Sicilia Travel Forum

Is there a car rental company at the cruise ship port? Would you recommend renting a car to drive to Ventimiglia di Sicilia (about 20 miles south of Palermo) or hiring a driver and car?

It's not on a main road or train line so I would think you would need to rent a car in able to get around while in Ventimiglia de Sicilia.

http://www.autoeurope.com has rental in Palermo. There is pickup at the airport, the train station and a couple locations in the city.

There will be transportation from the port to the train station or the city so you will be fine. There is also bus service to Ventimiglia but I suspect you will have too much luggage for that to be very comfortable.

Hopefully, someone will answer you more specifically a bit later. In the meantime, you might type Palermo into the VT Search Window above and that will take you to the Palermo Travel Pages for VT. You can check Tips on Transportation and someone may have already posted just what you need to know. At any rate, it will give you excellent ideas on restaurants and things to do and it's always fun to look at the photos.

Enjoy your trip.

AVIS have an office about 300 metres from the dock on Via Francesco Crispi. Personally, I would take a taxi (even this distance) with luggage.
Negotiating Palermo can be a bit of a nightmare by car but you need to get out on the SS121 south heading past Misilmeri then turn East toward Baucina(signposted).
Ventimiglia is the nex town after Baucina.
For driving instructions check out www.viamichelin.
Click on maps then click on driving directions.
FROM;Italy - Via Francesco Crispi - Palermo
TO; Italy - Ventimiglia di Sicilia.

Driving em Sicily (particulary in the cities ) is a nighthmare...
Trafic is horrible in Palermo. Is very important to know the city because there are no signalization.If you have an alternative, don´t rent a car.

I don't know if this is any help, but when we're in Italy and want to visit a city, we drive to a nearby village where we can usually park for free and then take the bus into the city. We walk or take the bus in town and then take the bus back out to our car and drive to our hotel or apartment. It gives you the advantage of having a car when you need it for visiting the countryside, and visiting the city without dealing with traffic.

Just a suggestion. Enjoy your trip.