Syracuse, Ortygia & Noto small group Tour from Catania with lunch

Excellent tour full of history and architectural details. Guide was very knowledgeable and communicated well.

There are many beautiful places, especially the Neopolis in Siracusa. The tour was mostly guided, but at the largest and most interesting place, there was no guide and no transparency ahead of time about how much walking would be involved. The Neopolis itself should provide mini trams of some sort because not everyone is capable of walking 20 km. However, I think this should be stated upfront in the "tour "description that unless you are an avid hiker, you will not be able to access this place. It's not really a tour when you are dumped off to climb by yourself.

Informative friendly tour guide, got to see lots beautiful places and the time allocated to each was just right. Lunch was delicious ! Would definitely recommend.

It is unfortunate that, although Syracuse, Ortigia, and Noto are beautiful and worthwhile destinations, this tour did not meet our expectations. 1. Misleading Group Size and Transportation The tour description stated that the group would be limited to no more than eight people. While each van did carry eight passengers, all eight adults were squeezed into a single vehicle, with two passengers seated in the front. This made the journey uncomfortable, especially on a full-day tour. In addition, our guide was shared between two vans, totaling approximately sixteen participants. While traveling, the guide provided commentary over the phone, but the audio quality was poor and often difficult to understand. 2. Archaeological Park Visit The first stop at the Archaeological Park was conducted without a guided tour, and the admission ticket was not included. The TripAdvisor listing only disclosed this exclusion in small Italian text, while the rest of the information was presented in English. This was easy to overlook and felt misleading. The site itself was interesting, but the pathways and directions were not clearly marked. Many members of our group struggled to find their way around and fully appreciate the visit. 3. Tour Guide Experience Our guide, Agnese, appeared knowledgeable; however, his strong accent made it difficult for many participants to understand his explanations. Despite his attempts at humor, most of the group did not seem engaged. What was particularly puzzling was that he frequently chose to stand in direct sunlight while giving explanations, even when shaded areas were readily available nearby. As the day progressed, many participants chose to sit on nearby benches or remain in the shade rather than listen to the commentary. By the end of the tour, several guests had expressed frustration with the overall experience and were eager to return as soon as possible. Positive Aspects The destinations themselves—Syracuse, Ortigia, and Noto—were undoubtedly the highlights of the day. Each city offered unique history, architecture, and charm. The lunch sandwich provided during the tour was also quite enjoyable. Unfortunately, the issues described above significantly detracted from what should have been a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Worst experience ever. The guide wasn’t that informative. He was more worried about the heat. The trip was so boring

Good tour and guide, but beware of the Viator description, which can be misleading. The ad said free admission at each stop, but travelers should aware that the first stop charges an admission fee, which is not covered in the booking fee. Francesco was very knowlegeable for Otygia and Noto, but we were unfortunately left on our own for Neapolis, which was a disappointing and confusing site to navigate on our own.

Fabulous day!!! 1st visit was to Monumentale Della Neapolis It cost 14 Euros to enter We spent about en hour walking g around in the heat looking at the amphitheatres and other stone structures but truthfully would have rather spent the extra time in Ortigia. We drove through Sircusa and did not stop but it looked beautiful. Direct to Ortigia . We walked through the market and ordered our DELICIOUS 🤤 sandwiches from Borderi deli who serve 1 million people a year!!! The town is beautiful 🤩 and no graffiti 👍 we walked to the other end where there is a small beach and had Aperol Spritz with beautiful water view 😎 then had to head back! Then went to Notto that also has beautiful history and architecture but only had 30 minutes free time. Our guide was AMAZING and dropped us back at our hotel first Grazie!! Wonderful day !

We booked this tour primarily to visit the town of Noto which was canceled by the provider and replaced with Santuario della Madonna church in Syracuse. It was not an equal substitute. We wanted to cancel the tour but were told we can’t. The tour was supposed to start at 8:30 am with pickup at our hotel. It was changed to 9:05 at a different pickup location by the provider. The driver arrived late - at 9:25 am. Our driver was also a narrator. While he was very nice, we believed he was not a certified tour guide. We visited only couple of sites and were not given much of a tour and didn’t get educated about the city itself.

Wonderful trip. Our guide was friendly, knowledgeable and appropriately funny. Lunch was excellent. There is a significant amount of walking which could be an issue for some people. The only thing I would change would be to reduce some time at the ruins in Syracuse and add it to Noto and/or Ortegia. Also, rent the voice guide at the Syracuse park to get a better idea of what you’re viewing.

Our driver, Mika prearranged pickup with me 2 blocks from our apartment. Our group was made up of 8 travels, three Italians visiting, expat from GB, and a mother/daughter visiting from Australia with Italian roots. The conversations were lively and fun and the group meshed well. I loved all the places we went, but thought perhaps the tour was a little more self directed than I expected. We were introduced to areas and then left to sort of find our way. It was a wonderful day and certainly a great way to get from Catania to the places we wanted to visit. We did run across two Saturday markets, but had to rush through those. Our food was from a restaurant at one of the markets and was just dry and we didn’t have much chance to ask for anything and Mika had disappeared. I thoroughly enjoyed the group, but perhaps had a slightly different expectation.