Sicily is easy to travel around with a little preparation, especially if you are planning a road trip. The island is part of Italy, uses the euro and is relatively straightforward to explore, but distances are bigger than they sometimes look on the map. I traveled around Sicily by rental car in September, moving between beaches, Baroque towns, archaeological sites and small B&Bs across the island. If you are planning a similar trip, these are the practical Sicily travel tips I would have liked to know beforehand.
For my complete route around the island, see my 2 to 3 week Sicily road trip itinerary.
General Travel Tips for Sicily
Sicily is part of Italy and therefore part of the European Union and Schengen Area. Entry requirements depend on your nationality, so check the current passport and visa rules before traveling if you are coming from outside the EU or Schengen Area. The currency is the euro, and cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops, but it is still useful to carry some cash. Smaller B&Bs, market stalls, parking machines and local businesses may sometimes prefer cash.
ATMs are easy to find in cities and larger towns. I normally choose an ATM belonging to a bank rather than one of the independent machines found in tourist areas. Sicily is in the same time zone as the Netherlands and much of continental Europe, so there is no jet lag to deal with when traveling from these countries. Italian is the main language. In the larger tourist destinations you can usually manage with English, but this becomes less certain once you move away from the main sights. My Spanish helped me understand quite a lot, and Google Translate filled in the gaps.
Download Italian in Google Translate before your trip. It is especially useful in smaller towns, restaurants and accommodations where little English is spoken.
Mobile Data and eSIM in Sicily
If you have a mobile subscription from an EU or EEA country, you can normally use your calls, messages and mobile data in Italy under the EU Roam Like at Home rules. Check your own provider and any fair-use limits before traveling. For travelers whose home subscription does not include European roaming, an eSIM can be an easy alternative. You can install it before departure and connect when you arrive without having to look for a local SIM card.
Airalo offers eSIM packages for Italy as well as wider European packages. This can be useful for navigation, WhatsApp, bookings and Google Translate while traveling around Sicily. Check that your phone supports eSIM before buying a package.
Best Time to Visit Sicily
I traveled in September, just after the busiest summer period, and for me it was a very good time to explore the island. Temperatures were still around 28°C during parts of my trip, the sea was warm and I hardly needed anything warmer in the evenings. If you can choose your dates, I would personally avoid July and August for a road trip, as these are generally the hottest and busiest months, particularly around the beaches and popular destinations.
Late spring and early autumn offer a better balance if you want to combine sightseeing with beach time. May, June, September and early October are good months to consider. Sicily can also be visited in winter, but the experience is different. The weather is cooler and more changeable, while some seasonal beach businesses, boat trips and accommodations may not operate.
For a trip combining beaches, sightseeing and driving, September would still be one of my first choices.
Opening Hours and Meal Times
One thing I had to adjust to was the slower rhythm during the middle of the day. In smaller towns especially, some shops close for several hours in the afternoon, and restaurants also tend to follow fairly clear lunch and dinner hours. More than once during my road trip, I arrived too late for lunch or far too early for dinner. Do not assume that you can sit down for a full meal at any time of day. When driving between towns, keep some water, fruit or another snack in the car. That said, stopping for an espresso, granita or something sweet along the way quickly became part of the Sicily road trip experience.
Getting to Sicily
For most international travelers, flying is the easiest way to reach Sicily. The main island has four airports: Catania Airport in the east, Palermo Airport in the northwest, Trapani-Birgi Airport in the west and Comiso Airport in southeastern Sicily. I flew directly from Amsterdam to Catania, which was a convenient starting point for my round trip. You can also reach Sicily by ferry from mainland Italy, with additional routes depending on the season. There are even direct train connections from mainland Italy. At the Strait of Messina, the train itself is loaded onto a ferry for the crossing to Sicily.
If you are traveling to Sicily by ferry, you can compare routes, departure times and prices with Direct Ferries before your trip.
Driving and Renting a Car in Sicily
For the type of trip I wanted to make, renting a car was definitely the best option. Sicily is a large island and many beaches, archaeological sites, mountain villages and smaller accommodations are much easier to reach independently. Public transport connects the main cities, so you do not necessarily need a car for a short Palermo or Catania city trip, but for a road trip around the island, having your own transport gives you much more freedom.
Rental prices and insurance conditions can vary considerably between companies, so compare your options before booking. You can compare rental cars and prices with Discover Cars before your trip. Do not look only at the cheapest advertised price. Check the insurance excess, deposit, fuel policy and whether you need a credit card in the driver’s name. Extra insurance made my rental at Catania Airport considerably more expensive than the original booking price suggested. It was a good reminder to read the small print before arriving at the counter.
Check the rental conditions before you leave home rather than for the first time at the airport.
What Is Driving in Sicily Like?
Driving in Sicily was part of the fun for me. Some roads are fast and modern, while others take you through mountains, vineyards, small villages and stretches of coastline where progress is much slower. Whenever there was enough time, I preferred the scenic roads rather than automatically choosing the fastest route. It takes longer, but you see much more of the island. Allow some extra time between destinations. A distance that looks short on Google Maps can involve mountain roads, traffic or small towns where driving is slow.
Also watch for ZTL zones in historic city centers. These are restricted traffic areas where you may not be allowed to drive without authorization, and cameras can register your license plate automatically, so do not simply follow your navigation into an old town without checking the signs. Parking takes some getting used to as well. Blue lines normally indicate paid parking, while white spaces are generally free. Always check the signs, as local restrictions and time limits can apply. Some Sicilian motorways have toll sections, while many other major roads are free.
Take the Scenic Route
Some of my favorite moments in Sicily happened between the main destinations. Local markets, small beaches, roadside cafés and viewpoints regularly turned into unplanned stops. Driving through the vineyards around Marsala or following a slower coastal road was sometimes just as enjoyable as reaching the destination itself.
Do not plan every driving day too tightly. Sicily is much more enjoyable when you have time to stop somewhere simply because it looks interesting.
Where to Stay in Sicily
Accommodation in Sicily ranges from small B&Bs and apartments to boutique hotels, agriturismos, beach hotels and larger resorts. During my road trip, I stayed in a mixture of them, and some of my favorite stays were the smaller, more characterful accommodations rather than traditional hotels. Most stops were only one or two nights before continuing to another part of the island. That worked for my itinerary, but it does make the trip quite active. If you prefer a slower pace, choose fewer bases and stay three or four nights in each area.
Smaller B&Bs often want to know approximately what time you will arrive because they do not have a permanently staffed reception. WhatsApp was commonly used to arrange check-in, which worked well when my plans changed during the day. In my separate Sicily region blogs, I share more details about the accommodations I used and which ones I would recommend.
Still looking for somewhere to stay in Sicily? You can compare hotels, apartments and boutique stays on Booking.com.
Food in Sicily
Food alone is a good reason to travel around Sicily. The cuisine changes as you move across the island, with seafood along the coast, pistachios around Bronte, couscous around Trapani and plenty of pasta, vegetables, cheese, citrus fruit and local wine. Breakfast is usually much simpler than in northern Europe. A typical Italian start to the day can be an espresso or cappuccino with a cornetto, while hotels and B&Bs generally offer a larger breakfast.
Restaurant menus traditionally divide meals into several courses: antipasti, primi such as pasta or risotto, secondi with meat or fish, followed by dessert. You certainly do not need to order every course. Two was usually enough for me, sometimes three when I was particularly hungry. And then there is aperitivo, one of my favorite Italian habits. Order a drink in the late afternoon or early evening and it may arrive with olives, cheese, cured meat or other small snacks. Exactly my kind of pre-dinner arrangement.
Sicilian Food You Should Try
One of the first local foods a Sicilian friend told me to try was arancini — or arancine, depending on which part of Sicily you are in. These fried rice balls are filled with ingredients such as ragù, cheese or vegetables and make a perfect quick lunch or road trip snack. Seafood is naturally easy to find around the island, and fish, mussels and pasta with clams appeared regularly on my table during the trip.
Another favorite was parmigiana di melanzane, made with layers of eggplant, tomato and cheese. And then there are the sweets. Cannoli are crispy pastry shells filled with sweet ricotta, often finished with pistachios, chocolate or candied fruit. Granita became my solution for hot afternoons, particularly in eastern Sicily, while around Mount Etna and Bronte, pistachio is difficult to ignore. Marsala has its famous fortified wine, which I tasted during a winery visit in western Sicily. A bottle came home with me and later ended up in my Italian tiramisu recipe.
Coperto and Tipping in Sicily
Do not be surprised if you see coperto on a restaurant bill. This is a fixed cover charge per person and is common in Italy, and you will normally see the amount listed on the menu. Coperto is not the same as a tip. Tipping in Italy is not compulsory. When the food and service are good, rounding up the bill or leaving a little extra is perfectly fine. There is no need to automatically calculate a fixed percentage.
My Final Sicily Travel Tips
Sicily works particularly well if you enjoy combining a road trip with beach time, historic towns, food and spontaneous stops along the way. Do not underestimate the size of the island. Give yourself enough time, avoid changing hotels every night unless you genuinely enjoy traveling that way, and leave some space in your itinerary for places you did not plan. For me, that freedom was one of the best parts of traveling around Sicily.
Start with my 2 to 3 week Sicily itinerary and then use the individual regional blogs to plan each part of your trip.
