Spring Break in Sicily

[Anonymous]

We’re thinking of traveling to Sicily for Spring Break, when it’s not extremely hot and there are fewer crowds. Recommendations?

Also, how are the flights to/from Sicily? We’re trying to decide whether to use miles to fly to Rome and back, and then take Ryanair to and from Sicily, but I’ve never flow Ryanair and I don’t know if it’s reliable. The alternative is to book all the way through on Swissair or Lufthansa.

[Anonymous]

This is my dream trip but I haven’t taken it. I would want to go to Agrigento, Ragusa, Syracuse (the old city on the little peninsula thing), Taomina and Mt Aetna if not exploding. There are lots of places that are nice farm stay with good food in the area around Ragusa. I think the easiest way to do it is rent a car but I’ve also explored just doing car service from place to place if you’re not comfortable driving. Unlike other parts of Italy, trains won’t be a good solution.

[Anonymous]

Oh. Also the people I know that have gone to Sicily flew to Rome and then took the train across — not sure why they did it that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re thinking of traveling to Sicily for Spring Break, when it’s not extremely hot and there are fewer crowds. Recommendations?

Also, how are the flights to/from Sicily? We’re trying to decide whether to use miles to fly to Rome and back, and then take Ryanair to and from Sicily, but I’ve never flow Ryanair and I don’t know if it’s reliable. The alternative is to book all the way through on Swissair or Lufthansa.

Ryanair is fine, but unless you want to spend time in Rome, I wouldn't book this way. You need to give a good cushion between the flights because they will be on separate tickets- if something happens and your flight to Rome is delayed and you miss the Ryanair flight, they have no obligation to get you on another flight, since you missed their flight yourself. If you book a single ticket all the way to Sicily, the airline has an obligation to get you there even with delays. Booking on Lufthansa or Swiss is smart as they have a lot of flights through their hubs (they are owned by the same company), so if something goes wrong you will have a number of possible options to get you there.

[Anonymous]

Flying Ryanair is awful, it’s like frontier where they scam charge you for everything.
Sicily is great, we loved Palermo and Taormina and visiting mt etna.

[Anonymous]

So some of the flights are seasonal and might not be there for spring even if you were ok going thru NYC but I think Delta has a nonstop from JFK to Catania while United has a nonstop to Palermo.

Definitely think about your itinerary and whether you want to fly into Catania and out of Palermo or v.v. (Or maybe you have time to do a full loop or maybe you want to stay in one area).

We ended up flying to Rome the day before our flight home to the states because we had an earlyish morning flight. We actually stayed in the town of Fiumicino which is where Rome’s airport is. We spent the afternoon at Ostia Antica and had a nice dinner on the waterfront and then it was a 5 minute shuttle to the airport in the morning.

I really liked Siracusa/Ortigia, Agrigento, Cefalu and Taormina. We also liked the Aeolians (which you can do as a day trip on a boat or for longer) and a couple other places (Erice/Trapani, Piazza Armerina, Mt Etna, etc). The baroque towns were probably the place that I was a little underwhelmed but overall we loved the trip.

[Anonymous]

We flew BA through Heathrow and that worked well. We flew in and out of Palermo but also did a full loop around the Island.

We did Palermo, Agrigento, Siracusa, Taormina and Cefalu (with some side trips from those places, including Etna). Loved the agriturismo in Agrigento (Rick Steves recommendation). We liked Palermo. Loved Vittoria and will stay there next time. Taormina was nice but very touristy. Cefalu is really for the beach and it was past beach season when we were there.

We drove ourselves, which was generally fine except in Taormina (very hilly narrow roads). I’d leave the car outside of town and taxi to the hotel.

[Anonymous]

We skipped Palermo but did see Monreale.

[Anonymous]

Sicily will be nice in the spring, occasionally rainy, not blazing hot, not terribly crowded.

Agree to book all the way through if it is your final destination. That said, RyanAir is cheap and a lot like Southwest, but reliable and expansive for a non-US carrier. There are a dozen or more flights from Rome to Catania per day.

I prefer the eastern side of the island. My personal recommendations are to base your stay in Catania if you plan to go and see as much as you can or base your stay in Taormina if you want a lot of relaxation and not a lot of adventure.

My must-sees are Taormina for views and shopping; Cefalu for resorts and nature; Ortigia (island connected to Siracusa) for real slice-of-life, Mt. Etna of course, Brucoli (tiny fishing village) and Augusta (same), and Caltagirone (pottery HQ). My favorite vineyard experience is Gambino and my favorite agriturismo is Borgo. Go for a long Sunday lunch. It is lifechanging.


- Former Sicilian expat

[Anonymous]

Ryan air is fine- but dont booking a connecting flight with them