Palermo, one street at a time.
Ballarò at dawn, gold mosaics by noon, a sunset sail off Mondello. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven that never disappoint.
First trip or fifth, these are the ones locals point you to: the street-food crawl through Ballarò, the gilded box seats of Teatro Massimo, a boat out to the Capo Gallo coast when the city gets too hot.
Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour 24-hour Ticket
24-hour open-top hop-on bus in Palermo with two routes and multilingual audio, plus optional Monreale and Mondello beach transfers.
From $17 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.2Safe betSegesta, Erice and Salt Pans Full-Day Excursion from PalermoFrom $821,791 reviews
★ 4.9Books out fastStreet Food and History Walking TourFrom $541,294 reviews
★ 4.2Local favouriteAgrigento and the Valley of the Temples Day TourFrom $771,240 reviews
★ 5.0Worth the eurosPalermo No Mafia walking tour: discover the Anti-mafia culture in SicilyFrom $391,011 reviews
★ 4.9Easy winPizza and Gelato Cooking Class with Dinner and WineFrom $71951 reviews
★ 4.7Traveller favouritePrivate Custom Walking Tour with Local GuideFrom $53661 reviews
Palermo eats standing up.
Panelle folded into a roll, arancine the size of a fist, sfincione off a cart and pane ca meusa if you are brave. A good guide walks you through Ballarò and the Vucciria the way Palermitani actually eat: one stall at a time, nothing you can spell.
Which day do you give the rest of Sicily?
Most trips keep one day for leaving Palermo, and the choice comes down to three. Pick the one that sounds like your kind of day out, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
Half a day
Mosaics & the sea
6 hours · from $71 · 1,354 reviews
The easy pick, and the one most people love. Monreale’s cathedral is a hillside of gold Byzantine mosaic above the Conca d’Oro; Cefalù is a golden-stone town under a great rock, with a swimmable beach at its feet. Back in Palermo by dinner.
See the Monreale & Cefalù trips →
The big one
Greek temples
9 hours · from $77 · 1,240 reviews
A longer day south for the Valley of the Temples, a row of Doric giants standing since 500 BC, and the white marl steps of Scala dei Turchi dropping into a turquoise sea. Two hours each way, and worth every minute for anyone who came to Sicily for the ancient world.
See the Agrigento day trips →
West coast
Segesta & Erice
8 hours · from $82 · 1,791 reviews
The road west, and the quietest of the three. A lone honey-coloured temple in an empty valley at Segesta, the medieval hill-town of Erice in the clouds, and the salt pans and windmills of Trapani glowing pink at sunset. For a second free day, this is the one.
See the west-coast day trips →
Palermo saves its best for the evening.
The city cools, the passeggiata fills Via Maqueda, and the smart move is to be on the water: a small boat off Mondello with a spritz in hand while the sun goes down behind Monte Pellegrino, or the Vucciria firing up its grills for the night crowd.
Learn to fill a cannolo.
The good classes are hands-on and end at a long table: ricotta piped into shells still crisp, pasta rolled by hand, caponata built the way a nonna would allow. You leave knowing how, and usually a little too full.
A slow hour, a full glass.
Nero d’Avola and crisp Grillo poured beside aged pecorino, olives and warm bread, often in a tucked-away bottega off the market. This is how Palermo does the hour before dinner, and it is easy to make it dinner.
Ceilings of gold, nine centuries deep.
For two hundred years Arab, Byzantine and Norman builders worked side by side here, and the result is a UNESCO city like nowhere else: the Palatine Chapel lined floor to dome in gold mosaic, La Martorana, the great cathedral, and the hushed Capuchin catacombs below. Book a guide and it reads like a history you can walk through.
Pick your Palermo, quarter by quarter.
The city reads as a handful of pieces. The old centre for the palaces and the piazzas. Ballarò and the Vucciria for the markets. Mondello for the beach day. Monreale and Cefalù when the road out calls.
Here for one thing in particular?
Twelve ways into the same city. Pick the kind of day you came for and everything behind it is already reviewed and priced.
The rest of Sicily is a day away.
One good road out of Palermo and the island opens up: golden mosaics at Monreale, Greek temples at Agrigento, a hilltop at Erice, a smoking volcano over Taormina. Most run door to door and have you back for a late dinner.
Three days, done right.
You will not see all of Palermo in one trip; you can absolutely do the right three days. This is the order we’d hand a friend checking in tonight.
Day 1
Walk the old centre
Quattro Canti and the cathedral in the cool of the morning, Ballarò for lunch on your feet, then the Palatine Chapel while the gold still catches the light.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Markets, palaces, then the Vucciria
The Capo market and a street-food crawl, an afternoon among the palazzi of the Kalsa, then back to the Vucciria after dark when the grills light and the squares fill.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Out to Monreale and the sea
The gold cathedral at Monreale first thing, then down to Cefalù for a swim under the great rock and a long lunch by the water. Back to Palermo for a last aperitivo.
Plan day three →
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