Jon_V

May 2018--Need Sicily advice. After three days in Rome we will be going to Sicily for nine days with another week someplace else in Europe, not sure where yet maybe Germany. (BTW What city in Germany is best for someone who wants the most German experience?)

We are retirees and not avid hikers but we are mobile. I love driving in Europe and have driven in Italy a great deal. We love the ocean and especially seafood, wine and places to stay with views. Is nine days too long in Sicily? Should we knock off a couple of days to add to the five days we will have left in Europe? Thinking of flying into Palermo maybe taxi into town to spend a couple of days there. That's all I've planed so far. Would it be better to fly into Catania? Other that the east coast would it be a good idea to tour other parts of the island. Any advice appreciated.

annhig

IME 9 days is nowhere being too long in Sicily, in fact I would say that it's not long enough but it depends what you are intending to do there. In 9 days you could see some of the east or some of the west of the island, but IMO not both. we spent 10 nights in the east last September [2016] and managed 3 nights in Ortigia, 2 in each of Ragusa and Piazza Armerina [to see the Villa Romana del Casale], and 3 in Taormina. If I had my time there again, I would drop Taormina and spend more time in the far south-east, perhaps by a beach.

As for Germany, I have no idea what you mean by the most German experience but if you want a city where you can easily spend 5 nights, Berlin and Munich would fit the bill.

Michael

You might be interested in my trip report; click on my name to find it.

HappyTrvlr

Stay in Sicily for the extra week. Nine days is too short a time there.

PalenQ

BTW What city in Germany is best for someone who wants the most German experience?)>

Any German city that is big enough to have beer gardens and beer halls - that's about every city in Germany.

with a week I'd use some other criteria to decide - Berlin can be a great stay for a week- so many diverse things to see and do.

Munich is great too and has many interesting day trips easily done by train or car.

So your German question is too wide open.

If going to cities in Germany eschew driving- if driving then rural areas like Bavaria make great venues. But consider trains if just doing city-city or one city and taking day trips- www.bahn.de/en has all schedules and fares - also check www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com for where to go with German trains. Cars would also be neat to drive up and down the Mosel/Rhine rivers- Black Forest, etc.

julies

We spent three weeks in Sicily and still weren't able to see everything we wanted to see.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-is-doable.cfm

Dayle

Another here who says spend the additional week in Sicily. I spent 3.5 weeks and it wasnt enough. Click on my name for my long and detailed report from 2013. I could go again tomorrow! If you do even just a little research you will quickly see how much there is to do, see and enjoy. Especially if you love seafood and the ocean!

This spring I spent 6 days in Germany on the Mosel and Rhine Rivers. It was nice, but it was more than enough.

kja

As others are noting, nine days is not much for Sicily, which easily merits closer to 2.5 or 3 weeks just to see the highlights. With 9 days, you might want to choose between either the east OR the west of Sicily. Good food and wine shouldn’t be a problem anywhere in Sicily; beyond that, you have an incredible range of options and ONLY you can decide what your priorities would be and so how to select among your options.

Do you have a good guidebook yet? I found the Rough Guide particularly useful for Sicily.

Enjoy your planning!

massimop

My first trip to Sicily I spent 7 days and had a wonderful time. I basically road-tripped from Catania/Taormina, through the Etna area, over to Siracusa/Ortygia, then the baroque towns, and on to Agrigento. I finished up in Monreale but never went into Palermo, having already decided to come back another time to spend a lot of days there (which I didn't have time for this trip).

If your idea of seeing Sicily is to try to cover the entire island, or see all the guidebook sights, it's not possible, just like it isn't possible to do that in Tuscany or the Veneto. But if you would enjoy -- as I truly did -- visiting Sicily for a week, it's a great choice.

I'm not suggesting my itinerary, but it is quite easy to fly to Palermo (or Catania) and then work out an itinerary that takes you to lovely beaches & great food in addition whatever sights you would choose to see. I highly recommend you ask your questions on the TripAdvisor forum for Sicily, where several residents of the island post, and who have great ideas for itineraries for travelers who want to explore on their own for a week.

You might want to take a look at what flights are available from Sicily's airports to Germany. In addition to Catania & Palermo, there is an airport in Trapani.

Jon_V

Thank you all very much for the information, has anyone stayed in Ortigia?

annhig

Jon, a lot of us here have stayed there; if you click on my screen name you'll find my recent TR from our visit last year that started in Ortyigia, but there are many more.

We loved it from beginning to end, apart from the traffic in Syracuse but we solved that problem by leaving the car at the hotel and not getting in it again until we left.

it's just a wonderful place, as good as the hype for once.

plufmud

We are in Erice after spending 3 nights in Palermo.
Had a wonderful and knowledgeable guide from Palermo on a day trip to Monreale and Cefalu. I wished we had visited Cefalu first then to Monreale which breathtaking.
Disappointed with the excessive littering and trash in Palermo. We were awed by the history and beauty of the churches.
Gritty is understandable but the litter distracts from what Palermo could be.

Trapani, Erice, and Favignana are spotless compared to Palermo.

kja

Yes, Ortygia is delightful. I was very pleased to have stayed at L'Approdo delle Sirene, which still gets outstanding reviews.
http://www.apprododellesirene.com/home.html

If I might make a suggestion: Consider looking at planning threads, rather than (or better, in addition to) trip reports -- trip reports can only tell you about what people chose to visit, while the planning threads from people who considered short trips to Sicily include all sorts of ideas and considerations that might or might not be reflected in any actual experience.

@ plufmud: When I was planning my trip to Sicily, someone remarked on the litter, and someone else noted that if Sicilians were careful to remove "trash," we wouldn't have so many magnificent ruins to visit there! Just a thought....

tuscanlifeedit

Jon_V
I've got one recent and one current Sicily planning threads going on. Just click on my screen name.

massimop

May I make a suggestion to the Fodorites?

If you don't want to take the time to answer a simple quesion, skip i rather than lecture the poster.

Trip reports can be really difficult to wade through if you are looking for the answer to a simple question. People bury the useful-to-other-travelers details of their trip under a mountain of minute-by-minute temperature readings of their state of mind and that of all their travel companions & what have you, not to mention the back and forth "woo-hoo lovin' it!" jabber between longtime posters, for whom these trip reports are mainly written.

Other suggestion is please notice that the culture of social media is to ask question that, yes, we all know are in guidebooks or can be googled on the internet for answers. But people go the easy route and just put a question out there. If you disapprove, those are your feelings, but at some point catch on you're not changing the world.

Social media is really useful that way to a lot of people and there is nothing wrong with it.

kja

@ massimop: If I might make a suggestion, if you don't like what other Fodorites say, skip it, rather than lecture us.

Michael

<i>not to mention the back and forth "woo-hoo lovin' it!" jabber between longtime posters,</i>

not my style.

sundriedtopepo

Jabber between long time posters is what makes this a community.

Yes you can spend 3 days or 3 weeks in Sicily; either way a poster will need some basic idea of what is there and what interests them.

The search feature on Fodors is something that I think a lot of new posters don't realize is a good way to find specific information that is buried in trip reports and planning threads.

MyriamC

9 days in Sicily: perfectly doable for either the western part or the eastern part. Personally I prefer the western part (Palermo, Erice, Trapani, Marsala, Agrigento, ...).

5 days in Germany: Bavaria for the most beautiful scenery. Especially since you like driving, you can make some very nice road trips in the mountains visiting typical towns, the castles of King Ludwig, the mountain lakes.
Google Schloss Neuschwanstein, Königssee, Chiemsee, Deutsche Alpenstrasse, Berchtesgaden, Zugspitze, ... and so much more.

julies

"We had a gorgeous time in Sicily but just wanted to warn everyone about leaving unattended luggage in your car, especially in car parks where there is no attendant. We parked in the Talete car park near the harbour in ortigia. If you are going, either park somewhere more open or don't leave luggage in the car. We later noticed there was a kid on a bicycle offering protection for money to people who had just parked up. Had I seen that earlier I probably would not have parked there but I was not to know!

Don't let this stop you from going to Sicily, just be careful when you do go.

Happy travels all!"


I had to copy and post this warning for others after just seeing it on TA. When we visited Sicily two years ago, we had huge apprehension about ever leaving it in our car. In fact, we were quite paranoid, and I felt that this impinged on the enjoyment of our trip. But, I just now read this. By, the way, the Talente lot is the public lot in Ortygia. (We parked there, but had our luggage in our apartment.)

By the way, we had three weeks in Sicily and didn't see it all.