9 /10 days in Sicily: Please critique this itinerary
 

Hi All –

2 adult couples (late 50's early 60's) are planning a visit to Sicily end of September 2015 (9 nights, 10 days, including travel days).

We enjoy: good food, good wine, exploring local towns and markets, absorbing local culture and scenery; visiting notable sights to learn about history. Once situated in a city, we will walk and explore, and plan excursions: a bike ride to a destination, a tour of a vineyard, a cooking class/dinner. Everything doesn't have to be 4-star, but budget is not an issue.

We want to balance “we’re only going there once, we don’t want to miss anything” – with taking it slow enough to really enjoy where we are. We hate that scheduled feeling of “time to pack up and move hotels”, so our first pass has us staying in 3 places.

My sister in law's travel agent suggested the following itinerary.

1. Arrive Palermo and stay Palermo (3 nights)
2. Agrigento (2 nights)
3. Taormina (4 nights)
4. Depart Catania airport
5. Also included is a private tour to Siracusa.

From reading here, there may be too much time in Taormina and no reason to stay in the town of Agrigento. We haven’t booked the airfare yet and have flexibility. I look forward to your comments and alternate suggestions. Thank you!

Ronnie

You may want to take a look at my trip report on Sicily; click on my name to find it.

No oveenights in Siracusa?

Day 1 will probably be more or less lost (transfers, jetlag, etc.).
Days 2 and 3 are fine for the visit of Palermo and Monreale.
Agrigento can be visited in 1 day (day 4). You will have the choice between a daytrip from Palermo or a night (day 4) at Agrigento. The latter may be the better choice if you book a hotel with sights to the temples.
Spend a full day at Siracusa; you don't need a tour for that, there are regular trains and buses to Siracusa and the main sights are within walking distance.

You may check the other gems of Sicily (google for them):
Segesta, Selinunte, Cefalù, Lipari, Vulcano, Piazza Armerina, Modica, Noto, Ragusa .....

Some timetable datas:
Palermo - Agrigento:
trains about every hr from 7.49 until 18.47, 2 hrs ride. Last train back to Palermo at 20.14
buses about every 2hrs from 8.00 until 18.30, 2 hrs ride. Last bus back to Palermo at 18.30

Agrigento - Catania:
buses about every hr from 8.45 until 18.45, 3 hrs ride
1 direct train at 9.35 - Catania ar 13.22

Catania - Taormina: frequent buses and trains

Palermo - Taormina: trains about every 2 hrs, change at Messina, 4-5 hrs trip

Palermo - Catania:
buses about every hr, 3 hrs ride
1 direct train Palermo dp 6.33 - Catania ar 9.51

Well, there's the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. That's certainly well-worth seeing, so maybe one overnight there.

Maybe you need to do a little research on what's to see in Sicily.

As for the TA's itinerary, I agree. Too much time in Taormina, not enough elsewhere. This itinerary skips the whole western half of Sicily and much elsewhere. Unless you're not planning to rent a car?

In describing yourselves as travelers you a lot of emphasis on enjoying local culture, and in that respect I would say 4 days in Taormina -- which is lock, stock and barrel devoted to tourism of a very touristy sort -- is not going to deliver what you say you most enjoy about Italian travel. There are truly beautiful things to see in Taormina, but they only take a day at most. I would flip the agenda to spending 4 days in Siracusa/Ortygia with a day trip Taormina, or maybe 1 final afternoon and night in Taormina with a transfer to Catania airport for your flight out.

I meant to add I don't think you need 2 nights in Agrigento, so maybe you could add that night to Palermo so you are not up against jet lag and have a more leisurely experience of the city. If you take an instant dislike to the town (not saying you will, but offering options) you can take a day trip to Cefalu before moving on.

I agree that you would do better to stay in Siracusa (actually Ortigia, the island) and day trip to Taormina and not the other way round. However, there are a number of sights in Sicily you are skipping. Strongly suggest that more research is required. Click on my name for my TR.

Given your interests, I'd drop Taormina entirely. Add the time to Palermo to visit Cefalu (or stay in Cefalu overnight) and stay in Siracusa for a nite or two.

I like that you are spending 3 nights in Palermo. You can't see everything there in that time, but you should be able to see a few of the things that most interest you. Be sure to visit the cathedral in Monreale -- among the most beautiful places in the world IMO!

I'm not sure you need 2 nights in Agrigento. One long day (with a night before) is sufficient, but some people hate 1-night stops There are some interesting medieval lanes that you can roam in the Old Town if you do stay, and I thought the museum quite good.

The views from Taormina are lovely, and I was glad to see it, but I FAR FAR FAR preferred Siracusa, so you might want to consider staying there instead (in Ortygia). I through Siracusa well worth at least 2 full days and could easily have used more time there.

If you are committed to flying out of Catania, you might want to be there (or close) on the night before your flight, so you could (perhaps) stop in Taormina on the way there, and perhaps spend that one pre-flight night in either Taormina or Catania, depending on the flight time.

Alternatively, fly into Catania, stop briefly in Taormina for the views, and then head on to Siracusa, working your way through Agrigento to Palermo.

With only 9 or 10 days, you definitely have to be selective as there is WAY more too see in Sicily than you can possibly manage in that time. That said, you might want to stop at the Villa Romana del Casale en route from Siracusa to Agrigento.

FWIW, I thought The Rough Guide to Sicily the best of the 1/2 dozen guidebooks I used when planning my time there.

Sicily is wonderful - enjoy!

Thank you for the suggestions. You have given me a framework for further research ~ much appreciated.