Why you should visit Salina in Sicily

Salina is one of the seven volcanic islands that make up the Aeolian islands in Sicily. We first visited the Aeolian islands in 2017, and stayed in Panarea and Lipari, but we did day trips to Vulcano to climb the volcano and Salina. This visit we decided to go back to the Aeolian islands and stay in Salina.

I highly recommend spending at least five days in Salina – or more if you plan to visit the other islands. You can even do what we did on our first ever visit to the Aeolian islands and stay on two different islands. Salina isn’t huge but is big enough that you’ll have enough to do. It’s also incredibly beautiful with stunning swimming spots.

How to get to Salina

The ferries to the Aeolian islands leave from the port in Milazzo, which is about 145km from Catania. We had an early flight so we travelled directly from Catania airport to Milazzo. There is a train from the airport to Milazzo, which takes around 2 and a half to 3 hours, however they are not very regular. There’s also a bus from the airport to Milazzo which takes about 2 and a half hours, but you’d need to check the times in advance of your trip. We took the easiest, although pricey, option and booked a taxi through our hotel. It cost €160 and took about an hour and 45 minutes to reach the ferry terminal.

The ferries run very regularly, however you should definitely book your ticket in advance as they can sell out. We travelled with Liberty Lines as they offer the fast ferry, which took one hour and 40 minutes to get to Salina. The cost was around €120 return for the two of us. Ferry company Siremar also offers ferries to the Aeolian islands but it takes much longer – three hours to get from Milazzo to Salina.

Our hotel picked us up from the port in Salina, however there are taxis that will drive you or you can wait for the bus.

What Salina is famous for

In terms of produce, Salina is famous for capers and Malvasia wine. It’s also famous for being the island where the Oscar-winning 1994 Italian film, Il Postino (The postman) was filmed.

Since capers are so famous and abundant, they feature in a lot of dishes, including a specialty ricotta granita with candied capers. We tried one at Pa. Pe. Ró al Glicine in Rinella and it was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend giving it a try.

Why you should visit Salina

Having now visited most of the Aeolian islands, I have to say that Salina is my favourite. As the second largest of the Aeolian islands, there’s a few little towns in Salina that you can explore, which makes it a fun holiday! Here’s my recommendations for what to do in Salina.

Go wine tasting

We were staying in the beautiful Capofaro resort, which is a Relais & Châteaux luxury hotel. It’s owned by the Tasca d’Almerita family who have several vineyards around Sicily. There’s vineyards throughout the resort and they grow capers too.

Capofaro offers wine tasting for guests and non-guests. We booked the sunset tasting one evening before dinner. It’s a truly beautiful setting, as you sit facing the vineyards, with the sea just beyond the vines. And seeing the sun go down is magical.

Over the course of an hour, we got to try three wines – their Almerita Brut sparkling wine, followed by two different Malvasia wines, one which was dryer and one that was sweeter.

Despite there being vineyards all of the island, there’s not a lot of vineyards that offer wine tasting. Other than Capofaro, there’s the Hauner winery in Santa Marina, Azienda Agricola Biologica Caravaglio Antonino and Azienda Agricola Virgona, which are both in Malfa. Given the scarcity of places to do wine tasting, I’d really recommend booking in advance.

Explore the different towns

Salina has three main towns – Santa Marina, Malfa and Leni. Santa Marina is on the east coast of the island, Malfa is in the north and Leni is in the south-west. As well as the main towns, there are other areas to visit, such as Lingua, Rinella and Pollara.

Santa Marina and Malfa are definitely the towns with the most things to do – in terms of shops, restaurants and bars. We were staying at Capofaro, which is about 15 minutes drive away from Santa Marina in one direction and Malfa in the other direction. Having an electric scooter made it really easy to explore the island. I would recommend hiring either a car or a scooter. There are buses, but they are very small and not very frequent. Depending on where you are staying, your hotel may even provide a shuttle bus.

Take a boat trip around the island

We didn’t actually do this ourselves but there are plenty of companies offering half day boat tours around the island, offering opportunities to stop and have a swim. You can choose from a private boat tour or a group tour, depending on your budget and preference. Or you can hire a boat and take yourself around the island!

Enjoy beautiful swimming spots

What I loved about Salina was the diversity of the swimming spots, however there are no sandy beaches. Or if there is a sandy beach, we didn’t find it!

Rinella is probably the most family-friendly beach as it’s fairly big, with small volcanic stones but easy access into the water. You can also rent sunbeds and umbrellas and there’s a cafe with outside tables, selling food and drinks. Rinella is a little town so there are restaurants and shops just a short walk from the beach. Rinella is also where ferries leave from. The two islands that you can see from Rinella are Filicudi and Alicudi.

Another nice spot to swim, however it’s less accessible and probably not one for small children, is in Pollara. I wouldn’t spend the whole day there but it’s nice for an hour or two. Note that if you do go, take your own drinks and food as there are no shops in Pollara to buy anything from.

Our absolute favourite swimming spot was Punta Scario in Malfa. It has huge stones but thankfully you can rent a big blow-up mattress (which can double as a lilo in the water) for just €5. They also rent umbrellas.

It’s a bit of a walk to go down to the beach but there’s a really cute cafe, called Maracaibo, where you can buy drinks and have lunch. We had a delicious panini as well as a yummy, fresh salad.

Another spot we really liked was right in front of the town in Santa Marina. It’s a long sort of promenade with quite a few ladders to get into the water. There’s also a lovely view of Panarea and Stromboli.

Go on a free snorkelling tour with a marine biologist

As part of marine education and conservation efforts, you can go on free snorkelling tours with a marine biologist and learn about all the wonderful marine life by Punta Scario beach in Malfa. Simply visit the SEATY website and look at the calendar to see what activities are on offer, then email them at seatysalina@worldrise.org to make a reservation.

Do a day trip to another island

The beauty of the Aeolian islands is that they’re all pretty close to each other. There are lots of companies offering day trips to the other islands, or you could get a ferry. If you want to visit the other islands through a company, or do a trip to Stromboli to climb the volcano, you’ll need to do some research in advance as they only go to certain islands on certain days.

If you’re happy to just go by yourself, then the ferry – Liberty lines – is your best option as they have multiple ferries a day.

I would definitely recommend a day trip to Panarea as it is so pretty. Cars aren’t allowed on the island so it’s lovely to walk around and it’s fairly small so one day is enough.

I’d also recommend a day trip to Lipari, which is the largest of the Aeolian islands and is less than a 30 minute ferry ride from Salina. You can go on a hike, explore the castle, visit the Norman cathedral or check out the archaeological museum, which has artifacts from the Bronze Age as well as a room of Greek and Roman tombs.

For those of you who would like a bit of exercise but maybe don’t want to spend 6 hours hiking up and down Stromboli, I’d recommend visiting Vulcano and climbing the vulcano. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the top.

Vulcano also has thermal mud baths so you can always ease those muscles after your climb. Just a warning though… the mud is smelly!

So those are my recommendations and why you should visit Salina! Ans read my blog post for great places in Salina to eat and drink.

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