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Sicily · Palermo

Isola delle Femmine

beginner-friendlyhigh crowds

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Nearby Mondello 7 km · straight-line distance

SeasonJan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Decthe months riders and schools name How windy10-20 ktmixed Launchmediumaccess rules on record, below Wateropen coast, sandy beach sections with nearby rocky coast26-28°C in summer · 9 things riders flag LevelBeginner to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level section Schools2named at this spot From the airportin words under Getting therePalermo Falcone-Borsellino (PMO)

When it fills in

Riding is confined to daylight hours by the 2026 district rules. No local fill-in or drop-off hour has been published, and the October-to-May season that works here runs on gradient wind rather than a daily thermal clock.

Isola delle Femmine is a working piece of coast just west of Mondello, close enough to Palermo airport that the flight path is part of the view. The Palermo schools use it alongside Mondello and Salinelle.

The town beaches are sand, but the coast by the island channel is rock top and bottom, so which section you pick decides what kind of day you get. Wind information here is thin, local-guide level rather than years of station numbers, and the clearest season signal points at the cooler months, October through May.

Summer is bathers and beach clubs. Treat it as a local spot or somewhere to take a lesson, not a high-confidence kite beach to build a trip around.

The wind

locals call it Maestrale/Ponente/Levante/Scirocco mix; local breezes

Direction

cross-shoreNW

Kite sizes

789101112131415

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

mixed

fills in: Riding is confined to daylight hours by the 2026 district rules. No local fill-in or drop-off hour has been published, and the October-to-May season that works here runs on gradient wind rather than a daily thermal clock.

Typical strength

10-20 kt gets the island-channel spot ('Tra isola e terra') going, with gusts of 20-40 kt through that rocky channel. A separate 16-24 kt best-performance band is quoted for kiting, but it is derived from coastline modelling rather than local verification, so treat it as indicative.

variable; open-coast and local-wind dependent

Palermo schools count Isola delle Femmine among their regular spots; for the island-channel section next door, January-May and October-December are given as the best stretch.

Also on record

12-20

The quiver, in words

9-13m

Direction to shore

Changes with the section you launch from; cross-shore or not depends on how that piece of coast faces.

Dominant direction

NW, W, E, SE reported for the island channel area.

Forecast

Month by month

Jan, riders' month30
Feb, riders' month26
Mar, riders' month31
Apr, riders' month30
May, riders' month12
Jun2
Jul8
Aug11
Sep18
Oct, riders' month11
Nov, riders' month39
Dec, riders' month31

per cent of the month at force 4 or more

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov, Dec.

9Jan16°
9Feb15°
9Mar16°
9Apr17°
7May19°
7Jun24°
7Jul28°
8Aug28°
8Sep26°
7Oct24°
9Nov21°
9Dec18°

avg knots per month · water °C below · season highlighted

Month	Force 4+	Knots	From	Air	Water
Jan	30%	9.3 kt	SW	11.9°C	16.2°C
Feb	26%	8.7 kt	WSW	12.3°C	15.3°C
Mar	31%	9.3 kt	WSW	13.6°C	15.7°C
Apr	30%	9.1 kt	E	16°C	16.6°C
May	12%	7.2 kt	E	20°C	19.2°C
Jun	2%	6.5 kt	E	25.6°C	24°C
Jul	8%	7.1 kt	ENE	29.3°C	27.6°C
Aug	11%	7.6 kt	ENE	28°C	28.2°C
Sep	18%	8.2 kt	ENE	25.2°C	26.1°C
Oct	11%	6.9 kt	E	22.2°C	23.8°C
Nov	39%	9.1 kt	SW	17.2°C	21.1°C
Dec	31%	8.9 kt	SW	14.2°C	17.9°C

modelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (2022-2024), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

ERA5 reanalysis grid point (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical weather API — ECMWF ERA5/ERA5-Land reanalysis, not a ground station · 2022-2024

The water

Type

open coast, sandy beach sections with nearby rocky coast

Standing depth

No depth profile is published for the launch itself. Where a beach here is marked, the white buoy line is the 1.60 m 'safe water' limit the 2026 district rules require, so inside it you are chest-deep or shallower on sand. By the island channel the bottom is rock and there is no standing zone worth the name.

Tides

negligible Mediterranean tide

Temperature

26-28°C summer · 14-16°C winter

Wetsuit

boardshorts or shorty in summer; full suit in winter

15–28°C water

Sandy family beaches in the town itself; the 'Tra isola e terra' section nearby is rocky coast over a rocky bottom. Pick the launch section deliberately.

Your level

beginnerintermediateadvanced

Lessons run at and near Isola delle Femmine. An independent beginner has the harder job, because sand and rock sit close together here and the shoreline descriptions do not agree.

The scene

What riders come here for

beginnerintermediatefreeridelessons with a schoolsurf/SUP crossover days

Local Palermo-area beach town with schools and summer beach users.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

2 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: medium

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Mondello, 7 km

Mondello

Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.

Rescue

VHF channel 16

Nothing kite-specific is on standby. Through the bathing season each beach concession has to man a lifeguard tower every 80 m of its own frontage, the lifeguard carrying fins, mask and snorkel, a rescue can, a rescue tube and a life-jacket, and qualified on a defibrillator; free beaches have cover only where the municipality has organised it, and outside the season there is none.

For anything at sea the Coast Guard operations room answers around the clock: 1530 free from any phone, 112, Palermo direct on 091 604 3110, or VHF channel 16.

Launch

Sand launches around the town, rock near the island channel.

Space

medium

Hazards riders report 9

proximity to Palermo airport flight path
crowded in summer
rocky shoreline/bottom in some sections
bathers and beach-club crowding in summer
Palermo airport proximity and local restrictions may affect usable areas
1,000 m no-kite radius around the harbour mouth at Isola delle Femmine (2026 rules)
marine protected area covering the water between the island and Capo Gallo, with its own access and navigation rules
crumbling cliff sections: 10 m keep-clear at the top edge and at the foot
no lifeguard cover outside the bathing season

Rules & access

2026 Palermo district bathing-safety ordinance. Inside the 300 m bathing zone, launching and landing must happen in an authorized corridor: 30 m wide at the water's edge, widening to 80 m at 100 m out and holding that width to 300 m, bounded by two lines of orange buoys no more than 20 m apart, the outermost 80 cm across and marked with the holder's name and permit number.

You body-drag out to 100 m, one kite at a time in that strip, priority to riders coming back in. Corridor use is free. Launching without a corridor is allowed only on beaches and stretches of water clear of bathers.

Landing is banned on concession beaches and permitted on free beaches only where no bathers are present. Kiting is daylight hours only; minimum age 14, waived for pupils under a national federation or Lega Navale school; a flotation aid (buoyancy belt, floating harness or floating suit) must be worn the whole time, with a quick-release system or a line-cutting knife.

Kites may not sail within 1,000 m of any harbour mouth in the Palermo district, which includes the harbour at Isola delle Femmine itself, nor within 300 m of beaches or 100 m of cliff coast outside a corridor, nor within 200 m of fixed nets, fish farms, navigation marks or diver-flag floats, nor beyond 1 nautical mile from the coast.

Bathing and nautical activity are banned inside the harbour of Isola delle Femmine and within 100 m of harbour structures. The water from Capo Gallo round to the island is the Capo Gallo-Isola delle Femmine marine protected area, where access, navigation and mooring follow the reserve's own decrees and its annual operating rules, not the bathing ordinance.

Standing rule on the rocky sections: keep 10 m back from the top edge of a sheer cliff and 10 m clear of its foot.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Rider tips

Confirm the school meeting point before you assume the launch is the main sandy beach.
Stay off the rocky sections by the island channel unless you know the bottom there.
In summer, check the corridor and the bather limits before you inflate.
Ask locally which areas the airport restrictions leave usable.
The harbour mouth is a hard edge, not a suggestion: the 2026 rules keep kites 1,000 m clear of it, and the town harbour is right there.
Before riding towards Capo Gallo, check the marine reserve zoning for that year. The bathing ordinance hands that water to the reserve's own rules.
Save 1530 in your phone. It is the free Coast Guard sea-emergency number and it answers at any hour.

Getting there

Airport

Palermo Falcone-Borsellino (PMO)

Route

Short drive or regional train between Palermo Airport and Isola delle Femmine.

Transfer

15-20 by train/drive from PMO; transfer services quote roughly 30 minutes

Cost level

medium

Staying

Hotels, B&Bs and apartments in Isola delle Femmine, Capaci, Mondello and Palermo.

No-wind days

Palermo historic center · Mondello · Capo Gallo and Isola delle Femmine marine protected area viewpoints · beach clubs · surf or SUP lessons

Photos

Capo Gallo - Isola delle Femmine marine protected area, 344m — MariaCristina2 / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Isola delle femmine harbour view, 541m — Rino Porrovecchio from Palermo, Italy / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Aerial view of Isola delle Femmine from above, 1370m — Marcello Karra from Palermo, Italy / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

FAQ

When is the best time to kite at Isola delle Femmine?

The nearby island-channel spot is rated best January-May and October-December, giving a broad cooler-month window.

Is Isola delle Femmine suitable for beginners?

Lessons are advertised here, but independent beginners need to pick the launch carefully since sources describe both sandy family beaches and rocky-bottom sections.

What is the wind like at Isola delle Femmine?

Reported directions include NW, W, E and SE, with a working range of roughly 10-20 knots for the nearby island-channel spot.

Are there rules or restricted zones?

The 2026 Palermo Coast Guard ordinance requires kitesurf launch and landing inside authorized corridors within the 300 m bathing zone during the bathing season.

Last updated: August 2026