Has anyone traveled in this area? What are major places to visit and how many days should I allow? Suggestions for hotels, Pensions, places to eat, etc. How are the prices overall? Is it readily accessible by train? Planning a trip in the spring. Thanks!
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
Patricia - If you haven't already tried it, you'll get a lot of suggestions at tripadvisor.com.
Posted by
Calitri, Avellino, Italy (& US - where I live the majority of the time)
223 posts
You should also check out the fodors message board - there have been a few recent threads re Puglia.
Puglia is fairly large and diverse-so hard to generalize...great beaches of the Gargano...flat lands with miles of olives and grapes...Castle del Monte..."Trulli" homes...I would also try to see the Sassi cave at Matera in nearby Basilicata if you are inland...tons to see.
Prices are VERY resonable(compared to Rome, for instance)The dollar, obviously, hurts a bit...but I find things pretty on par with the US as far as food, etc. (for example, in my town on the border with Campania, my family of three can eat a very nice, simple meal in a restaurant with wine for about 25-30 euro-the same meal costs us about 85-100 in Rome)Hotels should be really reasonable.I'm fammiliar with the inlnad portion - the border with Basilicata and Campania, so happy to answer any specifics about it-not spent too much time yet on the coast(where most of the tourism is)but I'm sure someone will chime in
Posted by
OP
Irvine, California
66 posts
Thanks, Doug and Calitri.
I'll look at tripadvisor and at Fodor's for more info. I want to go to San Giovanni Rotundo to Padre Pio's and have read in travel mags that Puglia is like Tuscany was many years ago, so thought I would go on down if I can find more info. Also wanted to go on to Sicily, but that may be too much in one trip. Any comments?
Posted by
OP
Irvine, California
66 posts
Will I be able to manage traveling along the Puglia coastline towns, get to places of interest, sleeping accommodations, etc., without a car? I may be traveling alone and if so, a car will be too expensive.
Also, if anyone knows of reasonable places to stay, please e-mail me. Thanks!
Posted by
Calitri, Avellino, Italy (& US - where I live the majority of the time)
223 posts
hmmmmm....I would not really compare Puglia to Tuscany...VERY different...landscape, language, culture - I guess maybe becasue it has been largely overlooked by tourists?
As for the train...look at the scheduale online - it depends where you are going-trains, in general, are VERY slow and do not have good connections in the South...that said...you CAN get around everywhere by bus - that's what locals do :-) it takes some planning though becasue many small towns are serviced by different bus lines! so...plan out your "must-see" spots and work from there and maybe use a combo. of train and bus.