First rough draft itinerary for Puglia input please.

You’ll need more time in Lecce if you want to do daytrips to Ostuni and Gallipoli. Puglia is in rural Italy and getting to more than one destination ( and sometimes just one destination) in a single day by public transit can burn up a lot of time. This is the primary reason visitors find a car rental a plus—so you can efficiently use your time to see as much as possible.
To make the best use of your time, you’ll want to visit Otranto and Monopoli on your way to Alberobello and Locorotondo after departing Lecce.
I’m puzzled by the plan to just stay two nights in Lecce since you have so many places that you want to see. To give yourself time to realistically visit some of them, consider staying in Lecce 3 or 4 nights.and take the time from the three nights allocated to Bari. Bari is a crowded metropolitan area of 625,000 residents while Lecce is a pleasant town of 95K. I personally would give Bari a miss other than passing through it to catch the bus for Matera and the ferry to Albania.

I agree that more time should be allotted to Lecce. And I'll warn you that Albania's main art museum (Tirana), historical museum (also Tirana) and archaeological museum (Durres) were all closed as of late May this year. That might or might not factor into how may days you want to spend in and around the capital. (It's the only significant city where I've had trouble finding things to do.) Albania is a beautiful country, but visiting it without a car is challenging. I ended up taking a lot of ad hoc taxi trips between cities.

Kenko, as of now I was only thinking of seeing Gallipoli and/or (meaning possibly both or maybe just one) Otranto from Lecce. I was planning to go to Monopoli next, where I would spend 3 nights with potential trips to Polignano a mare and/or Ostuni. From there I plan to spend a night in Alberobello after possibly spending a few hours in Locorotondo.

It sounds like adding a day to Lecce and taking one away from Bari might be better?

Acraven, Durres is just the port where the ferry arrives. I won’t be staying there. I’ll go straight to Tirana, where I have a few outdoor activities planned, then on to Shkodër for a few days, with more outdoor fun. I might also visit Ulcinj before flying out of Tirana. I’ve been reading up on the transportation challenges so I can make sure I have a good plan. One concern I have is that it seems I’ll need to carry cash for much of Albania, something I don’t normally do when I travel, or at home for that matter.

Thanks for your input!

I wish there was an Albanian group on the forum and I appreciate your input on that part of my trip as well.

Albania's great for outdoor activities. The tourist office in Shkoder should be able to give you info on getting to Ulcinj. There may be just one minibus a day or something like that.

Albania is very cash-oriented, and ATM fees are significant. I tested (but didn't complete) a withdrawal of about $300 in lek, and the fee was going to be the equivalent of $10.50. Fees were higher in percentage terms for smaller withdrawals (a minimum of perhaps $6), which one might prefer since the lek is useless outside Albania.

The way to go, if you're comfortable carrying cash, is to change euros or dollars at an exchange booth in Albania. That can cost as little as 1% if you don't use a booth at the airport, etc. The rate for euros is a bit better than the rate for dollars, so you might think about using a money belt and leaving Italy with a few hundred euros, assuming you can find a free ATM to use in Puglia. The Iliria booth near my hotel in Tirana gave slightly better rates than booths I saw in smaller cities. I had seen recommendations for Iliria online before my trip. ATMs probably aren't even an option out in the boonies, and I don't know what sort of a deal you'd get if you arrived in a rural area with only euros or dollars. You can often pay for things in euros in Tirana at a pretty reasonable rate; it was often 1 euro per 100 lek in May, about what you got at an exchange booth, but there may well be places that take advantage of visitors and offer a worse rate. Outside the capital, I wouldn't count on availability of that option.

Be sure you change any excess leks back to dollars or euros before leaving the country.

Like Kenko mentioned, check your train/bus schedule carefully because you'll spend more time than you think traveling between places.

I stayed 2 months in Puglia: one month in Otranto and one in Lecce. Otranto is a bit hard to reach and some bus lines only operate in Summer months, so also double check on that. I have to say it is a lovely destination for a day trip though!

Lecce does deserve your full attention. Why don't you just stay both full days there exploring the city and enjoying the good food and vibes? It is also super nice when you slow down and have a seat with a good coffee and a pastry to take it all in ;)

I'd definitely try to stay one night in Matera if you end up going or most of your day will be spent on the train ride (~2-3hours if I'm not mistaken!)

Why don't you just stay both full days there exploring the city and enjoying the good food and vibes? It is also super nice when you slow down and have a seat with a good coffee and a pastry to take it all in ;)

Hi Danrocha, Maybe I plan differently than others, but I often have one or two backup ideas in mind for new places. This allows me to be flexible. If I get to Lecce and find I'm loving it too much to check out any side trips, I'll just stay in town, but if I find I've seen a lot already and need to change it up a bit, I might catch a train or bus out of town for a bit. I guess I'm fortunate in that I don't generally mind being on a train for a few hours (although the Bernina express route, with all the turns and bumpiness, had me dying to get to the end). Conversely, it is really hard for me to sit in a cafe and watch the world go by as so many here advise. Go figure.

I'm leaning toward the idea of staying one night in Matera. :)

acraven, thanks for the info on the ATMs. It matches the other things I've read. My bank does currency exchanges without a charge, so I usually do that, although I usually don't need much cash on hand. I'll probably see if they can get me some Leks to have on hand when I get there. I might have more questions about that later.

Thanks!

We were in Lecce last fall and 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 mostly wrong though). We also looked for blogs with stories from travel in Puglia, and watched YouTube videos such as walking tours.

We travelled using public transit on daytrips from Lecce. When we were there they had bus service to Otranto, not train, although the bus stop was at the front of the Otranto train station. Figure you can visit one town a day. Restaurants are open until around 2pm and then closed until dinner at around 7-8pm. 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)

John, thanks for the reminder that small towns close businesses in the afternoons.
I had forgotten.
Interesting that Lecce, although larger, does the same.
We will just relax on our apartment patio….hopefully it turns out to be a nice one.

In 2013 we visited Locorotondo and Martina Franca in the same day by train from Alberobello.
By the time we got to Locorotondo about 1pm or so, there was not one single restaurant or shop open at all.
Still pretty to have a walk through, though.

I appreciate the reminder about the break during the day. As long as I have water and maybe a granola bar or a piece of fruit, the afternoon might be a good time for me to just wander.

I've watched so many videos and read so many blogs on the Albanian part of this trip that I'm kind of all tapped out for much more research right now, but I definitely plan to do that for Puglia as well. The problem is the more I learn, the more days I want to add on to the trip. :)