2 weeks in Sicily in October
 

We (two couples in our 60s) are heading to Sicily in Oct. We have 13 days, flying into Palermo and out of Catania. I've been reading trip reports, but am a bit overwhelmed. We'd like to have 3-4 locations to be hubs for side trips...we'll have a rental car. We know we'll start with 3-4 days in Palermo and environs, and end-up in Catania or Taormina for the final 3-4 days. The big question is which one or two places should we use as our hub (s) in the middle of our counter-clockwise circuit of the island. We want to minimize long or back and forth travel as much as possible. We are seasoned travelers and can put in full days of touring.

Another concern: Two of us are birders. We know about Zingaro Park but would like recommendations for other birding locations.

Thanks for your help.

You should add Ortigia, the old town of Siracusa as one. You can visit the Baroque villages from there. Also, stay in Taormina over Catania. Perhaps also a location near Agrigento such as staying at Baglio della Luna.

Do not miss Taormina. I would end there---drop the car--and get a driver to take you to CTA as you leave. I agree that Ortigia makes a good base for SE Sicily.

Here is my photo gallery from our 15 days in Sicily--in May.

http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/show...y.php?cat=3828

Sicily is really under-rated as a bird watching destination but there some excellent sites, particularly considering the time of year you are visiting.

The extreme West and East side of the islands are the main flyways for raptors on their southerly migratory routes. Two exceptional sites are the Straits of Messina and the island of Marettimo off Trapani. Between 5000 and 30,000 raptors use these routes in early Autumn and October should be a prime time.

However and as always, you will be at the mercy of the general climatic conditions of that summer and local weather conditions at your time of visit.

Honey, Common and Steppe Buzzards; Black Kites, are key raptors along with my favourite Marsh Harriers and the noteworthy Short Toed Eagles.

We haven't made it to Marettimo but spent a week in early October in and around Ortigia.

I agree with Happytravlr, the town makes a good base for the SE corner of the island. There are good spots on the cliffs to the south, we saw around 100 common buzzards one morning around 10 miles south of Ortigia. We stayed here :

http://www.hotelilparco.net/en/index.php

Which is close to Capo Murro di Porco which is a good viewpoint for seabird and dolphins.

Using the town as a base it is very easy to make day visits to Modica, Noto and Ragua Ibla which are the main Baroque towns. Before careful with Ragusa Ibla and don't get "lost" in Ragusa Alta which is the 1970s area at the top of the massif.

There are a couple of great chocolate producers in Modica.

Below Ortigia there are a number of fairly scruffy resorts which fade out at Lido di Noto. South of this is Vendicari Nature Reserve which has a large area of salt water marshes and lagoons. The beach here is very unspoilt with no development other than the atmospheric stone tuna factory on the headland. It has a gently shelving sea bed and is a wonderful place for a swim if the weather is warm enough.

The marshes attract a huge number of waterfowl, waders and there are usually a number of pink flamingos in the lagoon. There are board walks through the marshes which are very quiet during the week. The vast majority of visitors at the weekend simp,y go to use the beach.

We have only visited the SE corner but I am sure others will help with the rest of the island.

I was reading an interesting blog which has one of the most accurate descriptions of today's Taormina that I have read anywhere. Having been, I would not use it as "base" for day trips, but instead just visit for a morning to see the theatre:

https://barrowboy21.wordpress.com/20...sts-and-tears/

The blog also has one long entry about birding in Sicily, which I just pass along without comment, since I never go birding anywhere, but wondered if it might have helpful information for you.

https://barrowboy21.wordpress.com/20...a-bare-island/

Like HappyTravlr, I strongly recommend Ortygia in Siracusa as one of your bases. Noto is one day-trip option that I particularly enjoyed from Ortygia.

I thought the views from Taormina breathtakingly beautiful, but found Taormina itself a bit too touristy for my tastes, with people from cruise trips jamming every nook and cranny during the day. You might fair a bit better in October. I personally would agree that Taormina makes more sense than Catania if you are going to base in that part of the island.

I loved Palermo; do not miss Monreale's Cathedral and its cloister!

If you want to visit some of Sicily's most magnificent Greek ruins, then a stay in Agrigento is well worth considering. It isn't that useful as a base, though -- nor IMO is anything else in that part of the island. And the Villa Romana del Casale is another of Sicily's most magnificent sites IMO, also not easily reached from most bases. You might give some thought to whether you are willing to have a few one-or-two night stays to facilitate visiting some of these places.

Sicily is magnificent -- enjoy!

Another vote for Ortygia and against Taormina. Also, Sicily does not lend itself particularly well to base and day trip type visits. It's better as a circular tour.

In the west don't miss Erice and Taormina.

Oops, that should be Erice and Trapani, of course.

We just returned from 18 days in Sicily. As others have said Taormina is overrun with tourists and worth a few hours to see the sites enjoy the view and move on. It was really the only place that was crowded that we visited. We easily drove our car into one of the garages and walked into town, so you don't need to drive into the town itself to visit it.

It's hard picking bases in Sicily. We did a logical plan and then changed as we travlled so we didnt always go the most efficient way. But we did see incredible scenery and some unexected sites along the way.

A highlight of Sicily for us was Villa Romana del Casale -- it was wonderful. We had been quite a few years ago and it still remains fabulous if you like mosaics.

I might go form Palermo to Scopello, which is a tiny village that has some great views. From Scopello you can visit the nature reserve, Erice which is lovely walled medevial city with fantastic views and Segesta.

Then do a long day going to Agrigento and Piazza Villa Romana del Casale (not sure which to see first check out maps and see) and do a one night stand somewhere. From there head to the Siracusia area and end with one night in Catania if you have an early flight or leave from Siracusia if your flight is later in the day. Like others I didn't think Catania that great.
We stayed at Limoneta outside Siracusia and did daytrips from there to Ortygia and Noto as well as other places. It was easy with parking and doing day trips instead of dealing with the traffic and parking in Ortygia which we liked a lot. After spending a day there we were headed back again another day and left because traffic was horrendous and we didnt feel like sitting in it.

Driving in Sicily is very easy -- not much traffic except in the big cities. And don't let people scare you about driving in Palermo. It's really not that different than any other city. We had no trouble at all driving in or when we left Palermo.
Have a great trip!

Beammeup

You have the same problem that all of us who planned a 2 - 3 week trip to Sicily have had. How to see all the wonderful places efficiently , but without too many 1 night stays. I agree with KjA, you may have to allow a couple 1 nighters In order to include some of the best sites.

I had 5 one night stays on my trip and that may not be for everyone, but I did visit all my priorities. The single best was Villa Romana! My other stays were 3 - 5 nts so there was a balance.

I visited vendicari on the way between Scicli and Otrigia. It was very natural and I got to see the flamingos. Very pale pink. Beaches there were beautiful.

Perhaps my TR will give you some ideas, but only you can determine the final itinerary. Buon viaggio!

Highly recommend staying IN Ortigia, it's a special place day and night.
I had 3 nts there and would have loved 2 more. Lots to see and enjoy and you can walk everywhere. No need for a car and traffic. Very little traffic on the island since parking is so limited.

Thank you all...you are wonderful! You have given me a lot to think about and some good starting points. I'll share this with the others in our group. Now we need to sit down with the map and guide books and computer and plot out at least a basic itinerary.

And thanks to those of you who included birding information.

You all will be hearing from me again as the planning goes on.

I'm searching for hotels in Palermo right now. What part of the city would you recommend? Is there a hotel you really liked? We need two rooms since we are two couples and convenient parking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Can't help with hotels, except to warn you off Hotel Tonic. On my return to Palermo I stayed in very nice B&B. it was a little out of the center, but its street was almost like a little village. Don't know whether it has parking, I use public transport, but somewhere a bit out of the center might be better for that.

http://www.skysleeping.com/en/

We stayed at Alma Hotel http://www.almahotel.it and loved it. It's on the 3rd floor of a bldg and only has 7 rooms. It's fairly new and the owners are so wonderful -- helpful and enthusiastic, coudn't ask for more. Nice room and good location. There is public parking nearby, but we ended up just letting the hotel park the car for €20 per day. All the hotels we looked at charged for parking.

If you are flying into Palermo, consider picking up the rental car on your way out. We stayed at the Falkensteiner and liked it:

http://www.falkensteiner.com/en/hotel/palermo

I like Marija's idea: Wait until you are ready to leave Palermo to pick up your rental car. There is an easy bus you can take from the airport into town.

Definitely no need for a car in Palermo. I agree if you start in Palermo pick up your rental the day you are leaving Palermo.

We stayed in the area near Politeama between the old and new cities which I liked very much. Our hotel, the Grand Hotel Wagner, was a renovated palazzo with a lot of gilt trim. There are other more modern options nearby.

Stay in the area around POLITEAMA. You definitely don't need a car in Palermo, and you definitely don't want to drive there. When we were finished in Palermo, we picked up a car at the Palermo airport. Much easier !

"When we were finished in Palermo, we picked up a car at the Palermo airport." -- there are also car rental agencies next to train stations on the outskirts of Palermo. No need to go to the airport unless that's what suits best.

Really driving in Palermo is not a big deal. Yes, there is a lot of traffic and it may move slowly. But no reason to avoid driving in it if you are picking your car up there. We had absolutely no trouble driving into the city nor leaving it a few days later.

Bookmarking

Saving this excellent thread- tentatively planning a trip for May 2016

bookmarking...