Day trips by Train - Bari

To visit either city from Bari, the bus is much faster and takes about one hour. You can catch buses from Bari’s main railway station (via Capruzzi station) to Matera, and from Bari’s Largo Sorrentino bus station to Alberobello. The trains take 1:40 to reach Alberobello and take many, many hours to reach Matera and so are currently not a practical option for that route.

Hi, I was just at those locations this month. Here’s a helpful step-by-step to get to Matera from Bari by train. Currently a portion of that route is by bus - the buses are waiting for the train, since there’s some work on the train route. It took about 90 minutes to go from Bari to Matera.

https://happytowander.com/bari-to-matera-by-train/

To go from Bari to Alberobello, it’s a bus. Go to the Trenitalia (train) app to buy the ticket. The buses are at the back side of Bari Centrale train station.

Other options from Bari by train that are less than an hour are: Trani, Giovinazzo, Polignano a Mare or Monopoli.

Thanks to all three of you so much. You have taken some stress with your messages!

Bari makes a good base for day-tripping by train. Trani, Giovinazzo, Barletta, Molfetta, Monopoli and Polignano are all easy. This is what we did for a week in April:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2019/11/puglia-bari-in-april-trip-report.html

We are going to Puglia in September. We are also in our 70’s & using public transportation during our stay. I found trying to navigate public transportation to Matera from Bari very challenging. Buses don’t run frequently or daily. We are staying in Matera for 2 nights. We bit the bullet & hired a private transfer to Matera. If interested, there are many excursions via Get Your Guide or Viator from Bari for a day trip to Matera & Alberobello. If you want to do your own thing, traveling to Alberobello seems to be easy from Bari. We are planning to go there from Martina Franca. I use the Trainline app to book my trains, but I’m sure there are others available. You can also explore a day excursion to Alberobello via the same tour agencies & it may include Locorotondo too. Have a fabulous vacation.

My husband and I just returned from this area and it was totally different than areas we had visited in Italy. We did book a tour from Bari to Matera through Get Your Guide and were disappointed. As I had read, you need to be sure your guide will take you to see several of the homes and churches. Ours did not. We were picked up by a taxi and driven all the way to Matera instead of the van they advertise. Traffic was the excuse - fine but it should have been communicated with us. We didn't know until I noticed road signs for Matera. I really felt our guide led us around town just to fill the hours. We went into one home that had a souvenir shop in the front room. We stood on top of one Churchas our guide described it but never went inside. The ride back was in the van and good. Trying to figure out the trains was more than we wanted to do. We did take a bus to Alberobello and train back with one transfer and that was good. The bus station in Bari is on the street behind the big train station. It isn't a normal bus station - buses pull up along the curb and you load the correct one, hopefully! It took our host sending pictures via WhatsApp for us to figure out were the station was. But he was great! Loved Alberobello! Charming! Thanks to all for your responses.

Thanks for reporting back Cindy! I appreciate the logistic info which helps a lot in our planning.

Wow, Cindy, that is so disappointing that you didn’t get to experience Matera beyond this inferior tour! There’s so much there to explore. Thanks for warning others reading this.

I did the “Sassi di Matera Tour with entry to Cave Houses” tour at Matera through Get Your Guide, and I was pleased with it and learned a lot! Staying in Matera two nights was well worth the time, too.