dwdvagamundo

Just to weigh in on driving in Sicily: we had no problem with "crazy" drivers or with traffic, and the roads were good.

Our problems were:

1. Fog in the morning at Erice--almost impenetrable on our way back down to Trapani.

2. Finding our hotel in Siracusa--we drove around and around and around Ortigia. Finally saw it but could not park nearby, so left the car, the luggage and my spouse in a public parking structure and walked to the hotel, checked in, then got a cab to fetch my spouse and our luggage.

3. Taking a wrong turn in a little town in the mountains and finding that the street went up but no street went down; so we had to back the car out of the cul-de-sac.
Should note we did not and do not use GPS--this was just my own stupid driving error.

We did not stay in Taormina and drove to it, but found no place to park so drove away. I'm not sure if we missed anything or not, frankly. It is very touristy and very, very crowded.


We stayed two nites in Agrigento and enjoyed it, but that was enough. It was really nice to come back to the hotel in the hot afternoon and have a swim!

You don't need a car in Palermo so drop it when you arrive and take the bus or walk. Palermo is a wonderful city with lots to see.

panecott

Taormina is touristy and crowded, but it is also spectacularly beautiful and should not be missed. I will be staying there on my upcoming trip for the fifth time, altho' I do plan on a number of day trips from there. For me, I can't imagine going to Sicily and not visiting Taormina. It has been 18 years since my last visit so I'll see if things have changed.

I think the Villa Ducale is a good choice, JES, it looks beautiful from the photos and since it has parking, that will not be an issue. You can walk or shuttle to town and do your excursions by car. Then again the Monaci delle Nere looks beautiful also.

Decisions!!

kja

IMO, whether a stay of 2 nights is a good fit for Agrigento depends on when you would arrive and depart and what, exactly, you hope to do while there. In case it helps you plan, I spent between 5 and 6 hours at the Valley of the Temples (closer to 6, as I recall), about 1.5 hours at the archeology museum, and another hour or so roaming Agrigento’s medieval core.

I did encounter absolutely insane drivers several times in Sicily.

tuscanlifeedit

I'm really enjoying this discussion and it's helping with my plans for next April. If anyone would care to throw in a comment or two about Sicily in April, especially crowds in Taormina.

kja

I visited in mid-May, but maybe I can offer a comment or two about Taormina that might prove helpful.

When I was there, it was unpleasant during the day because of day-trippers, mostly from a cruise ship. IMO, the town simply is not large enough to accommodate the number of day-trippers, and I was unintentionally -- and quite unpleasantly -- swept up in, and rather frighteningly crushed by -- the crowd until I managed to disengage a block or two later.

BUT Taormina does offer some spectacular views, which I was glad to have seen. If you go prepared, and plan to spend most of your day-time hours out of the city, you could have a wonderful experience. There really isn't THAT much to see in Taormina itself, so you should be able to visit most sites of interest to you either before or after the day-trippers overtake the place.

Leely2

tuscan, I was in Sicily late-March/early April and had great weather, sunny and coolish, mostly 60s in the afternoons, some light drizzle the day we visited Segesta and that was it. Lots of wildflowers, blue skies. Of course anything can happen with weather. No crowds the places we visited that time of year (this was several years ago). We didn't encounter any fellow native-English speakers other than in Ortigia.

We chose not to visit Taormina. It just didn't appeal as much as other places and we had limited time.

tuscanlifeedit

Thank you both.

I do want to visit Taormina, but will plan for daytime activities away from the town.

And Leely, that weather sounds perfect to me. I was shooting for May, but the award ticket I wanted was only available in April and I'm happy with that. Heat is not my friend.

john183

JES28 - We were in Sicily from April 26th thru May 5th of this year and if you click on my name you can see a brief trip report of the basic itinerary that I posted. It was a lot of moving around but we had a great time and we had fantastic weather every day.

To expand a little on my trip report we spent two nights at Villa Athena and thought it was just right. We arrived in late afternoon the first day in time to have a drink at the outside bar while enjoying the view of the temple. We then had a very good dinner at the hotel restaurant before ending with a nightcap again at the outside bar enjoying the now lit up temple. The hotel staff was outstanding. The next day we walked over to the temple on the private path from the hotel and had a very nice visit. Back for more cocktails at the hotel before going out for dinner up on the hill with a nice view down at the Valley of the Temples. We left the next morning after breakfast for Taormina.

We spent three nights at the San Domenico Palace in Taormina and it worked out well for us. Not sure why but the hotel upgraded to us to rooms with fantastic balconies. We spent a lot of time on the balcony enjoying the view and even had breakfast delivered there one morning. The first day we walked around the tourist section - it was crowded but not super crazy. The second day we went to Mount Etna on a fantastic Viator tour from Taormina very similar to what anniemakie describes. The last day we spent a lot of time on our balcony and took a bus to Castelmora which was very enjoyable. Even in early May we had to make restaurant reservations every night in Taormina.

Sure we wish we had more time in Sicily and we made some choices to miss places we would have liked to see. But in the end we enjoyed the places we stayed and the things we were able to see.

JES28

Thank you so much for the responses and sorry for my late reply! The kids finished up school and it has been chaos since! Finally some time to sit back down and try and finish up this planning.
John, great to know you visited Sicily for the same amount of time we plan to. It looks like you had a fantastic trip all the way around in your other destinations as well!
It sounds like you had a very good experience staying in Agrigento at the Villa Athena for 2 nights. I have been reading that other than the ruins the surrounding area is more modern and not very attractive, did you find that?
We were going to use it as a base to see the other areas from there but we are rethinking our route..especially looking at how long the day will be from the Aeolians.
Here are the 2 options we're leaning toward now. The arrival is set, the departure location is not:

Arr Catania
2 nights Taormina
2 nights Aeolian (thinking 1 night in Panarea at Hotel Quartara and 1 night in Salina at Principe di Salina in Malfa and just bringing backpack to islands so easy to transfer)
2 nights Palermo
2 nights Menfi/Castelvatrano area as base (La Forsteria Planeta or Villa Sicilia Baglio) - explore vineyards, Sciaccia, Trapani, Erice
Dept Palermo

OR
Arr Catania
2 nights Taormina
2 nights Aeolian
2 nights Palermo
2 nights Syracuse as base - explore Modica, Ragusa, etc..not sure of lodging yet
Dept Catania

what do Fodorites advise??

kja

The city of Agrigenta, which is on a ridge above the Valley of the Temples and above the Villa Athena, has what I found to be an evocative medieval core, well worth roaming.

I trust that you’ve considered the timing of your plan for the Aeolians, but I must admit that it sounds very rushed to me. When planning, remember that you need to work around ferry schedules and possible weather-related delays, and (of course) you need to leave time for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting lost / oriented, etc.

2 nights is extremly little for Palermo.

2 nights is extremly little for Siracusa, particularly if you plan to use it to explore the Baroque towns.

It’s your trip and your call, but I think you might want to consider skipping one or more of these destinations, worthy as they are. I'm happy to relocate every day or two when it fits my purposes, but would still find this trip terribly unsatisfying as I would spend a disproportionate amount of time in transit, while skipping so very much in even the places I did choose to stop. JMO.

Hope that helps!

JES28

Thanks for your input kja.
We are set with the 2 nights in Taormina and 1-2 in the Aeolian islands. We heard that many ppl do a 1 day tour there and back from Taormina so we felt staying over for a night or 2 would be doable and less rushed. The1st 3 nights of the trip are booked and non-refundable at this point so we need to plan from there.
Given this and your thoughts and experience in Sicily what do you think should change for the rest of the trip?
Pls Keep in mind what we are trying to achieve: Beautiful old Sicily, views, vistas, amazing food, shopping, beach time, towns with a lot of charm, luxury accommodations but within vicinity of "real sicily". While we will appreciate the architecture etc, We don't want to spend time visiting churches, museums etc.
thank you!

kja

You might want to read up on "sunk costs."

IME experience, you can experience the things you seek in just about any part of Sicily -- if you give yourselves time and plan accordingly. Beach time? not so much.

Good luck!