Giardini Naxos Travel Forum

Our Oceania Cruise Ship Insignia, will be tendering off this port on May 20th on this month. I am interested in finding a tour to Mt Etna and a brief tour of Taormina. We arrive around 8am and must be back on the ship by 3:30pm. I want a van for 6-8 people and an English speaking tour guide. Is this possible. Email me at csbeckman@alumni.tufts.edu. This site has helped us on 3 ports of call on this trip. Please help if you can. Thanks

From Giardini Naxos to Etna and back will take you 4 hours of driving time alone.
If you accept that you will probably not disembark much before 8.30am - 9.00am, then allow another hour for collecting your minibus, you won't even arrive at the car park below Etna's summit much before midday. If you want to visit the caldera,
you will need to join one of the Mercedes Benz half tracks from the car park. The return trip takes about 45 minutes. These run very frequently but assuming you will have to wait 15 minutes to get on board, you will not be back at your minibus until 1.00pm - just about enough time to get back to Giardini Naxos, but you've got to drop off the minibus - this adventure, alone, will leave you hard pressed to manage.
You certainly cannot hope to visit Etna and Taormina before 3.30pm.
Taormina on it's own is probably your best option. If you take the cable car up to the old town. Perhaps you could find one of the many restaurants with incredible views of Etna and wile away a few hours with a long Italian lunch.

I totally agree with Domenico, to visit Etna you need a full day.
Visit Taormina, Castelmola (on top of Taormina itself) and maybe Giardini Naxos itself.

Ooops, a little too late...