Is Catania Expensive? What I Actually Paid for Hotel, Food, Taxi & Etna

Catania is not particularly expensive for everyday travel.

Food can be reasonably priced, the historic center is easy to explore on foot, and local public transport is cheap. The costs start climbing when you add accommodation, airport taxis and Mount Etna.

That was exactly my experience.

So if you’re trying to work out a Catania budget, don’t obsess over saving €2 on lunch. Focus on the few expenses that can easily add €40, €100 or more to your trip.

Accommodation Can Be More Expensive Than Expected

I paid €214 for two nights for a double room in a centrally located 4-star hotel.

For the quality I received, that felt expensive.

This doesn’t mean every hotel in Catania costs €100+ per night. Accommodation changes heavily depending on dates, location and how early you book. But I wouldn’t automatically assume Sicily means cheap hotels.

There is also a local tourist tax. Catania currently charges €2.50 per person per night for 4-star hotels, with different rates depending on the type of accommodation.

My advice is simple: compare the total price, not just the room rate, and don’t pay a premium just to stay a few streets closer to Piazza del Duomo. Central Catania is compact enough to walk.

Food Was One of the Better-Value Parts of the Trip

Food is where Catania felt much more reasonable.

For quick meals, supermarkets had normal prices and enough choice that we could grab something and continue sightseeing without turning every lunch into a restaurant stop.

When we did sit down for proper Sicilian food at a small local trattoria, I paid roughly:

• €8 to €12 for pizza

• €12 to €13 for pasta

Those are the prices I personally paid, not guaranteed current menu prices, but the important part was the value. The food was excellent and the bill didn’t feel inflated just because we were tourists.

If you’re trying to save money, I’d rather eat simply during the day and spend properly on one good local dinner than sit in tourist-facing restaurants for every meal.

Airport Transport Is an Easy Place to Waste Money

I paid about €40 for a taxi from Catania Airport to the city center.

That is probably the easiest expense I would eliminate today.

The official Alibus currently costs just €4 and connects the airport with central Catania. A normal AMTS 90-minute urban ticket costs €1.40, while a day ticket costs €3.50.

So there is a huge gap between:

€4 Alibus and roughly €40 for the taxi I took.

A taxi can still make sense if you arrive very late, have a lot of luggage or simply want door-to-door convenience. But check Alibus before assuming you need one.

For a short Catania trip, this is one of the easiest places to save meaningful money.

You Probably Don’t Need a Rental Car for Catania

For exploring Catania itself, I wouldn’t rent a car.

I walked most of the city and used rental scooters when I wanted to move faster. The center has plenty of narrow streets, tightly parked cars and traffic that I personally wouldn’t pay money to deal with.

Parking also isn’t completely free. Official AMTS street parking in central tariff zones currently starts around €0.90 for the first hour, depending on the zone.

A rental car starts making more sense if Catania is your base for exploring Sicily, not if you’re spending two days around the city center.

That saves the rental itself, insurance, fuel and parking.

Mount Etna Is Where the Budget Changes Completely

Etna was by far the expensive activity of my trip.

I paid roughly €60 per person for a guided excursion from Catania, then paid separately to go higher on the volcano.

This is something worth knowing before you book a cheap flight and think Catania will be a very cheap weekend.

The city can be inexpensive, Etna is not.

Current Funivia dell’Etna pricing puts the return cable car from around 1,923 m to 2,500 m at €54 per adult. Higher experiences combining the cable car with 4x4 or snowcat transport and a volcanological guide cost more.

That means a couple visiting Etna can easily spend well over €100 just on the mountain experience, before adding transport from Catania.

I still wouldn’t skip it.

Etna was one of the main reasons I went to Catania and absolutely worth budgeting for. I would simply treat it as a separate major expense, not part of normal daily spending.

I explain the different ways of getting there in How to Visit Mount Etna From Catania.

Card Is Fine, But Keep Some Cash

I paid by card for most of the trip and never needed to carry much cash.

Still, I would keep a small amount with me.

Catania has local markets and small vendors where cash is simply more practical. You don’t need hundreds of euros in your wallet, but going completely cashless can be unnecessarily inconvenient.

For hotels, supermarkets and normal restaurants, I had no problem relying mostly on cards.

Where I Would Actually Try to Save

If I went back on a budget, I wouldn’t start by cutting good Sicilian food.

I would save on the expensive decisions:

Airport: check Alibus before taking a taxi.

Hotel: compare total prices and don’t overpay for a few hundred metres of location.

Transport: walk central Catania instead of renting a car.

Etna: decide in advance whether you want only the cable car or the more expensive higher-altitude experience.

Those four decisions matter far more than whether your pizza costs €9 or €11.

So, Is Catania Expensive?

For normal city spending, not really.

You can walk a lot, public transport is inexpensive, supermarkets are reasonable and good local food doesn’t necessarily cost much.

What can make Catania expensive is everything around the basic city break: a poor-value hotel, a €40 airport taxi, a rental car you don’t need and a full Mount Etna excursion.

Control those costs and Catania can be a fairly manageable destination.

Spend without checking them and a supposedly cheap Sicily trip becomes expensive very quickly.

If you’re still deciding whether the city itself is worth the trip, read Is Catania Worth Visiting? Safety, Costs & What to Expect.