So we have 19 nights in Sicily next May. We are flying in and out of Linate so our final night has to be near there. We arrive at 11 am in Linate and there is a 3 pm flight to Palermo that we will take I think. 4 hours should be sufficient, yes? We connect in Madrid so customs/immigration will be done there, yes? Not sure where we will depart from yet depending on our itinerary. We are not renting a car and will rely on public transportation and a private driver, if needed. Want a good mix of big city, smaller city and towns with different sights

How does this look? fly in Palermo/out Catania:

-Palermo 6 nights (1/2 day Monreale, day trip Cefalu, day trip Agrigento, 3 days Palermo)

--bus to Ragusa 3 nights, taxi to Ibla 3 nights day trip to Modica 1.5 days Ibla Do I lneed this if I am visiting Noto from Ortigia

--bus or train to Ortigia. This would be on a Sunday. Will that be an issue with public transportation? - 4 nights with day trip to Nota and a boat trip (do I need this day trip if I have already seen Ragusa and Modica?

--transport to Milazzo - 1 night Do i need to spend a night in Milazzo before we ferry to Aeolian islands?

Liipari 4 nights

Catania 1 final night before flying to Linate for final night. Am I ok without any buffer nights returning from Lipari? I know the ferry doesn't run in bad weather. I am also questioning Lipari-we won't have a car. I plan to stay near the harbor to easily visit other islands. I know its also not yet season so hope alot is open. Bus is irregular and we have never ridden a scooter so not sure I want to start now. For those of you that have gone to the Aeolian islands off season, what were you thoughts and how did you get around? EK, I know you loved Salina but I don't think you left your hotel much...

Other option is to elimiate Ragusa Ibla and a night in Palermo and stay overnight in Agrigento and get a private driver to take us to Ortigia directly. After Lipari, I'd add 2 nights in Cefalu for our final nights and go from Cefalu to Palermo airport to fly to Linate.

If you go with the driver option from Agrigento to Ortigia, see if a stop can be made at Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina to see the wonderful mosaics. We went in May, no lines, just walked up and bought a ticket. There were so many tours at the time, that we just listened in. The signage was also good and informative.

Loved Palermo and Ortigia. We rented a car to do Palermo>Agrigento>Ortigia legs (w Villa Romana stop). We did spend a night in Agrigento. Our day there was nonstop rain, so touring the Valley was not as pleasant as we hoped it would be, but still worth it.

We hired a driver for 2 legs. Used the company https://www.newtravelservices.net/ and couldn't be happier. 1 leg was with Angelo and the other with Christian (the owner). They were punctual, responsive and the price was pretty much the same as other services we considered. They were both also great company for the drives. It turns out Christian's twin brother owns a couple of Sicilian restaurants in Soho, NYC (other locations as well) that we've been to, one of them right before the trip! You can email Christian directly for inquires:

[email protected]

We opted not to stay in Catania, but used Christian to drive us from Taormina to the airport. Angelo drove us from Ortigia to Taormina. We did a day trip from Palermo to Cefalu which is easy by train. We did not have time for Monreale. We did historical walking tours in both Palermo and Ortigia, both were great. Also did Ortigia boat ride, but honestly, didn't think it was anything special. We did a small group tour of Noto/Ragusa/Modica from Ortigia. There was 1 other couple, so just 4 of us. We enjoyed that quite a bit as well.

Very helpful. Who did you do the small group tour of Noto/Ragusa/Modica with? Sounds great.

Small group tour is this https://www.viator.com/tours/Syracuse/Private-Baroque-Tour-Ragusa-Modica-and-Noto/d22435-218384P1The driver does not bring you around the town itself, you do that on your own. He stays with the van, but does give some information and answers questions. He also made some scenic/iconic stops for us to take photos.

was it a good amount of time in each place? did you get a good feel for them?

I think around 2 hrs for Ragusa, 1.5 for Noto, and Modica the least amount (and included a chocolate tasting), and we opted to have lunch there. We could have waited and had lunch in Noto. The place the driver set us up with was not that good, probably better off finding your own lunch place. These places are small, Ragusa is the biggest. For us, it was enough time. Could I have spent more time in those places, yes, but I feel that way about almost everywhere I go.

thanks again. did you have a favorite? if we only toured noto would we get a good feel for the baroque towns?

Don’t see Agrigento via a day trip! The views of the temples at night are spectacular with the floodlights on them.
I can’t imagine seeing Noto in a few hours as the previous poster did. Give it more time.We spent a night there.
We rented a car when we left Palermo, returned it in Ortigia. Had a driver take us to Taormina and a few days later, to the airport.

With 19 nights you have more than twice the time we had (we had 9). That will definitely leave you the time to possibly stay in one of the smaller towns, Ragusa/Noto/Modica. We didn't have that option given our time frame, so we balanced our time the best we could. Overall I was happy with our plan. I may have also considered a day trip or stop in Caltagirone if time allowed.

Hi. I am playing around with itinerary but transportation schedules are fuzzy at best. Thinking as follows

5 nights Palermo with day trips to Agrigento and half day Monreale

2 nights Ragusa - maybe visit Modica half day

5 nights Ortigia-day trip to Noto (or do I do 4 and add another night to Ragusa?

can I eliminate night in Milazzo and go direct from Ortigia to Milazzo for ferry. looks like it's 3.5 hours to Milazzo and then we need to get to port

5 nights Lipari

2 final Cefalu and fly out of Palermo. I think I need to this to add a buffer in case there is an issue with ferry from Lipari with bad weather.

Appreciate your help. I usually plan all our trips but finding bus schedules is impossible in Sicily.

Agrigento does NOT make a good day trip from Palermo.

I agree with kja. Agrigento is 2+ hours one-way from Palermo by car, and about 3 hours by train - and not far off the route you'd be taking from Palermo to Ragusa, so wasted motion to go there and back from Palermo.

I'd personally take a day off of Ortigia and put it elsewhere. We spent 4 nights there this past May, and as much as we liked it, that was plenty. Certain parts of Ortigia around the market, temple of Apollo and several streets down to the Duomo were very crowded, and that became a little tiring after a while. We took a day trip by bus to Noto. We spent one day seeing the sites in Siracusa, including the Greek/Roman archaeological park and museum, and the Basilica Santa Lucia (with the Caravaggio). And the rest of the time we spent around Ortigia - Duomo, castle, etc. We didn't take a boat trip (which seems to be a primary activity there) but didn't feel we missed much.

so how do I do Agrigento if not a day trip? Or do I stay overnight and then head back to Palermo next day? I can't get from Agrigento to Ragusa unless I have a private driver and that is $$.

jumping on here as I just came back from Sicily. I agree with everyone that a day trip would be too tiring for Agrigento from Palermo. Had the good fortune to have my son drive and that took a good 2 hours. We stayed 2 nights but one night would be fine if you wanted to focus on the Valley of the Temples. If you click on my TR you will find the hotel and the tour I booked with links.

I visited both from Ortigia and I liked the feel of Noto, but the chocolate was worth it in Modica. I wish I had made it to Ragusa.

Consult rome2rio.com -- you have train and bus options.
Didn't we cover this on your previous thread?

Hi Plambers, Re one of your itinerary questions—namely, the distribution of Ortigia versus Ragusa nights. I’d be inclined to take one night away from Ortigia and add it to Ragusa (and yes, from Ragusa you can spend a day or half a day in Modica, which I would strongly recommend). (I loved Modica—it was my baroque town base, and I took a day trip to Ragusa from there (with a taxi drop off and pick up arranged by my lodging). But I love mountain hiking and Modica is chock full of stone steps, so it suited me well. Using Modica as a base is only for those who love hiking up and down. Ragusa is also lovely and would be a perfect base. I never got to to Noto or Scicli. My sense is that unless you have a special interest in baroque (and I do like baroque), then basing in one baroque town (namely, Ragusa) and taking a day trip to another (namely, Modica) is enough, especially if you are trying to have a range of experiences in a trip to Sicily. After all, there’s a lot of great baroque in Palermo, too (though of course not in the unified way as one finds in the baroque towns).

I found 4 nights in Ortigia perfect. It’s lovely. Highlights in Ortigia: the castle on the water, walking along the water and a bit in the old quarter, the ruins in Siracusa (a must), going to the market area for lunch (did that twice actually), the ruins of the ancient Jewish ritual baths in the old quarter of Ortigia, an afternoon cooking class, and seeing a puppet show were the highlights in Ortigia for me. I wouldn’t be inclined to 5 nights there, given the other things you want to see. I found getting around Ortigia easy and 4 nights felt unhurried.

I haven’t been to Milazzo or Lipari so I can’t comment there.

I visited Agrigento in a different Sicily trip (for just the better part of a morning). A friend of a b&b owner drove me there from Marsala (yes, it was a very long day).

kja, i am not sure if these bus trips on rome2rio actually exist. they aren't on omio either. oher posters have said rome2rio is not accurate in sicily

studenttobe, thanks for ortigia suggestion. was worried 4 nights would be too tight but it seems you did plenty and were unrushed. i have gotten some quotes for private drives of 2-3 hours and was shocked by cost so unfortuntaly looks like we'll be relying on public transport.

so think we will add an extra night to ragusa but a bit worried about so many steps in both modica and ragusa. i am thinking of going from agrigento to syracuse and then from syracuse to ragusa bc it seems that might work easier.