Etna Morning Tour (starting from Catania)

An excellent chance to explore Mount Etna and learn about the volcano and its unique characteristics. The guide changed the start time to 07:30 from the booked 08:00 which made an enormous difference to the experience as we arrived before the place was totally swamped with other tourists. Make sure you do the same, even earlier if you can! Our guide was excellent and a superb teacher. He was very attentive to our safety and provided us with the necessary safety equipment for the visit to the lava tube. I wore shoes that were only just adequate. Proper walking boots or trainers are essential for the hike up to the crater, which is very slippery, and the visit to the lava tube, which is very uneven and spiky. Long trousers and sleeves are recommended so that if you do slip, as I did, your limbs are protected.

We met a guide not too far from the port. The ride was smooth. She answered any questions. We stopped at a cafe/gift shop where we could use bathrooms. Then went on a hike up a ways. Etna was erupting so we could see ash all over the ground. We were on back side so we never felt unsafe. Hiked down then drove to a lava tube. They gave us helmets and walked us in a bit. Final stop was a lookout point. We could see the fresh hardened lava. Then we stopped at a wine and honey store. Samples were available so we bought some honey. Overall a great excursion.

It is a very beautiful experience, the guide was great and the explanations very interesting. However, we could have done it without a guide with a car. Furthermore, the price is too high. We would have paid less by booking directly on site.

There are several things to be aware of with this tour, that I don’t think are accurately represented from the booking. 1. The start time is NOT 8am. They expect to be leaving the meeting point at 7:35am. You only find this out the night before via WhatsApp text and email. They really should update the start time to 7:30 to accurately reflect so people can plan accordingly, especially if they might be coming from somewhere other than Catania. 2. The duration of each itinerary point is vastly overstated. Of course there is drive time to consider which they don’t really outline but the Lava Cave is listed as 2 hours in duration. The actual lava cave is 15 minutes.. the tasting at the end is also overstated to be 30 minutes, it was 15 on the dot. The tour was spent predominantly driving, and less so actually looking at the sights. They should update the itinerary to reflect actual time at each stop and drive times listed separately. I likely wouldn’t have booked this knowing what I know now. It was a cool experience to see but not quite what I had expected. 3. The last point of concern, the tour operator we had while very knowledgeable, was unprofessional. He allowed a 15m coffee break after the first hiking portion which was 45 minutes of steep incline walking, when one of the couples in our group (3 couples total) was still finishing up he started berating her for not being done and continued to go on even after she threw her food out. 15m is not enough time for a break for a group of 6 to use the bathroom (which this was the only opportunity to use the bathroom on the 5 hour tour), get food, water, etc. everyone in the group was more than fine to wait a couple minutes for her to finish.

If this tour is bilingual Italian/English you may hear more Italian A day of diversity Short walk on the lower edge of Etna but none the less it was AMAZING to experience it Information given about the history and geography I felt at times that asking a question was rather a nuisance After our walk we drove to caves that were lava tunnels and spent 20 minutes learning about those and the geology Last stop was a honey, wine, olive, olive oil and garlic shop for tasting No info given there On our decent we stopped at a lookout to see a valley formed by lava Interesting experience but a felt the guide was rather abrupt May be it was the Sicilian way?

From start to finish, it was fantastic. Climbing up and around the crater made us feel like we were on top of the world. The cave was awesome! The valle del bove (valley of the ox) was an incredible lava flow. Giuseppe took care of us every step of the way! He let me use his trekking stick because my knees are bad. He shared facts and info consistently. It was even better than I could have imagined.

Booking a morning tour avoided the crowds, and the small group was more personal. Our guide Janet was fun, friendly, multi-lingual and knowledgeable. I think we all had a great expedience.

An absolutely fantastic tour. We were a lovely group of eight, led by Monica who, as well as being exceedingly knowledgeable about Etna, moved seamlessly between Italian, French and English to ensure we all fully understood. Up and around craters, down into a lava cave with lots of explanation throughout - this was exactly what we were hoping for and the tour delivered in every respect. Etnavic were a little more expensive than some of the other operators but our experience was most definitely great value for money. Totally recommended!

Well organized, our guide was interesting, passionate and available. We highly recommend!

Giuseppe was amazing! This was a bucket list tour for me! I highly recommend this tour. Be ready with coat and proper footwear!