Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GETTING THERE & AWAY
Flights tours, and rail tickets can be booked online at lonelyplanet.com/bookings.
Air
Fares to Sicily fluctuate enormously: tickets are cheapest between November and March and most expensive between
June and September. Holidays such as Christmas, New Year and Easter see huge price hikes. Flight schedules are also
subject to seasonal variations with the number of flights increasing considerably in summer.
Several low-cost airlines serve Sicily from European destinations, including Ryanair (
www.ryanair.com
), easyJet
(
www.easyjet.com
)
, Vueling (
www.vueling.com
)
and TUIFly (
www.tuifly.com
)
.
Airports
Sicily's two main airports serve the island's two biggest cities: Palermo and Catania.
Named after two assassinated anti-Mafia judges, Palermo's
Falcone-Borsellino airport
(PMO; Punta Raisi Airport;
www.gesap.it
)
is at Punto Raisi, 30km west of the city.
Alitalia
(
www.alitalia.com
) , blu-express.com and
Meridiana
(
www.meridiana.it
) operate regular flights to/from most mainland Italian cities; Ryanair, Vueling and
Air Berlin
(
www.airberlin.com
) are among the low-cost carriers serving London, Barcelona and Berlin.
Just 7km outside Catania,
Fontanarossa airport
(CTA;
www.aeroporto.catania.it
) is served by up to 31 national and
international airlines with connections to 13 Italian cities and destinations across Europe.
Sicily's third-busiest airport,
Vincenzo Florio airport
(TPS; Birgi Airport;
www.airgest.it
) , is 15km south of Trapani
at Birgi and is commonly known as Birgi. Ryanair serves three dozen destinations throughout Italy and Europe, including
Brussels, London, Manchester, Rome and Stockholm. Other airlines serving domestic Italian destinations from Birgi in-
clude Alitalia,
Air One
(flyairone.com) and
Darwin
(
www.darwinairline.com
)
, which fly to Rome, Milan and Pantelleria
respectively.
Land
Car & Motorcycle
Driving to Sicily is an arduous and expensive task. In terms of budget, you'll need to account for the cost of toll roads and
the fact that Italian fuel prices are among the highest in Europe. Your journey time will depend on where you catch the
ferry from - Genoa, Civitavecchia, Naples or Villa San Giovanni.
The shortest ferry crossing is between Villa San Giovanni on the toe of the Italian mainland and Messina, but to get to
Villa San Giovanni you will need to drive the toll-free A3 autostrada from Salerno.
From the French or Swiss borders you should allow for about 17 hours' driving but only if you keep to the motorways,
go flat out (remember that the speed limit in Italy is 130km/h) and avoid traffic, which is something of a vain hope in the
summer holiday period (July and August).
Once on Sicily a car or motorbike is a major plus but it is probably easier to hire one than to take your own.
