Questions about travel between Agrigento & Siracusa
 

I'll be in Sicily with a friend (Palermo for 4 nights, Siracusa for 3 nights, Taormina for 2 nights). We wanted to do a stop in Agrigento inbetween the Palermo and Siracusa legs (sort of, enroute). My preference has been to stick with public transport, but it seems like that will be difficult between Agrigento and Siracusa (I've looked at the bus websites & can't seem to figure it out). I'm now thinking of renting a car in Agrigento, then driving to Siracusa. The only problem I see is that it seems as if the car rental agencies are closed on Sundays (the day we'd be doing this travel) - is this true? Advice please!

There are two ways to go by public transportation. Only the first option works on Sundays:

OPTION 1:

1. Agrigento to Catania Airport by SAIS Trasporti bus
2. Catania Airport to Siracusa by Etna Trasporti bus

OPTION 2:

1. Agrigento to Gela by Lumia bus (NOT on Sundays)
2. Gela to Siracusa by Azienda Siciliana Trasporti bus OR OR
by Trenitalia train

www.saistrasporti.it
www.interbus.it (Etna Trasporti bus)
www.autolineelumia.it
www.aziendasicilianatrasporti.it

You definitely do NOT need to rent a car to travel from Agrigento to Siracusa. Unless you plan to stop en-route, there is NO GOOD REASON to rent.

You can take the train from Palermo to Agrigento and from Agrigento to Siracusa. Trains in Sicily are said to be not as nice as the buses. But the one I was on between Siracusa and Taormina was fine, even pleasant.

You might also consider hiring a driver to pick you up in Agrigento and take you to Siracusa. You'll save time and it will be convenient. I can't offer a price range, but if you're traveling with others, the cost can often be reasonable if split.

Thank you! I will look into the bus option; hopefully the times will work out. For some reason when I looked at a couple of sites it wasn't clear how the connection would work - now it makes sense seeing as that it would be 2 different companies. Plan B - the train.

BEWARE that the train option, especially on Sundays, is extremely limited and very long. By contrast, there are much better, and faster, bus connections via Catania Airport, as noted in "OPTION 1" above. I myself took the train from Agrigento to Catania, but would have done better to take the SAIS Trasporti bus.