people's reports.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 01:03 PM
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>
That's a good attitude! You simply can't see everything in such a small amount of time. We visited Sicily on two occasions, two weeks each, and we haven't seen everything yet.
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 01:53 PM
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I 2nd David's suggestion of ditching the car and using Cefalu as a base for Palermo and all the sights - this is a lovely old seaside town with none of the worries of a Palermo - especially parking your car overnight outside if you hotel don't have parking - a short train ride to Palermo - buses are best to go to Segesta (an awesome sight! - out in the middle of nowhere its stark still imposing ruins dominating the landscape - you'd think you were in Greece (until you get to Agrigento and its extraordinary grouping of Greek temples).

I did not see too much in Palermo itself for more than two days - I walked to Monreale so it's right in Palermo - don't miss the church near it with tons of skeletons in its basement!
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Old Sep 1st, 2015, 04:05 PM
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I loved my time in Palermo and was very glad I gave it several days! To each his/her own.
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