In the early stages of planning this. Two couples from two different areas of the US. One leaving from Tampa and other from JFK.Trying to decide which airports in Ital to fly into and leave from that will not bankrupt us. First three nights in Positano and then somehow getting to Taromina for a week to explore sicily. We will probable rent a car when we leave positano and keep it for the entire stay in Sicily. What about flying into Naples,then driving to sicily.Is this ridiculous and where would we consider flying back from,PMO or Naples again??
With your time frame, I would fly to Sicily to maximize my time there, Naples to Catania. Then either bus to Taormina and pick up the car when leaving Taormina or pick up the car at the airport and drive to Taormina. Keep in mind that you can't drive into the town of Taormina but have to leave the car just outside - there is a big parking garage. You could fly out of Catania unless you want to go to Palermo then you could fly out of there.
If you want to stay in Taormina, I second flying into Catania. PMO is west of even Palermo and it will take you a good 4 hours to get to Taormina from there. PMO is the blue airplane on this map https://maps.google.com/maps/m...pn=2.153034,3.510132 Palermo is the yellow house, and Taormina is the green house approximately.
If you were to rent a car at PMO to drive to Taormina forn there you would have to drive past Palermo with all the craziness and congestion that involves. if you fly out of PMO, you would have to take into account that PMO is the middle of nowhere, and is not surrounded by a bunch of hotels that you could easily overnight at. PMO is also at least 30 min from Palermo depending on the traffic, but ther is a bus fomr Palermo to the airport.
Posts: 5237 | Location: St Paul, MN | Registered: 10 February 2006
Originally posted by LAWRENCE: In the early stages of planning this. Two couples from two different areas of the US. One leaving from Tampa and other from JFK.Trying to decide which airports in Ital to fly into and leave from that will not bankrupt us. First three nights in Positano and then somehow getting to Taromina for a week to explore sicily. We will probable rent a car when we leave positano and keep it for the entire stay in Sicily. What about flying into Naples,then driving to sicily.Is this ridiculous and where would we consider flying back from,PMO or Naples again??
The three nights in Positano are probably not worth the hassle. There is plenty to occupy you in Sicily for 10 days. And as others have pointed out, you certainly want to fly to Catania rather than PMO if you are staying in Taormina.
Positano is a must for us so you are probably right. I will consider 4 nights there.No vehicle needed from what I understand but we want to have a vehicle the entire time in Sicily as we expect to visit as many small towns as possible from our home base in Taormina. What is my b est choice to get to Taormina from positano and rent the car. I am convinced on the advice to fly into naples and back from sicily.We just used easy jet recently to barcelona from London and it was fine and inexpensive. We are trying to convince the other couple to fly from Sicily to London for a couple days and then back to the U.S If we do that there are flights from Catania or Palermo using the cut rate airlines. Thanks for the heads up!
I suggest flying from JFK to Catania, with return flight from Naples to JFK: cost in mid-September is about $851 right now (more expensive from Tampa - about $1,251 now). I would book a separate one-way flight from Catania to Naples on a budget airline on www.momondo.com . The cheapest one-way direct flight from Catania to Naples is $53 right now.
Have a great trip to Sicily and Taormina! You will love it, especially Taormina.
So many possible variations to this itinerary. I too would suggest starting in Sicily, flying into and out of Catania, especially if you are going to Taormina. Taormina is about 50 min. up the autostrada from Catania. Driving from Naples/Positano will take approximately 8 hours and you will have used a whole day of valuable vacation time (we have done this drive from Sorrento to Taormina). Same with Palermo, too far from Taormina.
Last year we used Windjet between Rome and Catania.
As suggested you can then do a one=way back to Naples and hire a private driver for pick-up and drop=off at the airport.
Also check with your accomodations in Taormina, it may provide on=site parking. If not, as mentioned there are two parking garages, one outside the Messina gate side and one outside the Catania gate side of Taormina.
Posts: 80 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 03 March 2009
Just an FYI, I don't know if this is feasible for not, but your friends could book a separate flight from Tampa to JFK for $200 round-trip, join you on your flight and save about $200 each.
we are looking at that also. Right now it appears we are focused on flight from usa to naples. Bus transport from naples to positano for 3or4 nights. Flight from Naples to catania and a week in sicily with a rental car.Maybe Taoromina for 3 nights and another town for 3 nights. open for suggestions on that one. Fly back from catania or palermo to London(whichever is the best price) and back to the us a couple nights later. What do you think?
Palermo would be my choice for three nights after Taormina. After our three nights in Taormina, we spent two nigthts in Cefalu, before three nights in Palermo. Cefalu was nice, but with just three nights, I would spend it in Palermo - plenty to see with great restaurants - I loved it. About five+ hours by train from Taormina.
cawino is that a typo?? 5 hr train from Taormina to palermo? We will have a rental car and would consider pickup in catania and drop off in palermo for the entire stay so we could see the island. Thought about sarigusa also. maybe 3 nights taormina and 3 nights siragusa to explore that are by car then return to catania for a flight to london with easyjet or ryanair
Five hours from Taormina to Palermo was not a typo, but a quick check reveals that it is closer to 5.5 hours. I checked the Trenitalia web site and it shows departure from Taormina at 09:22 and arrival in Palermo Centrale at 15:00. BTW, we actually stopped an hour short of Palermo and stayed two days in Cefalu which was very nice.
There would be the train from Taormina to Catania in a little under an hour, then the SAIS bus from Catania to Palermo, going just about hourly, taking 2 hrs. 40: http://www.saisautolinee.it/ and Collegamenti Regionali.
We took the bus from Praiano To salerno . Caught train to Taormina. after we left Taormina we rented a car Ortigia,Noto,Caltagrone,Agrigento,Cefalu and then flew back to Naples from Palermo. I avoided driving in Palermo,and we had a great time.
Originally posted by LAWRENCE: we are looking at that also. Right now it appears we are focused on flight from usa to naples. Bus transport from naples to positano for 3or4 nights. Flight from Naples to catania and a week in sicily with a rental car.Maybe Taoromina for 3 nights and another town for 3 nights. open for suggestions on that one. Fly back from catania or palermo to London(whichever is the best price) and back to the us a couple nights later. What do you think?
This might sound a little crazy, but you should consider driving from Positano to Taormina. It would probably take 6-7 hours, but you would be able to see and do lot on the way. And it probably would not take much longer than traveling back to the Naples airport, checking in, waiting for your flight, flying to Catania, picking up a rental car and driving to Taormina. Cheaper, too.
