Palermo Travel Forum

I am interested in the weather in Sicily. I plan to visit Palermop, Catania and Taormina.

Interested in street safety, driving around sicily and clean 1-2 star hotels.

Can I take a ferry from southern France or Spain ?

Pls free to provide information regarding accomodations w/families, convents or seminaries.

Many thanks !!

For weather history last January try

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/LICJ/2007/1/20/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

weather certainly better than the rest of mainland Europe!
The driving looks life-threatening.....! Good rail links from the airport, in fact good rail all over Sicilia, cabs also!

The rail links aren't THAT good apart from along the East coast which is densely populated but you can certainly go a far enough way by train. Having said that, coach travel is faster if you don't want to drive yourself - although plenty of VT members do. They just complain about the signposting not being that good.

Taormina being in the mountains close to Etna has its own micro-climate so bring something for a rainy evening there.

Enjoy a marvellous island!

Travel in Sicily by car is the easiest way to spend 3 weeks there.See our pages on Sicily. We did not visit Catania, did minimal driving in Palermo, would have been more secure with a GPS (but it did not exist), We stayed at 3* accomodations, selected because there was parking, a rare commodity.We went in October. There were no tourists but there were a few rain days--count on having them! Since you provide no personal info or even where or how you plan to get a car, I can give no more advice until you read our pages and their intros.

Sicily in January can be pretty cool, it does snow there at times. Driving is a bit intimidating for the beginner, just ignore the horns and you will be OK. I am not aware of a ferry from France or Spain, but there is a flight from France to Trapani now I think. Consider agriturismo for families, the only problem is that they are in the country. I have always found hotels in Sicily expensive for what they are.

As for safety, we lived just out of Palermo for over three years, and My wife would be in Palermo once a week in the evening, she never felt unsafe. There are no drunk people in the strret, so that reduces the agro by about 99%

enjoy sicilia