A Week in Sicily for People Who Don't Want a Resort
Most Sicily guides start with Taormina and work backwards. This one doesn't, because I didn't go to Taormina and I don't think you need to either — but I will be heading there next trip and happy to update with our experiences.
What I did instead was land in Palermo, eat my bodyweight in arancine, drive west to Trapani, find a beach town on the north coast that barely appears in English-language guides, and take boats to islands with water so clear they made me reconsider every beach holiday I'd ever taken. We spent 4 weeks in Sicily and could easily have spent twice the time in each location, and it was one of the best months of travel I've had. We traveled with a close friend with Sicilian heritage and almost none of what we did appeared on the lists I'd read before going.
Here's how I'd do it again.
Palermo: Start With the Chaos
Palermo is not a beautiful city in the way that Florence is beautiful. It's chaotic, loud, crumbling, occasionally confronting, and always, as the locals say, “pazza”. It is also, without question, one of the most alive places I've ever been.
You go to Palermo for the food, and specifically for the street food. The city (one of the most conquered cities in Europe) has a market culture that runs deeper than tourism — Ballarò, Vucciria, and Capo are working markets where Palermitans actually shop, argue, and eat. The stalls are where you learn what Sicilian food really is, and it's not what most Italian restaurants in Australia serve you.
Arancine. I need to talk about the arancine. These are deep-fried rice balls — stuffed with ragù, or butter and ham, or spinach, or whatever the vendor feels like that morning — and they are, without exaggeration, one of the great street foods on earth. They cost a couple of euros. They are the size of your fist. You will eat three before you realise you've had lunch. In Palermo, they're called arancine (feminine, round) rather than arancini, and locals will correct you if you get it wrong. Let them. They're right.
Beyond the markets: walk the old town, let yourself get lost in the side streets, look up at the Arab-Norman architecture that reflects centuries of invasion and reinvention. Visit the Palazzo dei Normanni if you want structured culture. Visit the Teatro Massimo and if you have the time, see a show there. But honestly, Palermo is at its best when you have no plan and just follow the noise.
Three nights in Palermo is enough. Longer than that and the intensity can wear you down. It's a city for eating, walking, and absorbing — not for relaxing (or driving – see “pazza”, above).
Trapani: The Western Tip Nobody Expects
From Palermo, drive west. There’s a handy bus that easily takes you there from the main terminale (train station) in Palermo. In about two hours you'll reach Trapani, which sits on a sickle-shaped peninsula jutting into the sea at Sicily's far western point. It's a place most tourists skip entirely on their way to the more famous Erice up on the mountain. That's a mistake (but also, you have to see a sunset from Erice as well).
Trapani's old town has been beautifully restored — pedestrianised streets, baroque facades, small piazzas that fill with locals in the evening, and incredibly hospitable hosts, proud of their buildings and of their town. The town is narrow enough that you can see the sea on both sides from some streets. It's intimate in a way that Palermo isn't, and the pace drops noticeably. The locals celebrate a festival of cous cous and their seafood and ice cream are unforgettable. Try the “caldo e freddo”. You won’t regret it.
What I remember most about Trapani is the wind. The western tip of Sicily catches weather off the open Mediterranean, and on the days we were there it blew hard enough to empty the waterfront promenades and send café umbrellas sideways. I loved it. The town felt raw and honest — not arranged for visitors, just getting on with being a place.
The walk out to the Torre di Ligny at the very tip of the headland is worth doing, especially at sunset. The tower is a 17th-century Spanish defensive structure that now houses a small museum, but the real point is standing at the edge of Sicily looking out at nothing but open water.
Trapani is also where you'll find the salt pans — shallow coastal pools where sea salt has been harvested for centuries. The flat white fields with their old windmills are striking, particularly in late afternoon light. Drive south along the coast road toward Marsala for the best views.
Use Trapani as your base for island day trips. The ferry port is right in town, and the Egadi Islands are less than an hour away by hydrofoil.
The Egadi Islands: Take the Boat
The Egadi archipelago sits just off Trapani's coast, and a day trip here was the highlight of the whole trip.
Favignana is the largest and most accessible of the three — about 25 minutes by hydrofoil from Trapani. The island is small enough to explore by bicycle in a day, and the swimming coves are the kind of ridiculous turquoise that you assume has been edited in photographs until you see it in person. Cala Rossa is the famous one, and it earns its reputation. Rent a bike at the port, ride out to the beaches, swim in water so clear you can count the stones on the bottom, and eat fresh seafood for lunch back in the harbour town.
Levanzo and Marettimo are quieter and less developed. If you want solitude and don't mind fewer facilities, these are where you go.
The hydrofoil services run frequently in summer (Liberty Lines operates the route — book online or at the port). A return ticket is cheap and the crossing is quick. There is no reason not to do this. Even better, book a small speedboat with a local driver; your itinerary can adjust as needed for the conditions or the crowds and the crystal clear water you will experience is breathtaking.
Capo d'Orlando: The Beach Town That Isn't in the Guides
After the western tip, we drove south east to Raguso, and used this as a base to visit Syracuse, Avola, and even Etna. The Greek ruins at Agrigento are an institution, and it’s well worth stopping for the mussels in bread at Il Gattopardo Trattoria in the Castello di Donnafugata in town. The proprietors are so hospitable, we were given house Amaro everywhere we went, which in Sicily is an amazingly bitter orange digestif you won’t regret.
The trip up Etna was amazing and worth a post in its own right. After Ragusa, we took a driver to take us north to the north-east coast of Sicily to Capo d'Orlando, a small seaside town between Cefalù and Messina that barely registers in English-language travel guides. That's exactly why I'm including it.
Capo d'Orlando is where Sicilians go to the beach. It's not a resort town — it's a real place with a real economy and a long stretch of coastline that gets busy with local families in summer but never approaches the saturation of Taormina or Cefalù. The beach is good, the water is clean, the fish plentiful, the restaurants serve simple, fresh seafood, and nobody is trying to sell you a guided experience.
What I liked about it was the normality. After the intensity of Palermo and the windswept beauty of Trapani, Capo d'Orlando felt like a place to just be on holiday rather than be a tourist. We swam, ate, read books, and watched the sunset while drinking fresh Aperols. Some days, that's exactly what you want.
From Capo d'Orlando, you're also well positioned for a day trip to the Aeolian Islands — the volcanic archipelago visible from the coast on clear days. Boats run from Capo d'Orlando's marina and from nearby ports. The Aeolians are a world of their own: Lipari, Vulcano, Stromboli, Salina. Each island has its own character, and even a single day trip gives you a taste of how different they are from mainland Sicily.
How to Put It Together
Here's a rough structure for a week:
Days 1-3: Palermo. Arrive, eat everything (but especially the arancine), walk the markets, absorb the chaos. Aim for three nights depending on your tolerance for intensity.
Days 3-5: Trapani. Drive west. Explore the old town, visit the salt pans, take the hydrofoil to Favignana for a day. Two nights minimum.
Days 5-7: Capo d'Orlando (or the north coast). Drive along the northern coast. Beach time, Aeolian Islands day trip, slow meals, decompression.
Fly out from Catania (about 90 minutes east of Capo d'Orlando) or loop back to Palermo; or take the train back to Rome.
Practical Notes
Many others say hire a car. The locals don’t. Despite what others may say, it is not a place for the faint-hearted or directionally-challenged to drive. Maybe if you have a Fiat Bambini (you’ll know what we mean when you get there) or a Vespa, but otherwise we would not hire a car again. It’s easy enough to book a driver in advance or to rely on the inter-city trains or buses to get where you need to go. The Sicilian villages are not places you want to be heading the wrong way up a one-way street, going into a traffic-prohibited zone, or wondering exactly how many miles over the limit is acceptable as you fly by traffic while other traffic flies by you. The roads are generally fine — occasionally chaotic in Palermo, but open and easier once you're on the coast. Parking in old towns can be tight; look for designated car parks on the edge and walk in.
Look for the amazing ceramics and pottery. Towns like Caltagirone, and Santo Stefano di Camastra, have amazing ceramics shops where you can see the locals painting their pottery wares for sale. You can find almost anything and generally at reasonable prices (if you can ship it home or safely escort it in your luggage).
Book accommodation with character. Skip the chain hotels. Sicily has extraordinary B&Bs, boutique hotels, and apartment rentals in old town buildings. In Trapani especially, staying inside the old town on foot from the port makes everything easier.
Eat where locals eat. This sounds like a cliché until you're in Sicily and realise how stark the difference is. The tourist-facing restaurants near major sights are mediocre at best. Never eat in the main square or “piazza”. Walk two streets away and the quality transforms. Look for places with handwritten menus, daily specials, and no English translation — or at least, a translation that looks like it was done by the owner rather than a professional.
Go in shoulder season. Late September through October, or May through early June. The weather is still warm, the water is swimmable, the crowds are manageable, and the prices drop. Peak summer in Sicily is hot, crowded, and expensive. Avoid August entirely if you can — half of Italy is on holiday and the island strains under the weight.
The Honest Version
Sicily is not a beach holiday. It's stimulating, energetic, occasionally chaotic, and consistently extraordinary. The food and wine is some of the best in Italy and that makes it among the best in the world. The history is layered and visible everywhere. The coastline is genuinely world-class. And the further you get from the well-known destinations, the better it gets.
Skip Taormina. Eat the arancine. Take the boat to Favignana. Find the beach town that nobody told you about. That's the Sicily worth coming for.
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