Quick answer — Etna Trasporti and Interbus, eastern Sicily
- Same group, one ticket: on the Catania Airport–Taormina coach Etna Trasporti (line ET07) and Interbus (line IN14) run the same service at the same fare, sold through one booking system and app
- One way from Catania Airport: €7.00 to Taormina, €6.00 to Giardini Naxos, €6.20 to Siracusa (checked 11 August 2026)
- How often: on a mid-August weekday, 44 departures to Taormina, 48 to Giardini Naxos and 36 to Siracusa
- Winter is a different service: the last coach to Taormina leaves at 22:45 in mid-August and 19:45 in mid-November, when the day drops to 23 departures
- Where to buy: the operators’ website, the Interbus app, or an authorised ticket office — both companies ask you to buy before you reach the stop
| Journey | Line | One way | Return | Scheduled time | Departures, mid-August weekday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catania Airport → Taormina Terminal Bus | ET07 / IN14 | €7.00 | €14.00 | 80–90 min, most runs 85 | 44 |
| Catania Airport → Giardini Naxos (4 stops) | ET07 / IN14 | €6.00 | €12.00 | 60 min to Recanati, 75 to Stazione FS | 48 |
| Catania Airport → Siracusa, Corso Umberto 196 | IN01 (Interbus) | €6.20 | €9.60 | 70 min | 36 (34 at weekends) |
| Giardini Naxos town → Taormina Terminal Bus | No line code returned by this check | €1.90 | €3.00 | 10–20 min | Not counted separately in this check |
| Taormina-Giardini station → Taormina Terminal Bus | IN09 / IN10 / IN11 / IN14 / ET07 | €1.10 | €1.70 | 5–15 min | 104–108 runs a day |
Read on 11 August 2026 in the group’s own timetable and ticketing system, behind interbus.it, etnatrasporti.it and booking.interbus.it. Sicilian timetables are seasonal: check your own date.
| Option | Price | Journey time |
|---|---|---|
| Etna Trasporti / Interbus direct bus | €7per person | 80–90 min |
| Private transfer | from €132per vehicle · up to 3 passengers (minivan for groups) | 50–60 min |
| Etna Trasporti / Interbus direct bus — Direct and cheap — but fixed departure times and no door-to-door | ||
Private transfer
Driver waiting with a name sign, door-to-door, flight tracking — zero stress with luggage
Free cancellation up to 7 days · Secure online payment
Two Companies, One Group, One Ticket
If you have been comparing «Etna Trasporti» with «Interbus», stop: on the routes most visitors use in eastern Sicily they are two companies of the same group, running the same services at the same fares through the same booking system and app.
The clearest case is the Catania Airport to Taormina coach. Etna Trasporti operates it as line ET07, route name «TAORMINA – CATANIA – APT FONTANAROSSA»; Interbus operates it as line IN14, «TAORMINA – CATANIA – SIRACUSA – PORTOPALO». Same road, same stops, same fare, same ticket. On a mid-August weekday Etna Trasporti ran 29 of the 44 departures and Interbus the other 15, so whichever livery pulls up first is your coach.
Line names are written from the far end of the route, not from the airport, so a board reading TAORMINA – CATANIA – APT FONTANAROSSA is the line you want in both directions. Read the departure time and the destination on the front of the vehicle.
The names do diverge by area. The official Catania Airport bus page lists Etna Trasporti as the operator connecting the airport with Giardini Naxos, Recanati and Taormina (Via D’Amico 181, Catania, tel. +39 0935 565111, read on that page on 11 August 2026 — the airport updates the entry from time to time, so check the number there before you dial). On the Siracusa run it is the other way round: all 36 departures returned by the booking system for a mid-August weekday were operated by Interbus S.p.A. on line IN01. For Taormina, expect either name; for Siracusa, Interbus.
The Lines That Matter to Visitors
ET07 / IN14 — the Ionian coast line. The airport coach for Giardini Naxos and Taormina: one vehicle, no change, but not non-stop. A run leaving the airport at 07:15 reaches Taormina Terminal Bus at 08:40, with three stops in Catania city on the way. The first 25 minutes are spent leaving Catania.
IN01 — the southern line. The Interbus service to Siracusa: 70 minutes from the airport on every daytime run, and 69 minutes on the 00:10 overnight departure. Its published route name is Portopalo – Pachino – Siracusa – Catania – Palermo, so your leg is one segment of a longer line. We have not checked its western end: if you are crossing to the other coast, look those times up in the operators’ system and read our Palermo destination page.
IN09, IN10, IN11 — the Taormina local links. These, with IN14 and ET07, are the lines the operators’ system names on the run from Taormina-Giardini railway station up to Taormina Terminal Bus. The same companies also run the short hop between that station and the town of Giardini Naxos, but the booking system returns no line code for it — only the fare, the time and the number of runs. Cheap and frequent either way, these buses are the reason arriving by train works at all: the station is at sea level, and they do the climb.
What the Bus Costs, and Where the Return Is Cheaper
Fares are flat and no higher online: on the Taormina route the «Corsa semplice Web» is €7.00, exactly the counter price. One way from Catania Airport: €7.00 to Taormina Terminal Bus, €6.00 to Giardini Naxos, €6.20 to Siracusa. The Giardini Naxos fare is the same at all four stops the coach makes on that stretch — Recanati Terminal Bus, Via Dalmazia, San Giovanni and Stazione FS — so where you get off does not change the price.
The discount on returns is not applied uniformly. To Siracusa the «Andata/Ritorno» is €9.60 — €4.80 a leg instead of €6.20. To Taormina it is €14.00 and to Giardini Naxos €12.00, in both cases exactly twice the single, so there a return buys convenience rather than money. Interbus states on its travel-documents page that the return leg is discounted when it is travelled on the same day as the outward one.
On the local links: Giardini Naxos town stops to Taormina Terminal Bus is €1.90 one way and €3.00 return; Taormina-Giardini railway station to Taormina Terminal Bus is €1.10 and €1.70.
Etna Trasporti also sells a weekly airport pass on the Taormina route, the «Turistico settimanale APT», at €39.20. At €7.00 a leg it only pays for itself from the sixth single journey, which makes it a commuter’s ticket. Fares checked 11 August 2026.
August and November Are Two Different Services
This is the most useful thing to understand about buses in eastern Sicily. The morning service barely changes between seasons. The evening service collapses.
| Service | Mid-August weekday | Mid-November weekday | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catania Airport → Taormina | 44 departures, 07:15 to 22:45 | 23 departures, 07:15 to 19:45 | Same first coach, last one three hours earlier |
| Catania Airport → Giardini Naxos | 48 departures, 07:15 to 22:45 | 23 departures, 07:15 to 19:45 | Gaps widen to about 30 minutes |
| Giardini station → Taormina | 108 departures, 06:05 to 23:45, plus runs at 00:00, 00:30, 00:45 and 01:00 | 52 departures, 06:05 to 21:00 | The night runs are not in the November timetable |
| Catania Airport → Siracusa | 36 on a weekday, 34 at the weekend; 07:10 to 23:10, plus one at 00:10 | Not checked on a November date | Weekend evenings already end an hour earlier, at 22:10 |
Read on 11 August 2026 for a sample date in each month; they describe those dates, not a permanent timetable.
In August you do not plan around the timetable on the Ionian coast: departures to Taormina run roughly every 15 minutes through the morning and every 30 minutes from early afternoon, so you clear the terminal, walk to the stop and wait a few minutes. To Siracusa the pattern is similar — every 15 minutes between 09:10 and 12:10, every 30 minutes from 12:10 to 20:10, then hourly at 21:10, 22:10 and 23:10.
In November the same journeys need checking. The first departure is unchanged at 07:15, but with 23 runs instead of 44 the gaps are consistently half an hour and the last coach has gone by 19:45. An evening flight in the low season can land you after the day’s scheduled coach service is over. It is a demand-driven timetable — which means the date you check matters more than the route.
How to Buy a Ticket, and the Rules That Catch People Out
Both companies publish the same instruction, in the same words, on the where-to-buy page: «Ricorda di acquistare il tuo biglietto prima di recarti in fermata» — buy your ticket before going to the stop. The three published channels are the operators’ website, the Interbus app — the only app either company names, and it sells the Etna Trasporti runs too — and authorised ticket offices, the «biglietterie abilitate».
Neither company states whether the driver sells tickets, or at what price. Rather than test that after a long flight, buy in the app while you wait for your bag.
If you would rather have paper, the offices on these routes, as published on 11 August 2026, are: at the airport, SEIM S.r.l., Piazzale Terminal Arrivi, tel. +39 348 3921803; in Giardini Naxos, the Recanati Terminal Bus, Viale Dionisio, tel. +39 324 0222007; in Taormina, the Etna Trasporti / Interbus ticket office, open every day 07:00 to 01:00, tel. +39 0942 625301.
Three rules from the operators’ travel-documents page are worth knowing before you buy:
- Be at the stop ten minutes early. The operators ask for it in writing.
- Tickets are personal and cannot be transferred. You cannot pass an unused leg to a friend.
- Changing the time is free at least 30 minutes before the original departure. That is the practical answer to a delayed inbound flight: move the ticket while you still have the margin.
Where the Buses Actually Stop
Stop names here are as registered in the Sicilian regional stop database.
At the airport. The stop is «AEROPORTO CATANIA – Terminal Arrivi», regional code CT_14, on the Arrivals side of the terminal. The official record names no numbered bay, so allow a couple of minutes outside Arrivals and confirm the line with the driver.
In Catania city. Coaches on the coast line call at Via Archimede – Autostazione about 15 minutes after the airport, then Viale della Libertà 182 and Piazza Michelangelo. If the city is your destination, get off there — see the Catania destination page.
In Giardini Naxos. Four stops, in this order from the airport: Recanati Terminal Bus (60 minutes), Via Dalmazia SS 114 (65), San Giovanni (70) and Stazione FS (75). Same fare at all four. One warning about the last of them: «Stazione FS» is the Taormina-Giardini railway station, and it is not in Giardini Naxos. It stands in Via Nazionale, in the Villagonia district of the comune of Taormina, on the headland between the two towns — reverse geocoding of the operators’ own published stop coordinates on OpenStreetMap data, checked 11 August 2026. If your hotel is on the Giardini seafront, get off earlier.
In Taormina. The coach calls at Capotaormina – SP 10 and Tombe Bizantine, then terminates at «TAORMINA – Via Pirandello – Terminal Bus», regional code ME_1228. That terminal is up in the town, not down on the coast — which is exactly what the railway station is not.
In Siracusa. Before the terminus the bus makes eight stops in the city: Scala Greca 394, Scala Greca 240, Viale Teracati 184, Viale Tica 170, Viale Tica 141, Via Von Platen, Corso Gelone (Parco Archeologico) and Corso Gelone 50, the last two minutes before the end. The terminus is the Corso Umberto 196 bus terminal, regional code SR_1435. From there it is roughly 1.25 km on foot, about 15 minutes, to the Ponte Umbertino into Ortigia, and about 1.76 km, roughly 22 minutes, to Piazza Duomo (pedestrian routing on OpenStreetMap data from the operators’ stop coordinates, checked 11 August 2026). The bus terminal is about 200 metres from the railway station, so the coach leaves you marginally closer to Ortigia than the train does.
Luggage, Bikes and Electric Scooters
Interbus publishes a baggage policy on its luggage page, checked 11 August 2026: one item of hand luggage plus one hold bag travel free, the hold bag no larger than 50 x 40 x 25 cm and no heavier than 20 kg. A small musical instrument or a folded pushchair may be carried in addition.
Two categories are treated strictly. Bicycles are accepted only dismantled into two pieces and carried in a proper bag. Electric scooters and other battery-powered personal transport devices are not accepted at all — not folded, not with the battery removed. If your plan involved riding the coach with an e-scooter, it does not work.
Two caveats: that is the company’s general rule, with no line-specific allowance published for the airport coach, and neither company publishes a price for a second hold bag.
When the Bus Is Not the Right Answer
For most people landing at Fontanarossa in season the coach is simply the correct choice, and we are not going to pretend otherwise: €7.00 to Taormina, one vehicle, a departure every 15 minutes. Book nothing, pay in the app, spend the difference on dinner. There are, though, situations a timetable cannot solve.
- You land outside service hours. The last coach to Taormina leaves the airport at 22:45 in mid-August and 19:45 in mid-November. A delayed evening flight in the low season can put you on the wrong side of that.
- You fly out early. The first coach from Taormina Terminal Bus reaches the airport at 07:40. For anything boarding before roughly 08:30 that is not a tight connection, it is no connection.
- There are four or more of you. Four singles to Taormina come to €28.00 — four times the €7.00 fare — and you still finish at Via Pirandello with the bags.
- Your bags exceed one hold bag each. The published allowance is one hold bag of 50 x 40 x 25 cm and 20 kg per passenger, with no published price for a second.
- Your accommodation is not near a terminus. Taormina Terminal Bus is one point in a town of hairpins and stairs; the Siracusa terminus is 1.25 km from the bridge into Ortigia.
- Small children at the end of a travel day. A wait, an 85-minute ride and a walk uphill is a lot to ask of a toddler.
Those are the cases where a private transfer does something a timetable cannot: your door, your hour, a vehicle sized to your bags. The price is fixed and confirmed at the moment you book, and waiting time and night pickups are set out in the booking conditions rather than negotiated at the kerb. Outside those cases, take the bus.
The Return Journey Is Not a Mirror
Do not assume the way back runs the same hours as the way out. On a mid-August weekday there are 44 departures from Taormina Terminal Bus to the airport, but the first leaves at 06:15, arriving 07:40, and the last at 22:45, arriving 00:10. From Giardini Naxos Stazione FS the count is higher: 49 departures to the airport on 14 August 2026, first at 06:05, last at 22:55, typically 75 minutes. Those two counts were read for different August dates, so look up your own in the booking system (both checked 11 August 2026).
Two habits make the return work. Take a departure one or two earlier than the one that theoretically fits: 85 minutes is a timetable, not a promise. And in the low season check the next morning’s departure the day before at a ticket office — the Taormina one is open until 01:00 — rather than meeting the winter timetable at 05:30 with a suitcase.
How We Checked This
Every figure here was read on 11 August 2026: fares, journey times, departure counts and stop codes in the Interbus and Etna Trasporti timetable, stop database and booking engine; the operator listing, address and phone number on the official Catania Airport bus page; ticket rules and outlets on interbus.it/dove-acquistare and interbus.it/titoli-di-viaggio; luggage on interbus.it/bagagli; Siracusa walking distances by pedestrian routing on OpenStreetMap data from the operators’ stop coordinates.
Where the operators publish nothing, we say so rather than guess: on-board ticket sales, the cost of a second hold bag, and whether the after-midnight Giardini Naxos–Taormina runs operate all year are all unpublished. Check your own date before you rely on this.
Route by route, with the timetable checked
Each of these journeys is written up in full — departure times, stops, the train and taxi alternatives, and the point at which a private transfer earns its place:
- Catania Airport to Taormina — the €7.00 coach, the train that stops at sea level, and the 204-metre climb that decides everything
- Catania Airport to Giardini Naxos — four stops, one fare, and the shuttle up to Taormina
- Catania Airport to Siracusa — Interbus IN01 in 70 minutes, and the walk into Ortigia
Planning the wider trip? Start from the Sicily hub, then read up on Taormina, Catania and Palermo.
