Anyone been to Sicily with children?

[iloveitalia]

Im hoping to book a week in Sicily with my 11 tl year old daughter in August. We'd like to keep things as reasonable as possible, price wise. Any tips from anyone who has been there before would be gratefully received. We will be flying to Catania.

We stayed in an air bnb in Catania and had a great time - was October just for 4 days on way to Malta and was hot. Took buses which were cheap and ran well including to Taormina . Can’t remember specifics but have also been pre kids backpacking and found it a great island to explore. Going up the volacanos was amazing but depends how hard your daughter is in the heat. In october we managed to do on a budget, lovely produce in the markets in Catania and good variety if restaurants. Taormina expensive. Sorry can’t remember much else but it’s a great Island for all ages

*hardy

This is brilliant information, thank you. It's really helpful and only makes me want to go more! I bet it was brilliant for back packing pre children too. Thank you for taking the time to reply

The question id ask is does it babe to be august? If you love the heat that's great but if not it's going to be pushing the late 30s.

Not been with kids but I stayed in Syracuse and did the SE corner - the Baroque towns of Noto, Ragusa etc. All very pre-teen friendly. Syracuse's old town is preferable to Catania (which is more of a big city) but opposite direction to Etna and Taormina. So depends on what you want to do.

We have friends from Sicily who take their kids back often, and they say August is unbearably hot, even for them. Last couple of years have been worse, of course, like the rest of Europe, with temps regularly over 40. We'd love to go over with them one year but I can't function in that heat!

Yep, has to be August- unfortunately. I have been looking at accommodation and will only consider places with air conditioning. My daughter isn't too bad in the heat- though I know the very high temperatures aren't ideal.

All this info is so useful- appreciate it- thank you everyone .

I went to Sicily for 2 weeks pre-covid with DH- no kids. We started and ended in Palermo though, but did go to Catania. We caught a coach from Catania to Syracuse for the day. Walked around, saw the shops and sights, had a stunning seaside lunch and really enjoyed it as a day trip. Italians seems to love children- so you will be ok. 🙂

Taormina was another day option, which I really wanted to go to, but Mt Etna was grumbling and I'd read it was pricy. Likely more so if staying there though, rather than just as a day trip.

Like most of Italy, Catania has an amazing fruit/veg market. Also a seafood market where swordfish (spada) seemed to be everywhere. Complete with being skinned/gutted on the street.

If you enjoy trying local foods, you will see horse meat on the menu! Something I'd only seen in France before. Clearly not for everyone, but might be worth mentioning to DD beforehand, that on English menus, she might see this as an option.

I visited off season to avoid the heat, so not the peak of summer. There is an ice cream in a bun (or vaguely similar?) which I was told about, but not on sale when I was here. Apparently that is nice, but I can't say either way.

One thing to check is what will be open in August? I thought majority of Italy was on holiday the entire month, so you 'might' find museums, touristy things, cafes etc all shut. Maybe not, but check beforehand and have a fabulous time.