Sicily with Kids – 5 Days Full of Magical Moments

A wonderful short trip to the neighboring country: Sicily with children means pure adventure combined with culinary Italy. However, we also enjoy the latter here in Malta. The spaghetti are the same, just without a volcano, and in Italy, you drive on the wrong side again. Uh oh!

You can read about the exciting things we experienced and how educational our trip was for the children in my travel report about Sicily. At the end, I even have a little bonus section about a place we didn't actually visit this time. 😀

Travel to Malta – Catania

We're flying with Ryanair again after years. For less than a movie ticket, Ryanair is taking us from Luqa in Malta to Catania in Sicily. However, our movie is slightly delayed. We therefore got to spend a full three hours in the VIP lounge at the airport.

That's great, because I always look forward to delays. Since our flight was scheduled to depart at 10 PM, our kids usually fall asleep relatively quickly, leaving us time to wind down the day with a glass of Prosecco and wine.

Our flight to Catania departs punctually at 2:15 AM. We're technically departing four hours late for our 45-minute flight. Of course, our car rental place is already closed at this hour, so we won't get our car until tomorrow. Perfect, because we found a wonderful 5-star hotel for the first night, which we booked around 3:30 in the morning. 😀

A perfect start to our Sicily with kids trip. We can sleep in and it looks like we've found a nice and quiet hotel.

Day 1: Catania

For brunch, there's Prosecco again and a truly lavish, top-notch breakfast. Did I already mention that I love delays? 🙃

Afterwards, we take an Uber to the car rental. Since we are a day late, the agency waives the insurance for us. It's now covered for any damage. My question, whether it would be sufficient to return only a few individual parts of the car, was answered with a loud "YES" and laughter. In fact, that would have been completely sufficient. Spoiler: We still returned the car undamaged.

Catania is a wonderful city on the east coast of Sicily. I probably don't need to mention that everything there is old. Almost as old as in Gozo. Catania was founded in the 8th century BC, while on Gozo there is a temple from 3600–3200 BC. Catania 0 : Gozo 1

We're puttering into the city. Here in Sicily, everyone drives on the wrong side. After over three years, it feels very wrong, at least. But at least everyone here drives like they do in Malta. That makes driving easy peasy. We're visiting Piazza del Duomo, basically the cathedral square and the center of Catania. There are delicious restaurants here and, of course, some sights.

So we grab a nice lunch on Via Etna and then continue north. In Aci Sant'Antonio, we've rented a beautiful apartment with a view of Etna. The reason we're actually here. The kids don't know yet that we're going to climb a volcano. Our oldest wished for that so much.

We make sure that there is always something to learn and discover on the go. Children learn extremely quickly and a lot during travels because they do it with fun. A bit different than in school, which simply hasn't changed in the last 40 years.

Day 2: Etna and Quite a Bit of Winter

In the morning, the weather looks tip-top, at least in the valley. We're heading to the Cable car, where we want to get at least the first section up and running. After about 45 minutes, we reach the valley station. 45 minutes, mind you, without a 4-hour delay.

Everything up here is extremely touristy, just as you'd expect for such an attraction. Fittingly, we join the line of two people and wait for our tickets. The gondola ride costs 130 EUR for the four of us. That's pretty much exactly one-tenth of what a Sicilian household has available per month. Ouch! If you want to go a bit higher, you pay 178 EUR. We would have liked to do that, but the second section was closed that day due to the weather.

Halfway up, we'll tell our kids that we're currently on Europe's highest active volcano. Since they'd never seen a volcano before, they didn't realize it themselves, of course. From then on, the whole thing was a super exciting adventure for all of us.

The best realization of the day was that a volcano is bitterly cold. Until then, the girls thought a volcano had to be extremely hot. We were all surprised that it was -1 degree up there. If you live in Malta, by the way, you don't have clothes for these temperatures. Therefore, we were all freezing quite a bit. Nevertheless, we walked around in the black lava sand outside for some time and were amazed at how beautiful the landscape is here.

By the way, most people stayed inside where it was warm, so we were almost alone out here. That was great, and we could enjoy the time and have a snowball fight with the kids. Who would have thought. In Southern Italy in April.

In the afternoon, we'll also make a detour to Etnapolis. What sounds like an action and amusement park is actually the largest shopping mall in Sicily. We love shopping, and it's always a popular activity for the kids too. Therefore, this shopping mall should also be on your to-do list for your trip to Sicily with children.

Tag 3: Our Anniversary in Syracuse

There's always something to celebrate, so we drove to the Sicily Outlet Village early in the morning. We had a delicious Italian breakfast with exceptionally good coffee. We hadn't had such good coffee in a long time. Unfortunately, there's no coffee culture in Malta.

Naturally, the lady will stock up on fancy dresses here. For one thing, we're in Italy, which is known for its fashion and trends. For another, we're at one of the largest outlets in Italy. Before she set off, however, I reminded her again, just to be safe, that we're traveling with only carry-on luggage this time. 😁

In the afternoon, we continued to Syracuse, one of the most picturesque places in Sicily. Syracuse, as it's called in German, is a historic city on the east coast. It was one of the most important Greek cities, as the Greeks originally populated Sicily. Strictly speaking, Sicily was part of „Magna Graecia,“ which reminds me a lot of my Latin lessons.

Before we drive into the city center, which is located on a small island, we'll visit Parco Archeologico Della... so the Archaeological Park, basically. Here you'll find many ruins as well as a Greek theater and even a Roman amphitheater. A visit here is definitely worthwhile. We had a lot of fun, and besides Etna, it was one of the highlights of our trip to Sicily with kids.

Afterwards, we drove to the old town. It's located on the island of Ortigia, which is connected to the mainland by a narrow bridge. It's funny that the larger island is then basically the mainland. We're strolling through the beautiful narrow streets here. We're enjoying this because no cars are allowed here, so the kids can run around as they please. This, in turn, means that we're walking through the city in slow motion, so to speak.

Only when everyone is hungry does it go quickly, and we find a nice restaurant right by the Fountain of Diana. The food in Italy is simply great. So we feast our way through the menu and then end the day at the best gelateria in Italy. The ice cream there was truly excellent. Good job!

Day 4: Taormina

Wow, what a great city. It's not our first time in Sicily, but it's our first time in Taormina. We actually started a little outside, down at the beach. By the way, it looks just like you'd imagine an Italian beach to look. With loungers, umbrellas, and like a can of sardines. But there are no tourists there anyway. We eat a delicious pizza right on the beach and watch the kids build sandcastles. That's how it should be!

Afterwards, we drive up a winding road to Taormina. If you're in Sicily with kids, this is definitely a must-do! Here too, there are narrow alleys and beautiful shops. There are also some toy stores among them. But as I said, we're only traveling with carry-on... we should do this more often 😉 It's never been easier to get the kids out of a toy store. However, they already know that if they buy something, they have to leave something else behind when we're traveling.

From the main square, we have a breathtaking view of the valley and the sea. The panoramic view is excellent up here. However, numerous tourists are already bustling about the square. Therefore, we leisurely walk back and look for the next gelateria. Italian ice cream is simply indescribably good.

Tag 5: Catania Shopping Mall and Departure

Our short trip is over and we're packing our only carry-on suitcase that we have with us this time. The kids are still playing with the neighbor's kids in the morning, and then we're heading back to Catania.

We'll make another stop at Porte di Catania, another large shopping mall. Here the kids can let off some steam and I'll get some work done before heading to the airport.

Flightradar shows us that our flight is on time, so we're heading to the airport. At Car Rental, we first drop off our rental car. As expected, there's no inspection, nothing. I hand over the key and all they say is „Ciao!“ Perfect, that's service.

Bonus Day: Palermo

Precisely because my blog post is about Sicily with children, I'd like to mention our trip to Palermo. This was 10 years ago, but it was one of the many unforgettable trips we took.

We were in Sicily in October 2013 and drove to Palermo on a beautiful autumn day. In my opinion, the city is also ideal for exploring Sicily with children. We took a horse-drawn carriage tour back then, which far outshines all the hop-on-hop-off bus tours.

The surroundings of Palermo are also beautiful. The nature of Sicily invites hiking, walking, and exploring, at least from October to April. We visited great places on the way to Palermo, with super views and a great environment.

A highlight of our trip back then was an Italian wedding we were invited to. I've never eaten so much at once, but the atmosphere at a castle in Catania was uniquely beautiful.

Conclusion Sicily with Children

Sicily with family means an adventure vacation, as already mentioned. There are so many great places in Sicily that are exciting for the kids. First and foremost, of course, is Etna. But the many Greek structures are also an ideal playground for kids, with lots to learn. Of course, Sicily also offers the finest beach vacation if the temperatures cooperate.

Italians are also very child-friendly and accommodating. This makes the stay in Sicily really pleasant. If you have any questions or need tips, feel free to ask in the comments below.

Now I wish you a lot of fun looking at the pictures. By the way, at the end of the gallery you will find the pictures from our trip in 2013. These are simply appended to the gallery.

Impressions of Sicily with family