My two kids 26, 15 and me Mom are flying into Catania middle June.
We've been in Italy twice 1 month each, this time we are going to Sorrento after.
How many days should we allocate to Sicily before we jump to Amalfi area?
Sould we do Sardenia, although I think there are no ferries from Sicily to Sardenia
Our highlights will be Sicily, Amalfi, Cinque Terre Liguria, Barcelona 3 days from where we fly back July 15.

At least two weeks, better three. Plenty of TRs here, click on my name for mine. You certainly don't have time for Sardinia.

We will be in Italy from June 21st to July 15th. How many days in Sicily would be best?

I agree with thursdaysd -- aim for 2.5 to 3 weeks. Of course, it depends on what YOU want to see and experience -- but with anything less than that, you are unlikely to be able to see even the things you most want to see on this fascinating island.

It will be hot. We spent a week there and thought we saw little.

i count 24 days total. To see everything, as above would take 2-3 weeks. But you could see quite a bit in 12 days.
Remembering that it will be very hot, choose what you want to see carefully. You might want to spend some time on one of the groups of islands.

What things interest you in Sicily? The Greek temples, the sea, Taormina, the baroque towns, Palermo markets, mosaics in Monreale?

The sea is a first, hikes the markets.
We are arriving to Catania. Should we book in Catania or Taormina for the first 3 days?
We have 3 weeks for sure we can stay in Sicily.

I would highly recommend you take the entire 3 weeks since you are so lucky to have that time. Once you start researching, you will see that 3 weeks would barely be enough. Include a good relaxing stay in the Aeolians. Click on my name to see my TR which was just over 3 weeks.

You will probably want to do things a bit differently but reading other TRs is a great way to start, plus guide books to get details of all the possibilities.

Sicily is wonderful!

"Should we book in Catania or Taormina for the first 3 days?"

Neither. Ortygia.

We loved Taormina (very very overcrowded and touristy), not been to Ortygia, but don't stay at Catania.

Thanks everybody.
Any advice please don't hesitate. We arrive at Catania June 21st at 8:35 am and we would like to have maybe 2-3 places in Sicily to call home and explore from there. I will look into Ortygia, we will be super tired and jetlag after traveling for 2 days from Denver. Our last two trips to Italy were very traveled, ~4 days in each place for 8 weeks firts, 4 weeks second trip, needless to say my kids are hesitant to travel with me.
Is the Island not too big to explore from 2-3 places base?

The island IS too big for base and spoke exploration. Highly recommend reading some TRs here and some guidebooks - I used Lonely Planet, kja used Rough Guide.

We were there for 2 weeks and, using public transportation, missed 2 venues. If you are driving and organized, I'd say 2 weeks would be OK as a minimum.

We loved Monreale and Palermo (where we based). The mosaics there and at Piazza Armerina are IMO priceless. Our second base was Siracusa.The few Sicilians we did speak with suggested driving along the south one way and going along the north the other.

We also went to Sorrento next by train. It took a big chunk of the day.

Have a spectacular trip and please share it!

Pookymimi here is the cruise schedule for Taormina.

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/crui...os-sicily.html

Cruise ships will be in port on June 21-23, so it will be very busy in Taormina on those days.

I think I would head to Syracuse first, our fave place so far on the island.

Your priorities are a bit different from mine, so it's difficult to say how long you should stay.

There are some nice sandy beaches south of Modica and Ragusa. Also one place I would love to go but haven't seen as of yet is Castellamare del golfo and the Zingaro Reserve. May be very hot for hiking though.

Here's a link of best beaches
http://www.charmingsicily.com/en/bes...-in-sicily.php

check out just east of Agrigento, the Scala dei Turchi. It is worth an afternoon, really cool to see.

For markets, the fish market in Catania, the 3 markets in Palermo, Syracuse has a market...

I think that after a few days in Ortygia, you could head down to the Noto/ Modica area and stay on one of the beaches there for a week, using that as a base to explore that area. [or reverse that and go straight to the south-east, and come back via Ortygia - your choice, depending on how much driving up want to do on your first day; you can get a bus/taxi from Catania Airport to Syracuse which would mean not needing a car until you leave Orygia].

Then go north, and stay somewhere near Etna - - you can climb, swim, visit wineries, there is a gorge to explore - then north-west via Cefalu to Palermo and fly to the mainland from there.

sundried - thanks for the tip about the Scala dei Turchi, which I found more information about here:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/scala-dei-turchi

we'll be spending a couple of days in Agrigento on our trip in September so we'll try to make time to see it.

pookymimi - I should make clear that we've not made it to Sicily yet [apart from a ½ day visit to Taormina when I was 17!] but made my suggestions on the basis of my researches [and what I've read here] for our trip which will be 10 days in September; my main conclusion has been that we have nothing like enough time to see everything we would like to see!

Thanks everybody.
I'm looking at ortygia, we will take most likely public transportation to our first base and as recommended we will most likely fly or ferry back to mainland from Palermo area.

We have been twice. Two weeks for the eastern half of the island, two weeks for the western half. We could have stayed much longer!
If you like to spend time at the beach, make sure to visit San Vito lo Capo on the northwestern tip of the island. We also loved the beach in Realmonte, walking distance of Scala dei Turchi in the south -- which is also very close to Agrigento.

And yes, it will be HOT.

You are getting some great advice!

FWIW, check not only guidebooks and trip reports, but also trip planning threads, where you will see that just about every first time visitor to Sicily starts by thinking a week or so, and thinks of trying to use just 2 or 3 bases, etc. Even with quick skimming, you should get a good sense of the range of options to consider and WHY it really doesn't lend itself to less than 2 or 3 weeks or to bases....

And BTW, thursdaysd is correct that I recommend the <i>Rough Guide</i> for Sicily -- but I used 6 different guidebooks for that trip! ;-) I also agree that the <i>Lonely Planet</i> is a very good choice -- I simply prefer the maps in the <i>Rough Guide</i>.

The OP has started a new thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...tineraries.cfm