After spending six months in Marina di Ragusa Sicily living aboard our boat, I have quite a bit of feedback about the marina and surrounding area. Please note, however, that this marina review is about ‘wintering’, or staying put in the marina for the full winter season (October to April). More about Marina die Ragusa Sicily review winter season…
It’s not about Marina di Ragusa during the summer, which from what I’ve been told, is a whole different kettle of fish
Apparently, during the summer months, the prices go up, the beaches are jam-packed and there’s lines at every café, restaurant and bar. During the winter, MdR is inexpensive, the beaches are calm and there is never a queue at the café’s!
That being noted, my overall experience of Marina di Ragusa will most definitely be remembered as one of my life-time highlights
I’ve never met such a wonderful community of caring, kind, open-minded and helpful people EVER. I’ve never spent six months in such a lovely surrounding – with beautiful beaches, amazing food and memorable experiences.
Our friend, Admiral Stefano, made a new leather wheel cover for our boat while at Marina di Ragusa
Usually, on my marina reviews I go through a similar format detailing customer service, facilities, noise levels, community, surrounding area and so forth but for this review I felt compelled to do a brain dump about the positives and negatives of Marina di Ragusa. There’s so much to say…that I had to just let it dump from my head (and heart) onto the page.
And speaking of ‘negatives’ – the positives far outweighed them!
So…if you’re surveying all the possible ‘wintering’ spots in the Mediterranean – perhaps you’re considering Malta, Crete, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal… Well, here’s my account of Marina di Ragusa Sicily. Maybe this will help you make a decision?!
The positives of Marina di Ragusa
– Safe, secure, sheltered mooring. The pontoon and lazy-lines are well maintained. There is very little surge within the harbor and only when the wind is seriously blowing does the boat move around.
– Great facilities: clean modern bathrooms with hot showers, meeting rooms, café, restaurant, office/services (car hire, etc.), laundry, gym, chandlery, shops.
The restaurant within the marina at Marina di Ragusa, Sicily
– Excellent customer service – office attendants were very kind, courteous, and quick to help with any matter. Marina technicians were fast to act when issues arise. For example, when the power went off on our pontoon, a technician would arrive in minutes to find a solution.
– Clean and tidy pontoons, boardwalks and common areas – flowers, palm tree’s and well maintained walkways.
– Cost for ‘wintering’ was very competitive with the rest of the Mediterranean.
The view of the marina from the back of our boat
– The weather during the winter in Sicily – well…that’s a difficult one. We just lived through what’s been noted as the worst winter in 50 years. We’ve had a lot of rain and wind. And from time to time we get the winds from the Sahara desert that drop red sand all over the boat. That being said, when the sun does come out and the wind stops, people are often in t-shirts. It seems like the weather is good up to December and then January through March it’s cold, wet and windy more so than sunny and calm.
– The social opportunities within the live-aboard community were amazing. Every morning at 9am a VHF radio broadcast went out announcing weather reports, social activities, items wanted or for sale and any other business. And if there were any medical or safety emergencies they were discussed and dealt with quickly.
A funny sign along one of the side streets in Marina di Ragusa
– Social activities, all arranged by the live-aboards, included two weekly happy hours (starting at 6pm at the Stellar Bar and/or Marina Bar), happy hookers (knitting, crochet, craft morning), writers circle, coffee afternoons, Tai Chi on the beach, Yoga, fitness instructors, running, planned trips (to Ragusa, Catania, festivals), olive picking trips, pot luck, pizza and movie nights in addition to weekly talks on photography, diesel engine maintenance, cruising around Turkey and more. Furthermore, Christmas and New Years parties were a blast! (Read about my top 12 day trips to take in Sicily during the winter here)
Live-aboard at Marina di Ragusa enjoying one of many open-mic nights at Stellar Bar
– An eclectic mix of nationalities all interested in sharing customs and traditions. We had over 15 different nationalities and celebrated American, Dutch, Irish, English, German holidays/festivities.
– An abundance of help, knowledge and know-how was always available. If we had an issue or needed a special tool we’d just put out a radio message and within minutes help or the tool would arrive. Never in my life have I felt so connected and close with a community.
The view from the boardwalk next to the marina
– The town of Marina di Ragusa is lovely – a car-free boardwalk along the beach and town square made walks and bicycle rides very pleasurable. The beach stretches as far as the eye can see and is dotted with fresh water showers, restaurants and café’s (not all open for the full winter season).
– Several great restaurants and café’s remain open all winter long.
– There is one large supermarket (EuroSpar) and two discount supermarkets (ARD and MD), a market every Tuesday with fresh fish, roasted chickens, veggies, meat and housewares offerings. There is a butcher in the square and several bakeries dotted throughout the town.
My daughter, Sienna, enjoying some food and the sun in March
– For children, aside from the beach, there is a large playground, a small indoor play gym with an arts and crafts room (3 euros/hour) and the whole square to mix and mingle with boatie and local children. Every late afternoon families and parents sit around the square and the children run around playing for hours. Furthermore, there’s a pre-school that takes boat kids in addition to standard schools with openings.
– The local’s are AMAZING. Horatio, the fisherman, took me and a friend out so we could see what it’s like to go fishing (see Come fishing with me on a traditional Sicilian fishing boat – VIDEO). A family welcomed a group of us into their home and olive farm to teach us about olive picking and the authentic life of Sicilians. The family at the Stella Marina Bar constantly fed us snacks during happy hours, Rugby games and events…in addition to helping with airport pick-ups and arranging open-mic nights. The servers at the bakeries always greeted us with big happy ‘Ciao’s’ and remembered how we wanted our coffee’s made. The attendants at the supermarket went out of their way to help us figure out the code system for weighing veggies… and much more. We also had a local farmer bring us organic produce every Monday – the veggies were out of this world! If we ever forgot our money, we were always told to ‘just pay us later… ‘ Furthermore, during holidays the community have a variety of events that take place. As foreigners, we were always invited to take part in any event.
The Sicilians took us in with open arms and always made us feel welcome
– The Comiso airport is only 25km away from the marina and Catania Airport is only 1 ½ hours away making the marina a great place to come and go from.
A video of a spectacular sunset over Marina di Ragusa
– The town of Ragusa, 20km away, has everything you could ask for – a massive hardware store, malls, grocery stores, Lidl’s and more. And in Catania, you’ll find an Ikea and anything else that you can’t get in Ragusa. (Buses take you from MdR to Ragusa and from time to time the live-aboards plan day-trips to the town).
– Day trips out are plentiful. Just to name some within a two hour car journey from the marina are: Noto, Syracuse, Catania (Mount Etna), Villa Romana del Casle (Roman Villa), Agrigento (Valley of the Temples), Modica (where Chocolate was invented in Italy), and loads of beach stops, castles, agritourism (eat or buy farm products from the farm), hikes, horse riding and much more.
Beef fillet at Marina di Ragusa
– Have I mentioned food yet? It’s Italy and I haven’t mentioned food! All the food you eat at restaurants and buy in the stores is often local. You can often get everything you need from local farmers. Everything that’s in season is very inexpensive and plentiful. The beef fillet is special in the Ragusa area – give it a try for yourself. I found it to be exquisite. And, of course, there’s loads of fresh fish.
– Cost of living in the area – if you don’t eat out, it’s very inexpensive.
– Public transport is great. There are buses that go to anywhere you’d want to go. They, however, don’t operate on a Sunday.
The negatives of Marina di Ragusa
– The walk to the bathroom from the furthest pontoon can take about 15 minutes (25 minutes with a child).
– The chandlery has a very limited stock and we found it far quicker and less expensive to order pieces/parts from other parts of Europe and have them shipped to us at the marina. For some reason the staff don’t seem interested in making any money (and I wouldn’t make that statement from my own experiences only – it seems a consensus amongst the whole community!)
– The cost for having a lift-out or any work done on the boat (out of water) is extremely high in comparison to other areas in close proximity. For example, a lift-out for our boat in MdR was quoted in the 1.000’s, whereas a lift-out in Preveza, Greece cost less than half of that.
– The electricity went out often. In many cases, the whole down of Marina di Ragusa went out. In other cases, it was just our pontoon. Every time it rained pontoon M lost electricity. Mostly, the electricity was often on within a few minutes to a few hours so although it was an inconvenience if we were in the midst of cooking (with electric), in most instances it didn’t bother us.
– The weather did get quite extreme. We had warnings of water spouts/tornados and when the rains came there was quite a bit of flooding. And when I say flooding I mean water rushing down from the higher grounds along the roads and causing serious waterfalls into the sea. You wouldn’t want to be walking, riding a bike or even driving a car during some of the floods we witnessed.
– Getting around – you really need a bike or scooter. To get to the main grocery store, it’s quite a hike up a hill. Most live-aboards have bikes with attachment baskets to collect groceries and supplies. This really isn’t a negative unless you don’t have a bike or don’t want to get one! Note: There’s a Decathalon sports shop in Ragusa (20km away) and they sell the fold-away bikes for 100 – 300 euros.
– It’s impossible to buy a car in Italy and leasing costs too much. Most live-aboard’s simply rent a car when they need it – either from the Marina or from the local airport. Rental’s from the airport are far cheaper but you have to take a bus to get there.
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So, as I mentioned at the beginning, wintering at Marina di Ragusa has been an incredible experience for my husband, 4-year-old daughter and I.
We will hold the time we spent here dear to our hearts
The friends we made will last the test of time. The memories will be etched in our minds forever – My daughter, Sienna, singing Frozens, ‘Let it go,’ at the open-mic night, trick or treating on the pontoon, playing Rummykub on our friends boat, enjoying a snow-ball fight wearing t-shirts up on Mount Etna, doing runs to Lidl to get cheap wine and cheddar cheese, picking olives and then watching the process of turning them into olive oil, fishing with nets, watching my daughter run free along the beach with all the other children, having visitors join us on the boat from home, the amazing conversations had at the Stella Marina Bar…and even the tears some of us shed. Tears of missing ‘home’ and family. Tears about not knowing ‘what’s next.’
My daughter, Sienna, singing Frozen’s ‘Let it go,’ with help from Samantha
Through the good and the not-so-good, our time at Marina di Ragusa has certainly been fulfilling
It hasn’t always been easy – we’ve had many repairs, I’ve felt lost and ‘stuck’ at times and I still go through phases where I’m scared about how our daughter will adjust to moving again… HOWEVER, I’ve never felt so alive in my life.
In summary, I highly recommend Marina di Ragusa for wintering. The facilities, attendants, community and surrounding area are fantastic. I, however, at this time, suggest you consider alternative locations for out-of-water work (such as antifouling). Several boaties winter in MdR and then sail to another destination at the beginning of the season, get their work done and then carry on.
Perhaps in years to come, MdR will become more reasonable with boat maintenance?! If they do, it will certainly be an even more amazing place.
Let me leave you with some photo’s I took over the winter season… Click on them to see a larger view. I hope you enjoy 🙂
Finally, for more information about our time spent in Marina di Ragusa, please read the following articles. All of them were written during our stay at the marina and will provide you with even more information on our time spent in Sicily:
Living aboard a boat in the Mediterranean during the winter – what’s the scoop?
My journey of living full-time aboard a sailboat has hit the 7th month – how does it feel?
Briticans Captain Simon Brown – A Video Interview from Marina di Ragusa
Ten months of living on our sailboat full time – Do I have tears of joy or tears of sadness?
Has the decision to sell up and sail away impacted my quality of life or not?
I have to say ,I feel your comments are articulate honest and very very interesting ,which is more than I can say for those pilot books written by so called ? house hold names , which lack the type of knowledge given freely by you , You have to write a book ,simple
Terry Sandling
Thank you for your feedback Terry! I really appreciate your comments 🙂
A good read Kim, very informative. You say the cost for wintering is competitive, roughly what should I expect to pay / night / week / month, cheers Michael
Hi Michael – that’s a good question and usually depends on the size of your boat. Many Med marinas offer a set price for October to the end of April (6 to 7 months). We paid less than €1500 for 6 1/2 months in Marina di Ragusa which is nothing compared to the amount the Italian marina’s charge during the summer. To get a quote, your best bet is to go through someone that has buying power…George Rizzo represents several boats all wintering in Riposto this year. If you’d like his contact details, email me on Kim@SailingBritican.com and I’ll put you in touch with him.
Hi Kim,
just read your quote regarding Marina de Ragusa price. What size of boat did you pay 1,500 € for 6 months and how do I get a good quote? On the website is nothing and when I emailed them for Jan-May 2016 they gave me a 1,900 € price for a 53 ft sailor.
Regards
Uli
Hi Uli – sorry for the late reply. Prices in Italy seem to go up year after year. We were a 56′ boat and we got a special deal for booking early. We’ve discovered that most marinas will negotiate a bit so we always ask, ‘is that the best price you can offer?’
Hi there Kim,
My husband and I with our two children (4 and 6-months) are seriously considering wintering at Ragusa this season and your posts have been very informative! I wondered if you might be able to elaborate at all about approximate cost per month for buying food. Also, was there a cost to send Sienna to school? We’d very much love for our little guy to have some time with other children and would be very interested if you could elaborate on the hours for school and days etc? And finally, eating out, what would you say a typical meal cost at a restaurant for your family? You mentioned it is inexpensive to eat in, but curious how much to allocate to monthly “entertainment/eating out” expenses!
Would greatly appreciate any details you’re happy to share 🙂
Thanks a million,
Diana
Buying food…Diana I’m such a food snob that I don’t pay attention to the cost. I’ll wait for sales on everything and anything outside the remit of food…but when it comes to eating I’m not frugal. I can however tell you that there are two very good discount supermarkets – ARD and MD. Both are similar to Lidl or Aldi if you know of those chains.
Overall I didn’t think the cost of food was that expensive. Every week an organic farmer comes to the marina offering very inexpensive local fruit and veg – I’d walk home with two huge bags of veggies for under 10 euros. Good friends of ours had a very small budget and they never complained of the cost of food. They didn’t eat out often, but they ate good meals.
I think that the pre-school was around €120/month…maybe €170 (Simon, my hubby thinks it was 120). When they told us the price I had to ask, ‘Is that for a day or a week?’ Needless to say I was happy that the cost was for a whole month. That includes lunches and snacks too. Be forewarned, however, that lunch is always pasta. The hours were 8am to 2pm.
Ask the girls at the marina office for directions to the pre-school…it’s not a real school. They only have 5 or 8 children. The three girls that run it are all very kind. They speak enough English to help the children and communicate to you and I. When we left they all came to the boat and waved goodbye..
Pizza is inexpensive. The restaurants along the strip are not cheap… You’ll probably pay €20+ for a main meal… And after December most restaurants shut down anyway. It’s not a place to eat out…but the bakeries have nice snacks and coffees…most families meet at the square and grab ice creams, etc.
I suggest you contact the marina and ask if there are any other kid boats that will be staying for the winter. They can perhaps put you in touch with some live-aboards and that might also help your decision making process. Last year, there was one other kid boat and we met local children too. There’s loads of activities…
Great story/article, thanks.
Hi Kim,
We’re considering living aboard for the first time this winter. In order to do this I need a decent internet connection so I can stay in touch with work back in the UK.
How was the WiFi at Marina di Ragusa? Was it reliable and reasonably fast, or was it not so great?
Thanks for the great article. We’ve heard good things about Ragusa from others too.
Regards, Steve.
I will email you directly Steve 🙂
Hi Kim. Congratulations for this great blog (or whatever it is beyond a blog).
We will leave the boat at the Marina de Ragusa for the winter, after a year in Sardinia and Sicily. I understand that you did not have to do major refit of your boat when you were there, but you might have seen enough of the shipyards there to have an idea on whether they are OK. I am planning to have the rigging changed and perhaps the entire mast on a 50 foot aluminium sailboat. What would be your feeling about having it done at MdR or close. Any recommendation or contact ? Thanks a lot. And “bon vent” as we say in French. Christophe
I thought I saw somewhere on your site that you travel on a US passport. How have you been dealing with the Schengen regulations in the Med? We have been sailing in the Baltic but plan to head to the Med this coming season through the French canals so definitely a concern with our timing. Going to work on getting a long term visa for France, but not sure if we will be sucessful. Concern going forward as will need to find a place to over-winter. As you were in Med for 2 years trying to see how you handled Schengen. Thanks for any help.. Also wondered if there is a search feature on your site as didn’t find one yet for looking up specific countries. Great site!!
Was there winter ’15 + ’16 and will be there winter ’17. Still good and as described.