Cycling Sicily's Coast and Temples: The Best Days Happened Inland

By Pat Rochon, UTracks team

I'll admit I picked this trip partly for the name. Coast and temples sounded like exactly what I wanted after three weeks travelling around Sicily: a slow ride along the water with a bit of ancient history thrown in. What I got instead was something better, and a little different to what I'd pictured: farmhouses, wind turbines, wild borage, a 90-year-old grandmother pouring wine, and only a handful of genuinely coastal kilometres. More on that later. First, the ride.

I rode Cycle Sicily – Coast and Temples myself, six days across the western tip of the island, from Marsala's baroque streets to a farmhouse table two hours inland. Here's how the week unfolded.

Why Western Sicily, and Why Shoulder Season

Marsala, Segesta, Trapani and Favignana each carry centuries of layered history, Phoenician salt trade, Greek temples, Norman churches, and I wanted to see them at a pace slower than a bus tour allows. Travelling in the shoulder season meant cooler temperatures, typically 15–18°C by day and dropping to single digits at night, a lot fewer people, and a trade-off: some restaurants and shops still closed for winter, and weather that swings between sun, wind and rain within the same afternoon. If you want reliable heat and open kitchens everywhere, come in summer. If you'd rather have the salt pans to yourself, the quieter months are worth the trade.

How Hard Is the Riding, Really?

UTracks grades this trip introductory to moderate, and for a June departure that's about right: mostly flat coastal roads and gentle lowland riding, with daily distances between roughly 15 and 52 kilometres. Ride it in the shoulder season, though, and the wind becomes the real variable. Two of my six days turned genuinely demanding, not because of the terrain but because of gusts strong enough to slow a downhill stretch to walking pace. If you're travelling outside peak summer, build in some tolerance for weather, not just hills.

Where I Slept

Three very different places, and that variety turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip. Two nights at Hotel Carmine Marsala, a 19th-century townhouse in the old quarter with a shaded courtyard and a resident cat who runs the place better than most managers I know. Two nights at a working agriturismo near Buseto Palizzolo, run almost single-handedly by a man named Giuseppe, who cooks, pours the wine and somehow still finds time to introduce guests to his mother. Two nights at Hotel San Michele in Trapani's old town, a short walk from the ferry docks and the bus station.

Packing Tip: Bring your own handlebar phone mount and a small mirror. The mount supplied with the bike is basic, and on the rougher inland roads your phone will bounce loose if it's not properly secured. It's your only navigation, so treat it accordingly.

Day 1: Marsala

I arrived on a bright Saturday afternoon to a town far busier, and far cleaner, than I'd expected after a few days in Palermo. I wandered the baroque churches and marble side streets, stopped for pastry more than once, and walked the coastal promenade as the sea breeze picked up. If your schedule allows it, arrive a day early. Marsala has salt pan tours, wine tastings and island excursions on offer, and I simply ran out of daylight to try any of them.

Day 2: Coastal Ride to the Marsala Salt Pans and Back (24km)

Heavy overnight rain had flooded parts of the route, so I improvised my way north along the coast to the Inversa salt flats, a stretch of shallow lagoons lined with old windmills and worked by migratory birds. The small salt museum was shut for the season, but the flats themselves told most of the story. I rode back into a clearing sky and sat on the seawall for the sunset, which felt like a fair reward for a wet start.

Day 3: Transfer Inland to Cycle to Buseto Palizzolo (52km)

This was the toughest day on the bike, and the one that reset my expectations for the whole trip. A short drive took me away from the coast to begin a long ride through rolling wheat fields and vineyards, into a headwind strong enough to keep the hillside turbines spinning all day. Lunch options in the small inland towns were closed or simply didn't exist, so the leftover pizza from the night before earned its keep. I also met a farm's entire dog patrol partway through, seven or eight of them, none especially used to cyclists, and picked up considerable pace for a few hundred metres. I arrived at Giuseppe's agriturismo tired, damp and very glad of the glass of Marsala wine waiting for me.

Day 4: Segesta Loop (15 or 34km)

Wind and rain kept me indoors most of the morning, which mostly meant coffee, several cups of it, and conversation with Giuseppe while his three dogs supervised. By late afternoon the sky cleared enough for a short, mostly downhill ride to the Doric temple at Segesta, one of the best-preserved 5th-century BC sites in Sicily. I arrived close to closing time and chose to view it from a distance rather than pay for a rushed forty-five minutes inside, then finished the day with a muddy walk along Giuseppe's vineyard tracks as the clouds finally broke.

Insider Fact: You can extend this day with a ride down to the Terme Segestane hot springs, but the final access road is a steep, rutted dirt track with no shoulder and heavy switchbacks. After a full day of wind and hills, I was happy to leave that one for another visit.

Day 5: Ride to Trapani (35km)

The best day on the bike, by a good margin. Long, easy downhill stretches through vineyards and olive groves, wind turbines turning on every ridge, and barely another person on the road apart from a farmer and a few unimpressed sheep. The landscape softened as I went, palms and cactus appearing as the sea came back into view, until I rolled into Trapani's old town through narrow, pastel-coloured streets. The final few kilometres into the city carry heavy traffic, so keep your attention up here even as the finish line comes into sight.

Day 6: Favignana Island Loop (25km, Optional)

In shoulder season there's typically one ferry over around 10am and one back around 4pm, so the whole day runs on that timetable. The crossing itself was rough, with the wind pushing the boat around properly, but the island more than made up for it: quiet coastal roads, hidden coves, an old tuna cannery, and hardly another cyclist in sight.

Insider Fact: The return ferry and bike transfer aren't included in the trip price, budget around €40 return per person plus €5 each way for the bike. It's an easy day to skip to save money, and I'd genuinely encourage you not to. Favignana was one of the best days of the whole week.

Day 7: Departure from Trapani

The trip finishes after breakfast at the hotel in Trapani, an easy walk from the ferry terminal and bus station if you're continuing on.

Final Thoughts

A few honest notes before you book. The title promises coast, and the photo that sells the trip leans hard into that promise, but most of this itinerary actually runs inland, through vineyards, wheat fields and one very memorable farmhouse. By my own count, if you skip the Favignana day, the genuinely coastal riding across the whole week comes to around 16 kilometres. That surprised me, and it's worth knowing going in.

None of that made the trip less worthwhile. It made it a different trip to the one I expected, built more around Sicilian hospitality, ancient ruins and quiet countryside than around ocean views, and I'd still recommend it without hesitation. This suits a rider who wants variety over a straight coastal cruise: someone happy to trade a few kilometres of sea view for a home-cooked dinner with Giuseppe, a temple at golden hour and a windswept island that most visitors never get to. Go in expecting Sicily's interior as much as its coast, and you won't be disappointed.

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