Puglia and Sicily: anyone who has combined them? Thoughts?
We are regular Tauck travelers, and wondering about combining Puglia and Sicily for 2027. All thoughts from the Forum are appreciated, especially if anyone has done this combination. Thanks.
0
Comments
Haven't done this combo but thought about it. Big fans of back to back tours since you get the most out of your airfare to Europe and only pay once for Tauck's guest protection (insurance) to cover both tours.
The problem is that it does not look like there are any direct flights between Catania in Sicily and Bari in Puglia, although maybe this is seasonal?
Is there a route via train? Train travel is easier than flying a short distance.
since Sicily is an island with no bridges to the mainland, I doubt it...........................
There are train ferries between Sicily and mainland Italy
I believe you can take a series of trains and ferry, but it is a hassle and takes a long time. According to rome2rio.com, the flights between Bari and Catania go through Rome. We looked at this some years ago. It makes more sense to me to pair Sicily with a different Italy trip other than Puglia. Or you can pair Puglia with a different trip.
Alternatively, like the other thread, you can try building some personal touring time in between if you are really set on doing both these trips together.
I paired Sicily with Tuscany/Umbria. Very easy air connection out of Rome to Catania.
You could probably fly from Bari to Palermo, then figure out a ground option back to Catania/Ortigia. Around 3 hours.
We are doing this in October 26. We have 5 days in between trips. I am looking at flying from Bari to Palermo and then working our way to East. Ryanair has a non-stop otherwisw It seems as though there is more to do and see in Sicily although we will probably spend an extra night in Bari.
When we did the Sicily tour, the TD remarked that we would have to return to tour the western side of Sicily, which the tour does not cover. For example, the hilltop town of Erice is a popular destination. Perhaps the Rick Steves forum or Tripadvisor would be helpful if this interests you. The tour spends a few hours in the beach town of Cefalu, on the way to Taormina, not nearly enough time. It would be a lovely spot for an overnight if you have that flexibility.
We toured with another company and went to both towns that Wan mentions
It would be easy to pair any tour (assuming you can getting matching dates) with the Rome, Amalfi, Sicily, Malta tour. Fairly easy to get to Rome from any other tour's finishing point. You see the entire north and east side of Sicily in the RASM tour.
We tried to pair Puglia and Sicily (which we are doing September 2026 and the tours with Tauck don't pair time wise. Getting from Puglia to Sicily was going to be a series of "planes, trains, and automobiles "! We decided to pass on Puglia, even though it looks like a great trip.
Sicily is a great trip. I paired it with A Week in Tuscany and Umbria; getting from Rome to Sicily was very easy.
Wondering if Puglia trip is going to continue - no 2027 dates published, yet Tauck says it's coming. Trying to pair it with A Week in Piedmonte, but no luck so far.
I do wish Tauck would offer some longer tours, especially places like Italy. I’ve asked but they just say do two back to back tours. It’s tricky to find those that connect easily. Next year we are taking our first back to back, the second tour begins where the first ends with just a couple of days inbetween, so we can relax a bit between the two.
We did Puglia and Sicily on our own last year with a few stops in between in Calabria. If you don’t mind driving you can build your own itinerary and drive to Sicily. I would recommend a stop in Tropea Calabria for a few nights.
Drive, how?
Brittish. We rented a car and I mapped it out. We stopped in Calabria Tropea for a few nights. Then we drive south, caught the ferry that takes cars (bought ticket ahead of time online) the we drove west to Palermo. One must be comfortable driving in Italy. My husband is.
I shoukd add we made a few more stops (went to small village where my grandfather was from) in Calabria. But Tropea was our last stop and closest to the ferry.
British, I agree with you on longer tours. Leaving from the West Coast to Europe, it's not happening for only a week or 10 days. Luckily, I've been able to work out a few back to back trips, but it is not easy. I think Tauck could do a better job with making their schedules mesh.
We two back to back trips last year. Tuscany and Puglia and then spent two weeks on our own galavanting on our own.
British: a couple of days in between. Is nice to relax. Tauck’s Journey Preparation Team helped orchestrating this. They found the back to back trips that sync together.
I’m trying to find a back to back trip for 2027 but the one I’m looking at has 5 days in between! One is with Tauck and the other is with another company.