RubyTwins

We are looking for a family vacation idea in April and thought about London but we really enjoy a combination of sightseeing and hiking (and the weather is iffy in April). I thought of Sicily because we LOVED Peloponnesus in April. The weather was perfect, people lovely, lots of ruins and nice towns with great food and beautiful hikes. Just curious about Sicily as a trip with 16-year-old twins. Palermo, Cefalù, Syracuse and maybe an island?

How is Palermo as a place to stay? Is it gritty or walkable? My husband grew up on Tokyo and we live in NY and are used to crazy driving. So renting a car is definitely an option too. Just curious any thoughts.

I went to Sicily 30 years ago as a young woman and didn't feel very safe at the time but I understand that was being a young woman and that some things have changed. We have no problem driving.

Leely2

It's both! A bit gritty and very walkable.

You may get some rain in April but it's unlikely to be horrendously cold. I went to Sicily late March-early April about 7-8 years ago. One of my all-time favorite trips. The driving isn't crazy, so I wouldn't worry about that.

Top destinations for me in Sicily were Palermo (with a visit to Monreale), Valle dei Tempi in Agrigento, Segesta, Modica, and Siracusa. Also loved Villa Romana del Casale. Pretty much everywhere we went was wonderful. Sorry, we didn't go to another island nor to Cefalu.

thursdaysd

I had a wonderful time in Sicily in April/May. It's a great time to visit - not too hot, and plenty of wildflowers. I did not feel unsafe. I did visit the Egadi islands, which I found too quiet at that time of year.

Highly recommend Ortigia, Erice, Trapani in addition to Leely2's list.

My TR is dated, but the sights probably haven't changed much: Crumbling Palazzos and Creamy Cannoli - Savoring Sicily

kja

I can't speak to how Sicily would be in April, but loved it, and it's many wildflowers, in May. You can find climate statistics on weatherbase.com

Like Leely2, I say that Palermo is both walkable and "gritty" -- a small core that is dynamic and energetic and vibrant and not "spiffed up" just for tourism.

I don't believe you said how much time you would have, so let me note that it can easily take 2.5 or 3 weeks to see the highlights of Sicily. If you have less time, you can see some wonderful things, but you will need to be much more selective.

And like thursdaysd, if going to Siracusa, do consider Ortigia!

john183

I agree with what everyone above has said. Sicily was wonderful. We were in Sicily in late April/early May of 2017 and as you can see in our pics, the weather was perfect. We did not do much hiking (a little at Mount Etna and in The Valley of the Temples at Agrigento) but I think you could find quite a bit of good hiking. Driving in Sicily is easy and we never felt unsafe. Below is the Sicily part of my very brief trip report and a link to some pics.

26-Apr-17 28-Apr-17 Eurostar's Centrale Palace in Palermo
28-Apr-17 30-Apr-17 Villa Athena in Agrigento
30-Apr-17 3-May-17 San Domenico Palace in Taormina
3-May-17 5-May-17 Domus Mariae Albergo in Ortygia

We loved every single place we visited. Palermo was so much better than we were expecting. Nice hotel and staff, nice restaurants, interesting neighborhoods and a CRAZY taxi ride to and from Monreale made our Palermo experience very memorable. We then rented a car in downtown Palermo and drove around Sicily until we turned it in at Syracusa. They did not have the size car we reserved but “upgraded” us to a much larger van thing. No amount of arguing could get it changed to a smaller car so I’m sure it looked pretty crazy and I felt like a tour guide driving the van. It ended up not being a problem even though I had to drive down a few narrow streets in Taormina and Syracusa.

The Villa Athena hotel at Agrigento was great. Great service, great views, nice rooms and a private walkway to the ruins – we enjoyed our time here a LOT.

And what more can be said about Taormina? It is gorgeous and the hotel we stayed at is going to be the site for the G7 summit next week so I can’t wait to see it on TV. We even took a fairly scary bus ride up to Castelmola.

One of our Taormina days we went to the top of a smoking Mount Etna. Bus ride then a cable car ride then a jeep ride then a walk to the edge of a crater was pretty neat. The ground was warm (you could feel it through your shoes) but the air was cold enough to see your breath. Wow!

Our hotel in Ortygia was just OK but we knew that when we booked it. Ortygia was very nice and we did a hop on hop off bus ride so we could visit the Greek ruins in Syracusa.

Here are a few pictures of Sicily.

https://john183italy2014.shutterfly.com/pictures/1029

macdogmom

TDudette

RubyTwins, DH and I were there in March in 2002 and loved it. I was comfortable in long-sleeved Ts or light-weight knit sweaters. DH wore a light windbreaker (more because it had lots of pockets than being warm), We bussed from Palermo to Siracusa. Traffic in Palermo was alarming but do-able. Just let everyone pass you! Outside the city seemed much less frantic though. We took busses everywhere but driving would have been more direct.

Your teens might enjoy the neat beach near Palermo, Mondela, and it's an easy bus ride.
Monreale is a do not miss imho.
We also enjoyed the papyrus museum in Siracusa. We were 'wowed' but the sophistication of the process.

Ruins and mosaics abound!

RoamsAround

RubyTwins

Thank you so much for all this great insight. I just ordered a travel book on Sicily and so will be back with more questions. I am sure we want to explore Palermo and all its great sights but hope to also get to some less gritty cities/towns and maybe stay one or two nights in a smaller village or an agritourism kind of place. We will rent a car as it is easier and often cheaper with four of us to get around.

tuscanlifeedit

We visited Sicily in April and it was heaven. The wildflowers were incomparable. I personally loved Palermo and found it delightful. Here's my report, if you'd like. We had short-ish time, too.

Sicily Trip Report 4/2018

john183

macdogmom - I apologize in advance because my reply is not going to be very helpful to you. We had 9 nights at four different places in Sicily and loved them all. Doing my research of Sicily, I found a bunch of other places I would have liked to have visited. Erice, Cefalu, Segesta, Catania, Villa Romana del Casale, Noto, Modica, Ragusa, Mount Etna wineries, the wine region near Trapani, the Aegadian Islands and the Aeloian Islands – plus several more. After some hard decisions we finally narrowed it down to the four places we visited and were very happy with them. Everywhere we went, the people were friendly, the food and Sicilian wine was good and the sites/scenery was incredible. I don’t think you can go wrong with whatever you choose to do for a week in Sicily.

RubyTwins

OK looking into this more seriously. We will get a car (my son is a diabetic and it just is a lot easier for us... to have the insulin in a Frio cooler and not worry about the bus not coming etc.). Do people fly in and out of Palermo or with a car does it make sense to fly INTO Palermo and out of Catania? Cost is also a factor.
We mostly will have to rent apartments etc because it is cheaper with a family and also again, the refrigerator for insulin. Definitely looking for some towns as various bases as we work are way around (and no, don't have a itinerary yet but it will be Easter and not sure how much that week things will close).
Thank you

Leely2

I would fly into Palermo or Catania and fly out of the other. Of course this depends on your itinerary. In addition to apartments, you could also check for hotels with fridges and mention that you need to keep insulin in the room when you book and therefore must have a fridge. That is probably totally obvious to you.

We landed in Palermo, spent a couple days there (we had serious flight delays that resulted in us losing a full day), then taxi'd to the airport where we picked up a rental car. That was very easy, and we stopped in Segesta on our way driving from PMO to Agrigento.

kja

If it suits their plans, that makes much more sense than backtracking unnecessarily. IME, you can pick up and drop of at different locations within Sicily without paying an extra drop-off fee, but that could depend on the company and/or other details, so be sure to check.

And there's no reason to go to the airport in (outside of) Palermo to pick up a rental car -- you can pick one up at a variety of convenient locations before leaving that city.

RubyTwins

OK it is much cheaper to fly in and out of Palermo than in Palermo and out of Catania. So is this an insane very rough itinerary?
Fly into Palermo. Spend a few days.
Drive all the way to Siracusa. Two days? Not sure.
Drive to Agrigento... two days? Maybe Trapani? Not sure.
Leave from Palermo.

kja

If you have to leave from Palermo, then you'll want to be in that city or at the airport the night before. But you can't really shift your time at the start of the trip because it won't be safe to drive until you've had a few days in that time zone, so your itinerary gets a bit complicated.

Depending on your interests, Palermo could easily take 3 or 4 days; same for Siracusa.

If you are planning for a week in Sicily and planning on flying into and out of Palermo, you might want to consider limiting your time to the western part of the island -- Palermo, Agrigento (but probably no further east), Segesta, Selinunte, Trapani, maybe Cefalu, maybe Erice....

KTtravel

We flew into Palermo and out of Catania as backtracking didn't seem worth it to us. We visited Palermo, Agrigento, Villa Romana del Casale and Siracusa as we just didn't have time for me but really enjoyed each location.

MyriamC

I agree with kja. Stick to the western part of the island.
This is what we did in September 2013:
Day 1: fly Brussels-Palermo, pick up rental car and drive to a place near Erice where we stayed for 5 nights. Visited Erice, Castelammare del Golfo, Segesta, Trapani (lovely!), drove the Via del Sale between Trapani and Marsala, spend half a day on the beach at San Vito Lo Capo (where, by the way, you could do a serious hike in the Riserva Naturale Zingaro).
On day 6 we left for Agrigento where we stayed for 2 nights. Visited Sciacca along the way, and the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento the next day (go as early as possible). In the afternoon we visited the Scala dei Turchi in Realmonte (natural phenomenon).
On day 8 we left for Cefalù and the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina was more or less on our way, so we took a visit there (a must see, IMO).
Our second week was spent in Cefalù where my sister lives during six months a year.

HappyTrvlr

ekscrunchy