Ancient Sicily

Our tour leader, Antonio, was excellent. He was extremely knowledgeable about the history and sites that we visited. He took good care of the group, particularly when one person fell ill and had to have medical treatment. He was very good at recommending suitable restaurants and ensuring that we all knew exactly what we were ordering. The only difficulty for me was that many of the site visits involved a lot of walking and as I have a knee problem, it limited my ability to see everything. I think that the itinerary should refer to the amount of walking so that others can decide whether to go on this holiday, or the one week Classical Sicily version. Two weeks of visiting ancient sites was quite a lot; the group members were all interested in history, but it would have been good to include one or two cultural/food events such as those from the Taste of Sicily tour, to break up the site visits.

Superb tour, Antonio was the best leader I have had in now 9 Explore trips worldwide, which is a high bar indeed. He effortlessly delivered the right amount of background information for an island with a hugely complex history, thoroughly professional in all he did. His lectures were interesting and well pitched. Accomodation standard and location was excellent, as was the itinerary and pace of the trip. Some of the island's gems were jaw dropping in their magnificence. The group ran like clockwork and everyone enjoyed the trip enormously. I would love to go back, and this was my second trip to Sicily with Explore. Well done Explore!

Fascinating tour with great variety of archaeological sites and Baroque architecture. Our guide, Antonio, was very informative and looked after us extremely well. The planning was excellent and the accommodation very comfortable and well sited.

Superb holiday, excellent itinerary, so many wonderful sights to see. The holiday ran like clockwork not a moment was wasted, our Guide Antonio had a fantastic knowledge of the history of Sicily and his passion was infectious. Very good Group and I think that everyone had a fantastic holiday.

An in depth journey through Sicily's layered history and stunning terrain. From Phonecians to Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Arabs, towns rose and fell leaving spectacular ruins. The tour picks up on the islands Norman heritage and later development of baroque architecture.

This tour was exactly what we had hoped for! The itinerary was well thouoght out and comprehensively covered the key historical sites. The leader Antonio had a great depth of knowledge which he shaed with us which enhanced the experience. The pace was moderate and the travel always comfortable (helped by the fact that we were a small group so had plenty of space in the various vehicles). The hotels were as you'd expect from Explore - generally adequate and well located, with a couple well exceeding our expectations. Although the standard of the Syracuse hotel was good the location was not great.

Very good trip with excellent very knowledgeable and helpful tour leader. Need a reasonable level of fitness as the various sites require a lot of walking. Many highlights particularly Monreale and Villa Romana. Poor hotel in Siracusa

One of the very best Explore leaders. Made the history of Sicily come alive. Excellent itinerary giving a comprehensive experience of the whole island.

Sicily is beautiful and interesting. Our tour guide Antonio was excellent. Places of interest didn't disappoint at all. Wonderful ancient sites, views and experiences. Restaurants good. Only disappointments were a couple of the hotels and buses. Poor bathroom experiences, two gardens slugs on the floor in the first one in Syracuse and inadequate shelving for wash bags. No soap provided and a very noisy and crowded breakfast room in the longest four night stay hotel in Palermo, although the central location was very good. Two of the buses had seat belts that were broken or stuck. The air conditioning in another didn't reach the back seat, so it was uncomfortably hot.

Our tour leader, Antonio, was exceptional. He was able to give us the background and detailed history of every site and answer every question anyone had. His lectures were all relevant and interesting and helped us understand what we were seeing. The pace of the tour was very good and most stays were 2-3 nights and only one single night stopover. Antonio knew the best time to arrive at every site so we largely avoided big crowds and other tour groups. With one exception our hotels were very well located and comfortable.

You really do need two weeks to cicumnavigate Sicily and see things properly. Any shorter and you'll get just a couple highlights or get very rushed from place to place. This tour had good pace, gave sufficient time in major sites (Syracuse, Agrigento, Palermo, Villa del Casale) and included gems like Morgantina, Mozia Island, and Enna. Antonio is an exceptional wealth of information, its obvious he has a professional background in Sicilian history. The level of historical, cultural and architectural background information was tremendous, helped greatly to put things in context and understand the flow and changes absorbed by this island that resulted in what we were seeing.

Our guide Antonio was exceptional. He has a solid background and delivery of the varied sites. He was flexible and easily met requests that the group had (in particular the Puppet Show in Palermo- would definitely recommend.) We visited 7 of 8 of Sicily's World Heritage sites, all amazing! Our driver Franco was friendly and always had our safety at the forefront. Hopefully Explore will take our recommendations for looking at differnt hotels in Syracuse (preferably Ortigia Island), not a great location, especially on day of arrival, before meeting up with the group.