Anyone done the "Mt. Etna Scenic Drive" excursion from Messina?

[mikeerdas]

I typically hate paying for excursions (most ports I easily do myself). What is the "Mt. Etna Scenic Drive" excursion like, and how much time are you able to spend walking around the Silvestri Crater area? Is it a 15 min to 30 min affair, then back in the bus / mostly driving all day? Or are you able to spend at least an hour or more at Silvestri Crater? I realize you don't summit on this trip (and the weather might be bad in late September when I'll be there), but it wouldn't be worth it to me to simply hop out of the bus for 15 to 30 mins. Would rather do Taormina on my own (e.g. no excursion, just the public transport bus) and leisurely enjoy the town.

[kyriecat]

I did it last year (May) and was really disappointed, but we had various problems on our excursion. You might fare better. There is a fairly long drive to the volcano and you get about 30 minutes to walk around it on your own. We had lunch at a restaurant near the crater then drove to Taormina. Taormina was really interesting so I wish we had more time there.

On our cruise the ship docked over an hour late. When we got to the top of Mt. Etna it was really foggy so instead of fabulous views, we had clouds. We were supposed to have an hour of free time to explore Taormina but our guide didn't give us the free time. According to him, he is paid a lump sum for the tour. Since he had to wait over an hour for us, he was taking that hour off the tour length. We eventually got a partial refund from Shore Excursions but would rather have had the hour in Taormina. I know RC can't regulate the cloud coverage so that wasn't an issue, but the guide's attitude was. If I book a 7-hour tour through the ship, I expect to get a 7-hour tour even if the ship does dock late.

If the weather were good and we had the full tour, I think I would have enjoyed it. Mt. Etna is not interesting enough (IMO) to warrant the long drive just to see clouds. I have seen photos taken from the top on a sunny day and the view is wonderful. That is the main reason that I booked that tour.

Our tablemates took a taxi and spent the day at Taormina and really enjoyed it. The little that we saw of it looked interesting. We were rushed to the theater then back to the bus. No free time at all.

[mikeerdas]

Thanks Kyrie.

[mikeerdas]

Looks like my excursion may be sold out (Sept 21) - The Mt. Etna Scenic Drive. Can anyone recommend a reputable private tour company that would take me to Mt. Etna in plenty of time to get back to the ship? Would prefer going with a known-to-be-reliable tour operator rather than some random driver.

Thanks very much.

[GioRaf]

Originally Posted by mikeerdas

Looks like my excursion may be sold out (Sept 21) - The Mt. Etna Scenic Drive. Can anyone recommend a reputable private tour company that would take me to Mt. Etna in plenty of time to get back to the ship? Would prefer going with a known-to-be-reliable tour operator rather than some random driver.

Thanks very much.

We live in Rome, so we cant help you in a direct way, but as italian we can suggest (if the excursion its sold out) to reach the city of Taormina by train (its about 35 miles away), you can check the schedule and fares here :
http://trenitalia.it/homepage_en.html
then on the city of Taormina you can look for a guided Tour to the Etna.

Looking on google we found this one for example
http://www.cogasicilytour.it/uk_escursioni.php

Please keep in mind that the city of "Giardini di Naxos" its also very nice and worth the visit (few miles away from Taormina).

Giorgio and Raffaella

[kyriecat]

Originally Posted by mikeerdas

Looks like my excursion may be sold out (Sept 21) - The Mt. Etna Scenic Drive. Can anyone recommend a reputable private tour company that would take me to Mt. Etna in plenty of time to get back to the ship? Would prefer going with a known-to-be-reliable tour operator rather than some random driver.

Thanks very much.

You can also try going to the excursions desk as soon as it opens (first day you board, usually around 3 PM but check the Cruise Compass) to see if there are any cancellations. If not, they can put you on a waiting list. Some of the ships have a way to book excursions from your TV so you can check that out when you board.

[mikeerdas]

Update:

I was able to book the ship's excursion to Mt. Etna at the Excursions desk onboard. Was pleased, as we had about 60 minutes to spend at Silvestri Crater--enough time for me to grab a quick lunch and do a loop around the crater. Someone mentioned only 30 mins was spent at the top. I guess that's at the discretion of the tour operator for any given day.

At the site, I saw some ski gondolas / cable cars. Anyone know how much they cost / to what height they go (Silvestri craters is at ~2000 meters), and how long a round-trip would be on them? Probably wouldn't have had enough time, although I thought it might be fun to take the cable car up and walk down. I saw no mention of cable cars on any Mt. Etna thread I've read, but it's a very short walk to them from where the main restaurant is.