Etna sets the week. The rest is negotiable.
Which Etna trip actually reaches the summit craters. What the Favignana boat costs out of Trapani. Whether Palermo eats better than Catania. Reviews of every tour you can book in Sicily.
Four bookings a first week in Sicily is built around.
The volcano, the eating, the temples and one long day on the water. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The volcano dayMount Etna Morning or Sunset Day Trip with TastingEtna in the morning or at sunset with a tasting at the end. Booked first, talked about longest.
02The Palermo eatingPalermo Original Street Food Walking Tour by StreatyThrough Ballaro and Capo on foot. Panelle, arancine, sfincione, a granita you did not order.
03The temple eveningValley of the Temples Skip-the-Line Sunset TourDoric temples on a ridge above Agrigento, entered late so the stone goes gold. Queue skipped.
04The day on deckCruise to Favignana and Levanzo with lunchOut of Trapani to Favignana and Levanzo, with swimming stops and lunch on board.
Etna is three different days out. Pick the one you actually want.
The mountain runs from a cable car and a 4x4 track near 2,900 metres down to vineyards planted on old lava. Three kinds of Etna day, what it costs to join each, and how hard it works you.
Palermo or Catania first, then the coast road in whichever direction suits.
The two cities that hold the airports, a theatre terrace with the volcano behind it, an island half of Syracuse, the temple ridge in the south and the salt pans in the west. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Sicily keeps its best colour offshore.
The Egadi out of Trapani, sea caves under Ortigia, the stack at Isola Bella from a dinghy small enough to get in under the cliff. A lot of this coast is only reachable by hull, and the swimming stops are the point of the day.
Ballaro at nine, a pasta lesson at noon, Nerello at six.
Eating here is a timetable rather than a meal. The market walk before the heat, the class that finishes as lunch, the aperitivo that turns into dinner on somebody’s terrace.
The Sicilian days out that sell before the rest.
Every Sicily tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else on the island, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Mount Etna Morning or Sunset Day Trip with Tasting
Ride from Catania to Mount Etna in an air-conditioned minivan, then walk around ancient craters, recent lava flows, and a lava cave. Guides such as Leonardo, Daphne, and Emilia add clear volcanic insight. Finish with cantucci, zibibbo wine, and, on sunset departures, golden views over the Valle del Bove.
From · $70
Read our review →
2
Guided Volcano Summit Hiking Tour with Cable Car
from $124
3
NO Mafia Walking Tour
from $40
4
Cruise to Favignana and Levanzo with lunch
from $53
5
Sunset Jeep Tour of Mount Etna and Lava Flow Caves
from $71
6
Palermo Original Street Food Walking Tour by Streaty
from $83
7
Segesta, Erice and Salt Pans Full-Day Excursion from Palermo
from $82
8
Etna and Alcantara Gorges Full-Day Tour with Lunch
from $105
Taormina is a balcony. Book the things that use the view.
The Greek theatre frames the volcano from the top row, the cable car drops to a beach with a stack you can wade out to, and the terraces above Castelmola are where the evening goes. The town costs nothing to wander; everything with a view has a queue.
Every Taormina day →
What a day out in Sicily actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Plenty of the best Sicilian days come in under the price of dinner in Taormina.
Theatre and temple tickets, street-food walks, city walks and the short boat hops.
The full-day standards: Etna with a tasting, the Egadi cruise, Agrigento by coach, a cooking lesson that ends as lunch.
Private guides, chartered boats, and the summit day done properly with a mountain guide.
Palermo: markets in the morning, mosaics after, then eat again.
Everything in Palermo →
Four markets that have been trading in the same lanes for centuries, Norman kings buried under Arab arches, a cathedral roof you can walk, and a street-food culture that treats lunch as a rolling event. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Ballaro and Capo, in one long walk
Panelle out of a fryer that never goes cold, arancine the size of a fist, sfincione from a cart, and a stop for spleen if the guide thinks you are ready for it.
The anti-mafia walk, told straight
Past the shops that refused to pay protection and the corners where the fight was won and lost. A history lesson about the present, not a film tour.
Monreale, and an acre of gold
A Norman king hired Byzantine mosaicists and Arab masons and let them disagree. The cloister next door has 228 paired columns and no two capitals repeat.
Three things that only happen in Sicily.
Ruins and beach clubs exist all round the Mediterranean. Greek temples on a working ridge, a Norman church built by Arab hands, and salt flats that turn pink in August do not.
The Valley of the Temples
Seven Greek temples stand along a ridge above Agrigento, built when the city was among the richest in the Mediterranean and left standing after the money went. The Temple of Concordia is the most complete because a bishop turned it into a church and nobody dared pull it down. Go in the first hour of light or the last; a Sicilian afternoon out on that ridge is punishing.
- 1Valley of the Temples Skip-the-Line Sunset Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,512 reviews
- 2Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,240 reviews
- 3Valley of the Temples Ticket & App Audioguide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,160 reviews
The Monreale Mosaics
Twenty minutes uphill from Palermo, a Norman king put Byzantine mosaicists and Arab masons on the same building and let neither win. The result is gold from floor to roof, pointed arches on Islamic lines, and a cloister of 228 paired columns where no two capitals are carved the same.
- 1Monreale and Cefalù Half-Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,354 reviews
- 2Monreale And Cefalù Half Day Excursion★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 83 reviews
- 3The Godfather Origins of Mafia: Corleone & Visit Monreale Duomo★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 73 reviews
The Trapani Salt Pans
The flats between Trapani and Marsala have been worked for salt since the Phoenicians, and the windmills that pumped the water still stand in the shallows. Late summer is when the pans go pink and the harvest sits in pyramids under terracotta tiles. Sunset out there is the reason people give Trapani a night.
- 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
Four Sicilian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be sorted the night before over a beer. These four run on mountain guides, ferry timetables and capped entry slots that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Guided Volcano Summit Hiking Tour with Cable CarThe last stretch to the top craters goes with a mountain guide and the parties are capped. Wind shuts the cable car outright, and a shut day is not rescheduled.
- 02Cruise to Favignana and Levanzo with lunchThe Egadi boats run to a season and a timetable, and a hard scirocco cancels the crossing. August weekends are gone weeks out.
- 03Palermo Original Street Food Walking Tour by StreatyStreet-food walks go in small groups because the counters they stop at are small. The best-known one sells out days ahead in summer.
- 04Valley of the Temples Skip-the-Line Sunset TourEvening entry to the temples runs on timed slots with a cap on each, and the slot that catches the light is the one everybody wants.
When the scirocco lands and the temples are too hot to walk.
July and August do two things here. Anything open and archaeological is unwalkable between noon and five, and a scirocco off Africa can cancel a boat at short notice. Both have the same answer: go at first light, then get under a roof or into the water.
By place, coast by coast
By kind of day, volcano to fish market
Palermo down to Syracuse: the loop almost everybody drives first.
The newest Sicily tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Mt. Etna Summit: Official box-office for Ascent to the Top
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Anti-Mafia Heroes (Cool Hours) Morning Walking Tour
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Valley of the Temples Private Archeological Tour
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Agrigento Valley of the Temples and Kolymbethra Private Tour
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