The Best Hotels in Sicily Worth Splashing Your Cash On (October 2025 Edition)

HBO Max’ blockbuster The White Lotus isn’t the only TV show set in Sicily. Netflix series, From Scratch, based on a best-selling memoir by Tembi Locke, has also contributed to Italy’s worst-kept island secret being swamped with tourists. Italian chef Lino, takes Amy, an art student from the US back to his hometown in Sicily—and those amazing hotel sea views are courtesy of Le Calette.

Located a 20-minute walk from the centre of Cefalù, there are two complexes which house different suites and villas. All rooms are spacious with high-end furnishings and little touches like fresh fruit, but this isn’t a huge, sprawling resort. Hotel Le Calette has been family-run since 1969 which keeps everything down to earth: when you ask reception for tourist suggestions it’s like asking a family member—nothing is too hard. Facilities include four restaurants, a private reef club with loungers and bar, pool, spa and yoga classes, but the star of the show is the hidden beach accessible via a ladder at the reef club. You’ll want for nothing, except more time. 

Masseria gives laidback country hotel vibes even though it’s less than a 10-minute drive from Noto, one of Sicily’s most breathtaking baroque towns (and yes, The White Lotus was filmed here too). Italians take le vacanze seriously and want their guests to follow suit. You won’t find fancy tech in the rooms, and you’re practically forced into a digital detox. The hotel’s design is simple, but the devil is in the detail: energy-saving clay roof tiles, Sicilian terracotta floors with underfloor heating but it’s the iron-trestle beds, ceramics, and hand-woven tapestries that make you feel like you’re staying at a very sophisticated friend’s country house. 

Set on plenty of green space means house-made rules at mealtimes: olive oil (also available to buy and take home with you), freshly baked bread, and homemade jams at breakfast. Facilities include a pool, tennis and bocce courts, mountain bike rental and an outdoor terme area (thermal spa) with three pools.

Glamping somehow sounds better than it actually is in reality, but glamping at IUTA is a couple of notches above the stock standard, plus this is Sicily so your setting is century-old olive trees and a lemon tree plantation. IUTA is also classified as an agriturismo (or farm stay) with a heavy emphasis on sustainability. 

The accommodation is split into five lodges (or tents) and villas (in case you chicken out). Each lodge has a furnished patio with a seating area with a flat-screen TV, king size bed, private bathroom with toiletries, and a private outdoor shower which is perfect to jump straight into after a dip in the pool. The villas have a similar set up plus a private outdoor mini pool on the veranda. Activities include cycling and hiking, plus Vendicari Natural Reserve which is roughly a 40-minute drive. 

Set on the Taormina clifftops, the 150-year-old Timeo (part of the Belmond group), has all the bells and whistles you’d expect: marble bathrooms, terraces and outdoor hot tubs, a rooftop pool with lush 6-acre gardens, and a Michelin-star restaurant. The Timeo keeps impressive company with the third-century BC Greek amphitheatre right on the doorstep (it was the first hotel built in Taormina, so it got first lucky dibs), and stellar views of the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna.

There are plenty of special touches, too, tours of Taormina and Etna, and complimentary boat excursions in the summer. Timeo’s sister hotel Villa Sant’Andrea, has a private beach which guests can access using the shuttle service. 

Rocco Forte Villa Igiea harks back to Palermo’s heyday when royalty, Hollywood stars and VIPs used to dine and stay at their Italian friends’ family homes (and if it was a sprawling villa overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea with priceless artwork, all the better). Built in 1899 for the Florio family whose ancestors moved to Palermo from Calabria to start trading in spices, the villa was recently spruced up and launched by hotel group Rocco Forte in 2021. The 72 guestrooms, and 28 suites are “inherently Sicilian”, with soaring ceilings, canopy beds, French balconies, antique furnishings, and hand painted wallpaper in every room. 

Facilities include a pool, gym, tennis court, spa, restaurant, and bar, plus complimentary tours, and activities. You won’t need or want to leave, but it would be a shame to skip seeing Palermo, just 10 minutes away. 

Set on a hill and surrounded by olives groves and vineyards, a stay at La Foresteria Planeta Estate is all about switching off and becoming one with nature (if this isn’t your thing, there’s free wifi, don’t fret). The fourteen rooms have a king-size bed, private balcony, views to the sea and the Menfi countryside, and are all themed (and named) after the herb growing closest to the room. On each terrace, you’ll find a suggested book to read while staying here with a couple of sprigs of said herb to keep you company. 

Facilities include a pool, Turkish bath, gym and during the summer guests have access to a private area at PortoPalo Beach. The restaurant has a traditional Sicilian menu and there are some fun activities you can pre-book with Chef Angelo: wine and oil tasting classes, cooking classes, and more. You might want to switch off after all. 

When you’re on an island, which is a few steps away from another island, (Ortigia, Siracusa’s historical centre), you’d expect all hotels to have sea views aplenty, but that’s not always the case. Giuggiulena is a quaint, cliff-top B & B overlooking the Ionian Sea with all seven rooms (plus villa which sleeps five people) boasting spectacular views, with comfortable furnishings. 

If you’re still not close enough to the sea, there’s private access to the sea for spontaneous dusk dips. In the morning there’s a Sicilian breakfast buffet feast to devour before more water time, or sun lounging time on the terrace. It’s all about sun, sea and Italian food at Giuggiulena—what more could you want?