TRAVEL GUIDE TO SICILY BY CAR (2 WEEKS)

One of the most complete trips that can be made in Europe is Sicily. With amazing places, crystalline waters beaches, museums and archeological areas of great importance, a unique cuisine and at very affordable prices. Here we leave the guide of our trip to Sicily by car, with the stages, kilometers, maps, the best and more useful information of this roadtrip.

Some basic information to get you a first idea of ​​the trip:

• Start and end point: Palermo
• Total days: 15
• Total kilometers: 1,227
• Type of vehicle: cheapest car rental: a Fiat Panda (enough)

If, as in our case, you have two weeks to travel around Sicily, we believe that the bestroute for would be to make acircular path, from one of the two big cities: Palermo or Catania. Both have direct and cheap flights to many Spanish cities, it is a matter of analyzing them.

→ Cheap flights to Palermo→ Cheap flights to Catania

We chose to do it counterclockwise leaving and arriving from Palermo.

If you had less time, for example one week, there would be four options that we recommend:

• Departure and arrival at Palermo, and visit the most important points of the West Coast
• Departure and arrival at Catania, and visit the East Coast from Sicily
• Travel by north of the island, between Catania and Palermo (or vice versa)
• Travel by south of the island, between Catania and Palermo (or vice versa)

If we had to choose one of these plans, it would be the last one, the one that runs along the entire southern coast of Sicily, as it is the most complete route. And we would include without hesitation a visit to Etna.

We tell you the details of each stage, with the links to the articles to access our experience in each of the places visited.

STAGE 1: Palermo - Ragusa

• Total km: 528 km
• Days 1 and 2: Palermo
• Day 3: Palermo - Trapani (171 km)
• Day 4: Trapani and excursion to the Aegadian Islands
• Day 5: Trapani - Realmonte, Scala dei Turchi (202 km)
• Day 6: Realmonte - Ragusa (155 km)
• READ THE ARTICLE

STAGE 2: Ragusa - Taormina

• Total km: 311 km
• Day 7: Ragusa - Marzamemi (62 km)
• Day 8: Marzamemi - Syracuse (67 km)
• Day 9: Syracuse - Catania (83 km)
• Day 10: Catania - Taormina (99 km)
• READ THE ARTICLE

STAGE 3: Taormina - Palermo

• Total km: 388 km
• Day 11: Taormina - Milazzo (138 km)
• Day 12: Milazzo
• Day 13: Milazzo - Cefalù (149 km)
• Day 14: Cefalù
• Day 15: Cefalù - Palermo (101 km)
• READ THE ARTICLE

The budget of a trip depends a lot on the style of each traveler, the type of accommodation, the season ... Here we summarize thebudget per total person of a roadtrip through Sicily, taking as a reference a trip for two people of 2 weeks.

Flights

You can find fairly cheap flights to Sicily. The low cost Ryanair company flies both to Palermo and Catania directly from many Spanish cities. It's easy to see them for less than € 100 round trip, especially in mid or low season. We recommend traveling just before or just after the strongest summer months. We get it for € 81 each, at the end of September and beginning of October.

Car rental

We always recommend doing a search on the websites of car rental comparisons. We end up paying some € 200 for 15 days, in what is only the rent, so per person would be only € 100. Apart would be the optional insurance. At the next point we count more.

Gasoline

Gasoline in Italy is not cheap. When we went (September 2018), on average I was about € 1.65 a liter. We also tell you, in Sicily it is not necessary to rent a large car with a large engine, the roads do not allow you to run too much (especially if you do not take highways) and with a small car you will not have problems. In addition you will save a little on consumption.

In total we made 1,227 km, for which we need 66 liters of gasoline and paid a total of € 110. The average consumption of our Fiat Panda therefore it was of 5.38 liters every 100 km, and the half price of the gasoline of € 1.66 / liter.

Per person, therefore, we put an expense of € 55.

Accommodation

In general, staying in Sicily is no more expensive than doing it in any other tourist part of Italy. In fact, we would dare to say that it is a little cheaper. We use both Airbnb and hotels booked by booking.com, and of half paid about € 50 per night in a double room.

If we consider 14 nights, at that price, the total cost of accommodation for two would be € 700, that is € 350 per person.

Food

It is the most personal part and where you can save or shoot the budget. The great news is that in Sicily there is a lot of street food, with very affordable prices and not necessarily of low quality. In addition there are always good, nice and cheap restaurant options. If we manage to make a simple breakfast every day, and of the other two meals, save a little in one, we will get a average budget per person of about € 25.

Although it can be reduced a lot if we stay in apartments with kitchen, if the hotel includes breakfast, if we take advantage of the takeaway pizza shops, bakeries, supermarkets, etc.

We encourage you to use the tripadvisor and eltenedor websites to compare restaurants on each site and get good deals on reservations. And to know what to eat in Sicily, we leave you these typical Sicilian cuisine dishes.

Miscellaneous expenses

In which we include tickets to archeological sites and other attractions, parking, tour of the Aegadian Islands and / or Aeolian Islands, etc. In total we calculate some € 100 per person. We tell you more in another section.

Summary

In the end, for a little more than 1.000€ you have a piece of 2 week vacation To a very cool and complete destination. Beaches, islands, volcanoes, nature, medieval cities, gastronomy ... And that controlling the budget but taking a whim from time to time 😉

It is the best way to travel around Sicily, which will give you greater freedom and allow you to reach many places, where otherwise, it would be really complicated. The public transport In Sicily it is not your best quality, although there is a railway network that connects a good part of the most interesting destinations. Here you have more info.

Assuming that we will rent a car in Sicily now we have to ask ourselves where to book and with what company? We always recommend using a car rental comparator like Autoeurope, it is the one we use and we never had problems.

Here we detail the rental process of the car:

1. First you will have to enter your website, put the city ​​of collection and delivery and the dates. We test pick-up and delivery at the Palermo airport and from June 1 to 15. Remember that if the delivery time is longer than the pick-up time, you will be charged one more day of rent. You also have the possibility of setting up different offices for pick-up and delivery, for example at the Palermo train station, although in this case the options are greatly reduced and prices are usually higher.

* Eye, we have found cases in which putting a higher delivery time, and therefore having one more rental day, the total price is cheaper. Why? We assume that it is for some discount for long rentals.

2. You will instantly get the options with the different agencies of rent, classified from the cheapest to the most expensive and by the type of car. We, honestly, always choose the cheapest one, although first we review a bit the comments of other users. As we told you, in Sicily it is not necessary to rent a large car, especially if you are traveling as a couple, so the Mini or Economy option is sufficient.

It is important that you compare several of the first agencies. For this look in the "rate details”Of each of them and check the amount of the franchise, which rates are included and which are not, basic coverage, etc.

3. At the next point, you may be given the option of hiring a extended insurance. The basic rate usually has insurance with an amount of franchise, which will be the maximum money you pay in case of accident or damage to the car. If you take out additional insurance, you can go quieter.

There are usually two options for these additional insurance: reimbursement of the franchise and Super Cover:

• Franchise Refund: In case of accident, theft or damage to the car, the full amount of the expenses incurred is returned. But it does not include moons, ceilings, floors and wheels, so it is the cheapest.
• Super cover: franchise return, including damage to all elements of the car.

This option given by Autoeurope is external to the agency itself of rent. They will offer you their own insurance options, which in many cases are more expensive. These should include the reduction of the deposit with the credit card, or its total elimination.

In the two previous cases the service of roadside assistance. This is usually offered by the rental agency itself apart from the rest of the insurance.

At this point of the reservation, the optional equipment, such as chairs for children, GPS, etc. All with an extra cost.

3. The rest of the process is to introduce personal information and make the payment. The reservation will be confirmed and paid, so in the agency in principle you will not have to pay anything else. But it is important that you carry a credit card (not debit) to make the blocking of the amount of the franchise. By the way, the Spanish driving license is valid for all EU countries.

Oh, and another important thing, this reservation is cancelable and modifiable Up to 48 hours before pickup.

Although you can enjoy a trip to Sicily without incurring extra expenses, beyond accommodation, transportation and food, it is very advisable to allocate a bit of the budget for a few activities and tickets. These are the ones that, for us, are really worth it:

• Tour to the Aegadian Islands: 32,50€. More info.
• Aeolian Islands Tour: Lipari + Vulcano € 40, Panarea + Strombili € 60. More info.
• Entrance to the Valley of the Temples: 10€.
• Entrance to the Neapolis of Syracuse: 10€. More info.
• Taormina Greek Theater: 10€.
• Monreale Cathedral: 4€.
• Etna excursion: Free if you want to visit only the lower craters. For a more complete excursion, the price amounts to about € 80. More info.

The Two-week tour of Sicily by car Give to see many interesting things. But in our top10 We give you the classification of what we liked most personally (not necessarily in order)

1. Aegadian Islands
2. Cefalu
3. Stroll through Palermo
4. Valley of the Temples
5. Syracuse: Neápolis and Ortigia
6. Taormina
7. Etna excursion
8. Ragusa
9. Scala dei Turchi
10. Erice

And a 10 + 1 would be the Aeolian Islands, but unfortunately we didn't have time to visit them this time. If you want to expand the list, here we leave you the 25 best things to see and do in Sicily.

Finally, we are going to give you a few Tips for planning the trip to Sicily in the best possible way, and that you can enjoy it to the fullest! You know that we are very fans of shitting it on our trips, so then we can recommend that you do not commit these blunders ...

But as they are sooooo, we have written a separate post: these are our tips for traveling to Sicily (and not screw it up).

Up to here our Two week drive through Sicily by car. We hope it has helped you and you know, if you have any questions, leave us a comment!

Video: The Best Of Sicily In 1 Week. Travel Vlog (May 2024).