Why a Road Trip Around Sicily Should be on Your Family Travel Bucket List

There are so many reasons to go on a road trip around Sicily with your little people. So, don’t be like us. Don’t go on a road trip around Sicily by accident. (Or do be like us and do it by accident. Who cares how you land there, just as long as you do it.)

I’m not always really sure how we pick where it is we end up traveling to. Some times it depends on a certain climate we want, coupled with an available flight. Other times it might be that the length of time we have is what dictates where we go. And then there are still those times when late night fatigue hits one of us and then we convince the other that something that wasn’t even an idea an hour before has suddenly become The Most Incredible Plan Ever. It’s not often that The Most Incredible Plan Ever comes together, so when it does, it seems like destiny has had a hand in it. That’s sort of how our road trip around Sicily happened. Destiny took over. Kind of at least.

See, it wasn’t supposed to be Sicily actually. We had meant to go to Malta. All we had was early April with just ten days. We wanted warm; we wanted to make the most of our short time. And we needed five tickets. We googled this. We googled that. He hunted through article after article, finding each place too cold, too far, too expensive. I looked through FaceBook groups and endless Pinterest boards. And then this little word popped up: Malta. Malta? Yeah, Malta.

It was perfect. It had enough culture and history to keep us enthralled and enough coastline and sunshine to make the littles feel like the days would stretch out forever. (Admittedly, we’re Game of Throne junkies, so that sort of helped too.) One small issue though: we couldn’t get a flight there. But we did find one to Palermo, Sicily. And then out of Malta. And then The Most Incredible Plan Ever became even more incredible when we decided we’d hit up Sicily, ferry to Malta, and then spend a few days exploring that island.

Sounds like a decent plan, right? And it would’ve been. If we had an extra 20 days to execute it. Just getting a ferry from Sicily to Malta was a day in and of itself. At first, we turned a blind eye to how much of an impact that day lost to a ferry at sea would have on us, given we only had ten tiny days to get it done. In an effort to banish this thought from our minds, we started to do a little research. I took Malta; he took Sicily. And then one day we came face to face with each other and face to face with the truth. I wanted more time for Malta. He wanted more time for Sicily. Ten days was not going to be enough.

So, we left it up to fate to decide. (And by fate, I mean American Airlines and British Airways.) We found a flight back home from Palermo, but we couldn’t find any flight into Malta. So the choice was made. We had to drop Malta (I know, I know, it hurt me a lot too) and put all our energies into Sicily. And, to be truthful, even then we didn’t have enough time for Sicily.

That’s how we got to Sicily with our little people. Before we even really knew all the amazing reasons we had to go, we were going. But, as I mentioned earlier, don’t be like us. Don’t go on a family road trip around Sicily by accident when you can go for all the right reasons.

Reason 1: The People

Too often we’ve experienced those looks from people. If you’ve gone out in public anywhere with little people, you know the looks I mean. They usually come accompanied with sighs and eye rolls. Admittedly, some times these looks are warranted, like when a tiny little tries to dart in and around the feet of a herd of fast walkers with hot coffee in their hands. I get it. I really do. Now, I expect it, to be honest. And I expected it in Sicily.

The first steps we took after settling into Sicily were during dusk in Palermo. It was a late evening search for a restaurant open on Easter Sunday. We had a double stroller and three somewhat jetlagged little people, so all three piled in, the tiniest sitting on the lap of the biggest. As we started finding our way through the streets, we noticed heads turn as we walked by, then finally an older man stopped us. He held up three fingers, pointed at the tiny travelers, and opened his mouth in a combination of awe and confusion (perhaps a bit of fear as well).

The next day, before we made it completely out of the front door, we had another stranger stop us with the same peculiar reaction. For a moment, the littles felt like celebrities. As the days carried on, we came to discover that these looks weren’t those looks we had let ourselves get used to. They weren’t eye rolls and grimaces. Looks of pity were gone, replaced with awe and tenderness. Strangers tousled the littles’ hair as they walked by. Servers in restaurants puffed them up with pillows when they fell asleep at the tables.

The people of Sicily were all (and yes I am generalizing, but I literally mean all of them that we encountered) so kind to the little people. They were understanding of their excitement in restaurants, and they were gentle with their tired cries. At no time did I feel lit the littles weren’t welcome or wanted, no matter where we were.

Reason 2: The Size

We had a bit of a struggle with fitting in all of the sites we wanted to see and the places we wanted to play on our ten day road trip around Sicily. But, we still found Sicily to be manageable, for the most part. It was entirely possible to be in the interior mountaintop towns in the morning and the beach by mid day. This meant that just when the littles were hitting a wall, about to burst from too many Cathedrals or ruins, we could whisk them away to less structured, contained environments.

What makes the island even more manageable, in terms of making it from point a to point b, is that the roads are, for the most part, large and easy to navigate. We rarely got lost (unless we ventured off highway and actually followed our GPS, which pretty much wanted us to take roads that had been abandoned decades prior by everything except farm animals). Most importantly though, the roads are sort of a little person’s dream, filled with mountain tunnels and highway bridges that cross the sky from one mountain to the next. This meant that even as the hours of each day passed, their excitement didn’t.

Reason 3: The Cost

Traveling with a brood can get costly. Fortunately, there are always ways of mitigating that cost through choices: in accommodations, in food, in activities. Beyond just making those choices though, Sicily is a relatively inexpensive option when compared with other locations on the Euro. The bulk of our cost was in our accommodations and our car rental, but even these weren’t astoundingly expensive.

Sure, to get a table on the piazza in Siracusa might mean spending a bit more money, but the restaurant’s intentions are clear, even before taking a gander at the menu (and to tell you the truth, the food was excellent and still well worth the money). And the number of options in terms of places to eat, made finding the perfect place to fit our budget easy. We never felt like we were compromising on taste or ambiance regardless of the price of the meal.

The costs of attractions were manageable as well, and we found very few places to actually not be worth the price. Scratch that. We didn’t find any place to not be worth the cost. Then there is the bonus of traveling with such little little people: each attraction we went to was either free for them or steeply discounted. While parking was never free if a car park existed, there seemed to always be plenty of places to park along the roads prior to the entrance that would allow one to park for free (we just didn’t want to drag three little people along a roadway with cars coming and going because the tiniest is a bit of a mischief maker and the Three Kids Dad is a total rule follower).

Reason 4: The Coast

My daughter is a mermaid. I think she’s like a lot of children, all of whom believe they are a mermaid or merman or dolphin or sea monster or just great rock thrower who likes to toss them into the waves while screaming their own version of four-year-old super power words (I’m sure all four year olds do this). With over 1000 km of coastline that is easily and quickly accessible from any part of the island, a road trip around Sicily is like every little person’s dream drive. (This doesn’t even begin to take into account any interior coastlines from rivers or lakes.)

Three seas touch the coast of Sicily: the Tyrrhenian, the Ionian, and the Mediterranean. Along each of these seas are coastal towns and natural preserves welcoming visitors. Whether you’re lookin for a sandy beach, a pebbly beach, or a rocky beach, all exist along the coast of the island. Fortunately, with minimal research and minimal effort, it is possible to be on any one of those beaches rather quickly too.

We, in fact, packed a beach bag separate from our other clothes that we threw into the back of the car. Filled with suits and towels and water shoes, we had this on the ready in case we were lured to the blue waters at any unplanned moment. (I am ashamed to admit, though, that we never did this, but that’s more because it was 60 degrees out. This is one of those things that pained me greatly; actually, it continues to pain me. So, I guess we’ll have to plan to head back when it’s warmer. Great! Decision made! Done!)

Ok, so we didn’t get to swim in any of these amazing, sparkling seas. But, they still were the perfect place to head after a day of driving or being surrounded by civilization. Each beach was different, but that peaceful freedom that comes from being near such large bodies of water was still present at each and it was still a centering, calming influence on the littles.

Reason 5: The Food

I’m going to do my best here to edit down all the things I want too say about the food in Sicily. I could go on for days, I’m sure. I mean, I have spent days just thinking about it since we’ve been back. Let’s start at the predictable though, shall we?

Cannolis? Can I tell you about the cannolis? The sweet ones, the savory ones, the tiny ones, the big ones. The ones in the restaurants and the tiny cafes. I never met one that I didn’t love, and I met a lot. A LOT. They are plentiful, and they are easy to get. Next in the predictable column is gelato. There has never been a tantrum or mood that gelato hasn’t solved. It’s also a really great item for bribery. Just like the cannolis, gelato is everywhere. So maybe it isn’t all of the same quality, but let’s be honest, even bad gelato is good, especially when you’re under six.

Beyond these two little items though, the food is spectacular. The restaurants that this foodie family went to all served some forward-thinking, yet also steeped in tradition, dishes that we still talk about. We’re fortunate in that our children (well at least two of them) enjoy trying new foods and can be a bit adventurous at meals. So it wasn’t always pasta and pizza for them.

Regardless, we never went to a restaurant that didn’t offer our little people some pasta with tomato sauce or butter even without our asking, which was a relief in case they weren’t so adventurous that evening. The pasta (the main food group of little people everywhere) was always fresh and delicious. While this is isn’t significant in and of itself, it was one of those aspects of the island that made us feel welcome. So often when we ask for an easy, plain dish (that isn’t on the menu) to accommodate that day’s picky child, we may get our request, but not without eye rolls and deep sighs. But that simply wasn’t the case in Sicily. There was a kindness in the offering. And that made us feel even more embraced by Sicily.

Road trips can be exhausting, especially when you don’t have the advantage of slow travel (which we certainly did not have on our whirlwind road trip around Sicily). But spending ten days driving around this little island, we found rocky ruins and golden mosaics. There were walks through city streets and breaks in marbled piazzas. We learned of fresh water rivers and the construction of duomos. But, what we left this island with, most of all, is a deep appreciation of the people. (Oh, and a few secret places to throw stones into the sea.)