There is one fact about arriving in Taormina that guidebooks bury and that decides how your first hour goes.
The train station is not in Taormina. It is called Taormina-Giardini, which sounds reassuring, and it sits at sea level roughly two hundred metres below the town. It is a lovely little station in a good spot by the water. It is not where you booked a hotel. From there you still need a bus or a taxi up the hill.
People arrive with luggage, walk out of that station expecting an old town, and find a coastal road. Here is how to avoid that, and everything else about moving around. The wider planning is in my complete guide to Taormina.
Which airport
Catania Fontanarossa is the answer. It is about an hour away and it is where nearly everything flies.
Palermo exists but it is on the other side of the island, roughly four hours by road, and is only sensible if you are touring Sicily rather than coming straight here.
From Catania airport, two good options
The bus is the simplest. A direct coach runs from outside the airport terminal to Taormina for roughly seven to eight euros, taking about an hour and twenty-five minutes. Departures run from early morning until around seven in the evening, roughly every half hour through the morning and hourly later. It drops you at the bus terminal on the edge of the old town, which is genuinely in Taormina and walkable to most hotels.
The train is slightly faster and slightly more awkward. There is a station at the airport now, and trains run to Taormina-Giardini in about an hour and six minutes for five to nine euros. But it deposits you at sea level, and you then need the bus or a taxi up.
For a first visit with luggage, take the bus. It costs about the same and it ends where you are going.
Getting up from the station, if you take the train
A local bus runs up the hill from outside Taormina-Giardini station and takes about fifteen minutes.
A taxi costs roughly ten to fifteen euros and takes ten. With bags and in heat, this is money well spent.
Do not plan to walk it. It is two hundred vertical metres of hairpins with no pavement in places.
Driving, and where the car goes
A car is the best way to see Sicily and close to the worst way to arrive in Taormina, and both are true simultaneously.
The drive from Catania takes about fifty minutes on the motorway, and the final approach is a series of tight hairpins up the cliff face with stone walls and prickly pear and a long view down. It is a good piece of road.
The problem starts at the top. The old town is largely pedestrian and access is restricted. You cannot drive to most hotel doors. You park in one of the multi-storey car parks on the edge of town and walk in, and you pay a daily rate for the privilege.
So: if Taormina is your whole trip, do not hire a car. If you are touring Sicily, hire one, and ask your hotel before you arrive exactly which car park to use and how far the walk is.
Getting around once you are here
On foot, entirely, inside the old town. It is fifteen minutes end to end and no vehicle would help you.
The cable car for the beaches. Three minutes down to Mazzarò, every fifteen minutes, six euros one way and ten return, with an all-day pass at twenty. In summer it runs from eight in the morning until about half past one at night. In winter it stops around eight in the evening, which is a significant difference if you are staying down at the water.
Local buses run along the coast to Giardini Naxos and Letojanni and up to the hill village above the town.
Taxis exist, are not cheap, and are worth it with luggage or at the end of a long day.
Arriving with luggage, which is its own problem
Taormina is a town of staircases. Lanes turn into steps without warning and many buildings have no lift.
Two things make it painless. Ask your hotel where a taxi can actually stop and how far the walk is from there, because the answer varies enormously and some places will meet you. And bring a bag you can carry rather than one you can only wheel, because wheels and worn stone steps do not get along.
Onward around Sicily
The coastal railway is the useful thing here. Messina is about an hour north, Catania forty-five minutes to an hour south, and Syracuse roughly two hours south, all without driving.
For Palermo and the west, the train takes most of a day and a car or a domestic flight makes more sense.
The port, and the tenders
Worth knowing even if you are not arriving this way, because it explains the crowds.
Cruise ships call at the bay below Taormina through the season. They generally anchor offshore and bring passengers in by tender to the little harbour, and from there people come up by bus, taxi or the cable car.
That is why the town fills so abruptly between nine and eleven in the morning and empties so completely after five. It is not a gradual build. It is a tide with a timetable.
If you are staying in Taormina, use that. The cable car queue is worst when several thousand day visitors are trying to move in the same direction at once, which is late morning going up and late afternoon going down. Travel against it.
Read also: the best day trips from Taormina, where to stay in Taormina, and my complete guide to Taormina.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a train station in Taormina?
Not in the town itself. The station is called Taormina-Giardini and it sits at sea level, about two hundred metres below the old town. From there you take a local bus, which is about fifteen minutes, or a taxi at roughly ten to fifteen euros, up the hill.
How do you get from Catania airport to Taormina?
The simplest way is the direct bus, roughly seven to eight euros and about an hour and twenty-five minutes, which drops you at the bus terminal on the edge of the old town. The train takes about an hour and six minutes but leaves you at sea level, needing a further bus or taxi.
Should you hire a car in Taormina?
Not if Taormina is the whole trip. The old town is largely pedestrian with restricted access, you cannot drive to most hotel doors, and you will pay daily rates in an edge-of-town car park. Hire one if you are touring Sicily more widely.
How much is the cable car in Taormina?
Six euros one way, ten euros return and twenty euros for an all-day pass. It takes about three minutes to reach the bay at Mazzarò and runs roughly every fifteen minutes, until about half past one in the morning in summer and around eight in the evening in winter.
How far is Taormina from Catania?
About fifty minutes by car on the motorway, an hour and twenty-five by direct bus from the airport, or roughly an hour by train down the coast. Catania is the nearest major city and its airport is the one nearly everyone flies into.
