Is Sicily worth spending this much?

[BufordTJustice]

We are looking to go away child free for a short break(celebrate anniversary). DH has reserved a hotel that costs approx. £500 per night. Parking is an extra £25 per night. I've looked at both the hotel and some information online about Sicily and feel hugely underwhelmed. I thought for this money it would be something special but it just feels like a nice hotel and Sicily looks interesting and again (sorry to over use the word) "nice". Having looked at what's available this seems the standard price for "nice" hotels in Sicily. If you really want top notch / amazing you are looking at 800-1000 per night which is out of the question. Is Sicily amazing? Is it worth the visit at this sort of cost?

Sounds like 2 separate questions.

Is Sicily worth visiting. I've never been, but I'm sure it is.

Is it worth spending £500-1000 per night in a hotel. Some will say yes, some will say no, some won't even consider the question, because they would never spend that amount per night for any hotel.

I'm almost certain that it's possible to visit sicily and spend a lot less on hotel rooms that are perfectly decent, but maybe not 'special'. It's also a question of what you consider 'special' and I'm sure it's very different to what I consider special. Eg, the examples of hotels that would be special to me, and cost £100-£150 pn, so a bit more than I'd normally spend are:

murellaliving.com/

www.bqhoteles.com/en/Hotels/Mallorca-Peguera/BQ-Paguera-Boutique-Hotel

Maybe if hotels in Sicily are more expensive than average, it might be best to save the visit for a less special occasion and just go in a normal hotel, so you don't feel like you've paid a lot for the special option and this time, go somewhere where 'special' costs less?

I'm more of a travelodge woman than a £500/night woman, so can't really answer that question. I have visited Sicily twice, and adore it, so I would definitely go back for a special holiday. I love the food, the scenery, the history, the people. Has Sicily always been on your DH's wish list to visit?

I suppose it depends on where it is, how long you are staying and what you want to do.
Sicily is beautiful, but it is quite big, and few roads are direct ( bloody great volcano in the middle etc) therefore it takes a while to get anywhere.
If you just want the luxury hotel ( which I assume it is at that price) and don't plan on exploring then it doesn't matter where you are. If you want to explore, then what do you want to see, and isit accessible from where you are?

I've been to Sicily and stayed in a hotel for a lot less than £500 a night It was fine - not luxurious, but absolutely fine. However, I did think if I went again I'd stay somewhere a bit more expensive with a good view of Etna. Where are you planning to stay?

I must admit I didn't find Sicily that wonderful, compared to other places I've been. We stayed in Taormina and didn't travel far from the immediate area as we didn't hire a car, so doubtless that would have helped. It was very beautiful and we had a lovely holiday, but personally I'd rather go back to Rome or Malta for a special holiday.

We were married in Sicily so I'm a bit biased! We loved it...much prefer it to Sorrento or Sardinia. It is very expensive though so it's a personal choice as to how much you're willing to spend. If you're interested in architecture, history etc there are some beautiful buildings to see and of course Mt Etna is well worth a visit.
Some restaurants were expensive too but I suppose it's like that everywhere.

If youre going away for a well deserved child free anniversary break and can afford to splash out then why the hell not. Thats an expensive hotel in my book, but how often do you realistically get to do this.
Sicily looks lovely

Have to say I hated Sicily (sorry!). We loved Tuscany and it just seemed so run down compared to that. We did stay in one fabulous place on the trip called Santa Anastasia which was a converted Abbey and it was beautiful and the food was fab. To be fair, it probably didn’t help that the weather was crap and we’d just suffered a miscarriage so weren’t in best frames of mind to begin with!

I was underwhelmed with Sicily. It all seemed very run down and impoverished.

I loved Sicily. We both like volcanoes though and it didn’t cost anything near that price.

For that sort of money I’m suggesting Japan.

We went last summer - it's not as scrubbed up as the Northern part of the mainland but I liked it & it's got some really beautiful & interesting cities, towns & historical sites. That sounds a neck of a lot for a hotel there though! We only paid through the nose (by my standards!) in Taormina which is where a lot of tourists head. It was admittedly really pretty but in August really unpleasantly rammed with tourists which spoiled it a bit for me. The hotels there price wise were in a different league to the other places we stayed! Ortigia, the old part of Syracuse was fantastic, cheap to stay & far feet tourists. A hotel there made the 10 best hotels in Italy in either the Times or Telegraph & was under £100 a night. Might be worth a Google if he's keen on Sicily?

Wow -lots of typo's there!

We stayed in a vary nice hotel in Taormina which I would highly recommend. Think cost about £400 a night for a suite but we managed to fit our family of 4 in there. I absolutely love Sicily and have been to the north, east and a day trip to the south. All quite different. Where are you thinking of staying?

Another one who was underwhelmed by Sicily. Heaps of nicer/more interesting/cleaner places to go in Italy or beyond, and certainly for less £££ than £500/night

Sicily is up there in the list of best holidays I've ever had. But £500 is a lot to spend on a hotel anywhere! If I was spending that much, I'd want to stay in/around the hotel (to get my money's worth!), but then you could be anywhere (IYSWIM).

We stuck to the south eastern corner - Syracuse (the old part) was lovely as mentioned up-thread, as was Modica (amazing hotels in caves!) and a tiny village in the south whose name escapes me. We probably didn't pay more than £100 anywhere.

The one place which was decidedly underwhelming (I thought) was Taormina. It's where ALL the tourists seem to go. It was a nice enough town, but I certainly wouldn't stay there (or pay lots of money to do so).

I'd go to Sicily to see the culture/towns/scenery/hike up the mountain, but if I wanted to go to a luxury hotel I'd go somewhere else.