My wife and I are considering a 9 day trip to Puglia in late September or early October 2027. We plan on flying round trip from the US to Bari, and don't want to rent a car. Your recommendations of three towns to stay in during our holiday would be greatly appreciated. Ciao.
Posted by
6970 posts
Could you tell us a little about what you want to see and do? I don’t find other people’s favorites helpful without any context, but in pretty much any month, Lecce would be one of my suggestions and in October doubly so.
If your flight out is not super early, you can stay in one of the towns along the train line near Bari if you were not interested in Bari itself, though being the transport hub, Bari should be considered.
Last, in neighboring Basilicata, Matera would be on my list as well. There is a direct airport bus from Bari if it aligns with your schedule, otherwise reached via Bari.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
9975 posts
I’ve been to that area three times, and I like to stay in multiple cities per trip, but I still just use public transportation. Look up the following on YouTube tourist videos and TripAdvisor to see what appeals to you of these where I stayed. You can search for my three Puglia trip reports on this forum, also.
Matera (near Puglia region)
Trani - 2X
Bari (I stayed here two times because of the San Nicola festival). Otherwise, I would pick a different city.
Monopoli
Polignano a Mare - 3X
Lecce - 2X
Ostuni - 2X
Martina Franca
Locorotondo
Alberobello - 2X
Posted by
CA, USA
1459 posts
The Puglia region stretches more than 200 miles so you'll need to do more research to narrow down what you want to do and see. There is so much variety and possibility that what other people have done is unlikely to match your top choices. We found the book "Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata" useful in describing Puglia and for planning our visit . It's about 15 years old but the towns haven't changed that much (the train times in the book are generally wrong though). We also looked for blogs with stories from travel in Puglia, and watched YouTube videos such as walking tours.
A car is useful but not required. Definitely install the Trenitalia app since the stations are not staffed in most smaller towns and some ticket machines only take coins. Instead just buy tickets using the app. We stayed in Lecce during a 4-day visit and took trains and once a bus to visit nearby towns. Figure you can visit one town a day. Restaurants were open until around 2pm and then closed until dinner at around 7-8pm. Most stores closed by 1pm and didn't reopen until 4-5pm or so. Often churches and museums are closed in the afternoon as well. So for most tourists they get out in the morning and visit, have lunch, then relax in the afternoon (at the coast, at the hotel, etc)