allyboy

Help me plan a two week trip to Sicily in September!

Hello Everyone!

My wife and I are planning on taking our very first trip to Sicily in September. While I haven't booked our flights nor reserved any hotels/B & B's I have been doing a great deal of research on where to visit. We will have two weeks and plan to fly round trip from NYC to Rome and fly into Catania and out of Palermo from Rome.

l want to visit: Taormina, Etna, Siracusa/Ortigia, Ragusa, Modica, Noto, Villa Romana del Casale, Caltagirone, Selinunte, Erice, Palermo and Cefalu. I plan on renting a car when leaving Taormina and dropping it off in Palermo upon arrival.

I need help in planning the itinerary ( how many days in each location), the best route to follow, where to stay, specific restaurants, important sites to see. Basically, I could use all the help and suggestions you can give me! Thanks!

worldinabag

Hi

I suggest also including Agrigento to visit the Valley of the Temples. That's where you'll see The Temple of Concordia.

Etna and Selinunte are day trips. Taormina, Siracusa/Ortigia and Noto are lovely towns that I would spend at least one night in. I wasn't particularly taken with Palermo but you could spend several days there.

bobthenavigator

Here is a similar trip from 2005 that may help:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

You will like Sicily.

allyboy

Thank you worldinabag for your suggestion of Agrigento!

Bobthenavigator: I had previously read your trip report and was inspired by it!! How would you include a visit to Erice and other than driving up the coast during your stay in Selinunte where else did you visit while staying there? Thanks.

bobthenavigator

We never visited Erice, I am sorry to say.
I guess it fits as you transition from Selinunte to Palermo. I assume you will drop your car as you enter Palermo. The access may be better if you. enter Palermo from the coast NW of town. It really depends on your travel logistics.

mamcalice

Be sure to visit Monreale while you are in Palermo.

Mimar

Yes, don't omit Agrigento and I really liked Segesta. And maybe you don't need to go to all the Sicilian Baroque towns (Noto, Modica and Ragusa). One or two should be enough.

What we did for Sicily was make a personal map on Google, lay out all the places we wanted to go and determine a route.

allyboy

A few questions:

1. Would it be better to fly into Palermo ( see Cefalu and Monreale) and then rent a car rather than flying into Catania and then starting in Taormina?

2. If starting in Palermo and renting a car upon leaving would you stay a night or two in Trapani or Erice ( see Segesta)?

3. We are planning on spending 3 days in Siracusa and 3 days in Taormina. Now if I leave from Trapani and want to visit Arigento, Villa Romana del Casale and Caltagirone where is a good place to base ?

Ian

With the exception of Cefalu & Erice, your trip with be very similar to ours. We went clockwise starting in Taormina - with a Catania fly in. I agree that you should stay in only one of the 3 Baroque towns & visit the others. Modica offers easier in/out access than Ragusa & that's why we chose it. Caltigirone & Villa Romana del Casale are a easy day trip from there.

There are a number of good trips reports here on Fodors with a lot of variation on the theme. Here is mine (with pictures):

http://imcarthur.weebly.com/sicily.html

Ian

MyriamC

Trapani is very pleasant. While there, drive the Via del Sale (salt mines) between Marsala and Trapani. It's a good base for a visit to Erice.

We had two weeks for the western half of the island and drove Palermo - Trapani - Sciacca - Agrigento - Piazza Armerina - Enna - Cefalù. From Cefalù we have done a wonderful daytrip in the Madonie mountains. We have seen the eastern half of the island in 2006.

Two weeks is not very much to see the whole island, IMO.

Dayle

Allyboy,

Read the trip reports here from those of us who have taken time to write.them. I got interested in Sicily thanks to Bob, then read thursdayd and Leely2 reports. If you would like to read mine, it's under my name and was just last year.

I had a 3.5 week trip andit wasn't enough. Agree that you don't need to visit all the Baroque towns. I chose Scicli 2 nts and 1 would have been enough.

Sicily is wonderful. Buon viaggio!

allyboy

Any advantage/disadvantage starting trip in Palermo and flying out of Catania?

Leely2

We started in Palermo and flew out of Catania. It was a great trip. The only disadvantage for me--and I didn't realize it until I got there--is that I would have liked to visit the archaeological museum in Siracusa at the start of my trip rather than the end, as the museum provides a lot of information about the island and its inhabitants. But I like that kind of stuff--plenty of people do not.

Look up bon_voyage's report. I did a very similar trip to hers, but in reverse.

allyboy

Hope you can offer some advice with this possible itinerary:

Sept. 12 Leave JFK for Rome

Sept. 13. Arrive Rome. Fly into Catania. Arrange Transport to Taormina

Sept. 14. Taormina

Sept. 15 Taormina

Sept. 16 Rent car and drive to Siracusa/ Orteiga

Sept. 17 Orteiga . Day trip to Noto and/or Modica and / or Ragusa

Sept. 18 Orteiga

Sept. 19 & 20. Piazza Armerina. Stop at Caltagirone and spend time at Villa Roma Casale

Sept. 21 Drive to Selinunte ( spend night) and spend time in Agrigento visiting Valley of the Temples.

Sept. 22. Drive to Trapani and possibly see Segesta?

Sept. 23 Trapani. See Erice

Sept. 24-26 Palermo. Drop car off. Day trips to Cefalu and Monreale

Sept. 27. Head for home

****I don't really like having 6 locations.

**** I could add 1 day more to trip and leave for home on the 28th.

Any suggestions???

bobthenavigator

I like it, but do not cut Palermo short---lots to see.

Sassafrass

Agrigento was a highlight of a number of trips to Europe! Absolutely breathtaking.

You might not want to take the time, but I would like next time to take the overnight ferry from Naples to arrive at sunrise in Sicily. It sounds like a beautiful thing to do - just throwing it out.

thursdaysd

More time than I would want in Taormina, but I suppose you need to get over jet lag. I would add time to Trapani or Erice - loved both. Not sure you need two nights for Piazza Armerina - the mosaics are great, but only take a couple of hours at most.

Leely2

I didn't visit Noto (we stayed in Modica two or three nights and drove to Piazza Armerina from there), but if Noto is your day trip from Ortigia I am not sure you need a car in Ortigia. I believe Noto is easly reached by public transportation from Siracusa/Ortigia.

thursdaysd

There is bus service between Siracusa and Noto. There is train service between Taormina and Siracusa (there's also bus service, but you have to change in Catania).

jenmorg

We are lipari at the moment. We love it. If you can get to the Eolian islands for a while I think you will enjoy it