Cava Grande - AVOLA

Reviewing the walk here, not the restaurant. This walk (and swim! is fantastic. Not for elderly or people who struggle up and down stairs, as the whole way is stone steps cut into rock. Also note that the path is technically not open, you have to climb (with everyone else over the little green gate behind the wooden ticket box (entry is free just climb over gate, trust me. Wish we took some garden clippers with us because the overgrown spikey trees are quite a thing! Take water and snacks. Take your rubbish out with you basic respect for a national park. It can be cool in May, so take a jumper. Put “Laghetti Cava Grande” into Waze or Google Maps to take you to the car park at the official entrance. Park near the so called restaurant, then climb over the green gate as mentioned above. The walk down offers magnificent views. We swam in the fresh water pools at the bottom. It was crystal clear and magnificently cool. Like a Sydney winter swim! The walk back is up the stairs the whole way and it’s great for active/fit people, although people were also doing it with kids, which was very impressive! This is the best walk we’ve done in Sicily so far. And also the best swim we’ve had here too because it was so clean.

This place is too beautiful and you should definitely go for a hike. The former entrance is closed officially but you can still walk down a steep path. If you prefer the official entry which is a 5 min. drive direction north west you can have a great hike of several hours or shorter in beautiful nature passing by lakes where you can refresh or picknick. No steep path on the northern part of Cava Grande. BEWARE OF FREE PARKING AREA WHERE CARS ARE NOT SAVE. WINDOWS ARE BEING BROKEN AND LITTLE THINGS STOLEN LIKE A DIRTY TOWEL.

The pathway is still technically closed but there was also a manned information both at the start and clearly the path was being used by 100s of people daily. Bizzare but I guess what they are saying is taking this path is at your own risk. We are not particularly fit and this was definitely strenuous for us. It took us 1hr 15 to get down . We did set off at 2pm to try and avoid the heat on the way back but it did mean we were stopping to let people past going the other way. It took us 1hr 30 to get back up. A hard climb for anyone not fit. The path is loose stone with limited shade and limited handrails. That said, the pools were beautiful and well worth seeing .

Offers many options for choosing food and is all very good location very nice and very friendly staff recommend it to all

That’s a wonderful spot with cascade pools of fresh water, great for refreshing swimming and a picnic. The canyon suffered from severe fire a few years back (although you would not notice it now , and because of that the entry was closed, but a staircase made of plastic boxes runs over the fence. We were a bit unsure at the start, but a warning and a closed gate do not stop all locals (carrying toddlers, accompanies with elders from descending down to the pools , and so we joined. It took us ~45 min to get down, and ~1 hour to climb back. On a working day at ~10am we were the first people at the ponds. The trail has many sharp stones, but hiking boots will save you. Notice, that the slope with the trail is under sun since early morning till afternoon, with almost no shadow.