Cycle Tours in Sicily

Biking tours
in Sicily

History, food, wine &
cycling: what a mix!

intro
catalog
highlights
useful info
weather

Welcome to Sicily

To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

after visiting the island in 1787

Sicily is a special place. In the hearth of the Mediterranean - and in a strategical position - since prehistory Sicily has known several civilizations. Each one has left a layer of culture, architecture, but also food and wine traditions. And a huge social complexity that makes any trip special to us in search of authenticity.

Geography makes Sicily a great environment for us cyclists too, with a huge variety of routes and different cycling conditions. From flat to rolling hills, up to the huge - 3000m high - Etna volcano. And what about the mild Mediterranean weather?

We don't - off course - dislike having a lovely cappuccino or food stop in a small old village on our rides. And Sicily is unbeatable in it: there are so many little villages where enjoying the warm local hospitality and the typical Sicilian slow pace life. And food is top!

We aknowledge that to know Sicily you'll need one life, and maybe it's not even enough. But selecting the right biking tour, will make you have a good insight of this fantastic land and of the cycling it offers.

Want to go for a fixed base location and ride from there? We arrange unforgettable bike holidays from our base in Letojanni. We're open year round!

Meet Simone

Our tour designer for Sicily

Get in touch by email, phone or reserve a video call with us.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

OUR CYCLE TOURS IN SICILY

Highlights from our rides

Because it's not just cycling

Taormina, the pearl of the Mediterranean

Discover a Sicilian jewel-town

Perched on a cliff, it features Greek and Roman remains and a lovely historical town.
Etna, the tallest active volcano in Europe

Enjoy an epic ride up to 2000m

A real must-do for cyclists on the east coast of Sicily. Its impressive profile, visible from very long distance, is an invitation to reach the top.
Do you fancy some arancini?

The Sicilian gourmet street food

Sicily is famous for this fine and tasty street-food. For us cyclists it can be the best quick lunch while on a ride. If you're able to stop eating a second, or a third!
Lovely eastern coastline

The most varied cycling area in Sicily

Sicily's east coast features fome of the best views in the island, and for sure the most varied cycling, from the up and downs, to medium or super long ups.
Breakfast with the Godfather

A cappuccino you can't refuse

If it's good for Francis Ford Coppola, is good for us too. So let's have a cappuccino break at this pictoresque location from the Godfather movie.
The hairpin paradise

Let's loose the count of corners in the inner roads

Coastline roads are amazing, but we're cyclists and we love riding inland on winding up and downs. We won't be disappointed here around Letojanni!

Are you interested
in visiting Sicily?

Find out why you should, when and where!

When is the best time for cycling?

In Sicily, thanks to the mild climate, you can cycle all year round. Together with the good availability of flights to the two international airports (Catania and Palermo), we can say that the concept of the cycling season is quite broad.

In the coldest months (January/February), the average temperature ranges between 8 and 15 degrees Celsius along the coast and between 6 and 10 degrees Celsius inland. On Mount Etna, temperatures are lower and similar to those in the Alps: 0 degrees Celsius and frequent snowfall. We therefore recommend cycling along the coast or nearby.

The best time for biking starts between March and April and lasts until the beginning of November.

Although it is possible to have a great holiday in Sicily during the summer, July and August have some disadvantages compared to the other months: the main problems are the high temperatures (they can reach 40 degrees centigrade)and the roads can be crowded with tourists especially nearby the touristic resorts. These issue can be worked out selecting the early hours for the rides.

Another typical problem is the unavailability of hotel rooms for a single night during the busiest part of the season. This makes it problematic to offer an itinerary from June to mid-September, which is why we usually organise our itineraries outside the bathing season.
What's the best cycling area in the region?

Geography makes Sicily a great environment for us cyclists too, with a huge variety of routes and different cycling conditions. From flat to rolling hills, up to the huge - 3000m high - Etna volcano.

Taormina's area, where our bike center is located, is the perfect place for a fixed base vacation. Its strategic position is perfect to discover by bicycle to some of the most beautiful places in the Eastern Sicily such as the Etna volcano, the Etna vineyards, the Alcantara's valley, Taormina and Savoca (where Francis Ford Coppola filmed the film "The Godfather"). These are a few examples of what this part of Sicily can offer. For more details, check "On the roads of Giro d'Italia in Sicily".

Western Sicily is in a quite 'wild' area wich proposes mainly flat or up und downs, but there's some very nice climb like the one up the village of Erice or the one towards Sambuca di Sicilia. With 'wild' we mean that it's less developed under the touristic point of view and roads are less frequented by tourists (but this can also be a downside, as roads are not always in a perfect shape). The coastline offer many beautiful villages as Trapani, Castellammare del Golfo, Marsala and Mazara del Vallo.

The south east portion of the island, features not only a great insight of culture, food and architecture, but also the most varied and scenic road rides. Our Baroque Ring Tour, propose a theme: connecting the most important towns where the stunning Sicilian baroque architecture (and we'd say lifestyle) knows its best expressions, creating a special ambience in which restaurants, bars and little shops are like notes of the same song.
Where can I fly to?

Sicily has 4 airports. The main airports are Palermo (Falcone e Borsellino) and Catania (Fontanarossa). The airports of Trapani and Comiso are on the smaller side and less served.

Catania Fontanarossa is the most important airport southern Italy. This airport has a high volume of international air traffic from/to European and extra-European destinations. Catania's airport is very well connected with some of the most beautiful locations of Sicily as Taormina, Etna's Mount, Syracuse, Ragusa and Noto

https://www.aeroporto.catania.it/en/

Palermo's airport is located about 35 Km from the city, and is the third bigger (as importance) airport of Southern Italy (after Catania and Naples). It offers many international connections, daily flights from/ the most important Italian cities.

If you want to visit Trapani, Agrigento or Marsala; Palermo airport is the right place to land.

https://www.aeroportodipalermo.it/en/
How are roads?

The asphalt quality varies from good to average. There are many roads of different categories; only a few are forbidden to cyclists because they are too busy.

The traffic can be annoying in summer, especially near the main seaside resorts and larger towns. We do not use them because there are more interesting areas. Of course, we have designed our routes using the most scenic, safe and fun roads, which work well all year round.

Weather and
rainfall in Sicily

Cycle tours in Corsica

Biking tours
in Corsica

Challenging cycling in the
hearth of the Mediterranean

intro
catalog
highlights
useful info
weather

Welcome to Corsica

Beauty is a secret. To speak of it is to violate it. For me, Corsica is this... you have to love it and leave it alone.

Michel Bussi - French author

The most common thing mistake is to describe Corsica (or any other Mediterranean island) by comparing it to another island that we know better. Well, there's no bigger mistake. Corsica is not a Sardinia with something less or more as well as Sardinia is not like Sicily with something less or more. So why don't explain Corsica (and the other islands) for what it's got, and not for what it misses? Corsica has got fabulous mountains, very little or no flat (except on the eastern side that is less suitable for cycling).

Cycling in there gives an amazing feeling of freedom and challenge. You'll feel the uniqueness of cycling across Alps-alike mountains, with some of the longest climbs we've ever made, but immersed on a purely Mediterranean geography and weather. Not enough? Well you'll find there some of the nicest coastline roads too, especially on the stages along the west coast.

Out of the mainstream locations, roads are quiet and the asphalt is generally good. We're definitely sure it's an experience that a dedicated cyclist must do!

Meet Giovanni

Our tour designer for Corsica

Get in touch by email, phone or reserve a video call with us.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

OUR CYCLE TOURS IN CORSICA

Highlights from our rides

Because it's not just cycling

Corte. Corsica Himalayan style!

Corte. A jewel inland.

As usual, diamonds are not right on the surface! In the same way, this jewel-town, among the oldest and most authentic in Corsica, requires go past many cols. But it's worth the job!
Vergio, Bavella, Verde... keep these names in mind.

Train your zen mindset... and get ready for long time on a climb.

Vergio, Bavella, Verde and many more. These are the names of some of the famous super long cols that you can find in Corsica. And they're a blast if you're among those - like us not featherweight riders - who like going up steady for ages on a gentle incline. Here you can do that for as far as 40km!
Fancy a good espresso?

Corsica speaks (often) Italian, and so makes good espresso!

Being Corsica socially, culturally and geographically very close to Italy gives cyclists a lot of advantages. One of them is the opportunity to taste (nearly) the same great espressos and cappuccinos you might find just a few hundred kilometers south, in Italy. And if we - as espresso addicted and Italians- tell it to you, that's a matter of fact.
Lovely coastline roads

Corsica's coastline is astonishing

Corsica's coastline - especially the west coast - features amazing views and offers excellent cycling too.
Slow pace life

As soon as you point inland, life gets slow

Corsica has very little population: less than 400.000 people. And people are mostly spread out along the coastline centers. This makes inner Corsica a cycling paradise with many quiet and picturesque villages where you can enjoy a lovely stop.
Alps-alike, in the center of the Mediterranean

Fancy long climbs and alpine views?

Fancy long climbs and alpine views? But also Mediterranean weather? Here you can get both: 2/3 of the territory is mountain and the weather is purely Mediterranean.

Are you interested
in visiting Corsica?

FIND OUT WHY YOU SHOULD, WHEN AND WHERE!

When is the best time for cycling?

We know that nowadays weather forecasting is somewhat difficult. Temperatures change quite often and suddenly. But Corsica offers, without doubt, great weather for road biking and the island is renowned for its beautiful and diverse landscapes in the different areas, and different weather condition.

Since the orography and geographical position of the island, is the coldest of the Mediterranean island, but temperatures are still mild. We never suggest the coldest months for a trip, as it's... cold. We suggest May to mid October. April doable, but in the mountains the weather is quite unstable and in the highest peaks there might be still snow. Climbs are very long, this means also descending is. With the bad weather it's no fun.

Statistically, the highest temperatures are during the summer, when they can reach a high of 35° C or around 95° F. But it is always possible to enjoy our tours during the cooler hours of the day.

Summer is good for cycling: the temperatures are bearable, especially along the coastline or in the early morning. Of course the most touristic areas, especially those along the east coast, are busier with cars and hotels have less availability and at a higher price.
What's the best cycling area in the region?

The only suggestion we make, and this is also what we do on our tours, is to avoid the east coast as much as possible. There is the most important road from north to south there, the T10 from Bastia to Bonifacio, and it is the same road that cyclists have to take to ride along the eastern side of the island. We know that it is a fairly popular area for cycling - especially for those who cycle easier tours or bike with panniers - mainly because it is semi-flat. But we don't consider motorway cycling the kind of cycling we like to offer.

That's why on our tours we prefer to stay away from it, as far as possible.

Everything else is very beautiful. The inland mountains are incredible and wild, the asphalt is generally good. The west coast and the northern 'finger' are superb, although sometimes very windy. Asphalt on the west coast might be rough from time to time.
Where can I fly to?

There are four airports on the island we fly into: Calvi, Bastia, Ajaccio and Figari, each providing excellent access to the main resorts. They are small and functional airports with a limited range of facilities.

Calvi Sainte-Catherine airport is 10km east of Calvi, Haute Corse. As a small provincial airport all facilities are within walking distance.

Bastia Poretta airport is 17km to the south of Bastia in the commune of Lucciana, Haute Corse. It's one of the favorite airports as it's very well connected. The airport of choice for your way home after the Epic Corsica trip.

Figari sud Corse Airport is situated three kilometres to the north west of the village of Figari, Corse du Sud and near Bonifacio. It's a possible airport of choice for flying in if you're doing our Epic Corsica.

Ajaccio Napoléon Bonaparte Airport is situated 5km east of the harbor of Corsica’s main town Ajaccio. It's half way from either Bastia or Figari. We can say it's good if you can't reach Corsica in any other way.
How are roads?

The quality of asphalt varies from bad (not frequent) to very good. There are many roads of different categories. Since the island is sparsely populated, most roads, even state roads, are suitable for cycling. As already said, we'd just avoid as much as possible some stretch of the T-marked roads and most all the T-10.

Traffic can be annoying in the high summer season near the major beach resorts and around the larger towns (basically just Ajaccio), but it is a ridiculous proportion of the roads compared to the rest of the island. So you can enjoy yourself safely even during the busiest time of the season.

Our tours are designed to explore the island using the most scenic, safe and fun roads, regardless of the time of year.

Weather and
rainfall in Corsica

Cycle tours in Sardinia

Biking tours in Sardinia

Welcome to Sardinia

This land resembles no other place. Sardinia is something else. Enchanting spaces and distances to travel - nothing finished, nothing definitive. It is like freedom itself.

David Herbert Lawrence

Write, after his journey on Sardinia in 1921

Biking is the best ways to discover Sardinia. A cycle tour there takes you inside the heart of one of the most ancient regions in Europe. You’ll encounter sun and wind-shaped mountains, deep canyons and unusual forests as well as discover the architectural remains of the enchanting Nuragic civilization. Thanks to Sardinia's varied cycling environment, you can travel to Sardinia as many time as you like and have anytime a totally different experience. Let's begin with your first one!

The island is sparsely populated. The average population density is 67 inhabitants per square kilometer. This suggests that there are a lot of areas to be conquered by biking or trekking, both near the coast and inland. The suitability of the roads on which our tours take place is tested by our staff centimeter by centimeter. And, you can be sure that they will take you to the unknown Sardinia, far from the chaos of the big cities. The terrain in Sardinia is variable, sometimes flat but there is a hill close by. What goes up must come down. The quality of the asphalt is on an average very good, and motorists in Sardinia are very courteous and conscious of cyclists.

Sardinia's got three airport and during the season they're pretty well connected to many destinations in Europe and a few intercontinental too. Travelers from outside Eu can take advantage of good and cheap connections with the most important hubs in Italy like Rome and Milan.