13 days Sicily
 

hi, we are planning a 13 day trip in Sicily, and based on some good advice we've had so far, our plan is currently:
palermo: 4 nights (including 1 day to celafu, 1 day to monreale) - all bus or train
trapani: 2 nights (including 1 day to erice) - 1 day trip to erice, 2nd day pick up car from trapani airport and go to segesta, 3rd day drive to agrigento, see selinunte and scala dei turchi along the way
agrigento: 1 night, see the temples the next morning, en route to catania to return car and then reach ortygia at evening/night.
ortygia: 3 nights (to see noto, ragusa ibla, modica) drive to ragusa ibla and modica, drive to catania and return car at catania aiport before heading to taormina
taormina: 2 nights (including one day Mt Etna + winery tour)

we think 4 nights in palermo might be a bit too much and are wondering if we should spend one more night in agrigento? or someone else?

also would having a car in ortygia be helpful so we can stop by places along the way from ragusa ibla/monica/noto?

thanks for any advice you may have for us!

You don't want a car in Ortigia.

The biggest omission I see is the Villa Casales. I woud skip terribly touristy Taormina, or at least drop a night there, in order to include the villa.

I would want to keep the car for Ortygia. I had one and was glad I did. There is a big parking lot you can use, or book a place to sleep with parking.

I would also suggest a daytrip to Taormina rather than spending nights there. 4 nights is not too much for Palermo if you are using 2 of the days for trips to Monreale & Cefalu. If you don't like cities and historic/artistic sightseeing, just skip Palermo. If you've heard tales about the markets of Palermo, visiting the market in Ortygia is an excellent substitute.

Look to see if you can pick up the car in Trapani without going to the airport.

As for Palermo, it depends on your interests! There is certainly more than enough in that fascinating city to keep one fully occupied for 4 nights, even without Cefalu, but whether it would be too much or too little for YOU is a question I can't answer.

As thursdaysd noted, you do NOT need a car in Ortygia itself, and you don't need one to visit Noto. if you want to visit other Baroque towns of the Val di Noto, then you might need one -- although it isn't clear to me from your itinerary that you have time for that.

Why go to Trapani's airport to pick up your rental car rather than picking it up from an agency in Trapani itself? Are you planning to visit Catania? if not, why not return the car in Siracusa?

I agree with thursdaysd that you might want to consider visiting the Villa Romana del Casale -- it is one of Sicily's gems. You could visit it en route from Agrigento to Siracusa.

The views from Taormina are stunning, but the town can become so full of day trippers as to be truly uncomfortable.

Hope that helps!

I pretty much agree with the comments above except on the car. We had no trouble parking in Ortygia, but the traffic was awful. However, it's still a good idea to have a car to visit the baroque towns.

In September we spent 3 nights in Taormina [actually in Castelmola high above the town] and I agree that it would be much better down as a day trip from Ortigia which is a lovely place to stay.

I also second the idea of going to the Villa Casale - the mosaics are truly wonderful.

To work out how many nights you have for each place, I suggest setting out the trip day by day, thus:

day 1 - arrive Palermo.
day 2 - Palermo
day 3 - day trip to Cefalu
day 4 - day trip to Monreale
day 5 - train/bus to Trapani
day 6 - day trip to Erice
day 7 - pick up car, drive to Segesta
day 8 - drive to Agrigento
day 9 - drive to Catania, ? via villa casale? return car, train/bus to Ortigia
day 10 - Ortigia
day 11 - Ortigia
day 12 - Ortigia
day 13 - Ortigia
day 14 - train to Catania, fly home

Laying it out like that shows that you have very little time to see Palermo, and, if I understand your itinerary correctly, a succession of one night stands. of course by dropping Taormina you can gain a night or two, which would help.

I agree that it would be better to keep the car if you intend to do day trips from Ortigia.

I've counted 12 nights, so I'm thinking that the 13th day is your leaving day?

What time of year are you planning for? And also, you say "we", just wondering if you are 2 people or more?

Just to present another point of view... What we have done before is pick up a car when we left Palermo, then drove to Segesta and Erice on our way to overnight near Selinunte.

We had no problem with that. However, if you're not accustomed to city driving (getting out of Palermo), or steep hills (Erice), you might find that a bit nerve wracking.

We then spent the morning visiting the ruins at Selinunte before going on to Agrigento, where we spent 2 nights so we could have a good part of the next day to visit the valley of the temples, then the scala dei turchi in the late afternoon.

From there it would be easy to stop and see the Villa Romana del Casale on the way to Ortigia, if you can get there early as possible.

We did not have a problem parking on Ortigia since our hotel provided parking, and we spent several days doing day trips down the coast and to Noto and Modica.

You could return the car after doing your day trips and then take bus/train to Taormina.

Just wanted to comment that we found Taormina lovely and quiet in the evenings, and very busy in the daytime, when tour groups come in by the bus load. My husband and I have stayed twice in Taormina, and enjoyed it both times.

I'll chime in and add that I picked up my rental car in downtown Trapani and found it very easy to drive in/out of. I was staying Erice, but had to return to retrieve the rain jacket I had left at the dealership.

I dropped right on Ortigia and that was very easy too. I didn't have to try and drive all over the tiny island. The office was just over the bridge on a main street and I parked right in front. I then let a taxi take me to my hotel.

I personally am not sure the plan to stay on Ortigia and then do a bunch of day trips out to the Baroque towns is very efficient. Maybe you should stay at least a night in one of them? I did 2 nts in Scicli, was satisfied with that lovely and untouristed town. Felt no need to see all of them. Spent 3 nts in Ortigia and wished for at least 1 more. There is so much to see, do and enjoy on Ortigia/Siracusa!

@ Dayle: Was your rental drop in Ortygia or Siracusa? The location sounds to me like it was Siracusa (just before the bridge to Ortygia) -- it may even be the same place where I left my rental!

thank you all for sharing your thoughts and comments!

to answer some questions... it will be just 2 of us going to sicily for our honeymoon, and we will be there on the last week sep and first week oct (is it still peak season and hot weather?). first time driving in europe so i am not keen to brave erice or palermo.

yes, 13 days will be including the day we land and the day we leave. we land in catania on then fly out back again from catania in the evening. so we were planning to visit catania on the last day before flying off. (is that enough?)

good point on the trapani pick up from the city center, i'll check that up, i was not aware that i could pick it up from somewhere apart from the airport...

did any of you visit mt etna from ortygia? as one of the reasons we are staying at taormina is to visit mt etna from there.

also, did any of you have any problems/concerns leaving luggage in car while visiting sites en route to the next overnight destination? e.g. visiting selinunte while heading to agrigento? i've read so much about that so beginning to get worried.

i was on the fence re. visiting villa romana del casale but it seems to be highly recommended, so we will probably stay 2 nights now at agrigento to visit that.

if we keep 2 nights in trapani, do we need to drive to segesta and will segesta take a full day? just wondering if we should take the car only when we leave trapani for agrigento (stopping by selinunte).

do u suggest any olive oil farm/winery visits too?

No, Segesta will only be an hour or two.

Yes, DO go to the villa at Casale. But try to get there first thing in the morning. It get crowded and hot under that plastic roof.

Glad to hear you're giving more time to Agrigento. Our hotel had a view of the temples lit up at night under a rising moon. Nice!

This is a pretty crowded itinerary for a honeymoon, especially if the trip is right after the ceremony. And double especially if you arrive jet lagged and sleepy after a intercontinental night flight. Consider scheduling a day or two of relaxation at the beginning of the trip.

A visit to Monreale will take only a half day.

I haven't spent any time in Catania so can't answer your question. We did a day trip driving from near Ortygia to Mt. Etna. It was a nice full day wondering around. You can also get tours I believe.

Good, glad you're going to add Villa Romana del Casale and agree that going in the early am is a good strategy. Hopefully the weather will be cooler at the end of September but you never knnow. The earlier the less crowds. The tour buses start arriving a couple hours after opening and its much nicer when you pratcially have the place to yourself.

We have left luggage in our car in many situations without any issues. We put everything in the trunk so that there isn't anything visible esp valuables. We park where there are people around and try to back it up against a wall. It's up to you if you feel comfortable doing that. Upon occasion we have taken anything valuable, like our passports, with us when we have left luggage in the car.

Happy Honeymoon!

It depends upon your interests, but we spent just an hour or 2 at SEgesta. Have been to Monreale 2 times. The first time we spent a couple hours, but probably only an hour or so the last trip.

OK, I could be wrong, but I think it’s “deep-breath” time. You have time to see some of Sicily’s incredible wealth of treasures. You do NOT have time to see all of the that messaget!) So you have to make some choices. Difficult ones, perhaps, but not bad ones! Making difficult choices is, IME, an unavoidable part of planning a trip. (And BTW, it's the part of trip planning that I like least!)

As I now understand it – and I could be wrong – you don’t really have 13 days in Sicily, you have 11 days plus parts of 2 days. IMO, that actually makes a bit of a difference. For one thing, I think you might want to carefully consider your options for making sure that you are at the Catania in plenty of time for your departure.

So, to respond to various considerations …

When you say that you are “not keen to brave erice or palermo,” are you referring to the cities themselves or the driving? There’s no reason why you would need to drive IN Palermo….

As I understand it, late September / early October would be considered “shoulder season” – certainly NOT the mobs of high season, but Taormina might still swamped by cruise-ship tourists. You can check historic climate data on timeanddate.com. I would not expect the weather to be as horribly hot as during high season, but you would, I think, do well to prepare for quite a range of temperatures.

Visiting Mt. Etna can mean two VERY different things: Do you want to visit (1) the top of the mountain or (2) the wineries around it’s slopes? You need to be clear about that!

Leaving luggage in one’s car is always a tricky thing. Like many (most?) Fodorites, I’ve done it with no ill effects, but at least one Fodorite in the last 10 years did report that thieves had broken into her car and taken the luggage. Here’s my personal list of steps you can take to minimize (but not eliminate) your risks:

- Don’t ever leave anything in the car that can be seen through its windows.

- ALWAYS keep key items -- your passport, cash, and bank cards -- with you (preferably in a under-the-clothes passport pouch, with only what you need for the day outside of that pouch), and be sure that that pouch also has a copy of any key documents you might need on one or more days, including the information you will need to report your loss.

- Don’t ever move things from the interior to the trunk in the place that you will leave the car – do that somewhere else, even if it means pulling off the road briefly a mile or so from your destination.

- Try to park in a well lighted area where other people might have eyes-on (not so much because they might act, but because their presence might discourage thieves).

- If possible, park your car in a way that would make it difficult for thieves to gain anything – for example, consider backing the car up to a wall to make it difficult to open the trunk or remove anything from it.

- Be sure you know how to contact your rental car agency and insurance agency as soon as possible after any incursion.

- Assess the costs and risks of leaving your luggage in the car – and not just the dollar costs (with due consideration to coverage through insurance), but also the temporal costs if your luggage is lost, which would include time to file a claim and to replace your most needed items, but also the costs to you in time if you decide to always forego parking with luggage in your car (and that, of course, includes the lost opportunities to see things that you would have seen if you had stopped en route).

By my calculus, I'd rather stop en route, despite the risks, than miss the opportunity to see the places that make me want to take a trip, but that's just me -- YMMV.


I think you will be glad to include the Villa Romana del Casale in your plans. You don’t necessarily need to stay in Agrigento 2 nights to do that – it depends on the timing of your various stops.

The time I spend at various sites tends to be on the high end in comparison to other Fodorites, and I would agree that a couple of hours will likely be sufficient for Segesta. If it helps, I didn’t go to Trepani, but I left Palemo in the late morning and visited Segesta AND Selinunte on my way to Agrigento. I didn’t rush my visit to either site, reached Agrigento just after sunset (but sunset will be earlier when you are there, so make sure you take that into consideration) – BUT I don’t eat lunch, so make sure you add time for that!

Several hours – no more than a half-day – should be sufficient for the cathedral of Monreale (which is a place that, IMO, ranks among the finest man-made buildings in the world, and I’ve been fortunate to see quite a few).

And BTW, congratulations and best wishes on your marriage!

thank you all for your wishes! :)

our honeymoon is rather delayed actually so we won't be going straight from the ceremony. :) but i did not expect this trip to require so much planning!

i have been reading and re-reading all your helpful comments and i think we're almost there...

now considering if 2 nights in trapani is fine or should i cut to 1 night trapani, and then give one more night to ortygia.

how much time do we need in ortygia? (not considering day trips)

currently for ortygia we have 3 nights, (2 full days, + 1 half day, after visiting villa romana and checking into hotel) and i would like to see noto (or ragusa ibla) & modica.

I realy liked Trapani - although not quite as much as Ortygia. If you are visiting Erice (gorgeous) from Trapani, I would leave it at two nights.

we also did not know that we could drop the car off at siracusa so we are thrilled!

Glad kja mentioned Monreale. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site AND on my list of the 3 best churches I've seen.

I would leave 2 days in Trapani with one day going to Erice. You can take a cablecar from Trapani to Erice if you don't want to drive.

We didnt stay in Ortygia and spent one full day there. We also spent most of a day visting Noto and then went back in the evening to see the reflections and colors of the buildings with the changing lights. We stayed int he countryside about 30 minutes from Noto and Ortygia. It was very easy getting around on the roads.

It's very difficult to estimate times for other people. We all have varying interests and speeds with which we do things. We are lucky in that we can take long trips so we tend to do things more slowly than we did when we worked. However we might still spend less time say for example at Monreale then someone who has a consuming interest in mosaics or is into religion etc. You know your own pace and you need to think about what you want to see and how long it will take you. Also you can change as you go along. Plan to go to Noto and elsewhere, but love Noto and skip the elsewhere. Whatever you choose you'll have a great time. You can't see it all. If you love it, just go back.

There is, or was, also a bus from Trapani to Erice.