MorningMist

Hello to all and I hope you are all well and safe.

My husband and I are planning a four to five-week long trip to Europe this summer, leaving in late July (if possible, based on the vaccine rollout). We are planning a few days in Prague, then flying to Naples, spending a few days, then renting a car and driving south down the Calabrian coast to Tropea, then onto Sicily, where we are planning to drive along the eastern and southern coast before ending in Palermo.

To end our trip, we want to spend the last week in either Malta, Cypress, Corsica, Corfu or Minorca. They seem to be all so wonderful. We enjoy small, medieval towns, good food, architecture, art and some time at the beach.

Which one would you choose?

Thanks for your help

dreamon

With your itinerary, I would choose Malta (if you have time). I'd take the ferry from Sicily.

Unless Prague is of special importance, I suggest skipping it as your journey from Naples to Sicily could easily fill your whole time. Prague seems like a real outlier in your plans.

I think safe travel in July is looking very dubious but who knows for certain?

Traveler_Nick

July I wouldn't count on the vaccine having done much yet.

With your list of choices I'd think about what sort of beach you want and what else you're looking for? What's more important to you? The quality/type of beach? Or the other things on your list?

Taking the ferry would be an option but will your rental let you? Even if it does it'll likely be cheaper to drop it and pick up a new one in Malta.

The other choices you'll need to deal with flights. Those aren't major airports that will have multiple flights every single day. You'll need to check schedules and see if there is one that fits for you. The other option would be to connect in Athens or Barcelona but obviously you likely don't want to waste too much time in airports.

balthy

Assuming you mean Cyprus, it doesn't have small medieval towns, it does have some old traditional villages and castles from the medieval times (Kolossi, Paphos) along with large towns. It does have beaches, antiquities (mosaics etc) & good food, you would probably have to connect in Athens or Rome to get there so it might be a bit of a pain for you to get to. Corfu might suit you better, Corfu Town is more Italian than Greek in style but again might be awkward to get to from Sicily.

Corsica is just terrific, loads of beautiful traditional small villages in the mountains to walk around, great swimming beaches and I found the food to be really great. But it could be a tricky place to get to from Palermo. Maybe check which ones of the islands you can get to from Palermo to help you decide? Sicily has it's own islands that might be suitable for beach time (eg Lampedusa or the Aeolian islands? )

KayF

As already noted, it's Cyprus. Malta makes the most sense from Sicily. There is the ferry and also flights are easy. We flew from Malta to Catania in Sicily with Air Malta, flight time was about 25 minutes. We loved Malta, it's got an enormous amount of history and beautiful architecture. Also stayed on Gozo which was great too.

Lipari is one of the Aeolian islands and is close to Palermo. We had a couple of nights there on our Sicily trip and really enjoyed it. Not sure about beaches. That would make your trip easier, less time making connections and more time enjoying time on an island.

I'd check flight or ferry connections to the other places on your list. You might find some are too difficult or expensive to reach. If you end up taking a European budget airline somewhere (e.g Easyjet, Ryanair), be aware that luggage limits are usually less and it can be expensive if you are have excess baggage.

I think travelling to Europe in July is optimistic but you can research and plan and go once it's safer.

bilboburgler

Late July is the high point of the European holiday season, if, if, the corona virus situation is sorted the places you are thinking about will be crammed as most Europeans head south for their 2 weeker which this year might be a three weeker. I've been to all of these except Malta.

I'll not be joining you but if I were to I would look at Corsica or Sardinia south. Good luck and book carefully.

isabel

I agree with the others that a) July is very optimistic as far as the pandemic is concerned, and b) even if things were 'normal' that's the most busy time of the year for all those places. Is it possible to move your trip forward. Even a month or 6 week later might make a huge difference.

I'd pick the island based on how easy it is to get there from Palermo. Malta would be the easiest as you can just hop a ferry (with reservations though). All the others require a flight and most likely at least one connection which can add up to be expensive and time consuming. And even once it's possible to travel in Europe again, I personally will be planning a trip that limits the amount of time I need to spend in planes/airport.

bilboburgler

Sicily to Naples or Sardinia is a ferry ride or a plane if that helps

neckervd

The OP never came back.

AirBalloon

I would choose Malta as well. Gorgeous and historic, and close to Sicily.

MorningMist

Thanks to all of you who provided me with such good advice. Due to the relative closeness of Malta to Sicily and wanting to keep our exposure to Covid to a minimum, we are going to choose Malta if we are able to travel this summer and will ferry it from Pozzallo to Valletta, which is only takes about an hour and a half. We were planning to spend some time discovering the baroque towns of Modica, Ragusa, Noto and Scicli, so Malta really does make sense as Pozzallo is so close to all of these towns.

And of course, I meant Cyprus, the island, and not Cypress, the evergreen coniferous tree. Don't we all deserve a mulligan once in a while?

Neckervd, I see you have been watching this post to see if I ever 'came back'. Well, here I am Do you think Malta is the right choice as well?

littlejane

Hi MorningMist

I think Malta is the most convenient if you are ending up in Sicily, but Corsica would be the nicest (not sure you would get your medieval towns there though, same goes for Cyprus as mentioned above).

For me Malta was quite soul-less, bar the capital Valetta - we stayed near the harbour in the 3 cities and used that as a base to visit the capital, which was a good choice if staying a night or two near Valetta. Gozo is definitely nicer than Malta and has better beaches - but it is VERY quiet. On the way to Gozo you could visit Mdina which is a wonderful old town - like Valetta this would be a half-day excursion max.

MorningMist

Thanks again for your help.

The more I read about and research Malta, the less enthused I am about going there. Not sure what it is, but littlejane said it best with her description as soulless. Even though I have not been there, that is the way it comes off to me.

We are now going to concentrate on Italy and we are not going to Prague (after the last year of covid, we want to simply have a more laid back vacation).

With all of your help and my research, I have narrowed down our choices to either Corsica or Corfu. Corsica looks magnificent, but I now have also been looking at Sardinia or the Aeolian Islands.

Thoughts?

yorkshire

Will you still be allotting a week for the island portion?
I'd keep it simple and go to an Italian island. If you are still ending in Sicily, then Sardinia or the Aeolian islands would make perfect sense.

Heimdall

If you go to Sardinia, Corsica isn’t far away, and you can travel direct by ferry. A car ferry takes less than an hour from Santa Teresa to Bonifacio.

neckervd

The Aeolians are along the ferry and catamaran line from Naples to Palermo.
Sardinia is llinked by at least daily ferries to Genoa, Livorno, Piombino, Civitavecchia and Barcelona, or by twice weekly ferries to Toulon, Naples, Salerno and Palermo (Sicily). There are furthermore frequent flights from all somewant important Europen airports to at least one of the three main Sardinian airports.
Corsica is linked by ferries to Marseille, Toulon, Savona, Genoa and Livorno and by plane to France and some Northern European airports.
Malta is densely populated (almost every place can easily be reached by frequent buses ffom Valetta) and has the most impressing archeological sites.
Public transport in Sardinia is good between the main places (Olbia, Sassari/Alghero, Portorres/Pelosa, Macome/Nuoro/Bosa ,Cagliari/Sorgono/Villasimius/Pula, Carbonia, Iglesias) and not famous in the other areas.
Public transport in Corsica is almost iniexistant, except the Bastia -Calvi - Ajacciu railway and some infrequent buses running to Propriano, Portovecchio and Bonifaciu