Sicily. An hour from the aircraft to Taormina, with a second airport always in the plan.

Catania Fontanarossa is a full international airport with handling for private arrivals and a straight run north to Taormina on the coastal motorway, usually 50 to 70 minutes and up to an hour and a half on a summer Saturday. For most trips to the eastern side of the island it is the only sensible answer, and the drive itself, with Etna on your left for most of it, is no hardship.

The honest caveat is the volcano. Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and when an eruptive phase puts ash over the airport, Catania closes. It happened for two days in early July 2026 and again across several days in the middle of August 2026, at the peak of the season. It is not a reason to avoid Sicily, but it is a reason to know before you travel which alternate you would use and how long the road from it takes. Palermo and Comiso are the usual answers on the island, and the mainland airports across the strait are worth considering for a longer stay.

Taormina sits several hundred feet above the sea, reached by a climbing road with hairpins, and its centre is closed to general traffic with a pedestrian main street running the length of it. Cars set down at the permitted points near the gates at either end and guests walk in; the larger car parks sit outside the centre with a shuttle link. Hotel entrances along the edge of the town are reachable, but which ones and by what size of vehicle is a matter of local knowledge rather than a map, and larger vehicles are the ones that come unstuck.

Below the town, Mazzaro and Isola Bella are a short cable car ride or a longer drive down the switchbacks, and Giardini Naxos runs along the bay beyond. In practice a car held for the day, waiting below the town and coming up on a message, works far better than a string of separate transfers up and down the hill. For days out, Etna's southern slopes, Siracusa and the baroque towns inland are all within a comfortable day's drive. See multi day tours.

Taormina itself has no marina. Yachts lie off Mazzaro and Isola Bella in settled weather and tender in, which is a fine way to arrive for lunch and an unreliable one to base a week on. The nearest proper facility is at Riposto, under Etna to the south, which has the services a larger vessel needs and is 25 to 40 minutes away by road. Giardini Naxos, immediately below the town, has berths for pleasure craft and mooring arrangements for larger yachts off Capo Taormina.

For a wider Sicilian itinerary, Portorosa on the northern coast in the Gulf of Patti is the usual embarkation point for the Aeolian islands, and Palermo, Trapani and Siracusa each open a different part of the coast. We look after the land side of all of it: the car at the quay when the tender lands, the run to the aircraft, the day inland while the yacht repositions. See yacht charter, crewed charter and day charter.