steve_Australia

Hello fellow Fodorites,
It's been a long time between trips due to us all being thrust into the world of COVID. However, my wife and I are now back on the horse after a number of local driving trips in our native Australia!

We are easing back into travelling through Europe by taking a 14 night cruise around the Mediterranean, but firstly will spend several nights in Rome, then on to the east coast of Sicily for 7 nights, and then a few nights in Malta. We will then spend another night in Rome before making our way to Civitavecchia for the cruise.

We are very familiar with Rome, but this will be a first for either Sicily or Malta. We are aware that Sicily deserves a lot more time than 7 nights but family commitments have restricted us to our shorter stay. My research suggests that we fly into Catania and restrict our visit to sights around that city and the east coast only, saving the rest of Sicily for another time. Because we plan to visit Noto, we would also like to go on to Pozzallo and ferry to Malta for 2 nights before heading back to Rome.

So, our questions: Can someone suggest an Itinerary for both Sicily and Malta, outlining a few accommodation bases in Sicily and one in Malta (including suggested self-contained apartments, hotels etc) as well as some Must See sightseeing?

Thanks in advance and we hope you and your families have managed to weather the COVID storm these past 3 years

KayF

Hello from another Australian who has been enjoying our own country more than normal. We are so lucky to live here We had a trip years ago to Malta and Sicily and loved Malta. To us, it was much better than Sicily but everyone is different. You say you are going to Malta for 2 nights, that only gives you one day. I'd say for such a short time, don't go. It's a lot of travel. Maybe do Malta another time unless you wanted to extend you stay in Malta a bit.

On Malta, we stayed in Valletta which was very picturesque with an enormous amount of history. On Sicily we stayed in Ortigia, Taormina and Lipari and we loved the last two places the most. Another place I thought was amazing was Villa del Casale near Piazza Armerina. The mosaics were beautiful.

We did look into the ferry from Pozzallo but booked flights to Catania with Air Malta in the end. It was a much quicker journey though our luggage did continue on to London without us. Try comparing time spent with ferry or flights, including getting to the airport/ferry terminal, time spent on flight/ferry and getting to your accommodation at the other end. Flight time was about 30 mins - my kind of flight.

steve_Australia

Hi KayF - thanks for the prompt reply. And yes, Australia is in many ways the Lucky Country!
Your information is interesting and we haven't booked anything with regard to Sicily or Malta yet so we may change the number of nights. We just didn't want to short change Sicily either so will have to do some more research.
With regard to the ferry, that was mainly from Sicily to Malta because we had already planned to be close to Pozzallo. As far as returning to Catania the flight sound a good idea. During our research it was mentioned that you could catch a ferry back to Pozzallo and then take a bus to Catania but the flight sounds easier. We will, however, need our luggage for the cruise the next day
Thanks again for your suggestions - and happy travelling around OZ.

neckervd

As you have just 6 days, your Sicilian itinerary seems to be given:
Catainia airport - Taormina - Catania - Siracusa/Ortigia - Noto (with or without the Roman villa south of Marina di Noto) - Modica - Ragusa - Pozzallo.
As to Malta, all depends on your interest for the various archeological sites.
Valletta is the bus hub for the whole Island.
A day trip to Gozo is easy too..

john183

We did an itinerary fairly close to yours (we had a couple more days in Sicily) when we did a whirlwind trip to Sicily, Malta and Greece in 2017. We don’t usually do this kind of fast paced trip, but we really enjoyed it. The ferry to Malta arrived at 11 AM and our flight to Athens left at 4:35 PM two days later so we had a total of about two days there. Below is a link to a very brief description of our trip and post #15 has a link to some pictures.

Sicily, Malta, Santorini and Athens Spring of 2017

HappyTrvlr

We spent more time in Sicily than you did, but on the eastern side our very favorite place was Ortigia, the historic island of Siracusa. We spent a full week thete and could have stayed longer.
Our least favorite place in Sicily was Taormina due to the mobs of cruise ship tours. Perhaps that is different now. The setting is beautiful but it was hard to enjoy with the crowds.

steve_Australia

Thanks for the latest replies, we very much appreciate your help.

Neckervd:
Your itinerary sounds perfect and pretty much where we wanted to base ourselves. Due to other posts we are now reconsidering the number of days breakdown for each country, but your itinerary helps. It appears that Malta is worthy of more than a quick day trip so we need to reassess.

John183:
I'm with you. Our previous trips to Europe have been 8 or 9 weeks, back in BC (Before Covid), BG (Before Grandchildren) and when we were both working, and had plenty of leave owed to us. Ha ha.
We basically booked the cruise for a nice easy getaway but found we still had close to 2 weeks we didn't need to be home so that's when we decided to add Sicily and Malta. I look forward to reading your TR and looking at your Pics.

HappyTrvlr:
Firstly, I like the name! We are always at our happiest when travelling - it's the only way to go.
We will definitely visit Ortigia and Siracusa. Taorimina may not be a problem for us because circumstances, and the cruise, mean that we will be in Sicily in October. Hopefully the crowds will be significantly less.

HappyTrvlr

We were in Sicily in October to avoid the heat.