Grand Palladium Sicilia

About 60 to 75 minutes from Palermo airport

Premium5 starAll-inclusive

Grand Palladium Sicilia is a five-star all-inclusive on the beach at Campofelice di Roccella, on Sicily's north coast between Palermo and Cefalù. It's a big, self-contained resort: 469 rooms across four buildings, with the beach straight off the gardens, four pools, four restaurants and six bars. Children have three clubs covering ages one to sixteen, and the premium Signature Level tier is open to families rather than adults only.

A large white multi-storey hotel building behind a big curving blue swimming pool ringed by sun loungers, parasols and palms under a clear blue sky. — On the north coast The main hotel building and the main pool at Grand Palladium Sicilia, on the beach at Campofelice di Roccella between Palermo and Cefalù.

On this page

The short version

Is it worth it?

The quick read before the detail: who this resort suits, what's in the price and the facts to weigh first.

Grand Palladium Sicilia is a five-star all-inclusive run by the Palladium Hotel Group, a Spanish group with its head office in Ibiza. This is its only Italian resort. It's a large, purpose-built beachfront site on Sicily's north coast, with four pools, four restaurants, six bars and three children's clubs spanning ages one to sixteen.

Guests rate it well, and they're consistent about why: the staff, the cleanliness, the buffet and the pools. They're just as consistent about the beach. It's mixed sand and pebble with the pebble noticeable underfoot, and several reviewers who rate everything else highly say it's the weak part of the resort. So the fit comes down to how you'd spend a week. If most of it is at the pools, the clubs and the restaurants, with the beach as one feature among several, this suits. If a sandy beach is the reason you're going to Sicily, you'd want to look elsewhere on the island, or plan on driving to Cefalù for the sand.

The other thing to settle early is age. There's nothing here for a baby under one, because the Baby Club is the youngest provision and it starts at twelve months.

Best for

You want a strong on-site week, with four pools, three age-banded clubs, four restaurants and everything folded into one price.

Maybe not for

The beach is your main reason for going, or you want a town to walk into in the evening.

Best ages

One and up, when the Baby Club starts. The Mini Club takes over at four and a teen room runs to sixteen.

What stands out

A premium tier you can book with a toddler in tow, with its own reception, lobby bar and pool.

What to check

Whether your room type comes with a cot, and what baby kit beyond a cot the resort can supply.

Where is it?

On the beach at Campofelice di Roccella on Sicily's north coast, between Palermo and Cefalù.

Quick facts for families

BoardAll-inclusive only. There's no half-board or room-only rate here, so the buffet, the three à la carte restaurants and the six bars come with every room.

The site469 rooms in four buildings on a 100,000 m² beachfront plot, with two lobbies and six lifts. Plan on walking the grounds, with a pram.

ChildcareA Baby Club from age one, a Mini Club from four and a teen room to sixteen, all included. Babysitting costs extra and is booked on request.

BeachDirect access with no road to cross and a lifeguard on duty. Mixed sand and pebble, so water shoes are worth packing.

PoolFour pools, including a 40 cm children's pool beside the Mini Club. The other three are 140 cm and deeper.

AirportPalermo, about 50 miles (80 km) away and roughly 60 to 75 minutes' drive. Catania is roughly double that.

Ten hectares on the sand

What the resort is like

Where it sits, how the four buildings are spread across the site and the premium tier that runs alongside them.

The resort is at Campofelice di Roccella, a small town on Sicily's north coast in the Province of Palermo, roughly midway between Palermo and Cefalù. It's purpose-built and beachfront, laid out over 100,000 m², which is ten hectares, with the sea at the bottom of the gardens. It opened in 2004 and was last refurbished in 2020.

The 469 rooms sit across four buildings, served by two lobbies and six lifts. The main building holds most of the standard rooms and the general facilities. A second annexe carries further Deluxe rooms over its three floors. The bungalow rooms are single storey and at ground level, some beside the gardens and the Family Bungalows out on the beachfront. Twenty-four of the rooms are wheelchair-accessible, and the resort lists level access across the site.

That's a lot of ground for a hotel. Plan on walking it, and on pushing a pram between your room, the pools and the restaurants. It's worth thinking about when you choose where to sleep, since the bungalows are nearer the sand and the Mini Club than the main building is.

This is the north-coast, Palermo-airport half of Sicily, the beach-and-old-town side rather than the Etna and Taormina side over on the east. Our Sicily guide covers the island as a whole and how the two halves differ.

The premium tier, open to families

The Signature Level

The Signature Level is a tier of rooms inside this resort rather than a separate hotel, though it carries enough of its own to feel like one: its own reception and lobby, its own lobby bar, an exclusive pool and a reserved dining area inside Portofino. Signature guests use everything else on the site as well.

The part that matters most to a family is that every Signature Level room type is tagged family friendly on the official site. Unlike the premium tiers at a lot of all-inclusives, this isn't an adults-only wing, so you can book it with a toddler in tow.

What it adds on top of a standard stay: the exclusive areas and the exclusive pool, a premium drinks selection, a daily minibar restock, a Lavazza coffee machine in the room, turndown, private check-in with a welcome drink and a bottle of cava, priority booking at the à la carte restaurants and at the Mini Club, one complimentary visit to the spa's water circuit per person per stay, 10% off a premium food-and-wine selection, VIP loungers at the Sicilia pool and late check-out or early check-in when there's availability for it.

Of that list, the two that change a day with young children are the priority booking at the three restaurants that need a table, and a pool that only Signature guests use. The Signature Level's services run from 1 June to 12 October.

A single-storey bungalow with a private wooden-deck terrace, cane armchairs and a low table, set behind a clipped hedge with palms and terracotta-roofed bungalows beyond. — A ground-floor bungalow among the gardens

A wide covered terrace with a long cream sofa, an ottoman, a parasol and a dining table, looking out over the resort's palm gardens to the sea and the hills behind. — A suite terrace

Every restaurant and bar

Each place to eat and drink, when it opens, which need a table booked and the bits the all-inclusive doesn't stretch to.

Board is all-inclusive only. There's no half-board or room-only alternative at this resort, so the food and the drinks are in the price whichever room you book.

Sicania is the main buffet and where most guests eat most meals. It's Mediterranean and international with a heavy Italian slant, handmade pasta and pizza, and live cooking stations where dishes are made in front of you. It's self-service and takes no reservation. Breakfast runs 07:30 to 10:30, lunch 13:00 to 15:00 and dinner 19:00 to 22:00. Pasta, pizza and bread are on the counter at every meal, which covers a fussy toddler without anyone needing a children's menu. Reviewers rate the range, and the gluten-free choice comes up repeatedly, including from a guest travelling with a gluten-free family member.

Portofino is the Italian, open air and near the sea, with wood-fired pizza, traditional pasta and fish. It's self-service at lunch and à la carte at dinner, when it needs a table booked. It's also seasonal, and the window is tighter than you might expect: lunch runs May to September, dinner June to September only. Outside those months it's closed.

El Dorado is the steakhouse. À la carte, dinner only, 19:00 to 22:00, reservation needed. Sirloin, ribs and T-bone are the signature dishes and there are vegetarian options too. One Booking.com reviewer called the steak charge here excessive for an all-inclusive, which is worth knowing if a steak dinner is part of why you'd book.

Chang Thai is Thai and pan-Asian, à la carte, dinner only, 19:00 to 22:00, reservation needed: green curries, ramen, pork bao and chicken teriyaki. Food reviews across the resort are strong, though one guest thought their Thai main course poor.

Xtra Time Sports Bar does American casual food with sport on the screens, burgers, US-style bites and hot dogs. Food runs 16:00 to 02:00 and the bar from 15:45, which makes it the option once the restaurants close at ten. With a child who eats at five, it's also the only kitchen open between lunch and dinner.

The six bars

The Sicilia Lobby Bar serves cocktails and coffee, with live piano in the evenings and the sunset over the sea. The Lobby Bar The Signature Level is the same kind of room, for Signature Level guests only. The Two Ways Waiting Bar pours classic cocktails, mojitos, negronis and whisky sours, alongside juices and soft drinks. Shake It! Pool Bar has two locations, both 10:00 to 18:00: one at the main Sicilia pool, and a second at the Signature Level pool for those guests. The Beach Bar is down on the sand, 10:00 to midnight, with cocktails, sunset views and a premium lounge area. Xtra Time, above, is the sixth.

A buffet counter set with tall glass dispensers of juice, stacked tumblers, jars of sweets and platters of pastries and fruit under warm lighting. — Sicania, the main buffet restaurant

A restaurant dining room with a curved teal banquette booth, round tables laid with glassware, patterned chairs and a coffered wooden ceiling. — An a la carte restaurant

A sports bar with wall-mounted screens, round tables and blue and mustard tub chairs on a patterned floor, with a bar counter along one side. — Xtra Time, the sports bar

A bright bar with a white and gold counter, high stools, backlit shelves of bottles and glassware, and large windows to one side. — A cocktail bar

Booking a table, and the resort app

Only three venues need a reservation: Portofino at dinner, El Dorado and Chang Thai. Sicania never does, so the buffet is the fallback on any night you haven't booked. Signature Level guests get priority when the à la carte tables are allocated. Hours shift with the season, and the resort's own app, for Android and iPhone, carries the current schedule and the menus, so it's the thing to check rather than a printed card. In-suite dining runs 07:00 to midnight for a service charge, which is one way to eat once a baby is down for the night.

The exclusions, in one place

What all-inclusive covers, and what it doesn't

All-inclusive here means the four restaurants, the six bars and the resort's own activities and entertainment. The resort itemises the exclusions, so the list below is its own.

Room service carries a service charge. Premium spirits and wines cost extra, and so do babysitting, the spa's wet areas and its treatments, the Bali beds on the beach, picnics, car rental and laundry.

Sixteen types, two ways to connect

Rooms and suites

Every room type with its official size, then which of them suit a family with a baby or toddler.

There are sixteen room types, ten in the standard tier and six in the Signature Level, plus two connecting configurations that pair up two Deluxe rooms. The table is the full line-up with the resort's own sizes, counts and occupancies. A "+ cot" is the resort's own notation, and those types confirm a cot in their own description.

Grand Palladium Sicilia room types with official sizes, how many of each there are, how many they sleep and their layout
Room	Size	How many	Sleeps	Layout and outlook
Deluxe Bungalow	about 25 m²	69	2	Ground floor beside the gardens, private wooden terrace, shower only.
Deluxe	about 26 m²	139	2 + cot	Main building or the second annexe. Balcony, sofa bed, shower only.
Deluxe Garden View	about 26 m²	68	2 + cot	Over the gardens, a quieter position.
Deluxe Pool View	about 26 m²	25	2 + cot	Over a pool.
Deluxe Sea View	about 26 m²	38	2 + cot	Main building, facing the sea.
Junior Suite	about 32 m²	6	3 + cot	Second annexe, across its three floors. Sofa bed and a wide terrace.
Family Bungalow	about 37 m²	12	3 + cot	Beachfront and single storey, with a separate lounge and sofa bed, a double sink and a private wooden terrace.
Suite	about 48 m²	4	4	Separate living room with a sofa bed, bathtub, double sink, wide terrace.
Suite Sea View	about 52 m²	14	4	As the Suite, facing the sea.
Suite Sea View Grand Terrace	about 52 m²	3	3 + cot	Main building. Bathtub, double sink, separate WC and a 20 m² terrace with chill-out furniture.
The Signature Level Deluxe	about 23 m²	10	2	Furnished terrace, shower only.
The Signature Level Deluxe Pool View	about 24 m²	45	2	King bed, across three floors, looking over a pool.
The Signature Level Deluxe Bungalow	about 24 m²	21	2	Cabin-style, with a private wooden terrace over the Garden pool.
The Signature Level Junior Suite	about 32 m²	3	4	Lounge area and a furnished balcony.
The Signature Level Suite	about 28 m²	11	4	Adjoining living room and an ample terrace.
The Signature Level Presidential Suite	about 80 m²	1	5 + cot	The resort's largest room. One king and two singles, or two kings. Terrace, bathtub, double sink, separate living room, mountain and sea views.
Connecting Family Deluxe	about 52 m² across the pair	Paired Deluxes	4 + 2 cots	Two Deluxe rooms joined by an internal door, with a cot available in each.
Connecting Family Deluxe Sea View	about 52 m² across the pair	Paired Deluxes	4 + 2 cots	As above, facing the sea.

Palladium's own figures for The Signature Level Suite disagree: its rooms page says about 28 m², the size in the table above, and its fact sheet says 38 m². If the size is what decides that room for you, ask for the exact footprint when you book.

Three of these are the ones to look at with a baby or toddler.

The Family Bungalow is the resort's own family-labelled room: about 37 m², single storey, on the beachfront, with a separate lounge and sofa bed, a double sink and a private wooden terrace. Ground level near the sand is the useful part with a pram, since no lift comes into it. There are only twelve of them. A family with a three-year-old singled theirs out for the position, over the tennis courts and the sea, and the grass around it.

The Deluxe Sea View, Garden View and Pool View rooms, all about 26 m², are the entry point for two adults and one young child. All three take a cot, and the difference between them is the outlook, with Garden View the quieter position.

The Connecting Family Deluxe is the only setup that gives you two full separate sleeping rooms rather than a cot or a sofa bed in the same space as you. It's two Deluxe rooms, about 52 m² between them, joined by an internal door, with a cot available in each. If bedtime means closing a real door on a toddler and still having your evening, this is the one to look at.

Baths are worth checking before you book. Four room types list a bathtub: the Suite, the Suite Sea View, the Suite Sea View Grand Terrace and the Signature Level Presidential Suite. Every Deluxe room, both bungalow types and the Family Bungalow are shower only. So if a bath is part of your bedtime routine, the resort's own family room isn't the one that gives you it, and those four suites are where you'd have to look instead.

On cots more generally: a cot is available on request as a resort facility, and the types marked in the table confirm one in their own text. For the types that aren't marked, ask at booking rather than assume.

A double room with a large bed and blue scatter cushions, a desk and chair, a wall-mounted TV and sliding glass doors to a balcony. — A Deluxe room

A room with a king bed, a bench at its foot and a wall-mounted TV, with large windows and a balcony looking out to the sea. — A sea-view room

A suite sitting room with an L-shaped cream sofa, a round coffee table, a wall-mounted TV and a geometric artwork above. — The living area of a suite

A modern bathroom with a white double vanity and illuminated mirrors, folded towels and bathrobes, and a walk-in rainfall shower behind glass. — A room bathroom

Pools and water features

The four pools with their real depths and hours, then the beach and what it's like underfoot.

There are four pools, and the resort publishes the size, depth and hours of each.

The four swimming pools at Grand Palladium Sicilia with their sizes, depths, hours and locations
Pool	Size	Depth	Hours	Where it is, and who it's for
Principal Sicilia	600 m²	140 cm	09:00 to 19:00	The main resort area. The big family pool, and deep enough that a small child is swimming rather than standing.
Beach Pool	430 m²	160 cm	09:00 to 19:00	The beach side of the resort. A second family pool, deeper again.
Beach Pool Children	56 m²	40 cm	09:00 to 18:00	The Mini Club side. The children's pool, and the only shallow water on the site.
The Signature Level Pool	455 m²	170 cm	10:00 to 19:00	The Signature Level area, for those guests only.

The Beach Pool Children is the one for small children, and at 40 cm it's roughly knee height on an adult, so a toddler can stand up in it. It sits on the Mini Club side of the grounds, next to the club itself, which helps if you have an older child booked in and a younger one with you. There's no splash pad and no water-play structure here: the children's pool is the water feature, and it's a plain pool.

The other three run from 140 to 170 cm, so they're swimming pools rather than paddling ones, and a small child is out of their depth in all of them. One reviewer with young children mentions a playground beside the children's pool and rates the two together. The resort doesn't list a playground among its facilities, so ask before you book if it's part of the appeal.

One pool that isn't in the table: the heated indoor pool with sea views belongs to the Zentropia spa, not to the swimming pools. It's adults only, and there's more on that below.

Straight off the gardens

The beach

You reach the beach directly from the resort, with no road to cross, and there's a lifeguard on duty.

It's mixed sand and pebble, and the pebble is noticeable underfoot. This is the resort's most consistent criticism and it comes from across the reviews rather than from one disappointed guest: "not the most practical beach with little kids" and "more stony, prepare with aqua shoes". One guest who rated everything else highly said the beach felt more like a three-star hotel's. Water shoes are a sensible thing to pack for a toddler, and for you.

The frontage is long and shared rather than a private cove. The beach at Campofelice di Roccella runs for several kilometres along this coast, roughly 3.5 km of sand and pebble as far as Capo Playa, and the resort's own description is direct access to one of the longest beaches on the north coast.

It isn't Blue Flag-certified, which is less pointed than it sounds. No beach in the Province of Palermo made Italy's 2026 Blue Flag list at all, and Sicily's awards that year went to Agrigento, Messina and Ragusa.

Loungers, parasols and beach towels are complimentary for hotel guests. Bali beds, the cabana-style ones, cost extra on request. Water sports run from the beach at extra charge, so ask at the desk what's on when you arrive.

From age one

Babies and toddlers

The three clubs and their ages, the kit question to settle before you travel and everything else that fills a day here.

Three clubs cover ages one to sixteen, and all three break for a siesta from 12:30 to 15:00.

The Baby Club takes children from one to three, 09:30 to 18:00 around that break. It's run by a trained childcare team who work to each child's own needs, and it needs booking at least two hours ahead. You can leave a child for up to 90 minutes free of charge. Past 90 minutes you book a private babysitter, at extra cost and in advance, which is a different arrangement rather than a longer club session.

Nothing runs below that. A family with a baby under twelve months has no structured childcare here at all.

The Mini Club runs 10:00 to 18:00 for ages four to eleven, on the Bungalow side of the resort: sports, educational games, arts and crafts, with the 40 cm children's pool alongside. A mini disco and themed activities run within the daily animation programme too, according to guests. Signature Level guests get priority booking here as well as at the restaurants.

The Black & White Junior Club is for twelve to sixteens, 09:30 to 18:00, a private space with music and video games on the same side of the resort. It's a teen room rather than childcare, so don't count it as cover for an evening out.

Babysitting is available on request at extra charge, arranged through the Baby Club and the guest services team, with the cost confirmed on site.

On baby kit: a cot is available on request. For anything else, a high chair, a steriliser, a bottle warmer, a baby bath or a potty, confirm with the resort or your tour operator before you travel rather than assuming it'll be there. It's the one thing about this resort worth an email.

One more, if you've been searching. Palladium's "kids stay free" promotion doesn't apply here. It's restricted to the group's "Family Selection at Grand Palladium" hotels, which are Kantenah, Vallarta, Costa Mujeres, Bávaro and Imbassaí, none of them in Italy. A search for the offer will bring it up against this resort's name anyway.

On the site

Things to do

The sports run to volleyball, a full-size football pitch, two tennis courts, two pickleball courts, table tennis, darts, bocce, minigolf and a multi-purpose sports court. The activities list also carries a Grow & Learn Garden by name.

Classes run daily: yoga, pilates and water aerobics, and there's a gym on site.

Entertainment is a live show every night in an open-air theatre, and piano in the Sicilia Lobby Bar in the evenings. A daytime animation programme and children's entertainment, crafts and games, run alongside the clubs. The week's schedule is posted at the main pool and carried on the app.

Sauna, jacuzzis and a heated pool

The Zentropia spa is adults only

Eighteen and over, and it's a policy rather than a timetable: there are no children's hours and no slot where a family can bring a toddler in.

Inside it there's a dry sauna and a moist one, a sensations shower, a relaxation area, hot and cold jacuzzis, hydromassage jets and the heated indoor pool with sea views that forms part of the hydrotherapy circuit. Treatments cost extra and cover a couples' ritual massage, a sensorial massage, the Soul Experience massage, body scrubs, facials, manicures and pedicures.

Access to the wet areas is chargeable for standard guests. Signature Level guests get one visit to the water circuit each per stay, included in the tier.

A castle, a Greek temple and Cefalù

The area and days out

Map of the area around Grand Palladium Sicilia, showing the resort, the nearest airport and the main family days out

What's within a few minutes' drive, the Cefalù day out and how you'd actually get to any of it.

Castello di Roccella is about four minutes' drive: a 13th-century clifftop fortress where one of the original four towers still stands intact, 20 m high with walls three metres thick. It's free to visit and self-guided, with information panels, or with a volunteer-led tour when one's running. Four minutes makes it the rare local sight you can fit around a nap.

Himera, the archaeological park and its Antiquarium museum, is about six minutes away at Termini Imerese. It was a Greek colony, destroyed by Carthage in 409 BC, and what survives includes the Doric Temple of Victory with its fluted columns. The museum holds finds from the site, among them a gold ceremonial dish and skeletal remains from the necropolis, which reviewers report children find engaging. Termini Imerese itself is a working coastal town rather than a day out.

Cefalù is about 9 miles (15 km) away, so 20 to 25 minutes' drive, and it's the nearest genuine town centre with shops and restaurants. Our Sicily guide describes its beach as a crescent of fine pale sand with a gradual entry and lifeguards in season, and the medieval town attached to it as walkable and easy with small children. If the resort's own beach isn't the one you wanted, this is where the sand is, and it's a short drive.

Palermo is Sicily's capital and a full day out rather than a half day, given the drive.

For the island as a whole, its coasts and its seasons, see our Sicily guide.

There's no town at the gate

Getting off the site

The resort is self-contained and there's no walkable town centre attached to it. Campofelice di Roccella, Cefalù and Palermo all need a car, a taxi or the resort's own paid excursion transport. Reviewers name this consistently: you can't walk anywhere local from the hotel.

The resort runs an Info Tours desk and a shuttle service, and both are extra-charge and on request. There's no complimentary shuttle, so ask at the desk what runs to Cefalù and Palermo for your dates rather than counting on a scheduled service.

Car rental is arranged through the resort, again at extra charge and on request. With nothing to walk to, a hire car is what decides how much of Sicily you see beyond the gates, and a taxi is the alternative for a one-off trip. Weigh that when you're comparing this resort against one with a town on the doorstep. A week here without leaving the site is a different budget from a week of days out.

What guests say

Loves and gripes

What reviewers rate, what they flag and how it sits against the other Sicily options.

The guest reviews line up well as of mid-2026: around 8.6 out of 10 on Booking.com across 376 verified reviews, and around 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor from 3,702 reviews, ranked around 102nd of Sicily's 1,260 hotels. Booking ranks it second of the seven hotels in Campofelice di Roccella and gives it a Guests' Choice listing. Booking's own subscores run from 9.2 for cleanliness, comfort and staff, down through 8.8 for facilities and 8.6 for wifi, to 8.3 for location and 8.2 for value for money, a narrow band and nothing that reads as weak. Scores move, so take them as a steer rather than a fixed number.

What families rate

The staff and the service, named individually by reviewer after reviewer.
Cleanliness and room comfort, the two highest scores, described as spotless and to a very high standard.
The children's pool and the Mini Club team's energy, from families with young children. One reviewer's two-year-old didn't want to leave, and one mentions a playground beside the pool.
The food and its range at the Sicania buffet, gluten-free options included.
The Family Bungalows, from a family with a three-year-old, for the position and the grass around them.
The pools generally, described as beautifully maintained.

Common gripes

The beach, stony underfoot and the one thing reviewers consistently mark down against an otherwise strong resort.
The isolation, with no walkable town, so a taxi or a hire car for anything local.
Some things costing extra despite the all-inclusive, which the resort's own exclusions list bears out.
The spa's indoor pool being adults only, which caught out at least one family who'd expected to swim there with their children.
Noise, in two accounts: thin walls in a bungalow room, and a restaurant area below that got very noisy. Not a running theme.
The wifi, rated 8.6 and called a bit weak by one guest, so somewhere between fine and patchy.
Quiet shoulder weeks. An April guest found little on for children around the pool, and put it down to travelling outside the family season.

Against the Sicily alternatives

How it compares

Three Sicilian resorts are the usual alternatives to this one. Confirm the club ages and the transfer times on each resort's own site before you move a search across to it.

Verdura Resort at Sciacca, over on the south-west coast, is a luxury-tier resort at a materially higher price, with a bigger kids' club, Verduland, that takes children from birth. Grand Palladium Sicilia is the lower-cost all-inclusive on the opposite coast, with three clubs running from one to sixteen.

If you have a baby under one and you want childcare, this isn't the resort, and VOI Arenella near Syracuse is the Sicilian name to look at instead.

Mangia's Brucoli, near Augusta on the east coast, is the shorter transfer if you're flying into Catania. Grand Palladium Sicilia is the better-matched choice for a Palermo-airport booking, and the worse one if you aren't flying into Palermo.

Within Palladium's own group, this is the only Italian property. Its Ibiza and Caribbean siblings share the room-tier naming, Deluxe, Junior Suite and Signature Level, and the same three-tier club format, so the resort will feel familiar if you've stayed at one. The free-child promotion doesn't cross over to Sicily.

The journey and the calendar

Getting there and when to go

The two airports and which to fly into, the months to aim for and the paperwork before you leave.

Palermo Punta Raisi is the nearest airport, about 50 miles (80 km) away, which is roughly 60 to 75 minutes' drive in normal traffic. Flights are around three hours from most UK airports.

Catania is the other one UK operators use, and Jet2holidays lists this resort under both. It's about 100 miles (160 km) by road, roughly 1 hour 50 to 2 hours 20, because the route crosses the island rather than following the coast.

Palermo is materially the shorter transfer, about half the Catania drive. Catania is worth taking only when that flight is significantly cheaper or more convenient, because you pay for it in road time whichever way round you do it. There's no complimentary airport transfer either way, so it's a private taxi, a hire car or the resort's shuttle service, which is an extra-charge booking made on request.

On timing, June to September is the swimming window: the sea sits between 23 and 27°C, there are eight to eleven hours of sunshine a day and two to five rainy days a month. May and late September are the shoulders, still warm enough to swim, with noticeably fewer wet days than April or October and quieter programming on site, which cuts both ways depending on whether you want the entertainment or the peace. November to March is cooler and wetter on this coast, 15 to 20°C by day with ten to twelve rainy days a month, so this isn't a winter-sun resort.

On the season itself, both the Portofino restaurant and the Signature Level's exclusive services are summer-only, and their windows are noted with the table below. Outside the summer, ask the resort what else is running before you book, rather than assuming the summer set-up carries over.

Month by month

Weather

The figures below are for Cefalù, about 9 miles (15 km) along the same coast and the nearest reference point to the resort. Sicily's north and east coasts sit either side of the island's high ground, so these read a little differently from the Catania figures on our Sicily guide, which are for the other side.

Typical monthly weather for Sicily
Month	Daytime high	Overnight low	Rain	Wet days	Sea temp
January	15°	10°	98 mm	10	15°
February	15°	9.5°	110 mm	10	15°
March	16.5°	11°	78 mm	9	15°
April	19°	13°	65 mm	9	16°
May	21.5°	16°	36 mm	4	19°
June	26°	20°	18 mm	2	23°
July	29°	23°	7 mm	1	27°
August	29.5°	23.5°	32 mm	2	28°
September	27°	21.5°	65 mm	5	26°
October	24°	18°	106 mm	8	23°
November	20°	15°	118 mm	10	20°
December	16.5°	11.5°	124 mm	12	17°

Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Sea temperature is the open-water figure, so a sheltered bay can feel a degree or two warmer. Portofino serves dinner June to September, and the Signature Level's exclusive services run 1 June to 12 October.

Paperwork and supplies

Passports, entry and what to pack

The FCDO doesn't advise against travel to Italy, Sicily included, so there's no advisory affecting a normal family holiday here.

Your passport needs to have been issued less than ten years before you travel, and to be valid for at least three months beyond the day you leave the Schengen area. No visa is needed for stays up to 90 days in any 180.

The EU's Entry/Exit System, its new biometric border check, is being brought in and may mean fingerprints or a photo at the border when you arrive. The rollout timing has moved before, so the live gov.uk page close to your travel date is the thing to read.

Italian law requires hotels to register guests' passport details with the police at check-in, so handing your passports over at the desk is a normal part of arriving in Italy rather than a quirk of this resort.

Currency is the euro. Bring your nappies, formula and sun cream with you: there's one boutique on site, and the nearest pharmacy is in Campofelice di Roccella, which you can't walk to.

The questions parents ask

Questions

The things families ask most, the official pages worth a bookmark and when this guide was last refreshed.

Is The Signature Level a different hotel?

No, though it's easy to think so. TripAdvisor carries it as its own listing with its own reviews, and an operator may sell it that way too. Worth knowing if you're comparing scores, because you'd be reading two sets of reviews about one resort, and a score for the Signature rooms isn't telling you about the resort you'd get on a standard booking.

Our child is eleven, nearly twelve. Which club would they be in?

The Mini Club's stated top age is eleven and the Junior Club picks up at twelve, so on paper a twelve-year-old moves to the teen room. Palladium's own marketing page puts the Mini Club at four to twelve, so the boundary isn't as firm as a single number suggests. If your child is on that cusp, ask which club they'd be placed in when you book, because a craft-and-sports club and a teen room with video games are very different afternoons.

We have a baby under one. Is there any childcare?

No, not until twelve months. That doesn't rule the resort out on its own, and plenty of families have a good week here with a baby. If a few child-free hours are part of what you're paying an all-inclusive for, though, this isn't where you'd get them, and a Sicilian resort with a nursery from birth would be the better search.

Does Palladium's 'kids stay free' offer apply here?

No, and it's the easiest thing to get wrong about this resort, because a search for the offer surfaces it against this hotel's name. Price the rooms on their own terms. If an agent quotes you a free child place here, ask to see it in the booking before you build a budget around it.

Can our children come into the spa pool with us?

No, at any hour. Zentropia is eighteen and over, and the heated indoor pool sits inside it. If an indoor pool is part of why a shoulder-season week appeals, the four outdoor pools are what you'd actually have, and their hours are in the table above.

Do we need water shoes?

For the beach, yes, and buy them at home rather than after you land. It's the one thing reviewers repeat about this resort. The pools are ordinary tiled pools and don't need them, so a pair each is plenty.

Can we get a cot in any room?

A cot is a resort facility available on request, and the room types marked with a cot in the table above confirm one in their own description. For the types that aren't marked, ask when you book rather than at check-in, because it's the room type you've paid for that decides it, not the cot.

Which airport should we fly into?

Palermo, unless a Catania fare is a lot cheaper. Operators sell this resort on both, so check which airport a package is actually built around before you book rather than assuming it's the near one. A Catania saving has to cover two long drives with tired children rather than one.

Can we go in winter?

You'd be booking a different resort from the summer one. The seasonal parts have shut by then, it's 15 to 20°C with rain about a third of the month, and a beachfront all-inclusive is a strange thing to pay for in that. If you're going anyway, go for the sightseeing rather than the pools, and ask the resort what's open for your dates before you pay a deposit.