Search hotels in Etna, Italy

Taormina was lively, buzzy and welcoming. Generally clean and lots of sites and facilities. We visited Catania and Saracusa and was also impressed with those as well. The smaller villages were less impresive and ocassionally quite dirty and full of litter.

Giardini is literally a 10 minutes bus ride from Taormina. Much more accessible to get around and a lot less expensive. It offers many dining options, beach (which Taormina doesn't), shopping and larger accommodations.

The town is wonderful and filled with history. we where lucky enough to visit during their carnival, which is something special especially with children. Even the locals are wonderful, mornings in the piazza's are like from a movie, time moving slowly and everyone talking to each other over a coffee. I loved it and looking forward to visit again.

A very nice town, I particularly like the climate, not hot, humid but not too humid. Many options to walk, eat etc. Very close to Aetna and Catania. I do have to want though that Italians in Sicily (don't know about the rest of Italy) are complete Gypsies! They will try to take your money using any trick they can think of! They make you pay for parking (e.g. in Palermo) and for toilets! When you sit in a restaurant or café, they charge you for the service - and if you just take away, they charge you again! In the airport with Ryanair, they made us pay 46 euro to carry the same suitcase we have been carrying in Ryanair from any other destination for free, including the flight to reach Sicily! Ancient Greek spots are too expensive - more than 10 euros each, more expensive than the Acropolis! To visit Aetna's peak with a guide needs 120 euros per person, plus another 55 if you want to see some extra landforms! So be prepared to experience the worst driving behaviour, illegal driving and road network conditions I've seen in all countries I've been to so far! Full of useless roundabouts, signs don't exist in English anywhere, and the network is too confusing for a first timer, even if he is Italian.

Depending what season you are coming, make sure if you will find places open. For example, the surroundings is lovely, but some places didn't open at all on monday and Tuesday and we were just for 4 days there.

This is a nice little town on the slopes of Etna and is especially convenient for visiting the Volcano. It is also close to the eastern coast of Sicily and its beaches whilst various tourist attractions are nearby. A car is almost essential though as public transport from the town is only by bus.

If you are looking for an area that is less touched by tourism but still with plenty of facilities in resort, you can not go wrong. Public transport can take you into Catania (about 40 mins) for historical visit and choice of shopping experiences, but the long flat promenade, excellent restaurants. We dinned mostly at Pellegrino Pizzeria as the stay are so friendly, very good food and very reasonable prices. Walking between AciTrezza and AciCastello is very easy for a change of scenery and there are wide choices of boat trips from the harbour. There are also several diving companies for those looking to go under the water rather than view it on top.

Aci Castello (AC) is located a 15 minute drive from central Catania and therefore is out of the fray, as we say. The AC promenade has stunning scenery and south of AC is home to many lidos i.e., beach resorts. AC is close to Catania City Center, Mt. Etna and Taormina, three must-see attractions. You will need to rent a car or motor scooter as there looked to be very little public transportation in the AC area.

This is a nice hotel with very friendly staff but located in a residential area that had seen better days. All the beaches had volcanic sand which isn't pleasant to walk on or lay on. The sea was quite rough and you would have to be a very confident swimmer to enter the water.

Giarre and neighbouring Riposto are unspoilt small towns with few tourists. We were the only foreigners wherever we ate. La Tavernetta was our favourite. The seafood market in Riposto was a perfect source for the meals we cooked in our suite. Driving in Sicily is fun as long as you copy the locals. Use Apple maps for navigation - Google maps was useless.