Whether you’re planning a month long road trip like us, or a quick one week sojourn to enjoy Sicily’s highlights, there’s one question that’s likely crossed your mind - ‘is Sicily expensive?’.

The simple answer is that by European holiday standards, it’s really quite affordable.

You can of course have an incredibly luxurious experience here, stay at 5* resorts, dine at Michelin restaurants and explore the coast by private yacht, but if you’re content with cute family run B&Bs or Airbnbs, local trattorias, a rental car and as much gelato, granita, and Aperol spritz as you can handle, you can definitely have a holiday that won’t break the bank.

We’ve created this guide after our own Sicily adventure to provide you with average costs for common experiences, food and drink items, and essentials such as transport and lodging that almost every traveller to this wonderful little island will encounter.

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The costs below are the average we encountered in our time in the country (June & July 2019), and the individual items have been chosen for their popularity amongst travellers to Sicily. Note that prices may vary according to seasonality. Currencies are €EUR / £GBP / $USD, with conversion rate as at time of publication.

Mid Range Hotel / B&B

As we mentioned in the introduction, there is no shortage of super luxurious - but expensive - accommodation in Sicily. So if that’s your thing, you’ll find plenty of options.

The good news is that there are also loads and loads of really reasonably priced hotels for around £80-100 a night.

If you can, we’d always recommend staying in a guest houses / B&B over hotels as in our experience these tend to provide a little better value for money, and a more local-led experience.

€89 - 110 / £80 - 100 / $100 - 125

Standard Airbnb for Two

The average price we spent on Airbnbs, per night, for our month long stay was £42 - a lot less than we anticipated.

However, we do need to note that we got a weekly discount in Palermo, and picked a couple of apartments that weren’t actually terribly great as we knew we’d be out exploring so much with our rental car.

To plan your own budget, we’d recommend aiming to spend around £80 a night. You can absolutely get them cheaper, but for this amount you can find stunning little private apartments for two people in wonderful locations.

Note that your money doesn’t go as far in super touristy destinations such as Taormina, whereas the big cities will have many more cheaper options. Also, there are significant price hikes in July and August so if you’re keen on staying in Airbnbs, we’d recommend booking as soon as possible.

Read more | In all our destination guides for Sicily, we’ve curated our pick of the best and most affordable Airbnbs for you. If you’ve never use the platform before, then check out Our Beginner’s Guide to Airbnb

€89 / £80 / $100

Car Rental per day

Each and every time we’ve rented a car in Italy (we always do it via AutoEurope), we’ve been amazed at how cheap it was - and Sicily was no different.

We rented a small car for just over three weeks, and it averaged out at £10 per day.

Just make sure you get your booking early to get the best deals as, given the queues at the airport, a lot of people rent cars for their Sicilian adventures.

€11 / £10 / $12.50

Parking

Whilst there is technically free parking in Sicily, paid-for spots were much more common - either in the form of large council / independently owned lots, or street parking.

Expect to pay €5-8 whole day in the parking lots (you could only very rarely pay by hour here), or €1 per hour for street parking. Note that prices usually increase on weekends and in summer season, particularly in coastal towns.

Read more | We’ve written loads about the nuances of parking in Sicily (as well as lots of other driving tips) in our post, 15 Essential Things to Know Before Driving in Sicily.

€5 - 8 / £4.50 - 7 / $5.50 - 9

Fuel for three weeks

At the time of writing this article (July 2020), petrol is super cheap, but we still thought it was worth sharing how much we spent during our three weeks driving around Sicily last year.

This involved a lot of driving! Around the coast of the entirety of the island, as well as up through the middle, inland on several occasions and plenty of day trips away from our chosen bases.

We think it worked out pretty good value for money.

€188 / £170 / $211

Lido Entry

There are different kinds of beaches in Sicily: completely free beaches, those with paid for sunbeds and parasols (generally referred to as ‘lidos’ with sections that you can still use for free) and those that are more exclusive, requiring everyone to pay to enter, but including a parasol / bed set up in the fee.

Prices start from around €12 for rental of a parasol and two beds at a lido, to €40 for entry to an exclusive beach club, with use of two sunbeds closest to the sea (the first line of beds).

€12 - 40 / £11 - 36 / $13.50 - 45

Plate of Fresh Delicious Pasta

We love Italian food in all its forms, but the Sicilians might do it the best.

Expect to pay €7-9 for pasta alla norma (our favourite pasta dish on the island), with most good local restaurants charging no more than €10 - 12 for their best pasta dishes.

On the east coast, prices increased to around €10 for a plate of alla norma to upwards of €16 for a fancier dish.

€7 - 10 / £6 - 9 / $8 - 11

Coperto

In the vast majority of bars and restaurants across Italy, you will have a coperto added on to your bill at the end - an additional ‘cover charge’, that is calculated per person.

Sometimes it only applies to outside seating, and it’s almost always significantly higher in more touristy locations.

Expect to pay around €1-2 per person, on top of your food + drinks.

Read more | You can find out more about the coperto in our post Things to Know Before You Visit Sicily (published soon).

€1 - 2 / £0.90 - 1.80 / $1.15 - 2.25

Gelato (in brioche)

There’s just something about proper Italian gelato…

But the Sicilians add a little extra flourish - they serve it in a brioche roll! Sounds weird, we know, but it tastes pretty damn good.

Two scoops in a brioche was €2.50

€2.50 / £2.25 / $2.80

Granita

So much more refreshing than a gelato, this traditional icy treat is what got us through the Sicilian summer.

There’s lots of flavours available, but always always go for the lemon!

€2 / £1.80 / $2.25

a whole Pizza

Whilst at home we’d never ever consider having pizza more than once a week, when we’re in Italy, it’s basically whenever we feel like it!

Almost always amazing, they’re also a great budget choice, costing as little as €5 for a margherita.

€5 - 8 / £4.50 - 7 / $5.50 - 9

Mount Etna Tour

Probably the most popular excursion on all of the island, witnessing the active Mount Etna in person is quite a remarkable site.

Tours vary in price depending upon how adventurous you’re feeling, but expect to pay around €85 per person (the actual tour only costs €35 but you are required to pay for a €50 cable car/bus combo at the volcano).

€85 / £77 / $96

Valley of the Temples

There are a large number of relatively intact Greek ruins in Sicily, but if you only have time to pick one, it’s got to be the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento.

€12 / £11 / $13.50

Ferry to Favignana

With crystal clear waters that rival pretty much any we’ve seen in the Caribbean, a day trip (or if you’re lucky, even longer) to Favignana - the small island off the north west coast of Sicily - is an absolute must.

To reach it you’ll need to take a one hour ferry from Trapani (€20 per person, round trip), and then we’d recommend hiring a bicycle for €10 to explore a number of its most beautiful coves.

€20 / £18 / $22.50