A Guide to Touring Mt. Etna | Sicily Tour Itinerary and Recap

If you’re visiting Sicily, one of the absolute best things to do (besides eating your body weight in pasta, pizza, and cannoli) is taking a tour of Mt. Etna! It’s one of the world’s most active volcanos, and while you can see it from afar in tons of towns in the area, nothing compares to actually venturing up the base of the volcano and taking in the sights from up close.

There are plenty of tour options based on activity level, time length, price point, and other excursions you may want to include (like a local food and wine tasting). Basically, there’s an option for everyone, which makes touring Mt. Etna a true must-do when visiting Sicily!

I’m sharing everything I learned from booking our guided tour of the volcano, plus the itinerary and all the fun details and photos. Enjoy!

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CHOOSING YOUR TOUR

Choosing which tour to take is the biggest piece of the puzzle here–you’ll need to make sure to read through all the tour descriptions and itineraries thoroughly so you know exactly what you’re getting. There are sunset tours, half-day tours, Jeep tours, advanced hiking tours, and more, and each tour has different things included in the price. Pay close attention to the transportation information as well; some tours pick you up from your hotel, while others require you to get yourself to the base of the volcano. Some tours leave from Taormina, while some leave from Catania, and some tours even include free or guided time in either of those cities. Be sure to choose your tour based on where in Sicily you’re staying, and how you’re able to get to Mt. Etna itself.

For example: we stayed in Letojanni, which is only 15 minutes away from Taormina, but we chose a tour that left from Catania because it included a food tasting that we really wanted to experience. We also didn’t have a car, and we knew we needed to choose a tour that would pick us up rather than having to figure out getting to the volcano using very limited public transportation.

OUR ITINERARY

The tour we ended up choosing was a half-day tour from Catania that included round trip transportation, lava cave exploration, guided hiking toward the base of the volcano, and a food and wine tasting at a local farm nearby. There were optional add-ons like taking the cable car up to 2500 meters, then taking a bus to 3000 meters to explore closer to the craters, and we were the only two people in our group who chose to pay for that experience. Spoiler–it was worth it! This is what our itinerary looked like:

Pickup in Catania
Drive to lava flow cave
Explore lava flow cave
Drive to base of Mt. Etna
Option 1 (free): crater exploration & guided hiking at base (2000m)
Option 2 (additional charge): cable car and bus to 3000m
Return to base camp at Rifugio Sapienza
Food, wine, and liquor tasting at local farm
Return to Catania

As I mentioned, we chose option 2 for an additional charge (I think in total it was about $150 for both of us), but it was definitely worth it to get closer to the summit. After taking the cable car and bus, we were sort of lumped in with the rest of the people up there and just followed the guides who were explaining about the volcano and its history. The rest of our group, which was only about 8-10 people, stayed near the base with our guide and explored some of the craters there.

FOOD AND WINE TASTING

After we explored Mt. Etna, our guide took us to a local farm called Enoteca dell’Etna near the base camp where we got to try a wonderful selection of homemade olive oils, jams, creams, meats, and wines, plus a few different alcohols! It was naturally my favorite part of the tour, even though I conveniently forgot about my newly developed honey allergy until after I ate a bunch of it (don’t worry, I powered through and found some Italian Benadryl on our way home). I still dream about the pistachio cream we tried, and the limoncello was incredible. Honestly, everything was incredible! I definitely recommend taking a tour that includes a local food tasting because it’s such an awesome (and yummy) way to experience the local culture.

Afterwards, we got to spend some time walking around their shop in case we wanted to buy anything that we tried. If I had been able to travel with it, I would have gotten a huge tub of that pistachio cream–but alas, I left empty handed and my wallet thanked me profusely. It was a beautiful place, though, and I 100% suggest booking any tour that includes a trip here! I believe you can even book your own from the Rifugio Sapienza website (and probably when you’re there in person, too).

RECAP

No matter your activity level, budget, or timeframe, there’s a tour of Mt. Etna for everyone! A big part of planning is doing the research: look up some different tour options on GetYourGuide and Viator, read reviews of specific tours, and find travel bloggers who have done the tours firsthand and recommend them personally. I had a great experience on the tour I linked above, and as long as you read the details closely and know exactly what your tour will include, you’ll have a great experience, too.