Car hire in Sicily

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Is it ridiculously expensive?
Any recommendations?
What's the local driving like?

Sorting car hire is wildly expensive in Italy.
I’d book it with your flights if possible. Most low cost airlines offer it as an additional service.
If not, I’d recommend Maggiore or (something)Blu butI’ve only used them for van hire.

Yes’m Amicoblu is only van hire, so Maggiore would be my recommendation.

Sicily, like all Italy, has cities that were not built for cars so your driving will definitely be put to the test. Personally I’d avoid parking anywhere but an official car park with CCTV; Sicily is poor and a nice new car parked in a backstreet might be tempting. But the landscape is amazing (have you seen the Montalbano TV series?) and I’d do a road trip around Sicily tomorrow!

https://www.thewholeworldisaplayground.com/renting-a-car-in-sicily/

Not Sicilly, but in Sardinia we hire when we get there, small local company, via the hotel we stay in. Much cheaper than the International companies. Driving in Italy is fab. We have driven our own cars down too, many times, and it's a fab experience. Hairy at times, but fun.

Also book the smallest car you can. The roads are narrow and twisty so you absolutely do not want a big car.

Have driven in Sardinia and it was fine.
Think i need to pre book though as will need to get from airport to accommodation when we arrive

Good point thanks 👍

I used a comparison site to book sixt, was reasonable for a week

Ooo thanks 😊

Whatever you do do not book with Sicily By Car...! Our worst car hire experience ever! They are cheaper for a reason. This year we went with Budget and had no issues whatsoever.

Photograph the car from all angles - inside & out - when you collect it ; concentrate on any damage.
We had a big row when we returned ours as they wanted to charge for damage allegedly caused by us. They even argued that the pics were fake !
We won, but it was very unpleasant.

We hired a car there last year. There is a fb group for Sicily that is really helpful and advised we steer very clear of some of the small local car hire firms who pull some expensive stunts to catch out tourists. It was very expensive but some amazing drives and meant we could get to some really interesting places.

No experience of hiring a car but having got back from Sicily yesterday, I am still recovering from being driven lol. Very scary and obviously the locals are confident but local roads are very narrow and twisty with cars parked each side. Good luck! Apart from that it's stunning x

Flights are with Ryan Air & looks like best prices are here by adding on here in the app.

Noted. Thanks 🙏

Take all the advice above. We’ve just got back from Sicily, the driving and parking made Jeremy Clarkson’s driving look like “a maiden aunt out for a Sunday afternoon jaunt”. Apologies to all maiden aunts.

Shit. This isn't sounding great!

OMG definitely book a small car or it won't fit down the streets. I hope you also have nerves of steel for parking on steep hills next to a huge drop and in a very tight space.

That said it is a beautiful island and you can see a lot more with a car. I've done three Sicily road trips and am now pining for another

Problem is there are 5 of us. So I don't think a small car is going to cut it. We'll need to get us & all our stuff to the accommodation. We will also want to get about the island quite a bit while we're there.

We are experienced & confident drivers. But some of the comments on this thread are making me wonder if Sicily is particularly worse than anywhere else?

Have happily driven all over UK & in other European countries.

The places I have been worried about driving & let others drive me, have been South America, Africa
& SE Asia.

Sardinia was absolutely fine. Was thinking it might be like that.. but maybe I'm wrong...???

Please don't let this thread put you off! Some drivers ARE lawless but not all and as long as you're a confident driver and have your wits about you you'll be fine! Having your own car is the only way to do Sicily imo. Well worth it. Honestly we found driving in Paris and Nice just as crazy!

Re small car- Italians would just pile an implausible number of people into the small car, like thee adult men in the back of a fiat 500.

If you book a full size car you may need to think harder about where you drive it, ie leave it on the edge of town for any old villages. Otherwise you will literally find yourself in a tight spot.

I didn't encounter any dangerous driving and the road in the interior are quite empty. But I didn't drive into Palermo, I can imagine that being chaotic (having seen traffic in Rome- it's not for the uninitiated)

Motorway and dual carriageway traffic is calm and well regulated in Italy.
It’s when you get into towns that people drive erratically because they know where they’re going and have their minds on other things or are in a rush.

It used to be possible to spot a non-local by their numberplates and they’d be given greater courtesy on the roads. Now it’s a free for all.
I’ve driven in Rome quite easily but Naples was hair raising- I basically had to drive through crossroads at walking speed because people were still crossing after the previous red light, and so on until it reset every three changes.

I’d imagine Palermo to be similar but between towns you’ll be fine. Italian workers’ rush hours are 7:30-8:30 and 5-6 but schools are closed now until September.

Ha! I find driving round the outskirts of Paris quite full on!

We are going to be in a small mountainous town for some of the time, so will be careful where we end up!