nicolos1

my wife and I are planning a trip to Malta and Sicily in mid-March to the first week in April. We would appreciate any ideas about logistics flying from Boston, visiting Malta for 5 days and Sicily for 10 days. Any thoughts on hotels and renting a car in Sicily? Thank you.

thursdaysd

Ten days is short for Sicily. You will probably need to decide whether to visit the east or west of the island. There are many TRs and planning threads on this site - suggest doing a search and reading them.

Are you taking the ferry between the islands?

isabel

Here's my trip report from my week in Malta - it was in July so some things might not be appropriate for March but you'll get an idea. I had 7 nights and still didn't see everything so you will have to pick and choose but 5 days is a decent amount of time. Malta in July And my photos - Zenfolio | Isabel's_View | Malta

I visited Sicily on a separate trip for about 11 days and though that was a good amount of time. We rented a car in Sicily which we are glad we did. Made moving around much easier.

I usually have more time than money for vacations so the most economical way is to fly from Boston (non stop) on Norwegian to London and then fly easy jet to Malta and Sicily. The trouble with that is you need to spend at least one night in London so that if your flight from Boston is late you still make your easy jet flight (cause if you don't and have to buy a ticket at the last minute price it can be very expensive). I love London and don't mind spending a couple of nights at each end of my trip there but for some people that would be a pain - especially if you only have a total of 15 days possible, then you'd be 'stealing' from Malta/Sicily and you just barely have a good amount of time as it is.

Also try AerLingus, not sure if they fly to Sicily or Malta though but their flights from Boston are usually pretty cheap and the layover in Dublin is painless. Especially coming home, they have US pre-clearance in Dublin so you fly into a domestic terminal in Boston and don't have to deal with the long lines in Terminal E.

kja

I agree with thursdaysd about Sicily – I had just over 2 weeks and was not able to see all of its highlights – and I travel HARD! With 10 days, I agree that you would be wise to limit yourself to either the east or west part of that island.

Here's what I recommend: Get some good guidebooks (or spend some time with a few in your local library), identify the things you most want to see in each location, check their opening/closing times on the internet, and mark them on a calendar. Pencil in your transportation, add some time on either side (for getting to/from your lodging, checking in/out, packing/unpacking, getting lost/oriented, etc.). Then see how things fit together.

HappyTrvlr

Alitalia non stop BOS to FCO is a start. Check Skyscanner and Kayak for options.

nicolos1

thanks for the information. I booked a flight to Milan, staying overnight, and then a flight to Sicily. We'll be taking a ferry to Malta.

nicolos1

good advice. Thanks

scrb11

I'm considering it for the second half of April, Malta and then Western Sicily, which I've visited before.

Suppose to be dry on the islands in early spring.

BritishCaicos

Sounds like a perfect balance, I seem to remember that the ferry journey takes only just under two hours via Pozalla which is a fairly awful place but gets you close to Ragusa Ibla, Monica, Noto and Ortigia.

i would not try to venture further than the area served by Catania airport.

nicolos1

I will be spending most of our time in the Syracuse and southeast area of
Sicily. I've booked 2 nights in Palermo but I'm trying to decide whether to drive to Catania and fly one way to Valletta, Malta, spend 5 days in Malta and then take the ferry from Pozzallo back to Sicily and spend the rest of our time in the hill towns of Sicily before returning to Palermo and then on to Milan. Any suggestions?

scrb11

Would think it's better to fly into one island, fly out the other and then either fly or take the ferry in between?

neckervd

scrb is right:
book a flight from Milano Malpensa to Malta and another one from Catania back to Milan.
The expensive Valetta - Pozzallo ferry makes sense if you want to visit places like Ragusa, Modica, Noto and Siracusa.
Otherwise book the Malta - Catania ferry (Tirrenia) or a CTA bound flight (Ryanair, Air Malta, Alitalia)

nicolos1

hello,
I've taken the advice about taking the ferry from Pozzzallo to Valletta, then a flight back to Palermo. My dilemma is booking a rental car in Palermo for 5 days and finding a drop off near Pozzallo to catch the ferry. Any advice.

nicolos1

all my flights and the ferry have been booked so the only hitch is the car rental. I've booked several European trips through AutoEurope but no luck finding a convenient dropoff.

neckervd

You wrote: " I will be spending most of our time in the Syracuse and southeast area of
Sicily."
Therefore, I thought that you would fly to CTA, as PMO is far away from this area (and from Pozzallo too).
What's your Sicily itinerary? May be you don't need a car. Public transport isn't bad in Sicily.

scrb11

You could also ask on TripAdvisor. They have destination experts there.

They may know if car rental agencies have drop off offices near that ferry port.

kja

Better guidebooks provide information about which car rental agencies are available in what cities. And you can research many quite easily on-line.

Like neckervd, I don't understand why you are asking about Palermo.

nicolos1

Thank you all. I was able to get a car rental in Palermo with a drop off in Ragusa. We plan to stay in Syracuse, Noto, and Ragusa. I have guide books that I always use, but like to get ideas from the Fodor's forum. Any recommendations for the 3 cities mentioned would be appreciated. Thanks again.

scrb11

Are you going to keep a car in Siracusa, Noto or Ragusa? Beware that parking is limited in the key areas and there's also ZTL, meaning you can't enter certain parts of the towns at certain hours, unless you stay at a place that will notify the police there not to send you a ticket for entering ZTL.

Noto is the smallest so a lot of people just do it as a day trip. They have some beautifully-lit buildings at night but it's tricky to find a place to stay with parking so you have to contact them and ask about the parking.

kja

scrb11 raises an excellent point about parking, but if you can see Noto in various lights (day, evening, lit for night), I don't think you would regret it.

I was very pleased with l'Approdo delle Sirene in Ortygia (Siracusa).
Pagina di ingresso - B&B - L'Approdo delle Sirene - Ortigia/Syracuse