Sicily's Ancient Majesty: Valley of Temples Day Trip from Palermo

Let me be clear: the 3 stars are for a review of the excursion, not the destination. The Valley of the Temples is a 5 star location. I was however somewhat disappointed by this as an excursion experience. The reason I book a guided tour to places is because the guide generally provides a lot of information together with general commentary about the area travelled through. There was virtually no information provided on this trip that did not relate to the logistics of the day - when and where we stop, how long etc. (and some peripheral interest about legends of the Scala dei Turchi which we stopped to see on the return journey). There was no "guiding" at the valley of the temples and no more than a few sentences of information was given by the tour guide. Although billed as "English speaking", it was in fact multi - lingual covering 4 languages so anything that was said had to be repeated 4 times over. The ticketing upon arrival was a farce. We lost over 20 minutes of the 2 hours st the site queueing for tickets. This could (for some of us) have been avoided had the tour company advised us in advance that we would need to buy tickets on arrival and hence buying on line beforehand would have allowed us to avoid time spent queuing on the day. However, note if you had done this and wanted a guide book or audio guide, you might still need to queue. On other trips I have been on, the guide has organised a group entry basis and collected the entry fee from us on-route - it was not clear at all that a coach load of us would need to queue and buy tickets individually on the day. It was a fabulous location to visit and I am pleased to have been .....but this is not a "guided tour" - it is a chartered bus service from Palermo to Agrigento. Nor is it "an English speaking tour" - the guide happens to be able to speak English along with other languages. So a great place to visit (5 stars) but I felt let down about the quality of the excursion experience (hence the 3 star) - we might as well have gone by train ourselves and not been under any time constraint at the temples.

The trip was very rewarding as the Temples were amazing to see. It was a lot of time in a bus but that was the only way to see it efficiently. The guide Michael was great and informative whennneeded

Michael was a most excellent driver. He was professional, well dressed, and very informative. The car was clean and cool, we loved viewing the countryside and sharing stories. He truly made my day when I mentioned Cucidati (cookies) my mother used to make, and he took me to a local bakery to get some. I highly recommend Michael!

Our driver, Alessio, was fantastic! He ensured he was attentive to his guests, spoke English, played great music, was very happy to accommodate his passengers. He was always trying his best to make everyone happy with the experience!

The site itself is nice to walk through. However, the driver did not speak a single word of English. He was on the phone all the way having an obvious issue with someone. At the site his lack of mental logic made him having a hard time communicating the pick-up at the end of the site walk. Because of that, two individuals arrived 45 minutes late. In addition, Agrigento???? What does it have to do with the Valley of Temples??? We did not visit Agrigento. Why putting it in the title???. VERY POOR TOUR OPERATOR. It should be delisted from Viator.

My husband and I booked this trip after checking many others on offer . I can say the experience from start to finish was professionally handed. Pick up point next to the Teatro Massimo was easy to find and our convoy of 3 air conditioned mini vans left on time. Our driver Michele was lovely and gave us information on various sights as we passed them on the road to Agrigento . He even sang O Solo Mio to us in the van ( beautifully it has to be said). We stopped briefly at a service station where there was a vast selection of fresh panini and other treats to purchase for lunch. We then continued to Agrigento . Michele dropped us off and we had two hours at the temples which was more than ample time to see everything. We were then driven to the Stair of The Turks.. a spectacular spot for our lunch before heading back to Palermo. This is a reasonably priced tour.. professionally organised and thanks to Michele highly enjoyable.I would definitely recommend! Grazie Michele!!

A Sicilian traffic jam and our driver expertly detoured past the stopped traffic and we had a nice jaunt through several small seemingly sleepy towns. Dario was friendly and extremely knowledgeable and fit in a few extra stops as we had some time. Agrigento is so well preserved and impressive. A must see.

Travelled in a small fleet of super-comfy black Mercedes air-con minibuses; our driver Michele was a wealth of information, very entertaining, sang us Italian arias; Valley of the Temples itself was amazing and some of the buildings themselves were so intact.

Did not deliver what was advertised. It was expensive for what we got. We did not go the archeological museum for an hour which was advertised. The coffee break in Agregento was a stop at a petrol station. We did not get a mini bus. We deliberately booked a tour with a small number of people, we ended up on a big bus.

Enzo and his driver were excellent!!! Very professional, great comments, good sense of humor and on-time... Bravo Enzo😎!!!