Aci Trezza Boat Tours

If you’re staying in or near Aci Trezza, there’s no reason to travel into Catania for a boat tour. The Faraglioni stand just off the harbour, the boats leave from the seafront, and the shortest trips have you back on the pier in time for lunch.

A Fishing Village With the Cyclops on Its Doorstep

Aci Trezza is a small fishing village about 10 km north of Catania, in the municipality of Aci Castello. Its harbour is still a working one: wooden fishing boats are painted and repaired on the slipway, and the fishermen’s quarter looks out over the bay. It’s also a literary landmark. Giovanni Verga set his novel I Malavoglia here, and in 1947 Luchino Visconti filmed La terra trema in the village, casting local fishermen instead of actors.

What makes the harbour special, though, is the view straight out to sea. Just offshore rise Isola Lachea and the Faraglioni dei Ciclopi, the black basalt stacks that legend says the blinded Polyphemus hurled at Odysseus. From the pier you see one side of them. From a boat you see how they’re built.

What a Typical Aci Trezza Tour Covers

Most tours from the village follow a similar route. Within minutes you reach Isola Lachea, the largest of the Cyclops Islands and a nature reserve since 1998, home to a lizard subspecies found nowhere else. Then you drift beneath the Faraglioni, where good skippers cut the engine so you can look up at the columnar basalt. Seen from below, the stacks become clusters of stone prisms, formed when lava from underwater eruptions around half a million years ago cooled.

The boat then heads south along the lava coast to Aci Castello, where a Norman castle built in 1076 sits on its black volcanic crag, before a swim stop in the marine reserve and the run back to the harbour.

The Options, From Shortest to Longest

The Aci Trezza Odyssey Faraglioni tour, from $22, is the one featured on this page. It passes the Faraglioni, Isola Lachea, the columnar basalt and Aci Castello, with a quick swim and the story of the Cyclops and the Odyssey told on board. It comes in several formats: a 1.5-hour tour at a fixed time, a small-group version, a private boat, and a 45-minute flexible ticket that lets you check in with a QR code any time between 10:00 and 17:00 and board the next boat. Guests are offered a glass of Sicilian almond wine or limoncello.

The 45-minute tour to Aci Castello, from $17, runs on the Polifemo, a small boat operated by the same family since 2015. It goes a little further south, to the Cannizzaro cliffs, and includes masks and snorkels for the swim stop and a skipper who explains the sights in Italian and English.

The 3-hour tour to Acireale, from $52, from the same family, heads north instead: two swim and snorkel stops, including Capomulini Bay, then along to La Timpa, an 80-metre green cliff dropping straight into the sea, and the fishing village of Santa Maria La Scala.

The 2-hour sunset dolphin-watching trip, from $40, idles offshore in the evening where dolphins tend to pass. The operator tells you frankly that a sighting isn’t guaranteed, and offers to tell you how the last few days have gone.

If you want food on board and a full half-day, look at the Catania cruises instead.

Why This Is the Budget Pick

At $17 to $29 for the short tours, Aci Trezza is the cheapest way to see the Faraglioni up close, well under the $50 to $75 plus boarding fee of a Catania half-day cruise. If what you want is the view, the legend and a swim rather than four hours with lunch, you get all of it here for much less time and money. Our Cyclops Coast cruise prices guide has the full comparison.

Getting to the Harbour

From Catania, AMTS bus 534 runs to the Aci Trezza terminal; allow 30 minutes in light traffic and closer to an hour on busy summer afternoons. Most tours meet along Via Lungomare dei Ciclopi, the seafront road beside the harbour; check the exact spot on your booking confirmation, since several operators share the pier. If you’re driving, arrive early on summer weekends, when parking along the seafront fills up.

What to Bring

Swimwear, a towel and sunscreen. Several short tours don’t supply towels or drinks, so bring your own water. The Odyssey tour isn’t recommended for non-swimmers or people prone to seasickness. If that’s you, the 45-minute option keeps your time on the water short, and life jackets are provided on the Polifemo tours.

Make a Morning of It

A short boat tour leaves plenty of time for the village. The Casa del Nespolo museum, in the old centre, is devoted to Verga’s novel and Visconti’s film, with photographs Verga took himself. Lunch on the seafront is an obvious next step, and in the late afternoon it’s a short trip south to the castle at Aci Castello, whose civic museum covers mineralogy, palaeontology and archaeology. If you’re here on 23 or 24 June, the festival of the village’s patron saint, San Giovanni Battista, includes fishermen re-enacting a swordfish hunt in the harbour.

Want the full route from the Faraglioni to the castle? See our Aci Trezza to Aci Castello boat tours page, or compare every Cyclops Coast tour side by side.

Ready to sail? Check live availability above.