I have been trying to plan a Sicily Trip for weeks (for October 2023 so getting closer) and driving myself nuts with logistics. Please help if you can with some travel advice.
1. I think flying into Milan from my home base in Norfolk VA, spending a couple of days, then flying to Sicily would be easier from an exhaustion standpoint. Alitalia seems to be an easier carrier for luggage than RyanAir, but am I mistaken?
2. I plan to start by flying into Catania or Palermo and loop around the island (I've been to Modica, Ragusa and Ortigia so want to try new places). Is Palermo a more reliable in/out airport? I'm worried about the activity at Etna and cancelled flights.
3. If I travel over about 3 weeks to Trapani, Marsala, Agrigento, Catania, Cefalu and Palermo (tentative itinerary - wondering about Palagonia, Messina and other cities/towns) how much can I accomplish by train/bus? It looks like public transport is do-able between Palermo and Marsala/ Agrigento and also between Catania and Palermo. Frankly, I'm nervous about car rentals (someone on a thread I read said they have paid $100/150 a day, which would add up over 3 weeks) not to mention Italian ruleless driving and parking challenges. BUT, my husband and I do want to visit wineries and the many wonderful cultural sites.
4. Do folks recommend locking in room reservations at each location I plan to visit? I read on another travel site that many Sicilians close up for October for a break, so leaving things loose makes me nervous (note the nervous habits I am developing?!)
Thanks for any help.

Hi Liz,

My husband and I are planning to visit Sicily next Feb/March. Although I have not been to this part of Italy before as you have, Here are some of the things that I have planned for us that may help you. We plan on flying into Palermo on ITA airlines from Nice as our starting point. We are flying back via Milan to NY on the return. We booked Ryanair for this part. Depending on how much luggage you have, Ryanair nickels and dimes everything but it seems to work out in the end once you figure out how their website works, that took us a while. ITA doesn’t have the best ratings but there weren’t too many choices. The flight we booked included one bag each per ticket, so I think either one would work for you. I couldn’t say if one airport is better than the other. It depends on your first stop. We will be going to Cefalu from Palermo so that works for us. If you are starting nearer to Catania, then that might work better for you.

I don’t have any knowledge of public transportation in Sicily but I’m sure you can google train/bus schedules to different places. My husband and I are renting a car for 20 days. We did not pay 100/150 a day. We paid $660. Shop around online. There are many different car rental agencies. I guess it depends on the time of year you are renting. Use skyscanner or other websites to find the best rates. Summer might be more expensive than winter. I never had a problem driving in Italy except for getting a few tickets a few months later in the mail. Once I crossed over into the bus lane in a roundabout. Then there was a speeding ticket, but I may be a bit heavy footed compared to other drivers. If you drive at home, you should be ok. I drove all the way from Rome to Puglia without a problem. Don’t get a big car, easier to park smaller ones. We are in our 60’s. I read it is a little more challenging to park in Sicily. I guess we will find out. If you like to go to wineries, it is a great way to see the countryside. Be daring!

Regarding locking in reservations, I’m with you Liz. I like to know where we are staying before we get there. My friend and her husband travel without a reservation and they never seem to have a problem finding a place. It works for her, doesn’t work for me. I booked us in a few airbnb’s on our trip in Cefalu, Taormina, Syracuse and did 3 days at a hotel in Palermo and 3 days at an agriturismo in Naro about a ½ hour from Agrigento. Depending on what kind of accommodations you like, there are a lot of choices, bed & breakfast, hotel, hostel, Airbnb, vbro. Airbnb is not always the cheapest as they have those extra fees for cleaning, etc. But you do get to stay like a local and have use of a kitchen and washing machine which was something you do not have with hotels. You can use the booking.com website to look up all of these things as they list apartments too. Do what feels the most comfortable for you.

I hope some of my thoughts help you. I love to plan trips. We always do independent travel. So much easier if you have your own car, but you know your own comfort level. Have a great trip! Ginny

Hi,
From Palermo airport there's a bus into Palermo. You can get to Cefalù from Palermo by train. We went for the day: https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspo...20-cefalu.html
You can get to Trapani from Palermo or from Palermo airport by Segesta bus. Link here: I put a random date in October
https://www.segesta.it/travel-plan/f...dal=2023-10-13
Then you can get to Marsala from Trapani by train. Trapani makes a good base for exploring. Erice is beautiful too: https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspo...ip-report.html
We visited Sicily three times just using public transport except for the West Coast sicily trip mentioned above. That time we rented a car just for two or three days. That could be an option for you too: mostly use public transport and then an occasional day of car rental to visit places which are more difficult to reach.

We spent 13 days in Sicily in April 2022, flying into Palermo and out of Catania. We used only public transport and it worked perfectly. We booked Airbnbs in advance, but train and bus tickets the day before travel, sometimes just a few hours earlier.

Our itinerary was Palermo, Agrigento, Ortygia and Catania, with day trips to Monreale and Noto.

Equihands, your input is reassuring. Two questions - are you checking your bags on RyanAir? Our bags meet the length and width criteria but not that overly skinny depth (ours are about 11 inches in depth, and RyanAir specifies 7.9 inches). Second, are you renting an automatic or stick (and did you opt for full insurance)? I have not driven a stick in decades; I probably could get the hang of it again but doing so on Italian roads seems daunting!
just_tina, thanks for the links (and also thanks geetika for the public transport Itinerary).

Ryanair will not give you a 1/4"
So either bring less or put it in the hold
I did a tour of the island by bus (pullman) rather than train but it worked well.
Within each town especially Palermo and Catania you may want a local bus (autobus) and the 24 hour deals are very sweet.

Ryanair are the greatest invention since the wheel - I use them monthly and rarely pay over e30 a flight BUT as others have commented do not abuse their rules - you will end up subsidising those who do follow the rules - the penalties can add 500% onto your ticket price.

For wine look at the reds on the slopes of Etna and the whites of Planeta close to Selinunte. (Menfi)

Also try to visit the living museum which is Poggioreale which was destroyed by the earthquake of 1968. It lies unrestored in the state the day the quake hit. It also shows the disaster that can be Italian central planning and the lack of understanding shown by Rome for the Italian provinces. Rome decided to rebuild a new town down the road and over planned everything - it became a social experiment as to how to manipulate people. The locals hated the result and moved en masse to of all places Texas - where towns now bear the old Italian names.

If you forgo car driving check out access to the more isolated sites such as Selinunte


and Segesta


Italians have toned down their driving, and we encountered little traffic inland. I would worry more about getting to a hotel when it is in a car restricted zone.

The only reservation we had in Sicily was in Palermo, but otherwise we did not stay in urban areas. At one point we thought of staying in Sciacca, but turned around because of the traffic and stayed inland.

We rented an automatic in Palermo and my husband found it quite easy to drive in Sicily although in cities, we parked and relied on our feet or public transportation. I don't think it was terribly expensive. I just went to Autoeuropa's website and plugged in two weeks of random dates. I found a mid-size automatic for $898.

If this helps assuage your concerns we rented a car for about 11 days while in Sicily last September and paid ~€700 in total incl full coverage with Avis (via AuroEurope) for an automatic and found driving to be a breeze. Just minor correction in KTravel's post -its AutoEurope not AutoEuropa, we regularly use this aggregator to book cars in Europe and recommend them highly. Of course you could cover a lot of ground with trains and buses, but a car is very handy.

With RyanAir, I always pay for luggage in the hold when booking, unless I am only going away overnight.. You often have to get a bus to the aircraft from the gate and I hate having to drag a full suitcase case up and down steps in the terminal and onto the plane. Currently their free carry on bag is about the size of a large handbag, so you have to pay for the usual carry on suitcase and the difference between the two options is small.

Yes, we are checking 3 bags on Ryanair. So far we are traveling with 2 but expect to take home more stuff so we put a third bag on. It wasn't too expensive considering the cost of the ticket was pretty cheap. Sounds like you may have to check a bag. I think it was about $25. We are renting an automatic car, it said Toyota Yaris or similar. I can't drive stick but my husband can, but I want to be able to drive if he is tired so automatic it is. I did opt for the full insurance. You never know in Italy. We have never had any problems anywhere we have rented. We always check the car out very thoroughly before we drive away. I went through discovercars. Hope I made the right choice. It didn't have the greatest reviews but had the best prices. A lot of people like autoeurope. You can also check out autorentals. This site brings up all of the car rental places in one spot so you can compare. Hope this helps. G

BritCaicos: SO glad to read more about Poggioreale. I'd read about it and I had this in my plan but in the end the timing was not right..

We plan to return to Sicily in September 2024)...looking for a couple of spots to stay a few days after a 12 night stay on Salina....

Hi,
We are going to Sisicily at the end of September. We are arriving in Milan and flying to Palermo by EasyJet, on the same day. It is the same airport and we have about 5 hours layover. We paid in advance for the carry-on and checked luggage. The sizes and weights are similar to the US allowance. Even more generous. It is not expensive considering the price of the ticket itself. We also entered a car (small SUV, since there are 3 of us). We booked a car at Autoeurope, a European site, (.eu) WITH insurance for 12 days for $492.00. It is a manual transmission though. I hope it helps.

I used Discover Cars to hire an automatic at.Perugia airport (Umbria) in June. Everything was fine. They had a deal that was 25% cheaper than AutoEurope using the same local car hire company and the top up insurance was cheaper too.

I'd not expect Autoeurope to be price point cheaper. What I want from them is to take away the hassle of "errors". In Italy and France they have sorted out those missunderstandings, checked details and got me on my way faster.

All of the replies have been very helpful. THANK YOU! I have decided to pick the car up after our first stay in Palermo, drive to visit the western Sicily sites we have chosen, then drop the car in Catania (I think after visiting some vineyards in Etna because I think it will be difficult to find a way from Catania to the vineyards without a car). From there we will return to Palermo for the return flight to Milan. Again, grazie mille!