What to do in Cefalù, Sicily

Dan and I love everything Italian – the food, the wine, the culture and especially the little seaside towns.  Until now I’d never been to Siciliy so we decided to take a trip to the island and chose Cefalù as our destination.  Cefalù (pronounced chef-a-loo) is a beautiful old coastal town in Northern Sicily.  It is situated on the outskirts of Parca delle Madonie, a National Park and is dominated by the Duomo, a Norman Cathedral,  in the main square and La Rocca, a huge rocky mountain which towers over the town. Cefalù is a town, full of winding streets and tiny alleyways with plenty of bars and restaurants, most with terraces that look out over the ocean which are perfect for sunset dinners and drinks.  There is an old, historic port as well as beautiful sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and a beautiful climate year-round.

How to get to Cefalù

Cefalù is fairly easy to get to from Palermo airport which has many flights a day from the UK and other countries.  It is about 40 miles east of Palermo and from the airport, you have a few options for the remainder of the journey.

A taxi is the most convenient but probably the most expensive method – taxis in Sicily are not cheap!  Choosing an airport taxi will cost you around €130 each way for the journey which takes just over an hour.  It’s often cheaper to arrange transfers via your hotel as they can get a better rate.  Ours quoted us €120 each way.  We looked online and found a firm (GetByTransfer) that would do it for €110 each way.  Not a huge saving but every little helps!

Hire a car – the journey is not difficult.  It’s mainly one straight motorway (the E90) until you get close to Cefalù, at which point most of the hotels are individually signposted.  However, parking in Cefalù is not an easy task and taking your car anywhere within the city walls could result in a fine.  If you are going to drive, maybe check out parking in advance or if you have a hotel booking, ask them for information on parking so that you don’t spend hours seeking out a free parking place.

Take the train – This is easier if you are already in Palermo as you need to get one train from the airport to the centre of Palermo and then change to another train to take you to Cefalù.  It’s a much more reasonable option at around €15-20 for the trip but it will take up to 2hr 30 mins from the airport.  Also, the trains don’t run 24 hrs a day so if you arrive very early morning or late evening, this option may not be available to you.

The trains out of Palermo however, run approximately every hour between the city and Cefalù and take about 50 minutes. The train station is about a 10-minute walk from the beach and the old town (uphill on the way back) and tickets can be purchased online or in-person at the station. Trenitalia is the train company and you should expect to pay €5-6 for a ticket bought on the same day.

Where to Stay in Cefalù

Firstly you have to decide if you want to be in the Old Town or if you’d rather be a bit further out in a hotel with a pool and private beach.

We opted for the second choice and stayed just around the coast at Hotel Kalura (3 stars) which we found to be very reasonably priced .  It was just over €100 a night for an economy room with sea view (this was in the off-season though).  We picked the Hotel Kalura for its breathtaking clifftop views out over the sea from the restaurant where you take your breakfast.

The other reason was that we loved the private beach down a rocky cliff path and the fact that we could jump in the sea, first thing in the morning before breakfast.

It’s a short walk into town (about 20 minutes) but quite up and down – or you can hire a taxi for around €10.  The walk is not well lit so take a torch with you if you go at night.

If you want to blow the budget then stay at Le Calette. This is the fanciest hotel in the area with a swimming pool, cocktail bar and beach club.  It has a wellness centre with a spa and fitness room, 4 different restaurants catering from snacks to fine dining.

Again, this is out of town and requires a 15 min walk into the Old Town.

If you want to stay in the Old Town then lots of options can be found.  There are plenty of Air BnBs or local guesthouses nestled among the tiny cobbled streets.

What to do in Cefalù

Cefalù is a beautiful town with plenty to see and do, whether you want art, history, relaxation or gastronomy there is something for everyone.

Explore the Old Town – wander around and get lost in the maze of tiny cobbled streets and archways. Pick up a gelato from one of the many vendors or sit in a cafe and watch Sicilian life play out in front of your eyes.

If history and architecture are your passions then you definitely need to visit the Duomo di Cefalù.  This beautiful double-towered Cathedral built in a Norman style sits at the heart of Cefalù’s centre and you just can’t help but stop and admire it.  You can head inside (there’s no entry fee) and look at the amazing Byzantine mosaics and other artworks that line the walls and floor.  After enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of this imposing building you can enjoy a coffee in the piazza just in front or watch the world go by over a long leisurely lunch.

Visit the  Museo Mandralisca, which houses beautiful works of art, archaeological collections, numismatic items and furniture and precious objects that belonged to the family Mandralisca.  The most famous works of art are the ‘Portrait of an Unknown Man’ by Antonello da Messina (1465) and a Sicilian goblet with red figures on a black background – called  ‘The Seller of Tunafish’.  The Portrait of an Unknown Man is said to have a smile as intriguing as that of the Mona Lisa!

The Museum is open every day between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m and entry is €6 per person.

For something a bit more energetic you could Hike up to the Tempio di Diana. This is a Roman temple, set into the hillside of La Rocca and was built to the goddess Diana sometime around the 4th century BC.  It’s a beautiful spot, just make sure to go early morning or evening when it’s cooler as the hike in the midday heat can be a bit much.  If you’re feeling extra energetic you can head further up and Climb La Rocca, all the way to the top.  It has the very best views out over Cefalù and even of the Tempio di Diana, you just need to keep going.  La Rocca was once the site of a Norman castle, built in 1061.  Now,  only the ruins remain but it is still the historic landmark that Céfalu is best known for and you’ll be rewarded with fantastic views out over the town and the sea.

It costs €4 per person to access La Rocca and Tempio di Diana. You pay into a machine at the start of the hiking trail which gets you a ticket – (credit/debit cards accepted or correct change only).  There are wardens who patrol and issue random ticket checks so be sure to purchase one and keep it on you.  A word of warning: there are quite a few stairs to navigate. The hike is not hard and takes around 30-45 minutes and is definitely worth the effort for the views.  

You’ll want to spend some time at least while you’re there, relaxing on Cefalù beach.  The main beach is a strip of sand to the west of the old town lined by a promenade with restaurants and bars.  It’s one of the most popular stretches of beach along the entire northern coast of Sicily and it’s easy to see why.  White sands and crystal-clear, calm waters that stay warm until October mean that tourists and locals alike love this area.

There is a public part of the beach where it is free to put your towel down and spend the day or there are some Lidos along the beach where you can rent sunbeds and an umbrella for the day. (If you’re after a spot on the public beach make sure to get there early as it can get crowded).

If lying on a beach is too relaxing for you then Cefalù has plenty of Watersports on offer.  For thrill-seekers, you can hire a jet ski or take a banana boat ride.  If a more relaxed pace is your thing you can hire sea kayaks or stand up paddleboards.  There is also a Scuba School which was actually situated in our hotel (Hotel Kalura) where you can learn to Scuba if you’ve not done it before or go on a dive if you’re more experienced.

You can also Hire A Boat for a day or half a day which is what we did. It was so lovely to see the town from the sea – you get a whole different perspective on it.  We love hiring a boat when we go away – we first did it in Lake Garda.  It’s such a lovely way to get a different perspective on a town, when you see it from the water.

We took our lunch and headed to the marina and hired it for a few hours one afternoon. It cost us around €100 for about 4 hours.  We spent time jumping on and off, enjoying the crystal-clear waters and relaxing in the sun. We explored different parts of the coastline that we hadn’t got around to visiting and had a lovely relaxing afternoon.

If you don’t fancy captaining your own boat you can always take a Sunset Aperitivo Boat Tour.  Sit back and relax with drinks and canapés and let someone else do the hard work. The tour takes around 3 hours and you can watch the sunset from the water before heading back to dry land for dinner.

And not forgetting eating and drinking…

Where to eat in Cefalù

Cefalù has an abundance of restaurants and bars dotted around the Old Town.  If you head to the street ‘Via Carlo Ortolani di Bordonaro’ then you’ll find that every other building is a restaurant.  Many of these are quite touristy but the food is still great and some of the restaurants have sea views out the back – who doesn’t want to dine with a sea view?

A couple of restaurants that we tried for dinner were Al Porticciolo and Al Ristoro di Re Ruggero and we had lunch one day at Tivitti.

We found the menus to all be fairly similar – the pizza and pasta were spectacular according to Dan, but as I can’t eat them I was left with meat or fish.  If you can eat pasta you should definitely try Pasta alla Norma which is a Sicilian tradition.  It’s pasta with tomatoes, aubergine, ricotta and lots of fresh basil.

I was expecting lots of plain grilled catch of the day with olive oil and lemon but in fact, there were quite a lot of stews and tomato-based dishes.  Steak tagliata was available everywhere though (a sliced steak salad with parmesan cheese) as was caponata which is a kind of aubergine and tomato stew – delicious!

If you’re after a late lunch, be aware that most restaurants close around 2 pm and then don’t re-open again until dinner at around 6.30 pm or 7 pm so you may struggle for a meal outside of these times.

Fine dining

The restaurant at Hotel Kalura. We were staying at this hotel and ate breakfast here every day (and some lunches) so we didn’t actually have dinner there. Instead, we preferred to head into town for aperitivo and the local trattorias.  However, I’m reliably informed that the menu here is spectacular and well worth doing dinner here one night.  The setting is spectacular – just look at that for breakfast with a view!

For our final night, we decided to splash out and we headed to the fine dining restaurant at Le Calette, La Cala Luna. It was such a spectacular setting.  The dining room is all in the open air, set on a clifftop and lit by candlelight. The food was superb and with very generous portions that you don’t usually get in a fine-dining restaurant.  We had delicious red shrimp and tuna carpaccio to start followed by roast rack of lamb and swordfish steaks as main – all washed down with a lovely Sicilian wine.  The food was fabulous but it really is the setting that makes this place so special.

If you’re in Siciliy, or indeed anywhere in Italy, you don’t want to miss out on Aperitivo.  It’s a big thing in Italy, probably because the Italians eat late in the evening, often not until 9 pm so they have a small snack at around 6-7 pm to tide them over.  Aperitivo basically consists of a pre-dinner drink accompanied by some nibbles.  If you order an aperitif you usually get the snacks complimentary and they can range from olives and crisps to canapes to bite-sized pieces of bruschetta or pizza.  It’s a great way to relax after a long day and watch the world go by, preferably in a bar with a great view of the sunset!

There are plenty of wine bars (Enotecas) dotted around the town and some of these serve food too. If you go at the right time (usually around 7 pm you can get the aperitivo.  We tried a few wine bars but our favourite was the most beautiful little place, Enoteca Le Petit Tonneau.  It doesn’t look like much from the outside but if you go all the way through to the back there are a few tables on a little balcony overlooking the sea – perfect for a sunset drink or a nightcap.

We also got aperitivo one night at Molo 19 which appeared to be the most happening bar in town.  Right on the seafront, it had music playing and a really buzzy atmosphere with a very extensive cocktail list!

And that’s what to do in Cefalù in a nutshell.  It really is a beautiful little town with something for everyone!

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