The best wine resorts in Sicily are spread across an island roughly the size of Vermont, and that is the first thing to plan around. A night on Etna, a baglio above the Marsala salt coast and a lighthouse among Malvasia vines on Salina are three different trips, each a long drive or a ferry from the next. These seven estates, one or two per wine area, make it easier to choose where to base yourself.
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How we chose the best wine resorts in Sicily
Three rules cut the field. Every property is on Expedia, so you can book it through the links below and see the same rates we did. Every one either belongs to a wine estate or sits inside one, with vines you can see from the room and wine from the house on the table. And every one had enough guest reviews, or a verifiable outside source, for us to say something specific about it.
We kept to one or two estates per area so the list covers the island rather than one corner of it. Etna gets a single entry here because it already has its own guides: the Etna wine resorts list and our pages on the north slope and Taormina go deeper, and none of the six resorts in that first list is repeated below. For how the island’s wine areas differ and when to go, start with our Sicily wine country guide. Prices are “from” rates: the lowest nightly rate Expedia showed us for each property, which will move with your dates.
Etna: the north slope
Etna is the island’s most talked-about wine area, and its north slope around Castiglione di Sicilia is where the old terraces and the best-known contrade, the volcano’s named vineyard sites, sit closest together. If you only have time for one night on the mountain, this is the slope to choose.
1. Dimora Cottanera — Castiglione di Sicilia, Etna
This is the gentlest way into Etna wine country: a baronial villa in its own vineyards, small enough that it feels like staying with a family rather than in a hotel. The grandchildren of the baron who bought the house in the 1960s run it today, and the welcome shows it.
The glass-walled lounge looks straight up at the volcano, and in the evening the light on the slope does the rest. It suits travelers who plan to eat out: there is no restaurant, so dinners are in Castiglione or at a winery table. The cellars of the north slope are a short drive in every direction, which is the real reason to book it.
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The southeast: Vittoria and the Ragusa hills
The southeast is the home of Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Sicily’s only DOCG, a light red blended from Nero d’Avola and Frappato, and of the baroque towns of the Val di Noto. The two estates here are a half hour apart, and both make their own wine.
2. Baglio Occhipinti — Vittoria
Baglio Occhipinti is the most personal stay on this list. The farmhouse, with origins in the 17th century, sits on a family wine estate outside Vittoria, and Fausta Occhipinti, a landscape architect trained in Paris, turned it into a hotel and still runs it day to day. The wine list pours the family’s own bottles next to other Sicilian producers.
Days here are slow by design: no television in the rooms, a long dinner that you reserve in the morning, an aperitif by the pool as the sun goes down over the fields. It is not the place for nightlife or a full-service resort. For travelers who want to understand Frappato in the place it grows, it is hard to beat.
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3. Locanda Gulfi — Chiaramonte Gulfi
Locanda Gulfi is for travelers who come to Sicily to eat as much as to drink. The rooms sit at the Gulfi winery in the hills of Chiaramonte Gulfi, and the restaurant is upstairs from the cellar, so dinner and the wine that goes with it share one building. Gulfi farms all its vineyards organically, including the Nero d’Avola crus near Pachino that made its name.
Its limit is the evidence: only a handful of Expedia reviews so far, so this is a choice made on the winery and the kitchen more than on a hotel track record. Expedia also had no rooms for the spring dates we checked, which with so few rooms is no surprise. Book early, and pair it with a day in the baroque towns of Ragusa and Modica.
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Sicily is bigger than it looks
Most of these estates have fewer than 20 rooms, and two had nothing left for the spring dates we checked. If your dates are fixed, see everything available across the island on one screen before you decide where to base yourself.
Western Sicily: Marsala, Trapani and Menfi
The west is where most of Sicily’s vines grow: flat, sunny country between the salt pans of Trapani and the sea at Menfi, planted with Grillo, Catarratto and Nero d’Avola. The fortified Marsala wines made this coast famous, and the old bagli, walled farmsteads built around a courtyard, now make some of the island’s best places to stay.
4. Baglio Oneto dei Principi di San Lorenzo — Marsala
Baglio Oneto is the most complete resort on this list, and the one with the longest track record: hundreds of guest reviews, and the views to justify them. It sits on a rise above Marsala among the vineyards of the Oneto family, and from the pool you look across the plain to the lagoon of Mozia and the Egadi Islands.
It suits travelers who want a full hotel, a pool and a restaurant, with tastings at the door. The old manor house is the heart of it, and a modern wing holds most of the rooms, so ask for the historic part if that matters to you. Marsala’s cellars and the boat to Mozia are both within a short drive.
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5. Baglio Sorìa Resort & Wine Experience — Trapani
Baglio Sorìa is a working wine estate first and a resort second, which is the point. Firriato, the Trapani wine family behind it, opened this 17th-century baglio to guests in 2015, on a hill on the slopes of Mount Erice with the Egadi archipelago on the horizon.
It is also the best value in this list, and the trade-off is polish: guest scores are good rather than glowing, and the style is more country hotel than luxury resort. For travelers who want to taste a big Sicilian portfolio at the source and spend the rest of the day between Erice, the salt pans and the islands, it works well.
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6. La Foresteria Planeta Estate — Menfi
La Foresteria is the stay for travelers who want a winemaking family’s own idea of hospitality. The Planeta family built it among their vineyards and olive groves near Menfi, and the Michelin Guide lists it among its Key hotels; the 14 rooms are named after the herbs in the garden, lavender, rosemary and santolina among them.
The rhythm is easy: a tasting of the estate’s wines, a cooking class or the beach in the morning, dinner on the terrace above the vines at night. It is a calm place rather than a lively one, and Menfi is a long way from everything else on this list, so it rewards a stay of three nights or more.
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The Aeolian Islands: Salina
Salina, the greenest of the Aeolian Islands off Sicily’s north coast, is the home of Malvasia delle Lipari, a sweet white made from grapes dried in the sun. It takes a flight to Catania or Palermo and a hydrofoil from Milazzo to get there, which is exactly why it feels like nowhere else on this list.
7. Capofaro Locanda & Malvasia — Salina
Capofaro is the most romantic address in Sicilian wine travel: a working lighthouse above the sea, surrounded by Malvasia vineyards, with Stromboli smoking on the horizon. The hotel changed hands in late 2024, but the Tasca d’Almerita family kept the vineyards around it and still makes its Malvasia there, according to Gambero Rosso.
Every room has a terrace and the style is simple island white, so the view is the luxury. The limit is the calendar: the hotel closes for the winter and, on Expedia, reopens only at the end of April, so it fits a late-spring or harvest trip, not an early-spring one. Plan at least two nights to make the crossing worth it.
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When to book a Sicilian wine resort
Spring and autumn are the seasons for a wine trip. From April the vineyards turn green and the cellars are open without the summer heat; harvest usually starts in August in the west and runs into October on Etna, the last area of the island to pick, where the Etna DOC consortium lists the producers you can visit.
These are small properties: five of the seven have fewer than 20 rooms, and Capofaro closes for the winter. For spring or harvest dates, book two to three months ahead; for July and August, when Italian families fill the coast, earlier still.
Getting there
Sicily has two main airports, Catania in the east and Palermo in the west, plus Trapani for the far west. Fly into Catania for Etna and the southeast, and into Palermo or Trapani for Marsala, Trapani and Menfi; driving across the island takes three hours or more. Salina is reached by hydrofoil from Milazzo, about two hours by road from Catania. Our guide to renting a car for a wine trip in Europe covers insurance, drink-driving limits and what to ask at the counter.
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If you plan to visit several areas, split the trip: a few nights in the east, a few in the west, and the island’s long coastal motorways in between, rather than day trips from one base.
Choosing between them
For a first trip with Etna on the list, Dimora Cottanera, then read the Etna wine country guide and our page on where to stay in Taormina for the rest of the mountain. For a full resort with a pool and hundreds of happy reviews, Baglio Oneto. For the best value, Baglio Sorìa. For a winemaking family’s own guesthouse, La Foresteria or Baglio Occhipinti. For food first, Locanda Gulfi. For a once-in-a-lifetime view, Capofaro.
The best wine resorts in Sicily, in the end, are not one list but four small ones: the volcano, the southeast, the west and the islands. Pick the wine you most want to taste where it grows, base yourself there for three nights or more, and let the rest of the island wait for the next trip.
Prices are “from” rates, indicative and set by our booking partners: they change with dates and availability, so check the current rate on Expedia.
