I am planning on taking the family to Sicily in late Feb from London and would like to know what airlines fly there the cheapest and whether any have direct flights from London. Also, could anyone suggest places to concentrate that would most interest families...Thanks!

There are no direct flights from London to Sicily, you have to change at either Milan, Rome or Bologna, using the usual suspects (Alitalia, BA... ). I would think that if you book now for what is still relatively low season, a return ticket wouldn't cost you too much (&pound; 150 ? )<BR><BR>The alternative would be the low cost airlines. But, if Ryanair does fly to Sardinia, it ignores Sicily, as do other low cost. A fun and cheap way of travelling though would be to fly Go from Stansted to Naples (&pound; 45 return on weekdays in February), and from there on take the train/rent as car to Sicily. Or to fly to Sardinia and take the boat to Sicily? But there, I rest my case and hand it over to the Italy travel experts !

Actually, with a bit of further research, I realized that Sardinia wasn't the right horse to back since Alghero is on the North Western coast of the island. As for &quot;normal&quot; airlines, a Sicily return ticket would set you back some &pound; 250 per head.<BR><BR>Which means that actually the best solution is Easyjet/Go to Naples + the ferry from Naples to either Palermo (Tirenia lines) or Catania (TTLlines). This should be fun and relatively cheap. All the Italian ferry info can be found on their portal: www.traghetti.com

Hello Mike,<BR><BR>If you can take advantage of one of those cheap Naples flights Vincent mentions, you could probably fly Naples-Palermo or Naples-Catania and still come up with a relatively cheap round-trip.<BR><BR>There are at least a dozen Naples-Palermo flights daily. Operators include Alpi Eagles, Volare, Alitalia, Meridiana, Air Industria.<BR><BR>Alpi Eagles and Volare quote EURO 124-127.00 return midweek if you book online

Oops - posted too soon.<BR><BR>Meridiana fly Gatwick-Palermo and Gatwick-Catania, both via Florence.<BR>This may be more expensive than the Naples route ...<BR><BR>(An alternative might be via Malta. Not sure if there are any budget flights on that route ...)<BR><BR>Hope this helps ...<BR><BR>Steve

Steve James:<BR><BR>actually the cheapest flights to Palermo or catania do not leave from Naples (which is too close and well served through both railway and ferry). <BR><BR>Also, check out the London Gatwick-Catania Air Sicilia flights (http://www.sntweb.it/). They should be quite cheap (I have seem some advertisments about special offers too). Catania is a wonderful city and it is in Sicily too!

Alice - The sntweb site is only coming up with Volare flights via Venice for February, at Euro 340.00+/-. <BR><BR>Can you suggest another route? Where are the cheapest flights to Sicily from in mainland Italy? <BR>Via Naples still looks a fair option to me ... <BR><BR>Steve<BR><BR><BR>

The siteweb proposes a convenient London-Catania at 158,00 euro + taxes, departure from Gatwick at 16.00 (I have checked for departures on february 14). This seems to me a quite convenient flight!<BR>Also, I have seen British Airways flights from London to Catania (and Catania and not Palermo is the main Sicily airport).<BR>Finally, if you really want to go to Naples, there are too few flights from Naples to Palerbo because most people will take the train or the ferry to Naples.

The BA flight to Catania must be a code share, since BA does not operate to any airport in Sicily with its own metal.

No charter flights from London to Sicily? I thought Taormina was a popular package holiday destination.

I think there may be charter flights in summer, not in February.

Mike,<BR><BR>A similar question was posted a few months ago - here's my response:<BR><BR>-------<BR><BR>Author: Andre ([email protected])<BR>Date: 10/23/2002, 03:39 pm<BR>Message: Charlie,<BR><BR>- Meridiana flies from Gatwick to Catania with a stopover in Florence (no plane change though)<BR>www.meridiana.it<BR><BR>There are definitely regular nonstop charter flights available between London and Sicily. These can generally be booked even if you don't purchase a package holiday. You should contact a tour operator in the UK to see what can be arranged. For example:<BR>www.laitravel.co.uk<BR>seems to have what you're looking for. Can't vouch for the company though.<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre<BR><BR>------<BR><BR>You can check out these 2 pages in paricular:<BR>http://www.laitravel.co.uk/flights_winter_2002.htm<BR>and<BR>http://www.laitravel.co.uk/prices_winter_2002.htm<BR><BR>There's a weekly nonstop charter flight (operated by BMI) every Sat. from Heathrow to Palermo during the entire winter. Price is GBP 199 return (GBP 184 for kids 11 and under).<BR><BR>This would obviously be the most convenient option by far!<BR><BR>While it's probably more expensive than taking EasyJet to Naples, you might be able to purchase a package which includes hotel and/or car hire and is a better overall deal. For example, check out the packages at:<BR>http://www.laitravel.co.uk/sicilian_holidays.htm<BR><BR>Again, I have never used LAI Travel and cannot vouch for their product. But if you just book a charter flight with them, not much can go wrong. I assume other tour operators have allotments on the same BMI flight (perhaps with lower prices), so you might want to shop around. You should definitely go to a travel agent for this - but don't let them talk you into booking a package before you price hotels and cars on your own. <BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre