Lempedusa Island Travel Guide

Lempedusa Island belongs to which country? It is an Italian island and is part of the Pelagie Islands archipelago, found in the Mediterranean Sea. Let us  know the best things to do in this island in this blog post “Lempedusa Island Travel Guide”.

Pelagies archipelago comprises three islands namely:

• Lempedusa Island
• Lampione Island
• Linosa Island

I think there must be a logic behind the names of the three islands in which, the starting letter is, ‘L’.

Location of Lempedusa:

As you can see from the map, Lempedusa Island is located between Sicily, and Tunisia. The Malta Islands sit east of Lempedusa.

This Italian island is located much colser to the African nation Tunisia than Italy. Due to this African proximity, the island is witnessing many immigrants from Tunisia.

How to reach Lempedusa?

The gateway to the Italian island is Porto Empedocle, a coastal town in south Sicily, facing the Strait Of Sicily, the dividing sea between Sicily and Tunisia.

Therefore, you can get on board a ferry that leaves Empedocle port, Sicily.

Weirdly, the ferry always leaves the Sicilian port at midnight. The docking time at Lempedusa port varies from 4.15 am to 8.15 am. So, you miss out enjoying the voyage during the daytime.

Alternatively, you can fly into Lempedusa from the following Italian cities.

• Palermo
• Catalina
• Milan
• Naples
• Rome

The first two cities are on Sicily Island and the rest of the three cities are located in the Italian mainland.

The flight duration varies from an hour and 30 minutes to two hours depending on the departing city.

What to do in Lempedsusa?

• Wildlife watching

The little Italian island that is part of Pelagie Islands chain is an Important Bird Area. The wo most visible birds that are also highly protected include:

• Scopoli’s Shearwaters
• European Shags
• The endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtles can also be spotted as they chose this Mediterranean island as a breeding and nesting site.
• Great White Sharks
• Dolphins
• Fin Whales
• Monk Seals
• Humpback Whales

With such a range of marine life, Lempedusa Island attracts scuba divers.

So, wildlife watching is the foremost thing to do on this island.

• Rabbit Beach

Strangely, it was voted as one of the best beaches in the world in the year 2013. I said ‘strangely’ because, the island is not among the highly visited Italian islands.

May be because of less tourist crowds, the island is rather unspoiled and thus retains much of its beauty and got the award.

• Rock Formation

The island’s geography is rather wild and thus attracts certain kinds of tourists. I would say the tourists that love adventure sports, throng this island’s stunning cliff formation.

These rugged rock formations on the island give a dramatic and wild look.

• Cala Ucello

One of the enjoyable things to do in Lempdusa Island is to visit as many beaches as possible because it is a small island and nothing much do to.

Cala Ucello beach lies between rocks that almost give the impression that the beach itself is a gulf.

• Sciatu Persu

It is one more small beach on the island that tourists visit. Similar to the Rabbit Beach, and Cala Ucello, the Sciatu Persu beach is also a cove (a sort of sea inlet bordered by land or rocks).

Though there are uncomfortable stones on the beach and in the sea, this beach is recommended for snorkelling and swimming.

Being a cove, the waves will almost be negligible.

• Moving around Lempedusa

Bicycle is the only means of moving around on the island. Many hotels also provide bicycles for rent.

• Hotels to stay on the island.

More than a handful of resorts and hotels are available on the island. Since the holidaymakers are not many, the lodging and even boarding expenses are moderate, and affordable by all.

• Water Sports on the island

There is nothing big happens on the beach front. You can swim and snorkel. If you dare, practise scuba diving. You can watch the marine creatures that are clearly seen because the water is ultra clear.

The water is so clear that a stationary boat on the water will give you the impression as if the bottom of the boat is suspended above the water.

One can charter a boat to go fishing, whale watching, and visit the other two neighbouring islands, namely, Lampione, and Linosa.

While Lampione is an uninhabited islet measuring only a few hundred feet, people live on Linosa Island.

Linosa and Lempedusa are separated by 42 km distance.

If you are touring Sicily and are looking for a solitary night on Lempedusa Island, you can get and get out easily by flight.