Beaches in Sicily: Where are the best?
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Sicily this summer. I love hiking and other active adventures, while he loves lounging on the beach. Are there nice beaches in Sicily? Where are the best ones? And what cities do you recommend staying in if we want to be able to spend some days at different beaches? Thanks!

So does this mean there are no pretty beaches in Sicily? I thought beaches at San Vito Lo Capo looked pretty, and at the hotels in the Ortigia district near Siracusa. Anyone have an opinion? I would love some recommendations as the island is huge!!

We stayed on the east coast two years ago. Good beaches were few and far between.

The best we found was in the nature reserve at Vendicari.

http://www.discover-sicily.eu/indi/_...2735460378.jpg

Some beaches are far too developed with unstructured, unplanned developments.

Mondello Beach is near Palermo and is very popular. Has a pretty Deco beach house, a market and many cute cottages.

Online has villas and hotels. My hub and I took a city bus from Palermo-less than 1/2 hour if I remember correctly.

Oh it looks very pretty. Thanks! But Palermo wasn't too busy or hot to stay in?

Any other beach recommendations?

Oh the Vendicari looks ok, but I also like to have a restaurant nearby. :)

Look at Cefalu---nice town too.
The beach below Taormina is OK too. I just do not think of beaches as a primary attraction in Sicily wiht so much to see.

Oliveri is between Chefalu and Messina and has beautiful beaches as does Chefalu.

Menfi also has beautiful beaches. Menfi is directly south of Palermo on the southern coast.

Here is a picture of the deserted beach at Porto Palo - near Menfi. The water was pretty chilly in June.

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...portopalo1.jpg

A great restaurant there too called Vittorio's fwiw.

Ian

Taormina . . . this is what you fing at the bottom of the cable car:

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...mina-beach.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h3...ina-beach2.jpg

We had a mediocre panini lunch & escaped.

Ian

Ann1, thank you so much! I'll look into all of those places. Sounds great. Ian, I actually think those beaches look beautiful!!! I don't need sand - I'm all about the scenery . :)

We were in Palermo in March so it was a tad cool. I dare say many cities in Sicily would be hot in summer but guide book said Mondello is popular with folks in that area.

Please let us know where you end up!

Ok, now my friend has recommended Favignana for beautiful swimming holes and nature. Anyone know about this island? I can't find pretty hotels there... hmm...

We liked the Zingaro Nature Reserve west of Sicily.
We stayed in Scopello, which is right next to the Eastern end of the park. There is a trail from Scopello that will take you to the beaches. The 1st one is pretty close with an old
tonnaro building and beautiful clear water. The further you hike the more private the beaches become.

hpluss1, do you mean you want sea views rather than a sandy beach? Because there are a lot of beautiful sea views in Sicily. The view from our room in Taormina instantly springs to mind. Up high with a panoramic view of the coast, the sea, the occasional anchored yacht. And there's swimming from Ortigia in Siracusa, just no beach.

Yes, if I were you I would really heed yewstulivitalia's suggestions. The Zingario Nature Reserve(a spotless area of preserved beauty ) is absolutely a must if you love hiking !
Scopello is also gorgeous. If I'm correct Scopello is where the film ocean twelve was shot.
And do take into consideration the medioeval village Erice, which lies on a hill!
Not far from Palermo (which is more or less the area where all I've talked to you about is ) there is a gorgeous Cathedral, expecially inside :Monreale.
Yewstuvnitalia and I have mentioned spots where you'll find peace and quiet (Lo Zingaro , Scopello, Erice). If you fee like coping with the hustle and bustle for a day or more Palermo is indeed an interesting city to visit (from Palermo's Cathedral to the TEATRO MASSIMO ,to the large park where you'll find trees which are at least 1,000 years old)

As far as the Favignana isle is concerned one thing you could do is hire a bike and stroll around Favignana by bike

Thank you Feda and Yewstuliv (ha, funny name). I was wondering, Yews - do you have any hotel recommendations? Did you stay at a hotel / b&b in Scopello?
Also, do you both recommend Palermo over Siracusa?
Is Siracusa too far from Erice to do them both in the same week? Erice sounds amaaaazing!!!! We're definitely going there. Do you have any hotel recommendations there?
Thanks!

Actually, in addition to my questions in the previous comment, I was wondering: Can I tie a few cities together? i.e. to minimize moving between hotels, do you think we could see Erice and another city at the same time? Or is it better to go to Siracusa for 5 days and take day trips from there? Ditto for Palermo? Essentially we have 5 days at the end that we'd allotted to Erice and Siracusa but seems like that could be a little too much traveling. Does anyone know if that's the case? Thank you.

and a third question: should we rent a car for the entire vacation? Anyone have any insight on this? I know in some destinations local buses are fine....

hpluss1
We stayed at the pensione Tranchina, right in the small city of Scopello. It is very close to the walking trails entrance to the Zingaro Reserve.
This was several years ago. The hotel was simple, but nice and clean, and reasonably priced.

It is the only place in the world, that I have visited, where I wouldn't hire a car again. The driving we encountered was so bad, we would use public transport.

Looking back, our car driving experiences detracted from our trip. On three occasions we wee luckly to get out alive. We just were unlucky because from other posts, other visitors were no so unlucky.

However, I would anyone disagree that Sicilians are in the upper reaches of the league of agressive drivers?

Oh well my husband wants to drive, so we're renting a car. Our friends from Italy and France told us they always rent cars and it's fine. Also, we're going to the north and west. Only place we'll go in the east is Taormina at the start, and possibly Siracusa at the end. We've planned a very relaxing, beach, pool, and spa-filled vacation, of course always with culture, history, and great food to enjoy too. :)

bookmarking

Yes, Sicilians are aggressive drivers as a whole. But not horn-blaring or arm-waving. Just fast & unruly. Hill towns & some town's traffic circles will be your biggest challenges. Now I tend to be an 'efficient' driver myself ;) so I adapted easily with a few notable exceptions.

Ian

The beach in San Vito Lo Capo is one of the most beautiful, clean and well kept in Italy. And if you want to do some hiking there the natural reserve of Monte Cofano right outside San Vito. On the other side of the mountain there’s the natural reserve Lo Zingaro and the nice small beaches of Scopello.
South I guess Scala dei Turchi is one of nature’s wonders and not far from it there’s the beach of Torre Salsa.
And about driving in Sicily is not as bad as it looks. I live here since 2007 and never had a problem. Of course Palermo and Catania are chaotic but not worse than New York, Paris or London. It all depends on how often you drive in your main country, if you’re used to drive in a big city or just in the country side etc.

Thank you so much! We've found a little hotel in Scopello and decided to stay there versus San Vito Lo Cappo. Do you think that's a good choice or should we do 2 nights in each? We read that you can hike to Zingaro from either town. I know Scopello is tiny but we like tiny.
We're also going to go to Syracuse at the end of the trip. We'll stay in Ortigia. Anyone have an opinion on 2 nights versus 3 nights in Syracuse? If we stay 3 nights then we'll have to stay 3 nights instead of 4 nights in Modica. Thoughts????

OK NEW QUESTION: @mirunaadler this one's for you!! -- MODICA/RAGUSA REGION FOR 4 DAYS/NIGHTS OR FAVIGNANA FOR 4 DAYS/NIGHTS? WHAT DO YOU THINK????

I was in Scopello last year and i agree that it is a fantastic spot for sea lovers. The naturalreserve lo Zingaro has got several creeks with crystal-clear water. We had scuba diving with the diving club of Scopello, great experience. We rented a dreamsicily villa just 50 meters from the sea. We are planning to go back there with our friends. I really recomend Scopello for sea and nature lovers !

You might be interested in this article about Favignana, with photos, that appeared in the NY times Travel magazine last month:



http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2...e-soul-picnic/

Thank you everyone for all your help with planning our Sicily vacation. I finally wrote up our itinerary and posted photos. Hope you like it!! Here is part 1: http://brooklynbabysocial.com/2012/0...ily-in-summer/

Thanks for the link, am enjoying what you have posted so far.

Thanks @willit! Here is part 2: http://brooklynbabysocial.com/2012/05/31/sicily-part-2/ It was a long vacation so there's one more part to write up.