Palermo Travel Forum

I am flying from Rome to Palermo and picking up a car at the Palermo airport but will be returning to Rome via ferry. Should i drop off the car back at the airport or at the train station? which is closer to the port? many thanks

The station is closer to the port but it is obviously easier to return a car to the airport. There is a frequent bus service from the airport to Politeama and the station (fare 5.30 euros).

I would agree -- and I'd try to avoid driving in downtown Palermo, lovely as the city is, but it is a traffic nightmare.

Ditto

Old Cliffie has always found driving in Italian cities reasonably sane compared with many parts of the world. The difficulty, for visitors who don't know a city, is the ease with which you can get lost in the warren of medieval streets. And Italian signposting tends not to be so good as it is in, say, Germany.

I agree. Whenever I rent a car, I try to arrange it so that I take a train out of the big city first, and rent in a nearby but smaller location. Big city driving anywhere is tricky!

Palermo can be particularly tricky as the street signs are almost non-existent.
Also, when the markets are open, you end up using diversions that seem to bring you round again to where you started. Very confusing.

I noticed that. We even got all snarled up in a taxi, who found the same. And, if you're driving anything larger than a Smart Car, you're out of luck for street parking.