Colombia1

Dear fellow travelers,

I'm in the process of planning our trip to Sicily (for my boyfriend and I) and I'm not sure if we should do the trip as an independent travelers or if we should take the Off season Sicily tour from Rick Steve's. I'm interested in this tour because is during the shoulder season= less people.

Have any of you taken the "Best of Sicily (off season) tour? if so, would you please share your experience? We are independent travelers and we don't mind to try a guide tour in Sicily, but before we embark in this adventure, I would like to have some input from other fellow travelers.


Thanks in advance for your input.

immimi

I'm not really answering your question but you may find some of this info helpful. We too are independent travellers so the idea of a tour wasn't at the top of our want-to list.

Took the RS tour the last year it was offered combined w/S. Italy, Went on the tour b/c I wasn't sure about the logistics of Sicillian travel....hotelsl/roads/itinerary. After being on the tour I realized planning
a trip around the area wouldn't be difficult at all except for long distances to get from one major site to
another. It's a big place! As long as you had pre-booked your accomodation you would have no trouble finding a great place to stay and wonderful meals. Drive-bys would be a little challenging unless you did a fair amount of research.

We went in September and a few of the ancient sites it was HOT and CROWDED! Unpleasantly so with all the tour busses and flocks of tourists (me too). The best benefit of being on the tour was the chance to see the sites earlier in the day in most instances. Also, the main guide and the many local guides were without exception, terrific... in fact, the excellence of the guides were the reason we actually took another RS tour (Turkey) and thoroughly enjoyed it too.

At heart we're independent travellers but in some instances a tour can enrich your experiences.

Michael

If considering doing Sicily on your own, you might want to take a look at my trip report (you can skip the medical section); click on my name to find it. The only pre-booked hotel was at the beginning and end of the trip in Palermo, but we were willing to stay outside the towns such as Siracusa and drive in to see the sights.

thursdaysd

I went the year after immimi, taking the Sicily-no-south-Italy tour the first time it was offered. Doing it in the spring was great - did not need AC and lots of wildflowers.

See: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ing-sicily.cfm - part of my time on Sicily was solo, the tour section starts in Taormina. The itinerary has changed since then, but most of the same places are on it.

You might also check the RS website for tour scrapbooks.

LowCountryIslander

I did the RS Sicily (low season) tour in Feb./Mar. 2014. Here is the link to my trip report:

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

I believe the itinerary is now slightly different (as thursdaysd mentioned above) but it may give you a "flavor" of what the tour would be like.

Colombia1

Thank you so much to all of your replies and advice. We decided to give a try to the RS tour Sicily (low season). now, I need to find affordable airline tickets from Washington DC to Sicily.
Grazie mille a tutti.