Mount Etna and Taormina from Catania City Centre Full Day Tour

This was our favourite stop on our recent cruise due to this tour. Simone our driver/guide was very professional with the right balance of knowledge and humour. Our Mercedes mini van was comfortable and air conditioned with bottled water provided. Simone was great at catering to our group asking us what we wanted to see and how often we wanted to stop for toilet breaks etc. He also double checked our ships departure time and made sure we were back at least one hour before departure. He took some photos on our tour which he shared with us on WhatsApp. We visited Mount Etna where Simone walked us around a crater and shared his knowledge of the volcano with us. We also stopped on the way up to see a house buried in lava and at a cave afterwards and then spent approximately 3 hours exploring Taormina ourselves. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone visiting Catania on land or by ship and will hopefully be back myself in the future.

I did 3 tours with this company and all were excellent. The service met all my needs of having a nice van/car, air conditioning, knowledgeable drivers, and the ability to personalize the tour. I was able to arrange exactly what I wanted to see and do, pick up/drop off times, and stops. Along with the knowledgable drivers I really got to experience Sicily. I highly recommend this company and will only use them when im in Italy. Great company and service!

For weeks I have been driving our group of four all around Sicily, so driving itself was not an issue. But driving up to Etna affords spectacular views, which I wanted to see too, so I didn't want to drive. Combining it with a tour to Taormina made sense due to proximity, but I learned the biggest reason not to drive to Taormina is lack of parking! However, there were immediate problems with our pick-up (30 min late), which the tour operator blamed on our remote location and traffic (both predictable variables). Also, I expected the guide to be more engaged with our tour, but he was mostly just a driver. He shared some facts and stories, but when we arrived at sights, he sent us off on our own with scant directions. After a delightful lunch in lower Taormina at Diego's recommended restaurant, he took us to upper Taormina to visit the Greek amphitheater. Again, he did not accompany us, and after a longer-than-expected hike among throngs of tourists, we found a long line to purchase tickets to visit the amphitheater. We were very disappointed and did not visit the amphitheater. All private tours we've had before handle tickets ahead and provide them as part of the tour. This time, not only are the tickets not provided, we weren't even advised about tickets (not even in the tour description). This tour is poorly conceived and executed. Keep looking for a tour which provides a driver AND a guide at the sights.

We ha a wonderful visit to Sicily with a driver who could not have been more accommodating or pleasant. One thing we noted on all of these tours s that the drivers would quickly state that they were drivers not tour guides as Italy must make tour guides have a separate license. The one challenge with this is the drivers are not very fluent in English. The could make statements but not enough if you wanted to have a two way conversation. Once we realized this we adapted and as I said the driver was really nice and handled our changes professionally as the weather was not great for taking a hike at Etna. We instead focused more time in Touromina and the surrounding areas. Bottom line, we preferred this as compared to the bus tours as it got us out of the large groups and fixed itinerary. I recommend but if you want an actual tour guide might need to invest more.

The sites were fantastic. Our driver / guide though was so so ( and this is being nice about him)... he was unengaged and really maybe he was just there to drive us. He sounded annoyed and dismissive of our questions; for example when we were doing Isola Bella Me : what's the temperature like in the waters Driiver/Guide : how should I know Just to be clear we weren't looking for precise temperature just something like it's warm enough for one to cross from Taormina or to wade your feet or something like that. When dropped us off at day's end we all felt he couldn't wait to be rid of us. Well, thankfully Mt Etna and Taormina were beautiful so that made it worth it. But whew, driver/ guide experience left much to be desired.

The tour was good although we had a late start since the driver didn't find us on time. The two locations were very nice and lots to see. Our guide was friendly and shared a lot of details of the area.

Diego was very informative and friendly. He was also very accomodating with our needs. We highly recommend this tour and it covers everything we wanted and expected! Diego made our experience top notch. Thank you Diego!

Great tour - It was informational, enjoyable, and comprehensive. Our guide was excellent. He answered all questions and made sure that we got to experience all of Mt. Etna & Taormina had to offer.

All compliments to the driver Simon and his excellent service! He was extremely kind, professional, and always available for the group that came from Bosnia and Herzegovina. His dedication, punctuality, and willingness to help left a great impression on all of us. Thank you, Simon, for a pleasant and safe ride. BiH team😀

Antonio is a very safe driver. He was very excited to share these amazing locations/sites with us. Mt. Etna is an oasis of black beauty. Taormina is a very scenic town with great views and lots of shopping. Our favorite stop was Castelmola. We ate the best pasta and pizza at Bar San Giorgio. Eat upstairs to enjoy spectacular views.