cityoflights,

I stayed on Lipari at the top of the island in a gorgeous villa with amazing views for 5 nights. My visit was in early May (I had perfect weather) so the island was not busy at all and the bus schedule was not quite frequent enough to be completely convenient, but it worked. I visited Lipari town, the museum and other sites. One day I took a 12 hour boat tour to Panarea (1.5 hours) and Stromboli (6 hours) which included viewing the eruptions after dark from the boat as we returned . Stromboli was very active that night and it is Europe's most active volcano. It was a nice trip, but make sure you have a concrete guarantee of the stops and time on each island. Because I went pre-season, they combined us with the hiking tour of those climbing Stromboli and we had to wait for them to come back down. We were not told the tours were being combined until we were at Stromboli and it became a 12 hour trip. See my Fodor's TR here for details.

I visited Salina, rented a car for the day and drove all over the island. I would have enjoyed staying on Salina too. Pollaro was amazing and Malfa looked like a place I would love to stay.

Lipari has international award-winning beaches. I didn't visit since it was pre-season. Great food at restaurants in town and Lipari itself is lovely, especially Marina Piccola.

Didn't visit Vulcano. Five days wasn't long enough!