Planning a stay in Sicily for 6 days
 

My husband and I are planning on a 6 day stay in Sicily, June 2012. I am wanting reccommendations on where to stay to see most of the highlights. Should we stay in 2 or 3 different locations?

At this date we are planning on going by ferry, with a car, via Villa San Giovanniinto to Messina. Should we start by going to Palermo and then travel around the island to finish in Catania?

We would enjoy being with the Sicilians, sitting in a cafe, and drinking the local wines.
I would say we enjoy living in the "slow lane". As far as lodging we would be happy to stay in small hotels or bed and breakfast.

Any information you can provide would be very much appreciated.

Six days isn't nearly enough time to see Sicily. I was there for 12 days and didn't get to see everything.

Rather than "travel around the island" I would focus on 2 or 3 places. If you spend your time traveling around the island that is all you'll be doing.

Highlights are different for everyone. The highlights of my trip were:

1. Puppet show in Palermo
2. Meeting Maria Grammatico in Erice
3. Seeing the Agrigento temples lit up at night.

Do some reading about Sicily and decide where you want to focus your time. Palermo offers more to do and see than other towns. I stayed there 5 days and could have stayed longer.

I agree---we took 15 days to see Sicily.
I would plan a max of 3 destinations. My 3 would be Taormina, Siracusa, and Palermo[Monreale].

I was thinking maybe six day would not be enough time, with the many sites and the size of the Island. Do you have any reccommendations on places to stay?

Here is my trip report.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

Look at Villa Schuler in Taormina

<< Do you have any reccommendations on places to stay? >>

It depends on what you want to do and where you want to visit. Decide your itinerary and then look for places to stay. It does no good to get a recommendation for a hotel in Ragusa if you're not going there.

We spent two weeks in Sicily and did not see every thing. Here is my trip report where you can see what we visited and where we stayed. I hope that this will help.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-and-malta.cfm

For 6 days, I'd base in 2 places, not 3. Each change of venue will take about half a day, between checking out of hotel #1, checking into hotel #2, transportation between cities, transportation to/from the hotels to the inter-city transportation (eg taking a cab to the train station), Murphy's Law, etc. 3 2-night stays will get old very quickly. Go for 2 3-night stays instead.

I'll be in Sicily for 10 days (day 1 = arrival in CTA, day 10 = departure from PMO) and am only planning to base in 2 cities: Palermo, and in/near Catania.

Thanks again to all that have commented.

valtor and bobthenavigator's trip reports were most helpful.
I now have a better handle on our agenda. Palermo will definitely be on the list.

bobthenavigator <I may also skip one of the nuances of European travel that has always intrigued me---the many and varied plumbing mechanisms designed to merely flush a toilet.> My famly went to Germany and my father also was intriqued by the plumbing and we have many pictures of flush toilets. Reading different blogs this nuance is not that uncommon.

The photo gallery of Sicily at:
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/169372/index.html
was new to me and what an array of photos. I am even most excited about our upcoming trip.

Julia

Drop the car before you arrive in Palermo -- maybe at the airport.

You're going to regret not having more time for Sicily. But I regret not having more time on every trip.