Puglia/Bari

Good morning, Joann. We visited Pulgia last year and really enjoyed the area. It is easy to travel from Bari to Lecce by train but touring the rest of the peninsula without a car will be difficult. If you have not yet done so, you should buy a guidebook for the area. From that you will be able to get information on travel between locations. We did not rent a car, but we did us a tour company for one trip and a private driver for another.

Hi Joann, I am planning a trip to be in that area soon. I will add my itinerary below. There are several great posts on this forum that were helpful! Look for the “search”, write “Puglia”, then choose the filter for “Travel Forum”, and I pick the “2 years & newer” option.

(x) is the number of nights I will stay in a location. I am traveling by train, except I will take a bus over to Alberobello.
(2) Fly into Rome - get over jet lag - nothing planned but near the Pantheon for an evening walk
(1) Caserta - Royal Palace & gardens of Caserta.
(2) Polignano a Mare - a coast/cave tour, my room has an amazing balcony to enjoy the view
(2) Bari - attend the San Nicola festival
(1) Alberobello - sleeping in a trullo, evening/morning photography
(2) Martina Franca - sleeping in a trullo, ebike tour of Valle d’Itria
(3) Lecce - cooking class with Awaiting Tables, Baroque church combo ticket

Places I also considered staying but dropped were Trani, Ostuni & Locorotondo. I will go to Locorotondo on the ebike trip from Martina Franca. Matera wasn’t a place I especially wanted to see, but it’s very popular to go there, also. With more days, you could take some day tours with companies that go from Lecce to areas farther south.

Have a great time!

My wife and I, both retired, are also going to Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria this fall. We want to get there before it turns into a collection of Westins, Marriotts, Sheratons, etc. We have traveled extensively in Italy and are normally DIY travelers. I tried to structure our own tour but quickly realized that truly understanding the region requires an understanding of its nuances that only a trained tour guide can provide.

When I considered all the logistics related to transportation, hotels, hiring tour guides, etc., I decided an organized tour was our best option. We've taken many RS tours, and I wish he had a tour to this part of Italy, but he doesn't. So, we signed up for an October Road Scholar tour of Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria. We toured with them in China and India ... they do a great job. Good hotels, food, etc., but their real focus in on educating the tour members about the nuances of the region. Take a look on the Road Scholar site. Even if their tour doesn't appeal to you, at least their day-by-day itinerary might contribute to your planning. Good luck!

I posted this elsewhere but here is the jist. spent 10 days in puglia in 2022. based out of bari (6 days) and lecce (4 days) i also stayed in materra (not puglia) for 2. i used public transportation exclusively.

from bari i visited barletta, trani, biseglie, molfetta andria, ruvo di puglia, bitonto, bitetto, palo del colle, altamura and gravina, all were day trips by train and/or bus. from lecce's i visited, brindisi, galatina, gallipoli. ostuni, and otranto also on train/bus. avoided alberbello. matera lived up to its reputation.

loved puglia. similar in feel to sicily, easier to get around by public transportation than calabria. incredibly photogenic and less crowded than tuscany.

if you like, take a look at the link in my profile for trip photos.

hope this helps.

Hi Joan, My husband and I love Italy (he speaks the language fairly well) and happy independent travelers. Like you, we wanted to visit and explore Puglia without renting a car, but found the planning difficult. So although we are not generally “tour people” (except for adventurous guided hiking tours), we chose to join a Road Scholar tour of Puglia last February-March and it turned out to be a great choice. The guide was fantastic, the lodging and food were excellent, the other guests were fun to be with, and we learned a LOT about the history and culture that we would have missed had we done this on our own. And we went to some places that we would not have discovered on our own, including an ancient olive grove and mill that were visited by Stanley Tucci in his “Searching for italy” series.

Our tour was a shortened (8-day) one that they only offer in winter. In September, they have 3 starting dates for a 2-week tour that covers Puglia (8 days) and then moves to Basilicata and Calabria. With a full month to explore (lucky you), you could start with the Road Scholar tour and learn so much, then afterwards return to Puglia with your new-found knowledge and explore further, or re-visit the places you enjoyed on the tour for a deeper experience there.

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/20221/Puglia-Basilicata-Calabria-Southern-Italy-From-Heel-to-Toe-

Edit: I now see that Will and his wife are signed up to take this same Road Scholar tour in October.

Yes, Lola, we join the Road Scholar tour Oct 14-20. Since they count the travel day as a tour day, the actual tour begins in Lecce Oct 15 and finishes in Catanzaro Oct 30. We fly from Seattle to Rome Oct 10, arriving on the 11th. We will stay in Rome until we take the train from Rome to Lecce on the 15th.

If you are used to organizing your own holidays, Puglia is no more complicated than anywhere else. First of all, there's the train line down the east coast which makes it easy to visit everywhere between Barletta and Lecce, other trains and buses will get you to Gallipoli, and Matera (not Puglia but nearby and fantastic). If you're going for a month I'd choose three or four bases and work from there - one could be Bari since your family is from there, another could be Lecce.
Here's a week we spent in Bari to visit the area on our first trip to Puglia:
https://slowtravelitalyspain.blogspot.com/2019/11/puglia-bari-in-april-trip-report.html

You can do a lot on public transport, it is just much more cumbersome than other regions of Italy. A guide book will describe the different train systems and give you the details for day trips.
That said, with a month, I would rent a car for part of the trip so you can take advantage of the rural areas. You will not see all of Puglia without one, though you can pay for private drivers.

When researching this area for a trip this spring, I really liked the idea of a company called Puglialy. You are based in Ostuni and travel out from there each day with a small group, about 10 people. You might have a look for part of your time in that area. In the end, I am returning to northern Italy, so I didn't book with this company. But it is one I would for sure use in the future.

I would highly recommend spending some time in Trani. It's a charming little seaport with wonderful restaurants. We stayed at Albergo Lucy, and didn't have a car for this part of our trip. One afternoon we intended to hire a driver, and the hotel owner kindly volunteered. So he took us to Castel del Monte, plus the beautiful Romanesque Cathedral of Ruvo, and a prehistoric cemetery, Dolmen la Chianca -- like a miniature Stonehenge. Very interesting -- all worth seeing. Another day we took a bus to Margherita di Savoia to see the salt plains that produce more than 5 million tons of salt per year. I think you'd enjoy a stop in Trani.

We took a train from Trani to Bari and then another to Matera, which isn't part of Puglia but worth seeing. We then rented a car when leaving Matera, to see the Valle d'Itria. We too are retired and don't typically enjoy renting cars, but this was an easy place to have one. We stayed at a wonderful place -- Masseria Napoleone -- and did day trips to the little towns (Alberobello, Locorotando, Ostuni) plus Torre Canne, just minutes away and a lovely place for dinner by the sea. A masseria is like an agriturismo -- you'll find lots of them in Puglia and it's a fun experience. Ours had a pool, which was lovely.

We returned the car in Brindisi and took a train into Lecce. We did day trips from Lecce by bus and train (Otranto, Gallipoli). One day out of desperation (because Lecce becomes a ghost town between about 2 pm and 6 pm and we had seen all the churches we could handle) we took a private wine tasting tour to two nearby wineries with a company called Experience Path. . They have other tour options as well.

Have fun planning!