Etna and Alcantara Gorges Excursion

Posted By : W7079DHtinal
After our original Etna trip was cancelled with another company we booked with Dream Island very last minute, and how glad we now are that we did! Richard from Dream Island was fantastic! He communicated with us via WhatsApp and made arrangements for my friend and I to be picked up from our hotel as we had no means to travel to Catania. He was speedy with his responses and made every effort to make the trip happen as it was our last day in Sicily. We were picked up by our guide Salvatore who was incredibly helpful, informative, answered all our questions and so kind. He took my friend and I on a route that he doesn't usually take so that we were able to see 2 of the bigger craters at 2100m. The hike awarded us with magnificent views of the mountain and the craters were unbelievable! I would absolutely recommend Dream Island. Big thanks to Richard and Salvatore for making our trip to Siciliy amazing and making Etna happen for us when we had been let down by another company last minute on our last day.
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Posted On : 2024-05-18

Posted By : Eleanor_Z
The Tour was everything we expected and even more. The tour leader giovanni was good too. he has very good english. we were very pleased! We went to etna, lunch and gole alcantara
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Posted On : 2024-05-09

Posted By : Santa_B
Fantastic tour; perfect guide Emanuele. We reccomend-enough info; personal attitude; lunch at nice place.
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Posted On : 2024-04-18

Posted By : enricosF6782YF
The best Sicily trip we have booked, many thanks to Salvatore! Salvatore was our tour guide. He is a true Sicilian, so he was able to tell us childhood stories about Mount Etna and the whole of Sicily. The time while driving around by car was used to explain passed and prepare the next stops. the lunch was easy but very delicious meal. we, in a group of 4 (me, my girlfriend and 2 further tourists from england) enjoyed the whole trip, lastly due to our brilliant guide!
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Posted On : 2024-04-15

Posted By : Zac_F
An incredible experience. Our guide Salvatore went above and beyond to make us have the best experience exploring Etna. He was very knowledgeable and made the experience very fun. Also a great photographer. Thank you for an amazing experience.
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Posted On : 2024-03-31

Posted By : Laura M
My husband and I went on this excursion trip today and it was a mixed experience. We were the only ones on the tour, and we met Salvador at the agreed meeting point. He was friendly and attentive throughout this drive. We arrived at Mount Etna and got hiking! It was quite a steep incline and your feet slipped sometimes, but it was worth it! The craters, views and grottos were awesome to see. Salvador was lovely, attentive, reassuring about having time to take it slowly, and great at explaining the different areas we reached. He was very knowledgeable about Mount Etna which made for a lovely experience. He also offered to take photos which was a lovely touch! We then drove down to a small restaurant and had some ragu and pistachio pasta. I thought we got a choice of first course, but didn't mind to find out we got 2 types of pasta as the dish served. This would be a problem however if you (for example) had a nut allergy, as there didn't appear to be another option food-wise included in the price. A bottle of water was included here, which was refreshing. *So far in the trip, Salvador had received mobile notifications, and a couple calls, but he hadn't let it affect his touring presentation. He did answer a couple calls but we didn't mind as we were off wandering, and when we approached him, he would shortly end the call and give his attention back to us.* I was really looking forward to the Alcantara gorges trip, which was advertised as half of the tour experience. Upon pulling up to the entrance, Salvador initially thought it was shut but, upon realising cars were parked in there, he realised it wasn't and we go in. Easy mistake to make (I thought), but quickly rectified. I unfortunately noticed from here on out that this reluctance to tour the Alcantara gorges continued... We looked from a viewpoint, and Salvador talked about it being closed but described the gorges briefly. I noticed there were people down by the water and I prompted him to get tickets to go down there. The ticket cost stated it was included in the tour price, so it felt like we were (intentionally or not) trying to be cut short of an experience. Anyway, we get down to the bottom by lift and it's gorgeous! The rocks surrounding us are REALLY smooth - fake looking even - whilst the cliffs are geometric in formation. It was fascinating to look at and I was expecting our tour guide to give us a good amount of detail about this landscape. Sadly, Salvador only explained a couple things before walking off and talking on his phone. My husband and I wandered around, hoping he'd step back into his role of tour guide, but he didn't from here on out. It felt like his attention was on his phone fully, and anything we were doing was wasting his time. He spoke only when I asked him a question, and otherwise looked like a bored parent waiting for his children to get tired... he was conveying all the signs of wanting to leave, which I could tell made my partner withdraw and want to go early too. When we got back up using the lift, I had to proactively wander toward a garden area which was there to explore as, yet again, our tour guide seemed like he wanted to leave. I tried to enjoy this last part of the tour but I really struggled to as I could feel him judging me to a certain degree by being curious and wanting to explore my surroundings. --- I don't know why the professionalism changed after lunch, but it really ruined what was otherwise a lovely tour experience. I felt like a problem for the second half of the tour, and like we had a taxi driver with us instead of a tour guide. We were very easy going tourists, friendly and polite, and so there's nothing I can think of that we did. Regardless, please don't stop putting in effort after lunch. The first half was lovely, I just wish the second half matched it.
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Posted On : 2024-03-13

Posted By : JohnM19082
I was not actually able to go on the trip due to illness. A serious cold, or possibly Covid, hit me the night before. I waited till the morning to see if I would be able to go and it was impossible. I emailed Dream Island via Tripadvisor at 7 AM about the situation. I simply wanted them to know that they did not need to pick me up. They surprised me by letting me know that they would give me a full refund in spite of the late notice. I will certainly book with them when I have the opportunity in the future.
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Posted On : 2023-11-09

Posted By : Brett_L
Had an amazing time on our trip! Giovanni was a great guide and got us safely from place to place. Would definitely recommend this trip to anyone. 10/10!
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Posted On : 2023-10-22

Posted By : EwaB2433
Wonderful scenery and stunning Mount Etna landscape - tick. Very friendly staff- tick. Nice and tasty lunch - tick. Otherwise so disappointig. The trip is advertised as a small-group adventure in English. I booked from Australia months in advance. Yes - the vans take a maximum 8 people, but 2 vans and a private car were a part of our convoy. Our (very friendly) car driver spoke about 5 words of English combined with our 5 words of Italian, it made a very long 3 or so hours in the car trying to "converse". I repeat - we booked this 3 months in advance, so no excuse of late notice. Not a driver's fault but bad organising. Of the more than two dozen people combined, the majority were Italian speakers. So our guide, whose English was just ok, would say the obligatory two or three sentences in English, and then converse most of time exclusively in Italian, obviously the language he is more comfortable with. It didn't feel like a welcome or immersive experience to the English speakers, and definitely not as advertised. What else? Hiking poles included? Not really - the van people had them, but our car wasn't offered any, we used tree branches. Helmets supplied? Of our 3, two were out of batteries - the organisers didn't bother checking. Water? We weren't offered any. Definitely felt like an unwelcome tack-on to the Italian tour. . So very disappointing
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Posted On : 2023-10-22

Posted By : NickA863
We had a great day visiting Etna, the 'snow cave' and Alcantara. Emanuele was our guide for the day, he was excellent, approachable, very knowledgeable, and made the day fun. We visited several locations on Etna and learned about its geology and its various craters (it has had lots over the years). The description on the website is an accurate account of what you will see. Lunch was a lovely pasta dish. Glad we chose this tour and happy to recommend it.
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Posted On : 2023-10-11