Hey guys! My name is Chris and I am thinking about a short trip to Catania just before Christmas around 16 Dec, 2026Â -Â 18 Dec, 2026 - would anyone be able to host me perhaps?
I would usually use Couchsurfing for this, but sadly I am not getting any replies at all anymore on the CS site since their horrible update... you can check my 600+ references still here hopefully: https://www.couchsurfing.com/c/users/Chris_1984
We have previously really enjoyed group boat trips in other parts of Sicily (e.g. Castellamare del Golfo to Lo Zingaro, or from Trapani to Favignana) that fitted the bill of being a small group (10 people or under), with lots of swim stops and tanning space on the boat for everyone, and with lunch and some drinks included.
We are now trying to find similar options from Salina (Malfa) and from Lipari, but are struggling. Most boats seem to take c. 20 people (if not more) and have crammed bench sitting rather than tanning space, and they seem to not include any food/drinks and just drop you off at ports for you to eat. The number of swimming stops they quote also seems low to me for full day trips.
Am I missing something? Is there some incredible provider of small group boat tours in either island that I haven’t found / haven’t been able to see from the information online how good their tour could be? The options seem to be either what I described above or a private tour, which doesn’t make sense for us since we are only two people.
Any recommendations will be extremely gratefully received!
I am planning my trip to Sicily this fall (26.09. - 07.10.). I am renting a car and traveling to multiple locations.
On 01.10. I am moving from San Vito to Agrigento. I had initially planned to stop for lunch in Sciacca and maybe visit the castle there, but then I found Caltabellotta. It looks really spectacular, but I'm wondering if driving there as a tourist (with 20+ years driving experience and some small village roads in Germany as well as single track roads in Scotland under the belt) would be too difficult.
I checked all the roads via Street View, also to see which ones might be one-way even if Google Maps claims otherwise.
My plan was to drive to the parcheggio at the cattedrale, hike up the pizzo (or halfway at least), then drive to the monastery over the Via San Pellegrino, and then down and out of the town again.
(Here you see the route, from middle bottom to the Parking top right corner, to the left, and back again in a loop). Is this doable?
Next question: to get to Caltabellota I could either take the E90 down to Castelvetrano and then the SS115, and the SP37 for the last bit to Caltabellotta, or I could take the scenic route - SS624, SS188, SP37. For the last 20 km or so, the SP37 looks very narrow and winding. I am sure the drive time Google Maps calculates is overly optimistic and I would have to add at least 20-30 Minutes in the estimate.
Would you recommend taking that scenic route or better the easy one?
My plan is to leave San Vito at 8, arrive at Caltabellotta by roughly 11, spend 4 hours there, then drive to the Belvedere Scala dei Turchi so I can take photos in the golden hour, and then move to my accommodation near Agrigento (Villagio Mosè). With the Caltabellotta stop it would be ~220 km for that day - which doesn't sound much on paper but could get a lot with how narrow the roads are.
