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.