Private Etna From Messina Cruise Terminal + Lunch In The Cellar

We had a wonderful private tour from Messina port to the top of Mount Etna with a private guide. Our first stop was to taste, honey and olive oil. Add a small village. This was a wonderful experience and we really enjoyed it. After visiting Mount Etna we had lunch at a small winery owned by two brothers along with wine tasting. It was a beautiful setting overlooking a small village. The food was amazing as well as the wine. Our guide was very conscious of getting us back to the ship in time. We highly recommend this tour.

Prestelli Tours was a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. The office staff answered emailed questions very promptly during the planning phase, which made it so easy. What’s more, they didn’t even request a deposit. Payment is requested in cash at the time of the tour. And then the tour: our guide Alberto picked us up right at our hotel in Taormina and he was wonderful. He is studying for his advanced degree in vulcanology at the local university, and has lived his whole life with Etna outside his bedroom window. He couldn’t have been more friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. First we stopped at a place to taste and buy local honey and wine, then on up the mountain to a lava tube where we hiked in a hundred meters or so. The ground was very rocky and uneven, so wear good shoes! Then on to the parking area near the cable car. We opted not to go up and hike further upslope, but there are lots of very cool extinct cones to hike on near the parking lot. The views are amazing, the place is otherworldly. Then on to a winery for a tasting and lunch. Prestelli has a relationship with several local wineries, we were taken to La Gelsomina, which I highly recommend for its charming owner who was happy to chat with us about the wine and his wine business. The food was very good as well. We also visited a second winery which also served food. This place, Gambino, was a much bigger and slicker operation, with lots of tour buses rolling through, but still very pleasant. At the end of the day we were tired, full and happy. Highly recommend Prestelli.

Massimo was fantastic and informative throughout the trip. Tour lasted bang on 7 hours start to finish, perfect amount of time hiking and the vineyard was fantastic!

Amazing day!! Samuela started our day with excellent communication on meeting location. We quickly hopped in her very clean lovely private car and away we went! We stopped in the lovely village of Linguaglossa and enjoyed a coffee. Then we visited a quaint shop that had local honey, liquors, and gifts. After trying many types of honey and delicious liquors(and buying several which did make it home!) we headed for the volcano. What an amazing sight to see. It was a beautiful day, clear sky and we could easily see the white smoke from the living mountain. We hiked to previous craters and experienced the beauty of the plants and trees growing in the rich soil. After our exhilarating hike, Samuela, took us to a beautiful local Mt. Etna vineyard to sample their lovely wine. And it was so good!!! Of course, we had to buy some and one bottle actually made it home in our suitcase! We enjoyed the other bottles during the rest of the trip! This tour was so much better than anything we had experienced with the cruise and was truly a highlight of the entire cruise. Samuela shared her love of Sicily, it’s specific culture and people. Truly a place we intend to return for a longer stay. I highly recommend this company, Prestelli Sicily Tours! Samuela, thank you so much for the lovely day! We will be back!

We loved our trip to Mount Etna, we felt it was one of the highlights of our trip in Sicily. Mauricio was a real treasure to have as our tour guide. He was very upbeat and passionate about our excursion, which made it positively more enhanced! We found him superb, very knowledgeable, informative and a lot of fun. His English was spot on and very easy to understand. He definitely exceeded our expectations as a tour guide. We would highly recommend him on this tour or any other tour he may provide.

Anthony and David were incredibly friendly and caring! They are super passionate and proud of their hometown and and very knowledgeable of the areas we are visiting. They made sure me and my wife were comfortable at all times, and wherever they needed they were their to help. Very good people who made the tour that much better for us! Thank you both!

My name is Frank Rabbito and together with my best gal, Denise, we live in Naples, Florida in the USA, but visit Taormina each year. We had the destinct pleasure of meeting our driver, Antonio (Anthony), and our guide David who took us on the most enjoyable tour of Etna, honey farm, a winerie, and so many other places we never knew existed here in Sicily. Being Sicilian myself, I quickly understood how warm and friendly these two wonderful fellows actually are. They made us feel so much at home and their knowledge of this area is amazing. Speaking with them throughout our drive was a pleasure beyond compare. So, if you want an experience to remember, please call and ask for them by name. You will not be disapointed for sure. ITALIAN: Mi chiamo Frank Rabbito e insieme alla mia migliore ragazza, Denise, siamo a Napoli, in Florida, negli Stati Uniti, ma visitiamo Taormina ogni anno. Abbiamo avuto il piacere di incontrare il nostro autista, Antonio (Anthony), e la nostra guida David che ci ha portato nel tour più divertente dell'Etna, della fattoria del miele, di una cantina e di tanti altri posti che non sapevamo esistessero qui in Sicilia. Essendo siciliano, ho capito subito quanto siano cordiali e amichevoli questi due meravigliosi ragazzi. Ci hanno fatto sentire così a casa e la loro conoscenza di questa zona è incredibile. Parlare con loro durante il nostro viaggio è stato un piacere senza paragoni. Quindi, se vuoi un'esperienza da ricordare, chiama e chiedi loro per nome. Non rimarrai deluso di sicuro. The best!!!

Marco was a great guide, he knows a lot about Etna and vulcanos around the world. This was not our first vulcano visit so we had plenty of questions! Very knowledgeable about Sicily, a pleasent guy.

WOW! Our trip to Mt. Etna exceeded expectations. Primarily due to our fantastic guide, Alberto! He is local not only to the area but to the mountain itself! He was highly prideful of Sicily and especially passionate about Mamma Etna. He was kind, sweet, and extremely knowledgeable. I don't know if this travel company allows requests, but if you can, definitely ask for him. 5/5, BEST, TOP!

Bruno took us on a lovely adventure through Sicily! He was so good to my mother, who had limited mobility and was able to adjust the trip to fit our needs. He pointed out many sights along the route to Mt Etna and was very knowledgeable about the volcano. We learned a lot from him! When we asked on the spur of the moment to try a "real" cannoli, he took us to aa amazing little bakery in the town at the base of the volcano. This place had been in business for almost 100 years and the cannoli was the best I have ever had! We also bought a few other small treats - 6 cannoli, some nut bars, and marzipan fruits - $12 Euro! We then proceeded to the winery, which was one of the most beautiful settings for lunch I have ever seen. All the food and wines were local and presented and explained by the host/family member from the winery. We made some purchases and then headed back down the mountain. I needed some cash and so Bruno made an additional stop at an ATM for me, which seems pretty simple, but Bruno informed me that most of the ATMs in the small towns had been removed due to crime - trucks smashing into them and hauling them away. He had to make a special effort to get me to an ATM. I appreciated all of his help . Finally, upon returning to the cruise port, Bruno presented my family with a bag of yellow plums from his own garden! The only thing we missed out on was a visit to the honey farm, which I had looked forward to, but ended up not missing at all.

A superb private tour of Mount Etna, Miele honey factory and Etna Gambino Winery (including a fine lunch in stunning surroundings). However, the day was made truly special by no other than Maurizio -- quite simply the best guide we have had the pleasure of meeting. Maurizio was friendly, articulate, amazingly well informed and also very witty, chap - so never a dull moment. A man who started off as our "guide" ended the day as our "friend",. So, thank you Maurizio for an amazing fun day that we will never forget. We have family in Sicily so our paths will surely cross in the not too distant future. All the very best to you and your family.. Take care. Shi & Lucia.

The volcano tour was great. Just seeing the sights was very interesting. Elio was a good guide. We had very windy cold weather but he still showed us a lot.

We had a great day with Marco doing a tour of Etna and the Gambino Winery! Marco was super knowledgeable and gave us lots of information about Sicily and Etna - we absolutely loved our tour of Gambino Winery!!

Our guide was excellent. From pick up and back, explained in detail obout scillian life, culture and traditions. I woyld definitely recommend him. Thank you

Johnny and Marco were wonderful guides. We had only a few brief cruise hours to spend. We saw Etna and got a comprehensive overview and a bit of a walk. When we spied an interesting food fest, they were flexible enough to accommodate our curiousity. The winery visit was delightful. Excellent pair to give you a taste of Sicily.

Raphael our tour guide was amazing!! This tour is a MUST!! The wine testing at the Gambino winery was Awesome!!

Manuele was very courteous and arrived early to pick us up directly from our hotel. His car was very clean and spacious. He was very knowledgeable about Etna. Also spoke multiple languages. Spoke English very well. He drove us up beautiful villages explaining the history behind them, before reaching Etna. Once at Etna he offered us water and tea, and jackets. He then guided us up several easy walking paths to see the craters and a cave. Explained how and why they were formed and what elements they were made out of. Answered all our 1000 questions and took pictures for us. We were able to take a break at a cafe. He drove just the two of us to a wonderful bee/wine farm. Where they offered us a tasting of many different honeys infused with different ingredients. Next to the honey was a tasting of different pestos, then a tasting of olives, olive oils, liquor, and wine. All grown from the farm, using the soil from Etna. He let us take our time never rushed us and you are able to buy anything you enjoyed from the tasting. Afterwards he drove us to another winery not to far from the bee farm. Which has the best scenic view looking down of Sicily. Here was another wine tasting from the grapes used from the soil of Etna, and it included different 7 different snacks. It is a family owned winery, and the owner gave us a walking tour of how to make wine from the plant to the bottle. After the tour was over I asked to be dropped off in Taormina, where he was helpful in giving us directions to isola Bella and the cable cars.

Roberto was a wonderful guide and was very accommodating. Worth the money and time. Make sure you take the gondola up to the top of Mt Erna.

This tour was amazing! Marco was incredibly friendly, personable, and knowledgeable! He provided just the right amount of detail and background about the volcano, the landscape, the history of the small towns/wineries etc. The views on the drive up were awesome. We appreciated having a smaller group/private tour as there was a lot of hustle and bustle around with large tour buses for big groups. The first stop was for a quick olive oil, honey, and wine tasting at a spot at the base of the volcano. It was quick, but there were many great products of all flavors/sizes that we could try & buy! We then drove up further to see some of the volcano & the landscape. Marco led us up part of the volcano and took wonderful pictures for us. My only suggestion would be to add to the description to wear appropriate shoes & clothing! The description really isn't that clear whether you'll be doing any hiking on any part of the volcano, but there were two spots that we were able to do some hiking to see amazing views! It was well worth getting my white sneakers full of lava ash, but we just would have chosen our outfits differently had we known ahead of time. Marco brought along hiking poles that were very helpful and aided in our steep climb! We then went to the Gambino Winery for a tasting and lunch. The wine was excellent, as was the hospitality of the staff at the winery. Marco clearly knew the owners as he was the one to greet our group and get our tasting started. We were able to try 5 different kinds of wine and they left the bottles at the table for us to drink as we wanted (which many tastings you only get very small amounts!) We also got generous portions of local cheeses, meats, etc. Marco offered us different driving routes home back to our lodging - and gave us the option of the direct route our a more scenic route. Our group would highly recommend this experience for anyone staying in or around Taormina! Marco was excellent.

We were visiting Sicily on one of our cruise stops on a cruise we recently did in Late May/ early June. We are a younger couple and usually don't like the cruise excursions since they are generally catered towards an older crowd, and we don't generally like doing big tour groups. I decided to Google what to do in Sicily and found this tour on TripAdvisor and we decided to book it. We are so glad we did! We had an English speaking guide - Marco, and a driver Johnny. They were both so great! We were picked up right on time at the port and were driven around in a clean and new Mercedes Sedan. Marco was so knowledgable about the history of Sicily and had many interesting facts along our drive. We were taken to some olive oil and wine tasting before our stop to Mt Etna. It felt very authentic and true the culture of the Island. The tasters were delicious and we bought some to take home with us! We then went to the volcano of Mt Etna. We are so glad we booked a private tour for this as the place was inundated with so many buses and huge groups of people. Marco walked with us along the mountain and told us about it. We had unusually rainy weather that day but it didn't really bother us. The mountain was covered in clouds and we were walking literally in the clouds. I'm sure if it were sunny the view would be outstanding. It was really cool nonetheless. They then took us to a winery for a tasting paired with some delicious cheese and meats. It was a beautiful place and we very much enjoyed it. Marco was very happy to take photos for us throughout our journey. We had a great drive throughout the island with beautiful scenery and architecture that had fascinating history. We ended our tour near the port with some coffee with Johnny and Marco. It was a wonderful day with them, and I highly recommend using them if your visiting the island!