Contact our director to find out how you
can sell our scheduled tours or plan a unique one for your group.
TRAVEL TIPS Visas: If you're an EU citizen you probably
won't need a visa to enter Italy. Visitors from certain other countries
can visit Italy for up to 3 months without a visa, though their passports
must be valid for the entire duration of their stay. These countries include
the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and others. Check the Italian Foreign Ministry website or contact the nearest
Italian consulate to see whether you need a visa to enter Italy. Credit Cards: Some restaurants
and shops only accept cash. Mastercard and Visa are the most widely accepted
credit cards; fewer Sicilian establishments accept American Express. Currency Exchange: Italy's currency
is the euro (€). Banks cannot exchange large amounts of currency,
usually limiting transactions to €400 at a time. Visit the currency converter for current exchange rates. Dining: Lunch, the main meal of the day, is usually served around 1, dinner
at 8. Expect exceptional Sicilian wines, but no poultry. Few restaurants
in Sicily serve chicken, which is roasted on a skewer and sold at stands
as a take-away meal. Pizza is an evening food, and coffees containing milk (cappuccino) are usually served in the morning. Tipping: 10% is normal in restaurants. Smoking: Not permitted in restaurants or in any buildings open to the public,
including stores and hotels. Safety: To discourage purse snatchers women should carry small purses, if any, Along
streets, carry your purse on the side away from traffic, as some thieves
steal them while riding motor scooters. Backpacks should not be worn (but
instead carried) in crowded areas or on buses. Dress: In churches, including Monreale Abbey, Cefalù Cathedral and Palermo's
Palatine Chapel, women should not enter with uncovered arms or wearing miniskirts
or very short pants. Men should not enter wearing short pants. Weather: Visit Best of Sicily's
weather page for forecasts and current conditions. Business Hours: Most stores and offices are closed in the afternoon from 1 until 4, when
they open until 7 or 8.
(Please note that various tours offered by other companies use the name "Best of Sicily.")
Planning, service
and even your guide's knowledge spell the difference between an exceptional, memorable tour and an ordinary one
It's not just what you see but how you see it:
"Very well thought-out tour, relaxing,
intimate and time for individuals... very special. We will certainly
share the experience with our friends..." --Julie C.
"Our guide was delightful, well informed and
knowledgeable of Italian history. He was friendly, courteous and always took good care
of us. We enjoyed his company..." --Marjorie B. Read more comments from people who enjoyed these tours >>>
re you tired of reading about tours of Sicily that all look the same? Then it's time to join one of our tours. The real difference is in the details. Best of Sicily tours
are a great way to see Sicily because of
better planning and service. That's
because of the people behind them. Good guides, good
hotels and great food. Each tour has a small group size and includes major places of
interest, and each is easy to schedule around independent travel. In fact,
they're perfect if you normally enjoy traveling on your
own. Departures are guaranteed, so there's no need to book many months in
advance. We can reserve your place even 25 days before your arrival.
A brief description of each tour follows. Each of our 3 different tours of Sicily (with departure dates and reservation details) is described in detail on
a separate page, and a quick comparison follows toward the end of this one. The escort
language is English; we have more guides who speak English as
their native (first) language than any other Sicilian travel service. We're in Sicily, so you're purchasing from the tour's planners directly. For more information read
our FAQs and Purchase
Conditions. Yes, we also do shore excursions and we plan
personalized itineraries, whatever the size of your group.
Five-day version of our popular Golden Tour. Includes Palermo, Monreale,
Cefalù, Siracusa, Taormina and Mount Etna region, Erice. 4 star lodging. €1049.00 double
occupancy, €1300 single. Departures every month of 2009. Read more...
Across Sicily, from Palermo to Catania. Winery visits, olive farm lunch, and stay at an aristocratic country
estate in the mountains. Palermo, Monreale, Erice, Trapani,
Marsala, Agrigento, Siracusa, Taormina, Piazza Armerina, Mount Etna. 4 star lodging. €1750.00
double occupancy, €1990 single. Read more...
See the principal sites of Sicily in one week. From Palermo to Catania. See Monreale, Palermo, Marsala, Piazza Armerina,
Taormina, Agrigento, Erice, the Mount Etna region. Ancient and medieval Sicily, wine tastings, 4 star
lodging. €1199.00 double occupancy, €1450 single. Read more...
Messina & Catania Excursions: Exceptional personalized day tours of Etna and
Taormina, departing from Messina or Catania. Not just an excursion, an adventure! Uniquely planned for your small group, with your own driver and guide and a choice of 3 day tours, it's the best way to
experience the natural wonders of eastern Sicily. Read more...
Palermo Excursions: Three great personalized day tours.
Palermo, Cefalù, Segesta-Erice. The perfect day. Your shore excursion, your way. Planned from beginning to end, at your own pace. Whether your group includes two participants or twenty, a
custom-designed itinerary, with your own driver and guide, is the best way to experience the real Sicily. Read more...
Faqs - Questions and answers about hotels, guides, reservations, currency conversion and other details.
How much is a euro worth? Consult our favorite currency converter for current exchange rates. The euro (€) is the official currency of Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Spain,
Portugal, Greece, France and several other countries of the European Union.
Which hotels do you use? Hotels are rated at least 4-star by
the Italian Tourism Board, being selected for their ambience, service and convenient location. Some are rated 5-star. Often overlooked by tour operators,
convenient hotel location makes it easier to reach shopping and dining. While hotels are listed for each tour, the hotels actually
selected for your tour may vary depending on the season, the number of participants
and availability. In other words, there are occasional (rare) substitutions. Your accomodations will be identical or comparable to the hotels indicated here. In Italy, incidentally,
the differences between hotel rankings are often subtle and
do not always reflect lodging quality but rather things like the size
of the hotel's restaurant or its season of operation.
What's "high" and
"low" season? This refers to prices
based on the volume of tourism activity. Except for the Sicily-Malta tour, this does not affect our
special rates. Departure dates are indicated in the tour's summary.
Is Best of Sicily
a tour operator? Best of Sicily is the most popular online travel guide for Sicily.
We promote these tours (and other travel services) in response to numerous requests from our readers for interesting
tours at a fair price. We've been receiving such requests since we went
online in April 1999, and advertising some of these tours since 2004. Each tour is organized, conducted and
sold by Chat & Tour (under the trade name "Tradizione Turismo"), a
Sicily-based travel services company affiliated with the IATA (International Air Transport
Association) and ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents). Best of Sicily itself is more than a destination guide;
it's a general interest publication
about Sicily and Sicilian-oriented topics, with over two
million readers per year. Because we are not a travel company per se, we accept
advertising from various (even competing) travel service companies and we
maintain a free and independent editorial policy. This is not unusual; a
number of organizations, museums and hard-copy magazines (dedicated to
geography, travel, cooking, archeology,
etc.) sponsor tours of one kind or another, and they're usually
good because the editors know what their readership wants. Incidentally,
other tours having no association with us are also called "Best of Sicily."
Who are your tour participants? Our scheduled tours
are purchased by clients from around the world, rather than from a single country or community --though we also plan tours
for specific groups (contact our director for details). By
nature, most of our clients enjoy contact with others, including participants from different countries. It's one of the things that
makes our tours different from those sold by most travel agents. The tour language is English.
Is there much walking in these tours? What's the level of physical activity?
These tours are fairly active and feature at least "moderate" walking along stairs or over uneven surfaces.
These are not hiking tours but the amount of walking, while not excessive, is substantial, and comfortable walking shoes are recommended. Though suitable to most people, these
tours really are not appropriate for anybody whose walking ability is significantly restricted or challenged by a physical condition (chronic back pain, a leg or hip injury, etc.),
or who requires the aid of a device for support to facilitate walking. Many of the places visited are full of steps or sloping pavement surfaces
(Taormina and Erice are hilltop towns having cobble-stone streets, closed to traffic, and few actual sidewalks). In some cases motor vehicles simply are not
allowed to transport participants to areas (such as archeological sites or medieval streets) frequented by visitors, so a certain amount of walking is necessary. Ramps
and elevators (lifts) are the exception rather than the rule, and facilities for wheelchairs are limited. We understand that our
observations may discourage some from joining our tours, but we would be misleading you if we did not bring these realities to your attention.
Do you provide testimonials or references? We frequently review client
satisfaction --based on questionnaires completed following each tour-- to maintain quality, and a few remarks are included on
our comments page
Are all costs
included in the price of the tours? Fees and other
costs are included as indicated in the description of the tour. All breakfasts are
included. Otherwise, some, but not all, meals are included, and some include wine.
Where these beverages are not included, you can order them yourself. In our Golden tour, for example, tour beverages are not included.
Gratuities (tips) to guides/escorts are not included (see the following question). In some tours entrance fees at archeological
sites are included. Optional excursion costs are not included (see below). The summary of each tour explains precisely what is (and isn't) included.
What about tips for guides and/or drivers? This is customary but never
obligatory. As a very general rule, for escort-guides we might suggest a minimum of four euros per day per person for a 7-day tour,
slightly more if the group is very small (5 participants or less). The tip to a driver normally would be slightly less. If the
guide is also the driver, the four-euro suggestion would apply. Any tipping should be done at the very end of a complete
tour, rather than day-by-day. While we're on the subject of tipping, please note that about 10% is customary in restaurants,
and about one euro per person for porterage of bags (or 50 cents per bag) at hotels.
What are optional excursions and how are these planned and priced? Though the practice is
rare on our tours, your guide or driver may occasionally offer you the possibility of planning or joining an excursion that is not included in
the itinerary or cost of the tour. On a free day, for example, an excursion from Taormina to Mount Etna might be offered if this is not already included
in your itinerary. The cost of such an excursion is paid in advance when you purchase your tour.
How many participants
are there in each group? Group size varies according
to season. For most tours we guarantee a departure
even with as few as two participants. Our groups never have more
than twenty-five participants, and they're usually from various countries.
Most participants prefer to be part of a smaller group. In fact, the relatively
small group size is one of the advantages of our tours. (When we have a large
number of participants, we divide a potentially large tour into two or three smaller groups.)
Is there personalized service
when I book a tour over the internet? There is when
you reserve it with us. When you contact us
to reserve your place, we'll acknowledge your email and refer it to our
representative (an actual travel agency here in Palermo), who will email
you to process billing (prepaid by credit card) and other information, and
of course answer any of your questions. This is not an automated
online service but a company operated by experienced travel professionals. We can
also book hotel days before or after the tour if you wish to extend your stay. The "real deal," not a "virtual" agency.
What's the difference
between you and my local travel agent? We're Sicily
specialists based "on site" here in Sicily, we offer frequent
departures, and in most cases our prices are more affordable than those of comparable tours offered at "retail"
by a travel agent outside Italy. Our tours are not a "re-sale"
product connected to an expensive advertising campaign, nor are they a
generic "package" sold (or re-sold) by a mass tourism company. Instead, you're
buying the tour directly from a registered tour operator and travel
agent who oversees every detail of your tour directly. (These are the kind of companies that actually organize the various tours
promoted by your local travel agent and by numerous firms which market tours.) You can reserve
your place as little as thirty (30) days before the beginning of the tour.
That's an option few local travel agents can beat --except for those selling mass market tours having more
than thirty participants. Unlike a travel agent thousands of miles away from Sicily, we can address specific needs,
whether it's getting ballet tickets at Palermo's opera house or finding you a driver for a special excursion
on an extra day following the tour. The best travel
agents provide useful, personalized services (and those who wish to offer
this tour may contact
us), but there's really no substitute for being present where the tours actually take place.
Can you create a customized tour for my group? Yes!
Contact us with your requirements and we'll provide you with
a quote. This service is available to travel agents or to anybody who wants to organize a group tour. Best of
all, your customized tour may not cost any more than one of our regular scheduled tours.
Are the tours guided? Each tour
is escorted by an English-speaking tour escort. The complexites of Italian labor law have created several confusing and overlapping "official"
categories of "guides" including licensed guides authorized to lecture (in foreign languages) at archeological sites
in particular regions of Italy, specialized (but usually monolingual) guides employed locally at specific historical sites, tour escorts
who accompany groups around Italy, and so forth. Our approach attempts to simplify this. If your group has only 2 or 3 participants you'll
have a driver/guide. Larger groups have a minibus driver plus an escort. Certain excursions require specialized guides --for example the
geologists who operate jeep excursions on Mount Etna-- and we occasionally use the services of licensed or local guides. It's really
a question of having the most practical, efficient solution for each situation.
What's the quality like? It's
exceptional, at this price or any price. Consider that certain tours very similar to
ours are sold for as much as twice these prices, while many
travel agents sell "luxury" tours which, in fact, are nearly identical
to ours --usually costing more than twice as much. You may find a
few tours of Sicily priced for less, but we've ensured that our features,
though affordable, are of high quality. The restaurants, for example,
are superior to the typical "tourist" offerings, and the escorts and other
personnel are selected for their exceptional
professionalism. (This, in itself, distinguishes our services.) The planning is efficient, too, with lodging in
just three or four hotels instead of numerous check-ins, and few stretches of travel
lasting more than ninety minutes. These tours offer certain features typical
of more expensive tours, such as small group size. (Unless
you enjoy being part of a big crowd, smaller is better.) Each tour has its own
particular features which make it a unique experience. Our entire approach
to providing you with the best possible service sets these tours apart from
others. This reflects a "young" attitude rather than
the "conventional" generic mentality of mass-market tour
operators who pack 50 people on a bus with a mediocre "guide." It's
our special emphasis on quality that is often lacking in competitors' Sicily tours.
Are these "low budget" or
"mass market" tours? No!!! If you search, you'll find many cheaper tours
with larger group sizes and rather inconvenient itineraries, typically sold under creative
names such as "Golden Endless Pleasures of Sicily Tour," or something simpler but equally enticing --fantasy, treasures, jolly,
carousel, delight, charm (the list of descriptive names seems endless). In purchasing any tour, it's always best to compare
features. For example, some offer meals that exclude all beverages (even water!) from
the price. Others (such as those which feature Sicily as part of a general
tour of southern Italy) entail hours and hours of tiresome travel time between cities. Our tours
represent a different approach because they may be purchased
directly from the organizing agency, and they are the only tours of Sicily
promoted by Sicily's most widely-read international publication (this website),
based on readers' real-life preferences rather than on what a tour operator guesses that clients prefer.
How are these tours really different from others? Realistically,
it's simple enough to compare basic features, but
there's just so much that can be conveyed with charts, descriptions and figures. The real difference
is that a team of seasoned Sicily-based travel experts has met the challenge of developing a
satisfying travel experience at an affordable price in a
market where impersonal "mass tourism" --not attention to detail-- is the norm. In other
words, the people behind the tour are as important as the places you visit and the hotels you stay in. Best of Sicily is a slightly different kind of destination guide, and
we offer slightly different kinds of tours. We've fine-tuned our services over the years. The Historic and Cultural
tour (our most popular), has been offered for three years with exceptional success. According to the best statistics
available (from a trade industry source), in 2005 we sold
more tours of Sicily directly to the public than any other Sicily-based
agency, and more than twice as many as our nearest competitor.
Are airfare and transportation from
the airport included in the tour price? Airfare is not included, but
transportation from the airport is included in some tours. See the summary for details. For good flight prices,
try our planning page, or an
airline with frequent direct or connecting flights to Palermo (see the next question and answer),
such as Alitalia
or Ryan Air. From the airport, it's easy to get to your
hotel in Palermo, with hourly bus and train departures or by taxi. Palermo
is about thirty minutes from its airport. (See our arrival page for details.) We recommend Air Malta
for flights to Valletta (Malta). In reserving flights, please bear in mind that for the Historic-Cultural and Sicily-Malta
tours departures are from Catania, not Palermo.
You don't sell flights. How can I find one? For
flights to Palermo and Catania, visit Best of Sicily's airline page (with links to airline
sites), or search a flight using our planning page.
Why are there so few departures in August? Because it's
the most chaotic month in Italy, when Italians go on vacation en masse, and northern Europeans
flock to Italy. In August, you can expect
delayed flights, long lines and crowds everywhere --particularly in favorite spots like Taormina.
Worse, the middle of the month (Ferragosto) finds many
shops and even restaurants in less popular localities closed. Here in Sicily,
August is endlessly sunny but unbearably hot, too. As the
vacation (holiday) season and heat actually begin in late July,
we schedule fewer tours from late July through August, though the popular Golden tour has a departure in late August.
Can I deviate from the tour to visit a place off the itinerary? We generally
encourage you, instead of cancelling a particular sight or stop and then catching up to the group further along the itinerary, to
plan an extension of your stay in Sicily for a day or two following the tour. (See the following question.) We can arrange
transportation to a specific sight or locality you'd like to visit.
How can I extend my stay before or after the
tour? In the description of each tour there's a section on pre-nights and post-nights, in other words, additional days before or after the tour.
We can usually reserve lodging at the same hotel used for the tour. If you wish, it's easy to book a hotel on our hotel page, where flights,
car rentals and other services are also available. It may seem unusual that we would refer you to a website for hotel reservations, but experience has taught us that
the rates available from Hotels.Com, Best of Sicily's hotel reservation service, are
often comparable to those which we can obtain for you for a brief stay of 2 or 3 days. Nowadays, many visitors prefer independent travel,
often with an escorted visit such as our tours for a portion of their trip. When carefully planned, the two services complement each other very well.
Do you offer food and wine tours? All our tours offer
plenty of opportunities to sample Sicilian cuisine and wines, and some include wine tastings and (as options) cooking classes.
We suggest that you carefully compare these tours to those promoted by various firms as "culinary tours" (food and wine
tours reflect a growing international interest in Sicilian cuisine). You may actually prefer ours!
What if I'm reluctant to purchase a
tour (or other travel service) over the internet? Millions of people do so with confidence every day. Our travel services page is a good
example of this trend. Best of Sicily is an example
of the kind of online publication (a travel guide) which makes information readily
available to people over the internet. With over a million readers annually, our online magazine is Sicily's most widely-read English-language
periodical. We would like to encourage everybody to
take advantage of what the Web has to offer, but if you are truly reluctant to purchase a
travel service from a company advertised on the internet you would probably be more comfortable working directly with a local travel
agent. There's nothing wrong with that; travel
agents are hard-working people who provide a valuable service. Some of our tours are sold by
travel agents, but we're the only Sicily-based company that offers tours directly to you at a
competitive price. Here is an interesting "review" from an American gentleman who
participated in one of our tours in 2007:
After evaluating a lot of tours, in October 2007 my wife
and I chose a Best of Sicily tour.
We chose that tour for several reasons: they promised small groups (maximum
20 people but they said it would typically be 14 or 16); they guaranteed
departures provided at least two people sign up (so my wife and I met that
qualification); they went to the areas we were interested in seeing during
our week in Sicily; the hotels were okay based on TripAdvisor reviews; they
had a mix of meals that were included with the tour package as well as meals
that we would purchase on our own (we have been burned by tours that provide
all your meals in the hotel where you are staying); and their website made
it clear that they really understood Sicily. Initially, I was uncomfortable
working through a tour company that was only located in Sicily rather than
a larger company, but Vincenzo at Best of Sicily was extremely responsive
to my many e-mail questions, so I became more comfortable over time. The
tour was great! We had only six people on our tour, and we traveled with
our tour guide, Giuseppe, in a mini-van. That meant that he could maneuver
down the narrow streets of Palermo, Catania, etc. and go to places the large
tour busses couldn't. Although I grew up in New York City where I drove
a taxi for a while, I would not have been comfortable driving in the larger
Sicilian cities where they just don't seem to have any rules. On the other
hand, it sure was a lot of fun sitting in the passenger seat. Giuseppe was
fantastic and I would highly recommend him as a tour guide due to his personality
and comprehensive knowledge of Sicily. We purchased the optional "transfer
package" which included someone picking us up and dropping us off at
the Palermo airport, as well as the entrance fees to the places we visited.
The overall pace of the tour was great. We covered a lot of ground but didn't
feel rushed. Giuseppe's restaurant selection (he frequently gave us options
for lunch or dinner) was outstanding. Because we were in a small group,
we were able to go to small restaurants that could not accommodate bus loads
of tourists. During our scheduled free day in Taormina, four of the six
of us opted for an excursion from sea level to the top of Mount Etna, which
is nearly 11,000 feet in elevation and was reached by a combination of our
mini-van; a cable car ride; and special all-wheel drive buses for traveling
over the volcanic ash at the top. The trip to the top of Mount Etna, which
was spewing large clouds of smoke into the air, was a great experience.
Lunch on a working olive farm and a trip to Erice, located on the top of
a high mountain, on our last day was the perfect ending to a great tour.
I managed to take 1,525 digital pictures during our seven days in Sicily.
It was beautiful!
Tour prices seem to vary widely. What's your profit? A good question that few agents and operators would answer. First, let's consider it generally. For reselling a
scheduled "mass market" (or package) tour, your local travel agent probably earns the industry standard commission of 10 percent,
but slightly more (as much as 20 percent!) if they plan the tour themself with a foreign-based tour operator such as those who sell the tours described on this
page. (In reality, very few local travel agents in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia or elsewhere actually plan their own tours; most
purchase these from an intermediary agent.) Nowadays few airlines pay any commissions at all, so selling flights is not profitable for most travel agents. In 2006 the
Italian-based companies that sell our Sicily tours earned an average 9 percent profit. This means that if you pay much less than
these prices you're not getting comparable quality. If you pay much more, you're probably paying for something other than quality.
What's the difference between a tour operator and a travel agent? Today, when there are
various kinds of travel service sellers, the distinctions are often blurred or may even overlap. Speaking generally, a tour operator
organizes a tour and sells it to local travel agents (who sell it to you), while a receptive agent handles
logistics "on site" (in Sicily in our case). The internet has changed much of this because "virtual" travel
agents (perhaps lacking large offices or full-time staff) now flourish. Meanwhile, some larger tour operators sell their tours (typically at
low cost, perhaps including airfare, with 40 or 50 people stuffed into a large bus) directly to the public.
It is fair to describe the company that organizes our tours (Tradizione Turismo of Palermo) as tour operators and receptive agents who ensure the
personalized service you would expect from a travel agent. We also offer a tour of Malta and eastern Sicily.
Reservations It's easy. Email
us at the address indicated on the page describing the tour (indicating the date of your departure and number of persons
in your party) to reserve your place. Major credit cards are accepted, as are bank
wire transfers.
Conditions and Terms for 2009 Tours Client will be advised of specific hotels to be used in his/her tour 20 (twenty) days before
the tour's start date. Payment may be effected by bank wire transfer or major credit card. Prices are
indicated in euros and valid through 31 December 2009. In the event of currency conversion to euros, the conversion rate shall be that of the day of
payment; in the event of several payments for a single service the conversion rate may vary slightly based on the day's current exchange rate. All services are to be prepaid at least sixty days prior to
the beginning of the tour ("start date" herein also referred to as the "departure"), with an initial payment or deposit (of at least 20% of the total cost) required to reserve a place in the tour, and in any
event the balance or full price made payable within 60 (sixty) days of departure.
In the event of cancellation by the client, the following portion of the total tour price
will be claimed by the agency: €100.00 fixed fee 60+ days prior to departure, 25% 45-59 days before departure, 50% 15-44
days before departure, 80% 8-14 days before departure, 100% within 7 (seven) days
of departure. At its discretion, the tour operator agency may waive such claims.
If purchased directly from the Italian tour operator (i.e. via this website), service shall be governed by the laws of the Italian Republic
and the European Union. Local laws apply for any tour purchased through a travel agent outside Italy. It is the responsibility of each participant to
be in possession of the necessary travel document, such as a valid passport. Basic services are insured
in compliance with Italian law. Certain fees indicated (i.e. costs cited which are outside the actual tour price), particularly admission
fees at archeological sites, are understood to be beyond the tour operator agency's control and therefore subject to change without notice.
Hotel ratings are those established by the
Italian travel commission and may differ from those indicated in privately-published travel guide books or websites. Tours begin in
Palermo on the dates specified. Unless the tour is purchased by a travel agent representing us, billing is processed through the
tour operator, based here in Palermo, Italy (i.e. Chat & Tour's Tradizione Turismo). In the event that the tour operator agency effects
cancellation of a tour at any time prior to departure, its sole responsibility and liability is limited to refunding the client the amount it has received
in payment for the tour up to that date.
2009 Sicily Tours Compared (tours scheduled from January through December 2009)
(Outlines only. Link to each tour's full description for details.)
Saturday: Self-transfer to Palermo. Afternoon at leisure, welcome dinner. Overnight at
Palermo. Sunday: Monreale and Palermo. Overnight at Palermo. Monday: Cefalù, light country lunch.
Overnight in Taormina. Tuesday: Siracusa archeology and Ortygia district, lunch. Overnight at Taormina. Wednesday: Day at leisure at Taormina or optional excursions to Mount Etna or cooking class. Overnight in Taormina. Thursday: Check-out and transfer to Catania airport. Read more...
Saturday: Arrival at Palermo for welcome dinner. Overnight at
Palermo. Sunday: Palermo and Monreale. Overnight at
Palermo. Monday: Erice, Trapani (salt marshes), light lunch on olive farm, then to Marsala for
wine tasting. Overnight at Palermo. Tuesday:
Visit of Agrigento, then Piazza Armerina's ancient Roman Villa. Dinner and overnight at rural
estate in Leonforte, near Enna. Wednesday:
Siracusa archeological site and Ortygia district, lunch, arrival at Taormina for farewell dinner and overnight. Thursday:
Excursion to Mount Etna for sightseeing and light lunch at winery. Overnight at Taormina. Friday: Day at leisure at Taormina, with
optional market-gourmet cooking class. Overnight in
Taormina. Saturday: Check-out and transfer to Catania airport for departure. Read more...
Saturday: Self-transfer to Palermo and welcome dinner. Overnight at
Palermo. Sunday: Palermo and Monreale. Evening at leisure. Overnight at
Palermo. Monday: Cefalù cathedral and town, light lunch on farm in Madonie Mountains. Overnight in Taormina. Tuesday: Siracusa old city and archeological site. Lunch in Ortygia district. Overnight at Taormina.
Wednesday: At leisure at Taormina; optional excursions to Mount Etna or optional cooking class.
Thursday: Piazza Armerina (ancient Roman villa) and Agrigento. Dinner and overnight at Agrigento.
Friday: Sicilian wine country, Marsala (farewell cocktail) and Erice. Overnight in Palermo.
Saturday: Check-out. Read more...
Duration
5 nights.
7 nights.
7 nights.
Meals Included
Breakfasts, 1 dinner, 2 lunches with beverages excluded.
Breakfasts. 3 dinners and 3 lunches. Some beverages included.
Breakfasts. 2 dinners and 2 lunches (beverages not included), 1 cocktail.
Other features
Country lunch in Madonie Mountains, optional excursion and cooking lesson.
re you tired of reading about tours of Sicily that all look the same? Then it's time to join one of our tours. The real difference is in the details. Best of Sicily tours
are a great way to see Sicily because of
better 
professionals. We can
also book hotel days before or after the tour if you wish to extend your stay. The "real deal," not a "virtual" agency.