Key Takeaways
- In 2027, we’ve enhanced our Sicily bike tours: ‘Bike Across Sicily’ now spans 12 nights with no transfers to Etna, while ‘Sicily Baroque’ offers a loop starting and ending in Siracusa.
- ‘Bike Across Sicily’ includes new routes and overnight stops, providing a true coast-to-coast ride from sea to volcano.
- ‘Sicily Baroque’ allows for a relaxed 8-day journey through UNESCO towns with a focus on local culture and sights.
- Both tours are self-guided, year-round, and include hand-picked accommodations, luggage transfers, and local support.
- An optional Etna Experience extension adds a taste of the volcano for those interested.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Some routes you design once. Others you keep riding.
For 2027 we have reworked two of our historic Sicily tours: Bike Across Sicily now runs to 12 nights and climbs Etna entirely by bike, and Sicily Baroque has become a relaxed loop that starts and ends in Siracusa.
We have been riding these roads with our guests for years. Every season brings feedback, shortcuts discovered by accident, a better coffee stop, a hotel owner who becomes a friend. Little by little, you start to see how a good tour could become a great one.
That is exactly what happened here. Two itineraries our guests have loved for a long time were missing something: a transfer where there should have been a ride, an ending that sent you away from where you started. So we went back on the bike, rode the alternatives, and rebuilt both tours around what we learned.
Bike Across Sicily: from the sea to the volcano, now all by bike
Bike Across Sicily grows from 10 to 12 nights, and the whole route from Palermo to Taormina is now ridden on two wheels, with no transfer to Etna.
The first part of the journey stays the one our guests know: Palermo and Monreale, Segesta and the salt pans of Trapani, the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, Piazza Armerina, the Baroque towns of Ragusa, Modica and Noto, and finally Ortigia in Siracusa.
The change comes after Siracusa. Where guests used to take a van to the slopes of the volcano, the tour now adds two new overnight stops:
- Day 9, Siracusa to Carlentini: through the Climiti hills and Sortino (55 km, +906 m).
- Day 10, Carlentini to Nicolosi: past Lake Lentini to the foothills of Etna (74 km, +966 m).
- Day 11, Nicolosi to Linguaglossa: up to Rifugio Sapienza at about 1,900 m, then down via Zafferana and Milo (59 km, +1,579 m).
- Day 12, Linguaglossa to Taormina: via Castiglione di Sicilia and the Alcantara gorges (42 km, +507 m).
The result is a true coast to coast crossing. You leave the Ionian Sea behind in Siracusa and feel the island rise under your wheels: citrus groves, then black lava fields, then the high road to Rifugio Sapienza. Arriving at the volcano by bike, after days of riding, is a very different feeling from stepping out of a van.
The tour keeps its “Active” character, made for riders who train a little and enjoy a tasty climb.
Sicily Baroque: start in Ortigia, end in Ortigia
Sicily Baroque is now a loop of 8 days and 7 nights that starts and ends in Siracusa, with a new stop in Palazzolo Acreide.
A loop changes everything about the logistics: one arrival point, one departure point, no long transfer at the end. It also lets the tour flow naturally through the UNESCO towns of the Val di Noto, the cluster of golden stone towns rebuilt in Baroque style after the 1693 earthquake.
- Siracusa to Palazzolo Acreide, new for 2027: a quiet hilltop town and an easy introduction to the Hyblaean plateau.
- Palazzolo Acreide to Caltagirone, home of Sicilian ceramics and the famous staircase of Santa Maria del Monte, 142 steps covered in hand-painted tiles.
- Caltagirone to Ragusa, for two nights in Ragusa Ibla.
- Modica and Scicli loop, with Modica’s chocolate and the Baroque churches of Scicli.
- Ragusa to Noto, the jewel of the Val di Noto.
- Noto to Siracusa, via the Cavagrande del Cassibile reserve and its natural pools, then back to Ortigia.
The style stays “Relax”: daily stages between 36 and 65 km, with time to stop, swim, eat and look around.
New: the optional Etna Experience. For guests who want a taste of the volcano too, the tour can now end with an extension near Etna: a transfer to Zafferana Etnea, one night on the slopes of the volcano with bike rental, and a transfer to Catania airport at the end. It is not part of the standard tour, so you can decide whether to add it when you book.
Both tours can be ridden on a hybrid, a road bike or an e-bike, which makes the climbs much more approachable.
Plan your 2027 ride
Both tours are self-guided and available all year, so you choose your dates and ride at your own pace.
We take care of everything else:
- hand-picked hotels, in Classic or Premiere category
- luggage transfers from hotel to hotel
- GPS tracks, maps and route notes
- welcome briefing and phone assistance from our local team
- airport transfers at the start and end of the tour
If you have already ridden one of these tours with us, this is a good excuse to come back and see Sicily from a new angle. If you are new to Mediterras, you are in good hands: we are humans, we are locals, we are bike guides.
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