Cycle Tours in Sicily
Biking tours
in Sicily
History, food, wine &
cycling: what a mix!
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.
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OUR CYCLE TOURS IN SICILY
Highlights from our rides
Because it's not just cycling
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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/
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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.