LOCAUTO Car Rental at Palermo Airport

Locauto car rental at Palermo Airport is open for business from 8.00 am to midnight every day. The Locauto service desk is located inside the terminal, and the car park, where customers can pick up their rental vehicle, is within a short walk of the arrivals hall. The Locauto car rental desk at Palermo Airport can be contacted on tel +39 091 704 4013, and reservations can be made online using the form above.

Locauto is one of many rental car companies at Palermo Airport.

If you're travelling with children, make a start at Palermo's wonderful Musea Internazionale delle Marionette, a museum devoted to the art of puppetry and marionette making. The museum houses more than 3,500 marionettes, glove puppets and puppets from several centuries. Located in Piazza Antonio Pasqualino, the museum (www.museodellemarionette.it) opened in 1975, and has delighted parents and their children ever since. The museum is actually inside the former Hotel de France, situated near the monumental Piazza Marina. Built in the 18th century, the hotel was once a palazzo that housed the Marquis Onofrio del Castillo and his family. After nearly a whole century as a hotel, the former palazzo is today equipped with multimedia (video, audio and photographic records) facilities and a theater, all used to demonstrate the importance of puppetry in Italian culture.

If your little ones are getting restless after this, take them to the Eco-campus and adventure park Casaboli-Pioppo in Palermo, which offers different levels of adventure trails for children and adults. Hiking, climbing, mountain biking, creative workshops and orienteering are all on offer - there's even a picnic area where families can enjoy a barbecue after their adventures (www.ecocampuscasaboli.it/). Take the SS186 towards Pioppo via Monreale to get to the signposted adventure park.

Monreale, on the slopes of Mount Caputo, is perhaps better known for its magnificent cloister and cathedral, built in the early part of the 12th century by the Normans. Overlooking the fertile valley of La Conca d'oro, literally the golden shell, the little hill town is also home to an aqua park that will delight old and young with its multiple pools and slides. The park is located alongside Strada Provinciale di Pezzingoli.

For something completely different, head to Ficuzza, a park and nature reserve as well as a small hamlet nestling in the mountains south of Palermo, near Corleone, about 45 km from Palermo. Built as a hunting lodge for Ferdinand III of Sicily, the Royal Palace was designed by architect Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia. The Baroque palace is perhaps most noteworthy for the splendid park that surrounds it, where hiking trails reveal a multitude of rare plants to walkers. Today, bird watching is what will allow visitors to come close to wild animals, but back in King Ferdinand III's days, wild cats, wolves, wild boars, game birds and hares were common sights.

The Royal Palace is built along simpler lines than other palaces of the time, more like classical English country houses rather than ornate Italianate palazzos. The ever-green forest of Bosco della Ficuzza is a great place to come at any time of the year (www.parks.it/riserva.bosco.ficuzza/).

Ficuzza lies to the south of Palermo, about an hour's drive via the SS121 and SS118 routes.