Sicily travel guide
You can now download eBook versions Lonely Planet as individual chapters for a few euros, and read them on your tablet, smartphone, eBook reader or laptop.
ETG: Be sure to visit the spectacular Greek ruins in the Valle dei Templi Agrigento, the Mount Etna volcano and Palermo's eerie Catacombs.
Top 8 Sicily Winter Sun Escapes...
Sicily - Lonely Planet (PDF) >
1. Sicily - Central Sicily
Sicily’s wild and empty interior is a beautiful, uncompromising land of silent, sunburnt peaks, grey stone villages and forgotten valleys. It’s an area that encourages the simple pleasures – long lunches of earthy country food, meandering through hilltop towns, enjoying the scenery.
2. Sicily - Western Sicily
Sicily’s windswept western coast has beckoned invaders for millennia with richly stocked fishing grounds, hilltop vineyards and coastal saltpans. Today, this part of the island is a largely unexploited tourism treasure, perfect for those who savour slow travel.
3. Sicily - Syracuse & the Southeast
With its outstanding classical ruins, beautiful baroque towns and sandy beaches, this is Sicily’s top draw. The temptation is to stay in Syracuse, hanging out in the piazzas and sunning yourself on the seafront, but drag yourself away and you’ll be rewarded with some of Sicily’s most charming towns.
4. Sicily - Ionian Coast
The Ionian Coast is dotted with Sicily’s superlatives – the island’s highest volcano, Mt Etna, is here; the queen of all resorts, Taormina, perches on a clifftop; and it’s home to Sicily’s second-largest city, Catania.
5. Sicily - Mediterranean Coast
Sicily’s Mediterranean coast is a mixed bag. The spectacular ruins of the Valley of the Temples are overlooked by ranks of unsightly tower blocks, giving the city of Agrigento an odd air. West of Agrigento, the development soon peters out and you’ll find some wonderful sandy beaches and tracts of beautiful, unspoilt countryside.
6. Sicily - Aeolian Islands
Rising out of the cobalt blue seas off Sicily’s northeastern coast, the Unesco-protected Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Vulcano, Salina, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) are a little piece of paradise, a magical outdoor playground offering thrills and spills at every turn.
7. Sicily - Tyrrhenian Coast
The coastal stretch between Palermo and Milazzo is packed with dramatic beach and mountain scenery, and appealing coastal towns. Few sun-worshippers head inland from these sybaritic summer playgrounds to visit the nearby mountains, but those who do are swiftly seduced.
8. Sicily - Palermo
Flamboyant, feisty and full of life, Palermo evokes a strong response from visitors and residents alike. It’s easy to overlook the city’s many problems when you enter a church full of luminous Byzantine mosaics or witness the genial banter at a street market.