Sicily without a car in 7 days

Yes, this is possible — but be honest about one leg

Sicily is built around driving, and most of this site’s itineraries assume a rental car. This one deliberately doesn’t, because a genuine subset of visitors don’t want to deal with ZTL cameras, motorway tolls or hunting for parking in a walled old town. Palermo, Cefalù, Syracuse, Catania and Taormina all sit on Sicily’s rail network and connect reasonably well. The one honest exception is Agrigento to Syracuse, which has no useful direct train — more on that below. If a car sounds easier after reading this, Sicily by car or by public transport compares both properly, and Sicily on a budget in 7 days covers similar ground with a tighter daily spend.

Best for	Non-drivers, budget trips, anyone who wants to avoid ZTL and parking entirely
Getting around	Trenitalia regional trains + long-distance coaches (Cuffaro, SAIS, Interbus)
Total budget guide	Around 450-650 € per person for a week, transport and food included, excluding flights
Car needed	No — deliberately built around trains and buses

Day 1 — Palermo

Morning and afternoon: Land in Palermo and use the day for the old town: Quattro Canti, the Cappella Palatina, and Ballarò market for lunch straight from the stalls. Everything on this stretch is walkable.

Evening: Settle into a base near the old town or the central station (Palermo Centrale) — you’ll be leaving from there tomorrow, and staying close saves a taxi in the morning.

Day 2 — Cefalù, a day trip by train

Morning: Trenitalia regional trains run from Palermo Centrale to Cefalù in about an hour, frequently enough to do this as a day trip without pre-booking far ahead. Climb (or don’t) La Rocca, the headland above town, and walk the medieval core around the Norman cathedral.

Afternoon: Cefalù’s beach sits right against the old town — a genuinely easy, no-car beach afternoon that most of Sicily’s coastline doesn’t offer without a drive. If you’re tired, cut this: stay in Palermo an extra day instead and do Monreale by city bus, which needs no train at all.

Evening: Train back to Palermo, or stay overnight in Cefalù if you’d rather start Day 3 from there — either way, you’ll need to get back toward Palermo Centrale or transfer via Termini Imerese for the next leg south.

Day 3 — Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples

Morning: The bus (Cuffaro or SAIS, roughly two hours) is genuinely a better option than the train for Palermo-Agrigento — the train exists but takes considerably longer with a change. Drop bags near the town center and head straight for the Valley of the Temples, a UNESCO archaeological park with some of the best-preserved Greek Doric temples outside Greece itself.

Afternoon: Budget a full three to four hours for the Valley of the Temples — it’s a large site, mostly uncovered, and genuinely hot with little shade from late spring through early autumn. Book a guided Valley of the Temples and old town tour if you’d rather have context than an audio guide.

Evening: Overnight in Agrigento — this sets up the honest hard leg tomorrow, and arriving fresh in the morning makes it considerably less painful.

Day 4 — The hard leg: Agrigento to Syracuse

Morning: Take the bus or train from Agrigento toward Catania (roughly two hours), then change onto a regional train to Syracuse (about an hour more). This is, honestly, the one day on this itinerary where a car would save real time — everything else on this route is reasonably efficient by rail.

Afternoon and evening: Arrive in Syracuse by mid-to-late afternoon and settle into Ortigia, the small island old town connected to the mainland by two short bridges — walkable in its entirety, and worth basing yourself here rather than in modern Syracuse. A slow evening walk to Piazza Duomo, built directly onto the columns of an ancient Greek temple, is a gentle way to end a long travel day. Book a guided tour of Ortigia and the Neapolis archaeological park for tomorrow.

Day 5 — Syracuse, Ortigia and Noto

Morning: The Neapolis archaeological park, a short walk or bus ride from Ortigia, holds the Greek theatre and the Ear of Dionysius limestone cave — budget two to three hours here before the midday heat sets in.

Afternoon: Take a bus (about an hour) to Noto, the best-preserved of the Val di Noto’s eight Baroque towns rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake. The honey-gold limestone facades along the Corso look genuinely different depending on the light, so a late-afternoon arrival is no accident. Join a combined Syracuse, Ortigia and Noto tour if you’d rather not manage the bus timetable yourself.

Evening: Bus back to Syracuse for the night, or stay in Noto if your schedule allows — it’s a small, walkable town and a genuinely pleasant place to spend an evening once the day-trip buses have left.

Day 6 — Catania

Morning: Regional train from Syracuse to Catania takes about an hour. Catania feels different immediately — black volcanic stone instead of golden limestone, a working port city rather than a curated old town.

Afternoon: Walk the Pescheria fish market (mornings only — it winds down by early afternoon) if your train gets you in early enough, then the Baroque core around the cathedral and Via Etnea. Book a private walking tour of Catania with a local.

Evening: Catania’s nightlife runs later and looser than most Sicilian cities — the university population keeps bars open past what smaller towns manage.

Day 7 — Taormina, and departure

Morning: Regional train from Catania to Taormina-Giardini Naxos takes under an hour, though Taormina’s actual town center sits on a hill above the station — a local bus (the Interbus shuttle) covers the last stretch, since walking up is a genuine uphill slog with luggage.

Afternoon: Walk Corso Umberto, the Greek-Roman theatre with Etna framed behind its stage, and the viewpoint down to Isola Bella if time allows.

Money and pacing notes

Buy long-distance bus tickets a day or two ahead where you can — some routes sell out in peak season, particularly Palermo-Agrigento on weekends. Trenitalia regional tickets don’t need advance booking and are inexpensive; validate paper tickets at the small green machines on the platform before boarding, since an unvalidated ticket can technically be treated as invalid by an inspector. Our Sicilian trains guide and buses guide cover both networks in more depth, and day trips you can do by train is useful if you want to adapt this itinerary further.