Etna smokes, Palermo fries, and Ortigia goes swimming.
Which Etna trip actually reaches the craters. What the boat to Favignana costs with lunch on board. Whether the Valley of the Temples is better at sunset. Reviews of the tours you can book across Sicily, from the Strait of Messina to the salt pans of Trapani.
On the cart: the four days most Sicily trips are built around
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04Etna three ways: crater boots, a 4x4 to the lava caves, or the gorge below it.
Europe’s tallest active volcano sits on Catania’s doorstep, and nearly every Sicilian itinerary gives it a day. The real choice is how high you go and how you get up there.
Pick a Sicilian base: Catania for the volcano, Palermo for the food, Taormina for the view.
Sicily is too big to see from one hotel. Six towns where most visitors sleep, and the day out each one does best.
Sicily from a boat: the Egadi, Stromboli by night, the grottoes under Ortigia.
Three seas wash this island and the good water days leave from small harbours: Trapani for Favignana, Milazzo for the Aeolian volcanoes, Syracuse for the sea caves, Giardini Naxos for Isola Bella.
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3Palermo eats standing up, so start in the markets.
All of Palermo →
Panelle and arancine at the Ballarò stalls, the gold of Monreale up the hill, an opera house you can walk through by day. Pick whichever of these three you would be sorry to miss.
Ballarò, the Vucciria and the stalls between
Chickpea fritters, spleen in a soft bun if you dare, cannoli filled while you wait. A street-food walk is the quickest way to understand the city.
Monreale, gold to the ceiling
Christ Pantocrator fills the apse above a whole Bible told in mosaic. The cathedral sits on the hill twenty minutes out, and most tours pair it with Cefalù.
The No Mafia walk
A walk through the streets where Palermo’s anti-racket movement began, led by people from the shops that refused to pay the pizzo.
Etna first, then Palermo on foot and the Egadi boats: Sicily’s most-booked days.
Every Sicily tour we have reviewed →The volcano leads; Palermo’s walks and the island boats follow. What earns each of these its place on the island’s shortlist.
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Mount Etna Morning or Sunset Day Trip with Tasting
Ride from your Catania accommodation to Mount Etna, where a local guide leads an easy trek near 2,000 meters, a lava cave visit, and a tasting of cantucci biscuits with zibibbo wine. Choose a morning or sunset departure, and a shared group of up to eight or a private trip. Guides speak Italian, English, or French.
Prices from · $70
Read our review →
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Mount Etna: Guided Volcano Summit Hiking Tour with Cable Car
from $124
3
NO Mafia Walking Tour
from $40
4
Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour 24-hour Ticket
from $17
5
Cruise to Favignana and Levanzo with lunch
from $53
6
Sunset Jeep Tour of Mount Etna and Lava Flow Caves
from $71
7
Palermo Original Street Food Walking Tour by Streaty
from $83
8
Mount Etna: Trek to 3000m with cable car and jeep
from $62
Taormina hangs over the sea; Isola Bella waits at the bottom of the cable car.
Up top, the Greek theatre with Etna framed in the stage gap, the Corso and an almond granita in Castelmola. Down below, a pebble causeway, a nature reserve on a rock and the Blue Grotto by boat.
Every Taormina day out →From a temple ticket to a yacht off Favignana: Sicily by budget.
Every tour on the site, sorted into three price bands. Plenty of the best Sicilian days cost less than a seafood lunch in Taormina.
Theatre and temple tickets, city walks, the hop-on bus and the Ortigia boat.
Full-day Etna trips, the Egadi boats with lunch, Agrigento by coach from Palermo.
Private Etna winery days, cooking in a chef’s home, yacht charters and helicopter flights.
A Godfather bar, a volcano on a timetable, salt raked beside windmills: only in Sicily.
Volcanoes and Greek ruins turn up elsewhere in the Mediterranean. A village bar from The Godfather, a volcano that erupts on a timetable and salt raked beside windmills do not.
The Godfather Villages
Coppola shot the Sicilian scenes of The Godfather not in Corleone but in Savoca and Forza d’Agrò, two hill villages above Taormina. Bar Vitelli, where Michael asks for Apollonia’s hand, still serves granita on the same terrace, and the church where they marry stands a short climb up the lane.
- 1Savoca and Forza d’Agrò The Godfather Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 616 reviews
- 2Taormina, Savoca, & Castelmola Tour w/ Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 355 reviews
- 3Godfather Vs Mafia Tour with Pasta Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 313 reviews
Stromboli After Dark
Stromboli has been erupting almost without pause for more than two thousand years, throwing up bursts of lava every quarter of an hour or so. Night boats from Milazzo and Lipari cut their engines below the Sciara del Fuoco, the black scar on the north-west flank, and wait for the glow.
- 1Panarea and Stromboli Boat Trip by Night★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,605 reviews
- 2Stromboli: Sunset Trekking at Sciara del Fuoco★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,372 reviews
- 3Chic Panarea and Stromboli Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 396 reviews
The Salt Road
Between Trapani and Marsala the shore breaks up into shallow pans of seawater, white mounds of salt and windmills that once pumped the brine and ground the crystals. The harvest runs through the summer, and at sunset the pans turn pink and copper in a way no filter improves.
- 1Segesta, Erice and Salt Pans Full-Day Excursion from Palermo★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,791 reviews
- 2Guided tour of the Trapani Salt Pans and Salt Museum★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 423 reviews
- 32-Hour Salt Flats Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 286 reviews
Etna’s craters, Stromboli at dusk, the Massimo and the Egadi boat: book them before you land.
Most of the island will wait while you decide over a granita. These four run on guide rules, rehearsal calendars and boat timetables, and in summer they fill.
- 01Mount Etna: Summit Crater Trek with Cable CarNear the summit craters you may only walk with an authorised volcano guide, so the high groups stay small and go first.
- 02Stromboli: Sunset Trekking at Sciara del FuocoOn Stromboli the trail above 400 metres is guide-only, and each sunset group has a cap.
- 03Teatro Massimo Opera House Guided TourGuided visits stop for rehearsals and performances, so the day you want may simply not run.
- 04Cruise to Favignana and Levanzo with lunchEach boat leaves Trapani once in the morning and comes back once in the evening. In high summer that single sailing is the whole day’s supply.
When the scirocco blows in from Africa, Sicily heads up, under or into the water.
In July and August the hot wind off the Sahara can push Palermo past forty degrees. The island has three escapes: the snow-melt river in the Alcantara gorge, the thin air near Etna’s craters, and anything that floats.
Cannoli lessons, Etna wine cellars, a market walk in Catania.
Arab spice, Spanish sugar and Greek vines all ended up on the same Sicilian plate. Book the market walk before the heat, the class that ends as lunch, and the volcanic wine that tastes nothing like the mainland’s.
By town, east coast round to west
By kind of day: crater, boat, kitchen or ruin
Palermo to Taormina the long way round: the loop most first trips to Sicily follow.
MonrealeNew reviews, from the Etna slopes to the Trapani quays.
More fresh Sicilian reviews →
Messina Shore Excursion: Private Tour Tindari, Milazzo And Messina
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Private Godfather Tour with Sicilian Cannoli Tasting
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Private/Guided Godfather with Authentic Pizza Tasting
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Messina, Group Tour For Etna and Taormina Cruisers
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From Messina Cruise Terminal: Private Godfather tour + Lunch
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Half Day Private Tour to Messina Taormina and Castelmola
Read our review →
Etna Alcantara tour: the majestic lava landscape
Read our review →
Etna Taormina and Castelmola The best excursion for cruise passengers from Messina
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Walk through vineyards, breathtaking views and flavors of Salina
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From Messina Cruise Terminal: Etna -Taormina-Godfather with food
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Cappero di Salina: Un’Esperienza di Degustazione Unica
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Private and guided tour of Salina: Discovering the Green Island
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