Seven days in Sicily is just enough time to fall completely in love with this island and not nearly enough to see it all. That tension is exactly what makes a well-crafted Sicily 7 days itinerary so important. Without a plan, you risk spending your precious time in traffic between cities that are further apart than they look on a map. With the right plan, you get ancient Greek temples, volcanic craters, baroque hill towns, crystalline beaches, and some of the best food in the entire Mediterranean.
This guide is built around a classic loop that works beautifully in one week: starting in Palermo, driving south through Agrigento and the baroque southeast, then curving north through Catania, up to Taormina and Etna, and finishing with a day of rest in Cefalù before flying home. It balances culture, nature, food, and sea, without exhausting you in the process.
A rental car is strongly recommended. It gives you the flexibility to stop for the sunset over the Scala dei Turchi, explore a village that doesn’t appear in any guidebook, or linger over a long lunch at a trattoria on a winding country road.
What’s in this guide
- Day 1 — Palermo: arrive, eat, wander
- Day 2 — Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples
- Day 3 — The Baroque Southeast: Noto and Ragusa Ibla
- Day 4 — Ortigia and Syracuse
- Day 5 — Catania and Taormina
- Day 6 — Mount Etna
- Day 7 — Cefalù: slow down before you leave
- Practical tips for your week in Sicily
- Frequently asked questions
Sicily in 7 days — quick overview
- Day 1: Palermo — arrive, explore the old city
- Day 2: Agrigento — Valley of the Temples
- Day 3: Noto + Ragusa Ibla — baroque towns of the southeast
- Day 4: Ortigia / Syracuse — island city and Greek ruins
- Day 5: Catania + Taormina — two cities, one magical evening
- Day 6: Mount Etna — the volcano at the heart of the island
- Day 7: Cefalù — beach, cathedral, slow last morning
Best season: May–June or September–October · Transport: Rental car recommended · Fly in/out: Palermo (PMO) and Catania (CTA) both work
Day 1 — Palermo: arrive, eat, wander
Land in Palermo, pick up your rental car at the airport, and drive straight to the historic centre, but check in to your accommodation first. You’ll want to explore on foot without worrying about where to park. Palermo’s old city is compact, layered, and endlessly surprising, and it rewards slow walking more than any other city in Sicily.
Start your first morning at the Palermo Cathedral, an extraordinary building that layers Arab arches, Norman towers, Gothic decoration and Baroque cupolas into a single, improbable whole. You don’t need to spend more than an hour inside, but do walk slowly around the exterior, the detail is extraordinary. Then make your way to the Palazzo dei Normanni and its Cappella Palatina, a small private chapel encrusted in Byzantine gold mosaics that will stop you in your tracks.
By midday, follow the smell of frying oil to the Ballarò market, one of the oldest and most atmospheric street markets in the Mediterranean. This is where Palermo really lives. Buy a paper cone of panelle (chickpea fritters), try a piece of sfincione (the thick, spongy Palermo pizza), and let yourself get happily lost. We’ve written a full guide to Palermo Street Food if you want to eat your way through it properly.
Spend the afternoon wandering the neighbourhood of Kalsa, past the crumbling palazzi and hidden courtyards that make Palermo look like nowhere else in Italy. By evening, find a table at a local trattoria near Piazza Croce dei Vespri and order pasta con le sarde, sardine pasta with wild fennel, raisins and pine nuts, a dish that tastes of the entire history of this island.
👉SEE THE BEST PALERMO FOOD TOUR HERE
Where to stay in Palermo: The historic centre (Kalsa, Ballarò, or near the Quattro Canti) puts you within walking distance of everything.
Day 2 — Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples
Leave Palermo early , the drive to Agrigento takes about two hours , so you can reach the Valley of the Temples before the heat and the tour groups arrive. This is not a place to rush. The site is larger than most visitors expect: a ridge of ancient Greek temples overlooking the sea, dating back to the fifth century BC, in a state of preservation that borders on the miraculous.
The Temple of Concordia is the centrepiece, one of the best-preserved Doric temples anywhere in the world, and it is astonishing to stand in front of something this old and this intact. Walk the full ridge, past the Temple of Hera, the fallen columns of the Temple of Zeus (which would have been the largest Greek temple ever built), and the almond trees that bloom white in February, turning the whole site into something out of a dream. Plan at least two and a half hours here.
👉SEE THE BEST GUIDED TOUR OF THE VALLEY OF THE TEMPLES
After the temples, drive down into Agrigento’s old town for lunch. It’s a quieter, less-visited city than it deserves to be , the medieval centre has a dignified, slightly melancholy charm, and the trattorias are good and unpretentious. Try the local pasta variety, maccarruneddi, if you see it on the menu.
In the afternoon, if time allows, drive twenty minutes to the coast to see the Scala dei Turchi, the dramatic white limestone cliff that descends in natural terraces into the sea. It is one of the most beautiful and photogenic landscapes in all of Sicily, especially in the late afternoon light. Read our full guide to the best beaches in Sicily for more on both the Scala dei Turchi and the beaches nearby.
Then drive on towards the southeast, stopping for the night in Agrigento or pressing on to Ragusa (two more hours). If you stop in Agrigento, you’ll have an easier morning on Day 3.
Drive time: Palermo → Agrigento: ~2 hours | Agrigento → Ragusa: ~2 hours
Day 3 — The Baroque Southeast: Noto and Ragusa Ibla
The southeastern corner of Sicily was almost entirely destroyed by the earthquake of 1693, and rebuilt from scratch in Baroque style. What emerged from that catastrophe is one of the most coherent and beautiful architectural landscapes in Europe. Eight towns in the area have been listed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and on Day 3 you’ll see two of the finest: Noto and Ragusa Ibla.
Noto is often called the capital of Sicilian Baroque, and its main street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, is a theatrical procession of golden limestone facades, ornate balconies dripping with carved figures of horses, cherubs and Maori, like grotesque faces. It is genuinely one of the most beautiful streets in Italy. Walk it slowly, from the Porta Reale at one end to the cathedral square at the other. The whole town took only forty years to build, and it shows, there is an internal coherence here that older cities never quite achieve.
Have lunch in Noto (the almond granita at Caffè Sicilia is legendary and entirely worth the queue) before driving an hour west to Ragusa Ibla, the older, lower half of the city. Where Noto is grand and theatrical, Ragusa Ibla is intimate and slightly labyrinthine, a tangle of stairways, small piazzas, cats sleeping on warm stone and the smell of jasmine coming from behind garden walls. The Duomo di San Giorgio, which rises dramatically above the town on a broad staircase, is one of the masterpieces of Sicilian Baroque.
Ragusa is also the filming location for the Inspector Montalbano television series, which has a devoted following among British and American viewers , if you’re a fan, you’ll recognise many of the locations.
Stay the night in Ragusa Ibla. It is one of the most atmospheric places to sleep in Sicily, and the restaurants are excellent.
Drive time: Agrigento → Noto: ~2.5 hours | Noto → Ragusa: ~1 hour
Day 4 — Ortigia and Syracuse
Drive an hour north from Ragusa to reach Syracuse, and head straight to Ortigia, the ancient island at the city’s heart, connected to the mainland by two short bridges. This is one of the great small cities of the Mediterranean world, and it deserves a full day.
Ortigia was the original Greek colony, founded in 734 BC, and it has been continuously inhabited ever since. The result is a city that feels genuinely ancient in a way that most Italian cities, despite their history, do not. The streets are narrow and cool even in summer. The Piazza del Duomo , built around a Greek temple of Athena whose columns you can still see embedded in the cathedral walls, is one of the finest squares in southern Italy. The Fonte Aretusa, a freshwater spring that bubbles up right beside the sea, was considered a miracle in antiquity and is still quietly miraculous today.
Spend the morning wandering with no fixed plan. Get lost in the Jewish quarter, explore the covered fish market (the mercato della pescheria), and find a table for a long seafood lunch. Syracuse’s restaurants are excellent and priced more reasonably than Taormina’s.
In the afternoon, cross back to the mainland to visit the Parco Archeologico della Neapolis, where you’ll find the massive Greek theatre (still used for performances in summer), the Roman amphitheatre, and the extraordinary Ear of Dionysius , a vast artificial cave with remarkable acoustic properties, where Dionysius the tyrant is said to have imprisoned his enemies and listened to their conversations from above. The scale of these ruins is staggering.
Stay in Ortigia. Walking back through the old city after dark, when the day-trippers have left and the streets belong to the locals again, is one of the finest experiences this island offers.
Drive time: Ragusa → Syracuse: ~1 hour
Day 5 — Catania and Taormina
Today you drive north along the coast, making a morning stop in Catania before ending the day in Taormina. Catania is often overshadowed by Palermo and Taormina in travel writing, but it’s a genuinely exciting city, rough and real, with one of the best fish markets in Sicily, excellent street food, and a Baroque centre rebuilt entirely in grey-black lava stone after the devastating 1693 earthquake.
Park near the Piazza del Duomo, where the famous elephant fountain stands (the elephant, made from Etna lava stone, is the city’s symbol), and spend two hours exploring the market and the nearby streets. The Pescheria , the fish market behind the piazza, is at its best in the morning: swordfish heads, bright red shrimp, sea urchins cracked open for eating on the spot, and vendors announcing their prices in a Sicilian dialect thick enough to cut. It is alive, vivid and utterly Sicilian.
Then drive an hour north to Taormina and prepare to be seduced. This hilltop town, clinging to a cliff above the Ionian Sea with Mount Etna smoking on the horizon, is probably the most beautiful town in Sicily. The main street, Corso Umberto, is tourist-heavy in summer, but the Greek-Roman Theatre justifies the visit entirely on its own: a perfectly preserved ancient theatre open to the sea and sky, with one of the most dramatic views in Europe. On a clear day you can see Etna’s summit from the stage.
Climb above the theatre to the Castello for even wider views, and then drop down to the beach at Isola Bella, a tiny island connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of sand, for a late afternoon swim. The water here is exceptionally clear.
Stay two nights in Taormina. You’ll need them.
Drive time: Syracuse → Catania: ~1 hour | Catania → Taormina: ~1 hour
Day 6 — Mount Etna
Dedicate Day 6 entirely to Mount Etna. Europe’s most active volcano rises 3,329 metres above the sea and is visible from almost everywhere in eastern Sicily. From Taormina the drive to the southern slopes takes about forty minutes, and from there you have several options depending on your energy and ambition.
The easiest and most popular route starts at Rifugio Sapienza (1,910m) on the southern side. From here, a cable car takes you up to 2,500m, and a 4×4 shuttle then carries you to around 2,900m, leaving a manageable thirty-minute walk to the edge of the summit craters. This route requires no particular fitness, and the landscape, black lava fields, smoking vents, frozen craters , is extraordinary and completely unlike anything else in southern Italy.
If you prefer a more immersive experience, join a guided trekking tour that takes you across the lava flows on the northern side, past the Valle del Bove (a vast depression created by a collapse of the volcano), and to viewpoints that the cable car tourists never reach. The guides know the mountain intimately and their context, about the eruption history, the farmers who repeatedly rebuild on the lava fields, the wines grown on volcanic soil, makes the whole experience richer.
👉SEE THE BEST MOUNT ETNA GUIDED TREKKING TOUR HERE
Before or after the summit, stop at one of the Etna wine estates on the volcano’s slopes. The wines grown here, particularly the Nerello Mascalese reds, are among the most interesting in Italy. The volcanic soil, altitude and temperature variation produce grapes of extraordinary character. A visit to a small producer with a tasting is one of the most pleasurable hours you can spend in Sicily. We mention several in our guide about typical sicilian products.
Practical notes: Take a warm layer, even in summer , it is genuinely cold at 2,900m. Check the volcano’s current activity status before visiting; the summit area is occasionally closed due to eruptions, but the lower trails almost always remain open.
Day 7 — Cefalù: slow down before you leave
The last day calls for something slower. Drive two hours west along the northern coast from Taormina, returning towards Palermo, and stop in Cefalù , a medieval town built at the foot of a massive rock, facing a long sandy beach that is arguably the finest in northern Sicily.
Cefalù has everything: a genuinely beautiful beach with clear shallow water, a perfectly preserved Norman cathedral whose 12th-century mosaics rival anything in Palermo, a labyrinth of medieval streets running between the rock and the sea, and a relaxed, unfussy atmosphere that makes it easier to simply be here than almost anywhere else in Sicily.
Spend the morning at the beach. Then visit the cathedral, where the golden mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the apse is considered one of the finest Byzantine mosaics in the world. Climb at least partway up La Rocca, the massive rock above the town, for views over the rooftops and the sea that you will not forget.
Have a long lunch in the old town. Order fresh fish, Cefalù’s restaurants are reliably good, and a carafe of local white wine.
If your flight is not until the following morning, consider spending the night in Cefalù itself. It is at its most beautiful after the day-trippers leave, when the evening light turns the stone streets amber and the beach is almost empty.
Drive time: Taormina → Cefalù: ~2 hours | Cefalù → Palermo airport: ~1,5 hours
Practical tips for your week in Sicily
When to go
The best months for a Sicily road trip are May, June, September and October. The weather is warm and sunny, the sea is swimmable, and the tourist infrastructure is fully operational without the suffocating crowds and 38°C temperatures of July and August. Spring also brings the island’s wildflowers, the almond trees in the Valley of the Temples, the poppies in the interior, while September offers the grape harvest on Etna’s slopes. If you travel in July or August, book everything well in advance and start sightseeing by 8am before the heat arrives.
Getting around
A rental car is strongly recommended. Sicily has a train network, and it’s possible to reach Palermo, Catania, Syracuse and Taormina by rail, but you’ll miss Agrigento, the baroque towns of the southeast, the Etna wine estates, and every small beach and village off the main routes. Driving in Sicily is not as alarming as its reputation suggests, the roads are good, the drivers are assertive but readable, and the scenery between destinations is some of the best in Italy.
Book your Sicily rental car
Compare prices across all major car hire companies in Sicily, including Palermo and Catania airports, and book in advance to get the best rates. Always select full coverage (zero excess) when booking in Sicily.
👉COMPARE THE BEST RENTAL CARS HERE
Where to stay
For this itinerary, we suggest the following base structure: 1 night Palermo, 1 night Agrigento or Ragusa, 1 night Ragusa, 1 night Ortigia/Syracuse, 2 nights Taormina, 1 night Cefalù. If budget allows, stay in agriturismi (farmhouses) between cities, they offer a completely different experience from hotels and often include exceptional home cooking.
Budget
Sicily is significantly less expensive than northern Italy. A mid-range dinner for two with wine costs €40–60. Entry to the Valley of the Temples is around €15 per person. The Etna cable car and shuttle combined costs around €30. Overall, a comfortable week in Sicily, rental car, mid-range accommodation, restaurant meals, typically costs €800–1,200 per person excluding flights.
What to eat
Do not leave Sicily without trying: arancini, pasta con le sarde, pasta alla Norma, fresh swordfish with capers and olives, granita di mandorla, cannoli (eat them only freshly filled, never pre-filled), and Nero d’Avola wine. Read our complete guide of the Sicilian cousine for everything you need to know about eating well on the island.
Frequently asked questions
Is 7 days enough for Sicily?
Seven days is enough to see the main highlights of Sicily, Palermo, Agrigento, the baroque southeast, Syracuse, Taormina and Mount Etna, if you use a rental car and plan your route efficiently. It won’t be enough to see everything (no single trip ever is), but it will leave you with a genuine and rich sense of the island. If you have 10 days, you can slow down considerably and add Trapani, the Egadi Islands, and a few more beach days.
Do I need a car in Sicily?
For this itinerary, yes. While it’s possible to reach the main cities by train, most of the best places in this route, Agrigento, Noto, Ragusa Ibla, the Scala dei Turchi, the Etna wine estates, and dozens of small beaches and villages, are not well served by public transport. A rental car gives you the freedom to stop, explore and linger that makes Sicily what it is.
What is the best time to visit Sicily?
May–June and September–October are the ideal months. The weather is warm, the sea is swimmable, and the crowds are manageable. July and August are very hot and very busy, especially in Taormina and Cefalù. Winter is mild and quiet, and the Valley of the Temples at Christmas, surrounded by almond blossoms, is unforgettable but some smaller restaurants and accommodation options close.
How do I get to Sicily?
Sicily has two main international airports: Palermo (PMO) in the west and Catania (CTA) in the east. From the US and Canada, you’ll typically connect via a major European hub (London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Rome). From the UK, there are direct flights to both airports from several British cities. For this itinerary, flying into Palermo and out of Catania (or vice versa) avoids backtracking and works perfectly.
Is Sicily safe for tourists?
Sicily is safe and welcoming. The overwhelming majority of visitors have entirely positive experiences. Standard travel precautions apply, keep an eye on your belongings in crowded markets, don’t leave valuables visible in your rental car, and be alert in the busiest tourist areas as you would anywhere in Europe. Sicilians are famously hospitable and genuinely pleased to see visitors taking an interest in their island.
Ready to plan your week in Sicily?
This itinerary covers the essential Sicily, the ancient, the baroque, the volcanic and the coastal in a pace that feels satisfying rather than exhausting. Every destination on this list rewards more time than you’ll have, which means you’ll leave with reasons to return. And you will return.
For more on specific destinations in this itinerary, read our guides to Palermo and the best beaches in Sicily. And if you have questions about planning your trip, get in touch via our contact page , we’re always happy to help.
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