Palermo With Kids
Arab domes, Norman gold, Spanish palaces and a street market that has not stopped shouting since the Middle Ages. Palermo is Sicily in one city, with a white sand beach 30 minutes from the old town.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Palermo good for kids?
Yes. A gold chapel that stops them in their tracks, markets full of fried snacks, puppet shows, a sandy beach 30 minutes away and parks with climbing trees. It is loud and hot, and it is cheap and warm toward children.
How many days do you need in Palermo?
Three nights for the city and a beach afternoon. Four if you add Cefalù or Monreale.
How do you get to Mondello from Palermo?
Bus 806 from the Politeama area, about 30 minutes. Taxis take 20 minutes, agree the fare first.
Is Palermo safe for families?
The old center, the Kalsa and Mondello are comfortable for families day and evening. Watch bags in the markets and around the station, and use the main streets at night as you would in any big city.
When is the best time to visit Palermo?
April to June and September to October for warm weather without the extreme heat. July and August are very hot, so plan mornings in town and afternoons at Mondello.
Sicily In One City
Palermo has been Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Arab, Norman, Spanish and Italian, and every one of them left a building. The Norman kings hired Arab builders and Greek mosaic makers, so the royal chapel has a gold ceiling that looks like Istanbul and a wooden roof that looks like Cairo. The street markets still sound like the souks they started as.
It is a big, loud, warm city with a beach on the edge of it and a medieval town on the sea an hour away. Three nights covers the old center, the mosaics, the market and Mondello.
Getting Around
The old center is on foot, and the main street, Via Maqueda, is pedestrian. Buses go to Mondello and Monreale, taxis are cheap for short hops, and trains run to Cefalù from the central station. Do not rent a car for the city itself.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
The old center, around the Quattro Canti
The baroque crossroads where the four old quarters meet. The cathedral, the Norman Palace, the markets and the Teatro Massimo all within 15 minutes on foot. Noisy and alive, and the base for a short stay.
The Kalsa
The old Arab quarter by the sea, east of the center. Restored palaces, the botanical garden, the Foro Italico park along the water and quieter streets at night. A 10 minute walk to the Quattro Canti.
Mondello
The beach town 30 minutes north, with white sand, Art Nouveau villas and gelato on the promenade. Families who want sand every afternoon base here and bus in for the sights in the morning.
Villa Igiea, a Rocco Forte Hotel
A restored Art Nouveau palace on the water north of the center with a big outdoor pool, gardens and family suites. The splurge that turns a Palermo stop into a resort stay.
Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa
In a former convent and stock exchange in the old center, with family rooms, a courtyard and the Kalsa and the Quattro Canti a few minutes on foot. Comfortable and central.
Hotel Porta Felice
At the sea end of the old main street by the Foro Italico park, with simple family rooms and a rooftop terrace. Good value with the water and the old town both at the door.
The Three I Build Every Palermo Trip Around
The Norman Palace and the Palatine Chapel
The royal palace of the Norman kings of Sicily, still the seat of the Sicilian parliament, with the Palatine Chapel inside. Every inch of the chapel is gold mosaic, with a carved wooden ceiling made by Arab craftsmen in the 1140s. Kids go quiet in it. Then walk to the cathedral and climb to the roof terraces for the view over the domes and the mountains. Book the chapel online, it sells out.
The street markets, Ballarò and Capo
Ballarò is the oldest market in Palermo, a maze of stalls under striped awnings with vendors shouting prices in a sing song that has not changed in centuries. Swordfish heads, tomatoes, spices, fried chickpea fritters for a euro. Go in the morning, eat an arancino and a panelle sandwich standing up, and let the kids pick a fruit they have never seen. Capo, near the Teatro Massimo, is the smaller, calmer version.
Mondello beach
Thirty minutes by bus from the center, Mondello is a half mile curve of white sand between two headlands, with shallow water, a pedestrian promenade of gelato shops and Art Nouveau villas behind it. Rent two chairs and an umbrella at a lido, swim, eat a granita and bus back for dinner. From May to October it turns a city trip into a beach trip.
Family Time, Built In: Palermo With Kids
Palermo with kids is gold mosaics, a shouting market, puppets, a beach and fried things in paper. It is loud, warm and cheap. These are the pieces that work.
Eating arancini standing up at Ballarò market
A Sicilian puppet show at the Opera dei Pupi
The beach at Mondello
The mosaics and the cloister at Monreale
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The Villa Garibaldi in Piazza Marina, in the Kalsa, with one of the biggest ficus trees in Europe, its roots like a wall the kids climb on. The Foro Italico park runs along the sea a block away with lawns and a path for scooters. For a bigger park, the Villa Giulia and the botanical garden next door.
Five Things To Eat In Palermo
Arancini
Cannoli
Gelato in a brioche
Cassata and pastries
Granita and coffee at the barNicole’s Perspective
The history lesson with a beach attached
When I taught the Middle Ages, Sicily under the Normans was the chapter that broke every stereotype. Christian kings, Arab architects, Greek artists, all working on the same building in the 1100s. Palermo is where that chapter stands in stone and gold, and kids who have seen a hundred churches stop talking in the Palatine Chapel.
I plan it as three nights at the start or end of a Sicily loop, with Mondello for the afternoons and Cefalù as the day out. It costs less than Rome or Florence, the food is the best in Italy for kids who like fried things, and the beach fixes any bad museum day.
The Day Trip: Cefalù
An hour east by train, Cefalù is a medieval fishing town squeezed between a huge rock and the sea, with a Norman cathedral full of mosaics, a sandy beach right in town and lanes of stone houses that end at the water. Walk the old town, swim at the town beach, eat lunch on the seafront, and if the kids are older climb the Rocca for the view. The train drops you a 10 minute walk from the old town, so no car needed.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Three nights covers the chapel, the markets, the cathedral and Mondello. Four adds Cefalù or Monreale.
The Norman Palace and the cathedral on day one, Ballarò and the Kalsa on day two, Mondello on day three.
Add the train to Cefalù for the beach town and the mosaics, or the bus up to Monreale for the cloister and the cathedral.
Palermo, then Agrigento and the temples, Syracuse and Taormina under Etna. Ten days covers the island with Palermo at one end and Catania at the other.
Palermo With Kids, Answered
Is Palermo good for kids?
Yes. A gold chapel that stops them in their tracks, markets full of fried snacks, puppet shows, a sandy beach 30 minutes away and parks with climbing trees. It is loud and hot, and it is cheap and warm toward children.
How many days do you need in Palermo?
Three nights for the city and a beach afternoon. Four if you add Cefalù or Monreale.
How do you get to Mondello from Palermo?
Bus 806 from the Politeama area, about 30 minutes. Taxis take 20 minutes, agree the fare first.
Is Palermo safe for families?
The old center, the Kalsa and Mondello are comfortable for families day and evening. Watch bags in the markets and around the station, and use the main streets at night as you would in any big city.
When is the best time to visit Palermo?
April to June and September to October for warm weather without the extreme heat. July and August are very hot, so plan mornings in town and afternoons at Mondello.
Ready To Put Palermo On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will set Palermo into a Sicily loop, pick the hotel with the pool and book the chapel.
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