Sicily Lodging Near Mt Etna
 

Flying into Catania in the morning. Renting a car and hope to visit Mt Etna same day. Eventual destination Cefalu. Can anyone recommend a place to stay one night, after visiting Etna , which is on the way to Cefalu?. Have visited Taormina before and not our favorite spot (a little too touristy). Are there any other towns worthy of a stay? Any specific hotels that one can recommend?
Thanks
Jim

Hi Jim,

We've done the same trip twice and had two different experiences:

1) Overnight in Catania - one of my favorite cities in Sicily -- Catania has great restaurants and isn't too touristy. Unless you're planing on going to the north side of Etna to A20, you'll probably return back by Catania to take A19 to Chefalu, making Catania a reasonable stop.

2) Overnight in Enna - Enna is very charming, but was very touristy. I know many people love this city, so maybe someone else will have second opinion to offer.

Have a great trip!

> Overnight in Enna - Enna is very charming, but was very touristy.

Interesting! When I was there in 2007, I saw only 1 or 2 other tourists and the town did not seem at all tourist-y. I couldn't even find a postcard! It must have changed quite a bit....

We stayed in Randazzo, which is the closest town to Etna, or so advertised. The hotel was a converted motel; perfectly acceptable.

Re Randazzo: How best to get to Cefalu ? North through the mountains or head to east coast and take autostrada up and then to the west.

The drive through the mountains is interesting--alpine vegetation because of its elevation, but I suspect that it is faster to use the autostrada.