In Dire Need of Your Advice -- Malta & Sicily Itinerary Planning
 

Hi guys,

My friends and I are planning to visit Sicily and Malta this Thanksgiving (yes we like to plan our holidays way in advance). We are planning to spend 3-4 days in Sicily and 3-4 days in Malta. I have a few questions as I plan our itinerary and hopefully you can help me out.

1. We are planning to stay in Valleta and do a day trip to Gozo. Is this do-able?

2. We are choosing between Palermo and Catania for our Sicily visit. Which one should we visit? The problem with Palermo is that Air Malta stops flying into that city from Malta in November so there is no easy way to travel from Palermo to Valleta. For Catania, we can easily hop on a ferry to get to Malta. Any suggestion? I heard Palermo is a must see in Sicily.

3. Are these places good to visit in late November weather wise?

Any advice you can give us will be very much appreciated. Thank you!

I think Thanksgiving would be a nice time to go, actually. I have not been to Malta so can only comment on Sicily.

In my opinion neither Palermo nor Catania are must-see places. When we return to Sicily those are two places I would not re-visit. They are interesting enough but there are much better places to see (i.e. all the ancient ruins - there are tons of them, Cefalu, Erice) that are located in more spectacular scenic spots. :) However, it does sound as though you will be relying on public transport so that may be restrictive.

Many thanks, travel2live2. I will definitely look into the places you recommended.

The day trip to Gozo is doable, but you might want to rent a car to explore Gozo.
Or, stay there if you can (I usually would not break up a 4 day trip, but it would be worth it in this case imo).
Visit-Malta is a great website, check weather at wunderground or some such site for historical november weather.

If you're interested in visiting the Hypogeum in Malta, you'll need advance reservations. They only have so many tickets alloted for each day and once they're gone, that's it. We reserved our tickets on line and picked them up in Valleta. It's really worth visiting! ENJOY!

I haven't been to Sicily, so can't comment. I did however, spend 9 days in Malta, and greatly enjoyed it.

I did a day trip to Gozo, and if I had it to do over again, I would spend a couple of days there instead of just a day trip. With only 3-4 days, though , a day trip is fine, particularly if you rent a car. Malta is small, only about 17 miles long, so you should be able to do a lot in 4 days. Have a great trip!

bkmk

Hi Ethan,

I live in Cefalu and would recommend it as a great place to stay when visiting Sicily. It is a central hub from which you can visit all the other great attractions in Sicily as well as having a great historical centre with lovely restaurants and bars. I run a very small travel agency with my partner Deborah if you want any info on sicily log on and have a look. www.siciliangems.com

Hope you have a great holoday in sicily, it is the hidden Gem of the Med.

Rob

Hi Guys ,
I have been to malta its great .
Just spend 10 days there
I went with malta sunfest www.maltasunfest.com
They included also Sicily, gozo criuse on comino, accomodation the lot. I didnt have to worry about anything except the flight.
Hope this info helps.

I lived in Sicily for 2.5 years (near Catania) and would definitely not reccomend visiting that city. I think the most interesting places on the island are near Palermo. If you flew in to Palermo you could visit Monreale, an amazing cathedral, Erice, a medieval town, and the ruins of Segesta. I think that Palermo and the northwest coast of Sicily are a great jumping off place.

If you did fly in to Catania I would leave the city and head to Taormina. Taormina is a beautiful town that would be fun to visit. You can also visit Mt. Etna when you're on that side of the island.

We were in Sicily in April-flew into Catania and took a bus to Taormina which is called "touristy"-but we loved it-there are gorgeous views everywhere, Greek/Roman ruins, a large beautiful park in the center of town, good restaurants, shops and hotels. It shouldn't be too overrun in November as it wasn't in April. We went from there to Siracusa and stayed in Ortygia which is also a lovely and interesting history-filled area. We had a car after Taormina but I'm sure there is public transportation from Catania. Happy planning.

I agree 100% with ZoeB. Catania is not a place that I would recommend. On the other hand, nearby Taormina is breathtaking.