Italy / Sicily
Cefalù
Cefalù is a coastal resort area in Sicily, Italy. Its longest mapped beach (Spiaggia di Cefalù) stretches about 891 m and has a sand surface. The sea averages 27.2 °C in August, its warmest month, and 14.4 °C in February; it is 21 °C or warmer in June–October.
Average sea surface temperature by month. Current month outlined.
OpenStreetMap shows no lifeguard station within 1 km. Seasonal lifeguard posts are often unmapped, so check on site.
Services in the resort
- 171Restaurants, cafés & bars
- 7Public toilets
- –Showers
- 5Drinking water
- 37Car parks
- –Lifeguard stations
- 177Hotels & guesthouses
- 27Grocery shops
- 3Water-sports spots
- 6Bus stops (1.5 km)
- 3Pharmacies & clinics
- 6Cash machines
- 9Viewpoints
Food and drink mapped within 1 km: 119 restaurants, 8 cafés, 40 bars and 4 fast-food outlets. Accommodation: 177 hotels and guesthouses.
Counted within 1 km of the beach (bus stops 1.5 km) from OpenStreetMap features and Overture Maps places, release of 2026-10. Unmapped does not mean absent.
Bathing water quality
The official EU bathing-water site “50 M Ovest Inizio Lungomare Piazza Colom”, 320 m from the beach centre, was rated Good for the 2025 season. It was Excellent in 2 of its 11 classified seasons since 2015.
- 2015Excellent
- 2016Excellent
- 2017Good
- 2018Sufficient
- 2019Poor
- 2020Poor
- 2021Poor
- 2022Poor
- 2023Sufficient
- 2024Sufficient
- 2025Good
Source: European Environment Agency, EU Bathing Water Directive assessments · national site profile. Classes are based on four seasons of bacteriological sampling.
Month by month
October at Cefalù
Beach-day index 7.7/10 · Italy median 6.5
| Measure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea °C | 15.1 °C | 14.4 °C | 14.7 °C | 16.0 °C | 18.9 °C | 22.9 °C | 26.1 °C | 27.2 °C | 25.5 °C | 22.8 °C | 19.9 °C | 16.9 °C |
| High °C | 14° | 14° | 15° | 17° | 20° | 24° | 26° | 27° | 25° | 23° | 19° | 16° |
| Low °C | 13° | 12° | 13° | 15° | 18° | 22° | 25° | 26° | 24° | 21° | 18° | 15° |
| Rain mm | 96 | 83 | 72 | 57 | 24 | 22 | 11 | 16 | 70 | 86 | 89 | 95 |
| Cloud % | 68 | 67 | 59 | 53 | 45 | 30 | 16 | 20 | 45 | 51 | 62 | 68 |
| Wind m/s | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.6 | 4.7 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 4.0 | 4.3 | 5.6 | 6.3 |
| Daylight h | 9.8 | 10.8 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 14.2 | 14.8 | 14.6 | 13.7 | 12.5 | 11.3 | 10.2 | 9.6 |
| Record high/low | 19°/7° | 19°/7° | 23°/8° | 24°/10° | 27°/14° | 32°/17° | 32°/22° | 32°/23° | 30°/20° | 28°/15° | 25°/13° | 21°/7° |
| Beach index | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 5.8 | 8.8 | 9.8 | 9.7 | 9.0 | 7.7 | 5.0 | 2.8 |
Long-term monthly averages: air from NASA POWER (2001–2020), sea from NOAA OISST (1991–2020); records are the extremes of 2001–2020. How the index works.
When to go
The beach-day index peaks in July–August; July scores 9.8/10 with highs of 26 °C, sea at 26.1 °C and 11 mm of rain.
In July that is 0.3 points above the median of the 925 beaches in Italy covered by this atlas.
At its warmest the water here is 1.4 °C warmer than the Italy median for August (25.8 °C).
Across the year the sea averages 20.0 °C, warmer than 62% of the coastal beaches in the atlas.
January is the wettest month (96 mm) and July the driest (11 mm); the yearly total is about 720 mm.
Daylight runs from 9.6 hours in December to 14.8 hours in June; in mid-July the sun rises at 05:52 and sets at 20:26 local time.
Orientation, sun and shore
The shore faces north-north-west (335°). Open water fills about 39% of the horizon close by, which makes it an open stretch of shore.
The sun sets over the sea in March–September; in mid-June it goes down at 20:27 local time on a bearing of 301°.
Straight out to the north-north-west about 500 km of open sea lies before the next coast, enough for large swells to build. The beach is on an island of about 25,201 km².
About 1 km offshore the sea is roughly 14 m deep and 72 m at 3 km. Behind the beach the ground is about 53 m above sea level 500 m inland and 298 m at 1.5 km, so the beach is backed by steep slopes or cliffs.
Within 1 km, the land is 53% built-up land, 41% tree cover and 5% grassland (satellite land-cover map, 2021): an urban beach. Water makes up 47% of that circle.
- Built 53%
- Tree 41%
- Grass 5%
Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m). Orientation from OpenStreetMap land polygons sampled in 36 directions; depths and heights from the GEBCO 2020 grid (about 450 m cells), indicative only.
Getting there
| Airport | Code | Distance | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Falcone–Borsellino Airport Palermo | PMO | 82.4 km | west |
| Catania-Fontanarossa Airport Catania | CTA | 112 km | south-east |
| Comiso Airport Comiso | CIY | 127 km | south-east |
Straight-line distances from the beach; road distance is usually 20–40% longer.
Local transport: 6 bus stops within 1.5 km, rail station Cefalù (490 m) and 37 mapped car parks within 1 km.
3 towns and villages of 1,000+ people lie within 10 km (about 15.3K residents); within 30 km there are 27 (about 95.8K).
Around the beach
Viewpoints
- grotte 250 m N
- Rocca di Cefalù 410 m NE
Attractions & museums
- Abbey of Thelema museum 440 m SE
- Museo Mandralisca museum 610 m NW
Nature
- Rocca di Cefalù peak 400 m NE
- Cozzo Sant'Elia peak 1.1 km S
Diving & boat hire
- Affittula 670 m W
- Marina Yachting 760 m NE
Map and nearby beaches
Loading map…
Open in OpenStreetMap · Directions in Google Maps
- Spiaggia dell'Arenella57.5 km WCompare
Data on this page
- Air temperature, rain, cloud, wind, humidity: NASA POWER climatology 2001–2020, 0.5° grid.
- Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 monthly normals 1991–2020, nearest ocean cell 13.8 km away.
- Beach outline, surface, rules and public facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), feature w219693396; restaurants, cafés, bars and lodging: Overture Maps places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0).
- Water body, status and length: Wikidata (CC0).
- Towns and time zone: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Airports: OurAirports (public domain). Sunrise and sunset: NOAA solar equations.
- Satellite view: Copernicus Sentinel-2 (ESA), scene S2B_33SVC_20230621_0_L2A.
- Orientation: OpenStreetMap land polygons (ODbL). Depth and terrain: GEBCO 2020 grid.
- Bathing-water quality: European Environment Agency (site IT019082027010).
- Settlements: GeoNames places with 1,000+ inhabitants.
- Land cover: ESA WorldCover 2021, 10 m (CC BY 4.0).
- Search popularity: about 390 Google searches a month for the name (KeywordTool, October 2026).
Data compiled 2026-10-13. Something wrong? Report a data error.