The highlight of staying in Taormina for me were the views of Etna and the daytrip we took, by car, to Mt. Etna. But even the first week in May, the town was overrun with tourists.

Has anyone here stayed in Acireale? There seem to be lots of hotels and the photos show a great view of Etna from the town. Acireale is famous for its ice cream , which was originally made from the snows of Etna, and for its Carnival. It is close to both Etna and Catania airport, and near Taormina as well.

Strangely, the first hotel listed in the Acireale chapter of my Cadogan Sicily guide is called the Aloha d'Oro!

Mimar

I wasn't staying in Taormina (if you read my post).

I certainly wasn't fighting through the burger vans to find out whether they were Greel, Roman or Jedi ruins.

We visited Taormina as a day trip from our B&B near Acireale. I'm glad we stayed there rather than Taormina. Yes, it was very beautiful, but honestly, it felt too much like a "resort town" - the only words I can use to describe it. It was FULL of what I assumed were honeymooners, so many "beautiful people" dressed in high fashion white (seriously!) clothes. For some reason I just didn't like the feel of the city as much as I liked other places in Sicily - even Palermo.

Our B&B - Palazzo Giovanni - was located actually in Stazzo, a very small town near Acireale. We used this as the base to explore Mt. Etna, Siracusa, and Taormina. The views of Mt. Etna from the rooftop where we had breakfast and before dinner drinks were incredible. We enjoyed mixing with what looked like just normal residents during the evening "stroll" and our dinners there were cheaper and better than what we had in Taormina.

I don't usually mind a "touristy" spot - I'd go back to Venice in a heartbeat, but Taormina is one place I can cross off my list.

Atl:

Thanks for sharing the info about your stay in Acireale.

Would you recommend spending a couple of days there? Is the town attractive?

ek-our B&B was actually in Stazzo which was a VERY small town near Acireale. I found it while looking on Tripadvisor under Acireale as I couldn't decided whether to stay in Siracusa or Taormina so was looking for something halfway. I don't remember much of the bigger town at all. The way it's all connected is a narrow winding main road that you detour off of in order to get to where we stayed. Stazzo was, as I said, a very small town - only a few real restaurants/cafes but we enjoyed staying there as it was very quiet, tourist-wise. We enjoyed the more "real" feel of the town. We also found it convenient to travel to Siracusa for one day, as well as going to Mt. Etna, doing a wine tasting and visiting Taormina for a few hours.

I know too that part of the reason we liked where we stayed was the owners of our B&B. They were so nice, we really felt like we were getting very personalized suggestions of what to do and where to go. And when we left our host sent us off with a big bag of lemons from the grove that his grandfather owned.

Thanks very much. That is good information.

In 2007 I stayed in Aci Castello, a few miles south of Acireale (rented a beautiful but rather expensive apartment from thinksicily.com overlooking the sea, Il Ciclopi, and the fort), and found the location perfect for exploring all the sites along the coast. Aci Castello has a cute little "downtown" where we had fun interacting with local restaurant and cafe staff. We enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, my son and his partner stayed in Acireale, in an apartment they rented through hostelworld.com, I believe, which was cheap, cozy, and centrally located. Acireale seemed like a "normal" Italian town--no tourists to speak of, but bustling and active with people going about their business. We didn't really do much there but it seemed lively. We didn't get views Mt. Etna in the city itself (may just have been a matter of their apartment's location), but going into and out of town the views of the mountain were spectacular--when it was clear, that is (mostly it was rainy--it was March). Acireale was much less hectic than Catania, of course, though it's within easy striking distance by bus (we had a car).

We did visit Taormina--in the rain, in March--and thought it was charming, and certainly not overloaded with tourists at that time of the year. The views from Castelmola, above Taormina, are just gorgeous. We are returning to Taormina next week for a couple of nights before heading on to the Aeolian Islands. I'll report back on my impressions of the town in this "higher" season. We are staying at Hotel Condor, with a sea-view/balcony room, for $122 a night. Hoping it is good!

As for our brief visit to Taormina after landing in Catania, planning to spend that night in Siracusa -- I thank everyone for their advice. I think we'll visit the Greek theater and gardens in Taormina, then drive to Etna en route to Siracusa late in the day.

trivbeck
one of the reasons for our stay in Taormina is to visit godfather locations in the area. Besides Savoca, Forza D'Agro & the train station in Taormina - are there any other places on the tour that you remember.
I will be hiring a car that we have to park in the multi storey, use the bus to our apartment close to Corso Umberto. We have 3 days there.

johngerard: We had a car, but decided to go on the tour instead of going ourselves. We are glad we did that because the guide gave us more information on these towns so we saw things we never would have known about - especially the mummies in Savoca. We went to Savoca and Forza D'Agro, he told us about the train station. Our tour also took us up to Castlemola (no Godfather ties) to look at the views and have lunch. Though we were in Palermo before Taormina, we didn't check out the places around there or Corleone. Driving in Sicily is a bit nerve wracking. The other reason we went on the tour is because my husband does not like to drive up steep, curvy and VERY HIGH roads. Actually, he said driving up is not as bad for him as the driving down part.

aprillilacs: We stayed at the Hotel Condor also. We were happy with the room, location and the staff are very nice!