sylvester

Our flight from Catania to Rome leaves at 12:45 on Sat. May 14. We'll be in Noto, and a private transfer service for the 2 of us costs about 125 Euros (that's the cheapest I found so far). The transfer services estimate 90 min. travel time. The AST bus estimates only 1 hr. 15 min travel time, even with one stop in between! It leaves Noto 9:45 a.m., arriving at the airport 11:00. Obviously the bus is much cheaper! But is it trustworthy in terms of travel time? Is there a special bus lane that lets it get there quicker than a private service??? thank you.

sylvester

In case it's helpful to anyone else in the future, I'll answer my own question! Before the trip I emailed 3 hotels in Noto and they all said the bus pickup was reliable. Thankfully, they were right! There is no bus terminal in Noto. Ha! You buy your ticket from someone at the bar part of a nearby hotel, and buses stop on the street across from a church. While we got to the Catania airport at the expected time, we then spent 1 1/2 hrs in line at Alitalia just to check in. Although it looked like enough reps to handle things, some of them were just chatting with one another and not actually checking people in. There was a tour group of about 30 people on this flight so we assumed the plane likely would not take off without them (and us!). Security was next and was pretty lax so it didn't take long.