Sicily Food Adventure

Most Inspirational Moment

Our tour leader, Alessio, made the trip. But the nights in Palermo and Ragusa were the best. As those cities were most interesting. Along with the vineyard visit on Etna. All the visits to the produce makers (olive oil, cheese, wine) never felt like merely a sales exercise. There was no hard sell. But all were interesting. And delicious in terms of sampling. The mix of accommodation types was really good.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Alessio was brilliant at making sure everyone was enjoying themselves. You felt in very capable hands. We didn't have any dramas on our tour but I'm sure he would be excellent at sorting anything out if required. His local knowledge, as a Sicilian himself, and enthusiasm for the food and culture of Sicily is incredible. He can talk (!)but always in an interesting and sometimes amusing way.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't do this trip if you just want to sit on the beach or by the pool. You won't get much chance of that. Our group were almost all 50 years plus. There aren't any onerous levels of exercise involved but you do need to be able to manage a certain amount of walking. I would suggest that doing this in the spring or autumn is best to avoid the intense heat. But it did feel a bit end of season'ish in late September.

Most Inspirational Moment

all the local experiences (family run cheese farm, olive oil, wineries, cooking classes, etc)

Thoughts on Group Leader

Veronica was amazing - so knowledgeable and passionate about Sicily! Marco our driver was also great!

Advice for Potential Travellers

Book a post-night in Catania! After an incredible week of exploring the island, it is nice to spend one extra day by the seaside or exploring the city of Catania

Most Inspirational Moment

Getting back home with no help from Exodus or British Airways

Thoughts on Group Leader

Excellent

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't rely on Exodus to book your flights, ours kept changing, and as they were very early outwards and very late return we had booked hotel rooms, but they resulted in staying at the wrong Heathrow terminal on departure, and paying extra because we had to change the dates. On return the Hotel we had booked at Gatwick was superfluous as the flight was cancelled and we flew to Luton 12 hours later.

Suggestions

Holiday good, flights bad

Most Inspirational Moment

Lots of moments to mention. Visiting a mountain village to learn how to make pasta, the whole village was covered in thick fog! The visit to Ragusa, a perfectly beautiful town, I wished we’d had a little more time there. Being in Catania when Etna erupted! Although she ruined my return home, as a bit of a volcano enthusiast it was a bit of a special moment being part of that.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Alessio was a superb group leader. As an original native of Palmero himself, his knowledge of Sicily was unsurpassed. I found him informative, a great story teller and I appreciated that he shared a lot about life in Sicily as a real local, it gave what he said true authenticity. He very clearly knows his job, and seems to know someone familiar in every town! I liked that Alessio wasn’t overbearing as a group leader, if people wanted a bit of ‘space’ away from the group there was always time to do this.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Despite thinking May would be glorious weather, I’d pack a raincoat and an umbrella as well as your sun cream.

Suggestions

One thing I’d ask about before you book are the flights offered by Exodus. I had an arduous journey from London, via Milan, with lots of hanging around. What should be a 2.5 hr flight direct ended up being more like 6 hours, plus if you don’t live near London there is the travel there to also factor in. All in, it took me a full day to get to Palmero. I think this is one area Exodus need to look at, offer more direct flights. In hindsight I’d have booked my own flights. As a final point, I’d give special praise to Monica, the local emergency contact. She was brilliant in helping me when I was stranded at the airport, sorted me an extra nights accommodation and text me the following day to make sure I was ok.

Most Inspirational Moment

The cookery experience, and then enjoying the results!

Thoughts on Group Leader

Knowledgeable and enthusiastic, Francesca worked really hard to make our trip work.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Wear loose clothes! Be prepared to hotel hop and abundance of coach travel.

Suggestions

A short trip on the last morning after hotel check out would be helpful, the overly long wait at the airport was a pain.

Most Inspirational Moment

Visiting the local markets in Palermo and Catania

Thoughts on Group Leader

Our group leader Francesca was a little disappointing- she wasn’t proactive enough. On the first night she didn’t organise dinner for the group, she had to be prompted to organise the optional extra tour. There were issues with one persons room in Ragusa but she didn’t offer to sort it out in the end myself and my companion helped the other person. The coach driver had a room in the main hotel whilst an elderly lady had a room at the top of 2 flights of stairs in another hotel down the road. She felt uncomfortable, I felt the group leader should have swapped the room etc. She left us 3 nights to sort out our own meals and in Catania just left us without a clue where the best places to go to were. Also in food tasting she always made sure she got her food first, she should wait until guests had their chance to taste the food. On the plus side her knowledge of Sicily was excellent and she was very interested in making us fall in love with the country and culture.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Be prepared for rooms in Sicily to not always have access to windows and fresh sir

Suggestions

I did enjoy the trip very much, I have been on 4 other tours and I am only being negative about the tour leader as in comparison to my other trips she was a 5 out of 10 rather than a 9 or 10 out of 10 that I’ve experienced before.

Most Inspirational Moment

Too many to mention, but street food in Palermo markets, lunch in Piazza Armerina, and all the incidentals associated with visits to local producers (meeting water buffalo herd, cookery lesson near Trapani). Visits to cultural sites were a good contrast: it was interesting to see how they had developed and changed since we visited over 15 years ago. The fact that, despite its being the first tour for over 2 years, it all seemed to run smoothly.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Rosario was really enthusiastic about the history and culture of his home island, and ready to transmit this in his good English; he also has a good sense of humour, which may have been tested at times. He managed to deal with the varying requirements of the group, and was always ready with recommendations of ways to spend any spare time, or places to eat. Our driver, Maurizio, was excellent, both at negotiating some of the roads and dealing with slight changes to the route, in particular being led through Piazza Armerina by a police car, rather than having to wait for an hour while the Giro di Sicilia passed through.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't expect a restful holiday! Apart from at the beginning and end, with 2 nights each in Palermo and Catania, we stayed somewhere different every night; that provides a challenge for sensible packing. if you're going in early April as we did, you may need some warmer clothes to deal with the time in Ragusa, Noto and Mt. Etna: while the UK was having a heatwave, we were all scrabbling for extra layers to cope with the cold winds!

Suggestions

It would have been good to visit Siracusa (as in the original itinerary) and possibly Taormina, which would mean a longer tour - and perhaps slightly more relaxed. if you make the trip longer, would it be possible to arrange a trip from Palermo to Cefalu? It was the original French capital of Sicily, and has the first cathedral, which is like a mini-Monreale.

Most Inspirational Moment

Seeing the range of produce in local markets, and tasting regional products in their locality.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Rosarios was great fun, but well organised, and took account of the various requirements (particularly dietary) of our varied group. His English was pretty good, and he was extremely knowledgeable about the history and culture of Sicily - and eager to share it. He was also helpful in suggesting where to go in the limited spare time, and on places to eat (though there were some evenings when we didn't need to, after the tastings of the day). Maurizio, our driver, was extremely good, and very patient with us and the odd hiccup with traffic conditions. He did a wonderful job on some intersting roads.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't expect this to be a restful holiday! There's a lot of travelling, even with stops for tastings or cultural sites, and it's only at the beginning and end that there are 2 nights in the same place. Palermo airport seemed very well organised; Catania not so much. Be prepared for much waiting around in between check-in and boarding. Gatwick was extremely well run on our departure, but earned a few black marks on our return: no staff to move a stairway to the plane for disembarcation, and long waits before baggage arrived.

Suggestions

I think it would be worth making this a slightly longer tour, to include Siracusa and Taormina in the east, and possibly a day trip to Cefalu from Palermo/. Cefalu was the original French capital, and has an earlier, scaled-down version of Monreale with its own cathedral.

Most Inspirational Moment

I loved the quality and quantity of fruit and veg in the different food markets we visited in Palermo (and watching the non-veggies attempting to eat certain local delicacies).

Thoughts on Group Leader

As before - he was excellent. Not only was he knowledgeable but also his spoken English was really good. Maurizio the driver deserves praise too for safely negotiating spaces scarcely wider than his vehicle.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Don't think that holidays are restful in any way! If you fancy a rest, I'd recommend extending the holiday by a few days. Arriving a day or two early ensures you start the holiday well-rested rather than tired from rising very early for the group flight. Plus add a day or two at the end if you'd like to see Taormina which sadly isn't included in the current tour.

Suggestions

I'm sorry that covid led to small changes in the tour - for example I was looking forward to tasting the range of local cheeses near Ragusa and was sorry we didn't go to Taormina. However having any holiday at all post-covid was a thrill!

Most Inspirational Moment

For me the valley of the temples, made even better by the great guide.

Thoughts on Group Leader

Rosario was a great guide, very knowledgeable of all aspects of Sicilian history, culture and food. Organised us well and provided good options for what to do with any spare time we had, allowing me to make the most of these limited times.

Advice for Potential Travellers

Not much time to unpack in each location so dont take too much! Catania airport is a crazy place, be prepared to queue.