Catania Taormina Etna Syracuse
 

Hello, I will be traveling to Sicily as a very short side trip from Paris in April. I will be arriving on a Wednesday at the Catania Airport around 4:30pm. I was planning to head straight to Taormina using one of the frequent buses that are written about on this board. I planned to settle in and then see just a little bit of Taormina before heading to bed.

The next day I wanted to have a leisurely time exploring Taormina and taking the cable car down to the beach.

The following day I wanted to take an excursion to Syracuse. Would you recommend renting a car to drive down early Friday morning or taking a bus / train down there? Will a car be a much faster mode of transportation? I would kind of like to stop nearer to Mt. Etna just to take some close up pictures before heading down to Syracuse.

The last day would just be spent in Taormina before taking the bus back down to Catania.

Regarding etna if you don't want to go up and the weather is clear Etna is visible from Taormina,

Once you arrive in catania the bus company is Intebus
http://www.interbus.it/

From Taormina Station To siracusa you have several option or book a Tour with Sat www.sat-group.it

book a private Tour with sicily limousine Service
http://www.sicilylimousineservice.com/sicily/index.htm

or going by train
www.trenitalia.it
I don't advice a car too stressful

The view of Etna from the amphitheatre in Taormina is spectacular.

Siracusa is a very easy city to walk. You will probably spend most of your time in Ortigia, ancient Siracusa; all very easily explored on foot. It is a wonderful part of Sicily, great regional dishes, like "Pasta Norma" too!!

I personally don't think that Syracuse/Ortigia is a "daytrip".The ancient ruins of Syracuse along with Ortigia warrant more than a day in my opinion.

Thanks so much for all the advice. I think that I will use the train as it seems to be the most convenient and I won't have to worry about traffice getting back and forth from Taormina to Siracusa. As this is just a small side trip for me from Paris, I will only have 1 day to see Siracusa, so I will make the best of it - see as much as I can and know that I will be back one day to see the rest of Sicily :)