Splendours of Sicily

Danila our guide was fantastic.
The excursions provided were fabulous.
Places I never would have seen if not for Backroads tour

Replying for my husband also, we had a wonderful experience in Sicily. The trip was well balanced with time in each of the towns / cities we visited, included some fascinating historical and we very much enjoyed the local food focus in addition. It was extremely well lead by Danila Checchin, whose care for our group was very professional and given that the group bonded very quickly, she was a major part of us all enjoying each other’s company and having fun too.

Our tour guide, Luca was fantastic and we got to see a lot and hear things from the local perspective.

Despite an excellent tour guide and driver the itinerary is the problem. Too many changes of accommodation, some of the accommodation was remote and too much time in the van, around 30 hours. Also too many early starts.

This tour was so much more than just seeing the sights. We also experienced visits to local farms and produce providers to sample wonderful fresh food and see how it is produced. The visits to anti- Mafia establishments were also very interesting. Luca was a fabulous guide - very knowledgeable , but also flexible and accommodating of the various needs of the group. The bus was very comfortable and hotel accommodation very good. I would highly recommend this tour.

My wife and I had a wonderful time with Mathieu our tour guide and João our driver being shown the best of Sicily. The whole trip was very well organised and the bus, our accommodation and meals were top class. Sicily is the jewel of Italy and we were shown the best of it. Hint: don’t pack too many clothes.

Fabulous
Locations, driver, tour guide, accomodation and experiences

This was our third Backroads tour. We enjoyed it very much. There was a problem with the water at the hotel in Ragusa but that was beyond the control of Backroads. The tour leader, Giovanni, was outstanding. Most importantly, we enjoyed ourselves.

We enjoyed the tour. The level of accommodation could be improved. One hotel ran out of water twice in two days. Our tour director, Giovanni was excellent and the whole tour ran smoothly.

Hotel Opera Palermo was poor standard, also poor standard food.
Il Convento Ragussa was extremely poor. Whilst four star rating it was an extremely poor standard with shelves in rooms held up by rope, additional, portable air conditioners in some rooms, taking up valuable space in already small rooms.
Then for two and a half hours, 6am until 8.30 am, absolutely no water in any taps, toilets etc. This reoccurred at 4pm the same day as they '.....forgot to fill the hotel cisterns'........ Totally unacceptable for paying guests.
The best meals provided were at the hotel in Favara, the olive farm and winery visited.
The walking tour of Catania was a waste of time.

Loved the Splendour of Sicily our tour leader Giovanni was very informative & passionate about Sicily ❤️💚

Our tour guide Giovanni was excellent. Great tour apart from Hotel Antico Convento dei Cappuccini . Rooms not same room category! No water … full refund needed here, not a great experience at all…. Not enough staff, had to ask staff to keep quiet at 1am.

We really enjoyed our trip with backroads around Sicily and our tour guide Luca was amazing. Nothing was too much trouble for him, making sure we were all looked after and happy and his wealth of knowledge was endless. One of the best tour guides we have had travelling through Europe. We enjoyed the smaller group having used Trafalgar before. Comfy bus and excellent tours, guides with passion amazing included lunches. Would recommend backroads to others. The price was $2000 more than similar tours but it was worth it.

Fantastic- small group size and moderate pace. Visited many interesting sites. Great food and wine plus gelato.
Accommodation good

I thoroughly enjoyed it. We had some hiccups with some of my accommodation but I feel our tour guide did his best to sort it out.

The tour was fabulous! The hotels were good, the actual tours were very interesting but what really made the tour was the tour leader Luca Sica! He is very knowledgeable and passionate about his job.!
And there were only 14 on the tour…..everyone got to know earshot other.

Everyday was like walking a marathon. The places we visited & the meals beautiful but it is not suited to someone over 60 who is not fit & used to walking uphill & stairs everyday. I spent most of my time looking for somewhere to sit rather than enjoying the sights & scenery. So for me it was a lot of money trying to find a chair every day. We went to beautiful places that were incredibly overcrowded & the temperatures around 35degrees everyday. So travelling in August is a very bad idea as everyone in Italy is on holidays & all coastal areas so overcrowded

The tour overall was great. I would have preferred a smaller group, just too many and clash of personalities.

The main issue was there were 3 people in the group who had not divulged their medical issues, which often held up the tours. One of them did not even have proper walking shoes. They were demanding and their expectations of Lala were plain stupid, expecting to nursemaid them when they did not want to partake in a tour.

I personally found their behaviour annoying and self centred.

I think Lala found it quite stressful.

Salvo was a great driver, and very careful.

Great trip
With great company
Good guide and driver

Excellent itinerary, very good accommodation. All local guides very good. All included lunches were enjoyable and great examples of local produce. Driver was safe and professional. Tour leader had good knowledge of Sicily and its history. Communication of arrangements was occasionally unclear.
Poor sequencing of visits meant that one of the programmed features was not experienced.

The tour provided wonderful new experiences to a place we had not previously visited. Accommodation was first class. . Local guides were all excellent. All the supplied lunches were great eg almond orchard, winery degustation. Driver was very professional & careful.
Free time gave wonderful opportunities to discover things ourselves.

This tour delivered everything we expected it to. Our tour leader Danielle was great. Our tour group was great. Enjoyed every moment of the trip.

The tour was excellent as were the Tour Director and our amazing Driver. However, although the bus was quite new, the seating was confined with very little legroom.

Great tour of many acient and interesting sites made interesting by the tour guide

Great Tour! Perfect Guide & Driver ! Loved all our Meals and experiences to the farms.

I loved this Backroads Tour of Sicily. Such a great selection of local experiences, historic sights, and wonderful towns. Nice to experience some unique accommodation options, away from the standard tourist hotels. Our guide Davide, and our driver Giovanni did a wonderful job showing us this beautiful part of the world.

Amazing trip. Small group of only 12 people. Tour guide and driver were fantastic! Very knowledgeable, friendly and supportive. Went out of their way to make sure the trip ran smoothly. The bus was a new one and was kept immaculate. Great air conditioning which was very much needed as the temperatures were very hot. We visited really interesting sites and locations. Great accommodation- some of which was really unique. Very good local guides provided. This was a bucket list trip for me and it far exceeded my expectations

The concept of Back-Roads is great and we loved winding our way through lesser known streets. we travelled through Sicily and Hotels were great and unique and our bus driver and tour guide did a pretty good job. However, if you consider yourself a tall person, the bus was extremely uncomfortable. I would say the worst bus experience we have had in regards to leg room, ever and anywhere.

Interesting places and a varied schedule. Some of the accommodation was pretty average, small rooms and air conditioning that failed to function satisfactorily.

Some of the provided meals were also less than of a satisfactory standard.

I had a really fun time with a great bunch of people. Danielle our Tour Manager was fantastic. He was so knowledgeable and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble to make sure everyone was happy. I liked the fact that you weren't bound to do everything with everyone. There was free time to peruse other things to your liking. We had some very interesting visits to the Anti Marfia HQ in Palermo, an Olive Grove, an Almond Grove, a Buffalo Farm and some very nice lunches, to which we found that dinner was not necessary.
A great sized bus, and our bus driver Salvadore was also very friendly and helpful. Accommodation was good, although it was very difficult to find an iron anywhere, so was a bit frustrating having to wear un-ironed clothing. All in all, I would definitely recommend Backroads Touring Sicily.

Excellent small group tour. Well-paced and great accommodation. Good mix of tourist destinations and " back road" events. Tour made all the better by a great group of people.

Daniele was a wonderful travel director,very professional and easy to get along with,well organised and made this tour something to remember
Salvo our driver was fantastic
Some of the accommodation was not very good,need to review this part of the tour,our experience at the first hotel was terrible service extremely poor and food was way below standard.
Overall a good experience,

The tour was fantastic but the bus was rather cramped there was no knee room also the bus we had had a very small overhead bag shelf couldn’t get small backpacks in it and with no spare seats we were sitting with bags on our laps
The bus was the only fault as our guide and driver were very good

This was a great tour with just the right amount of people.It was good to have our bags delivered to our hotel rooms.The tour leader Loredana was fantastic very knowledgeable about all the places we visited.Lalla went out of her way to accommodate us we couldn’t ask for a better tour leader.While
Gianni our driver made us feel safe and got us to our destinations.

Great tour, fabulous Tour Director. Hotels were mainly good, need a bit of tweaking. Breakfasts need more variety. Kiwis and Aussies aren’t used to cake for breakfast. More whole foods and less sugar. Places taken were fab. Lives up to its name, back roads. Good amount of organised and free time.

A great experience with a charming and knowledgeable tour leader and excellent driver of our coach.
Quite strenuous walking terrain but much history to enjoy and learn,
Accommodation varied and excellent as were our local dining experiences.
Excellent trip .. thoroughly recommend.

Unfortunately I sprained my ankle the morning the tour started so was not able to participate in activities the first 3 days but our guide Daniela was fantastic in finding me alternatives

We had a very good guide accommodation was more than adequate. The food was good. Happy to recommend you.

We absolutely loved our tour of Sicily with our very experienced guide.

This was our second Back Roads tour and it was fabulous. The pace and the variety of attractions and meals was wonderful. All this was made even more enjoyable by our wonderful guide, Luca.
Highly recommended!

Luca was great.
Hotel Centrale in Syracuse was a shocker.
I would have liked to see more/some of the seaside/beaches which I thought Sicily was renown for.
The visit to the olive grove was good. The visit to the winery and the wine and food were great.

The Splendours of Sicily Back-Rroads tour from 26 May till 4th June was very well organized and interesting with a great variety of activities. We learnt a huge amount about the history and culture of Sicily from the excellent local guides at each destinations. Our baggage was well handled with no requirement for us take it onto the bus or into the hotels. We were lucky to have an excellent tour guide Luca Sica who provided both his knowledge and genuine caring for all of the travelers which enhanced the cohesion of the group. Our driver Giovanni was both friendly and safe. It was a very pleasurable trip.

Very professional tour leader and driver
Excellent and unique experiences and a great group of fellow travellors
Accomodation was always very good in smaller hotels
Will definitely use Back Roads again

Tour was excellent but on some occasions the hotel was too far from town restaurants so forced to eat at hotel.

Our tour guide, Giovanni, was outstanding, nothing was ever too much trouble. His knowledge of Sicily was top notch, had a great sense of humour and genuinely cared about the safety of the tour group. Would travel with him as a guide again. The tour itself had a great mix of activities and highlights outside the norm and suitable for all levels of fitness.

Excellent tour

An informative tour with varied activities to please everyone.

The only issue was the hotel in Palermo and Palermo itself. The hotel was located in an unattractive, dirty and unsafe part of the city (so it felt to us). Saying that, the walking tour through Palermo was very good.
Otherwise the accommodation, included meals and tours were fantastic. I felt we learnt a lot about Sicily directly from our local guide for the whole trip and the individual guides in the other cities. The driver was excellent as well.
The itinerary provided by Backroads could have provided more detail and particularly more history about each of the places we visited.

Friendly .Good guide,. Places we would never visit by ourselves.
Very comfortable coach, not a large crowd.
Some hotels could be better.
Our second trip with Backroads, probably take another.
Push yourselves more in the UK.

We had an enjoyable time, learning quite a lot about Sicily. Our guide Davide was extremely helpful, and made sure we all were properly looked after. The wines were excellent, and we had some enjoyable Sicilian meals as well. The sights were worth coming for aswell.

Wonderful experience. We enjoyed the accommodations, the tours and the food and drink. Davide, our tour Director was knowledgeable, professional and caring. He helped everyone have a wonderful trip. Salvo, our driver was super. He navigated in areas that were impossible to drive in with all of the congestion and narrow roads in the towns.

Throughly enjoyed the Sician atmosphere as not as hectic as mainland Italy yet you enjoy the Italian way in miniature. Lots of civilisations one on top of the other Their food is wonderful too. We visited olive farms wineries water buffalo cheese making farm almond farm Roman ruins and mosaics and stayed in different hotels some boutique others renovated GOOD

The tour visited all the major and famous sites of Sicily. It also took us to not so famous cities and towns, which had an interesting vibe to them. Our enthusiastic guide Davide was supported by local expert guides. Our driver Salvo managed the narrow roads expertly. We quickly developed an eating lunch style which replicated many Italian films at the Sicilian farms and restaurants we were taken to. I was sceptical about the demonstrations, but they were mainly brief, entertaining and often ended in food. The accommodation was 4star throughout but very different most times.

We normally travel independently but our Backroads tour of Sicily was fabulous for the following reasons.
1 The tour was very diverse. It included a lot of history, current culture, big cities, little towns, and a wide range of culinary experiences.
2 Driving in the major cities and small back alleyways of Sicily would have been a nightmare. Our driver was very professional and made the trip comfortable and got us into the smallest towns and through the biggest cities with no fuss. As an added bonus he was very knowledgeable about the food of Sicily.
3 Our guide was amazing. Born in Sicily but having travelled widely, and with a huge breadth of knowledge he was able to give us facts, figures, and stories in a way that showed both his love of the island, but also a realism of the problems they face. He was also very caring and unobtrusively looked out for those who may be struggling with the trip, and went out of his way to help people who had to leave the tour a bit early.
4 We had 16 on our trip which was a good number. Not too many but enough you didn't spend all your time with the same people. The age ranged from 30s to late 70s but as all where seasoned travellers they all where very interesting.
5 There was a good balance between included activities and free time
6 I was pleasantly surprised with the standard of accommodation.

I would highly recommend Blue Road and would probably book another tour with them. The only problem I had was with some of the accommodations. One hotel room had no windows and the other had a lot of bugs that we had to get them to spray to kill the bugs.

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based on dollar per day I expected a more comfortable bus and no issues with hotels

Tour guide, accommodation, itinerary and good group size.

The trip was first rate. The food offered in the included meals was delicious, the guide was very knowledgeable, and we stayed in wonderful hotels.

Good but could be better still

I enjoyed everything about this trip. The planned sightseeing and activities had good variety.

So many unique cities and destinations that will be a lasing memory. The food that was served at the various lunches was fabulous.

Because of the very informative and fun guide

Our travel coordinator went beyond to make sure we had the best experience possible in the country of her birth.

We saw a great deal of Sicily- which we could not have done on our own. We felt very safe and the other passengers on the tour were all great company.

Helpful and good fun - very interesting

Everything was excellent.

Complimentary blend of all Sicily has to offer

Good value for money and the tour and leader were very high standard.

easy to do and at a fair price

Comparable to other tour groups for the price.

Overall a well structured tour with interesting sites. Some of the local guides provided a bit too much details on the history of the sites we visited. There was quite a bit of duplication in the history facts provided The accommodation at Etna golf resort should be closer to Catania. It is too far away from anything.

Great but exhausted by the end.

Excellent guide (Loredana). Small group (10). Good itinerary and pace. Great food.

It would have been great in May.

It was not a bargain and not overpriced. just average

Tour certainly lived up to expectations and was a great way to see Sicily.

The tours exceeded my expectations. Everywhere we went was so interesting. The guide did little added walk tours to keep us interested.