A 6 euros journey on Etna
This month we went to Sicily with my fiancée and etna was obviously a must do as people from the mountains. But coming in catania we were stunned when we saw the prices and the laws, everything. After researching we chose a 6 euros nice hike and I wanted to make a little resume of what we found cause the internet is so vast and complicated.
So basically for the tours that you can do there are two kinds :
The ones where you see the top of the mountain at 3300 (or main crater with lava), which are gonna cost in total around 200 euros/person.
The ones where you make a tour of etna but without seeing the center of the crater, that cost around 130 total.
These two costs are the minimum and you see it’s very expensive because in every tour you have to pay the cable car (around 80 euros per adult). And for the main crater tours you have to pay an extra 80 for the 4x4 that gets you at 3000 then you start the hike.
We found that it was nonsense not to find a tour in which we could do a real hike plus see the crater.
So, what we chose was a nice hike that followed the classic path (we’re still tourists) starting from the 1900m refugio where the bus got us. It leaves in the morning at 8h15 but you have to get there at 7h15 bare minimum because there is only one in the day.
Then at 10h we hiked from the start of the cable car to the end, it’s a small hike but quite steep (3km for 600m D+) and takes about 1h15 (less than an hour if you’re fast).
Reaching the top you’ll see the enormous plateau. There you can do what you want, enjoying the view on the three mountains at 3000+, visit the old craters of 2001-2003, and go to the terre del filosofo which is a statue near a big crater with an outstanding view. The second part is more enjoyable as a hike, with flat parts, be careful at the end of the terre del filosofo tho the wind makes the effort difficult and more dangerous.
In total we did 12km and 1100D+ for a total of 5 hours which is honest and we will remember etna even more that if we stayed 1h at the very top 😊.
Definitely recommend this hike for students or hike lovers.