If you’ve decided to tackle Mount Etna with a guide, you’ve made the wisest and most rewarding choice. Although Etna seems like any other mountain, it’s much more treacherous because—being an active volcano—it presents unforeseen challenges that are difficult to manage. Only a truly expert and knowledgeable person of the area can help you face and overcome them. Or, if necessary, avoid them. But how do you choose a good guide for your excursion to Etna? Who should you hire?

Different types of guides

Guides are not all the same. Tour guides are mostly those with expertise in history, art, and culture who meet groups at a specific point, managing the visit on site. Tour guides can also explain natural environments, but their expertise is more focused on urban environments. A similar job is that of  tour leaders, with the difference that they accompany groups as they travel from one city to another. Some guides may be “gastronomic,” specializing in helping tourists discover local food specialties. Then there are equestrian guides, who accompany tourists on horseback or donkey, and guides who lead bicycle excursions.

Experiential guides allow you to have unique experiences… like, for example, shepherding a flock of sheep or walking with alpacas in the woods!

But in order to explore Etna, you need to look for a different type of guide. Nature guides (or environmental-hiking guides) or volcano guides.

Nature guide or volcano guide on Etna?

Etna is a volcano, so who better than a volcano guide could be the right choice for you? Well, that’s not always the case. A volcano guide is certainly an expert on volcanoes and knows them like the back of his/her hand. This professional can certainly guide you almost anywhere in the Etna area, but his specialty is the summit areas. A volcano guide knows how to get you close to an active crater and how to position yourself during an eruption to avoid the gases or lapilli raining down from the sky. A volcano guide also knows when to abandon the excursion to avoid unmanageable dangers (such as pyroclastic flows or explosions).

A naturalist guide—who may also be a volcanologist, in some cases—is a guide with general expertise in natural environments. With these professionals, you can visit woods, ancient lava flows, caves, hills, streambeds, refuges… in short, anything related to nature. If they are sufficiently knowledgeable about the area and also authorized to do so, your naturalist guide can also take you to the summit of Etna—but not everyone is allowed to do so.

So, if you simply want to take a trip to Etna, rely on a naturalist guide. If you want to get close to the “fire monster” on the summit, you should choose a professional specialized in this type of extreme excursion.

Etna Guides

Etna guides are organized to welcome you both on site and accompany you every step of the way. Our guides, for example, can take you to the volcano on foot, by 4×4 jeep, or by minibus. We can show you the best locations for taking photos during an eruption and even accompany you on treks near the active summit craters.

Some guides prefer quads, taking tourists around the area on these motorized vehicles. However, the best way to enjoy Etna is slowly… on foot. The great silence of the mountain, the vivid spectacle of the eruptions, but also the chestnut harvest or the discovery of the great monumental trees… should be done in a way that allows you to capture everything in your memory. Without rushing. (PHOTOS GRAZIA MUSUMECI)