Does anyone have a Puglia travel guide that they recommend? There are a few on Amazon but not the biggies like moon or lonely planet. We plan to spend about three weeks in the area next fall and I’d like to do it via public transportation as time is not an issue.
I’m already getting a lot of information off this formun so thank you. But I’m kind of old school and I like to have a travel guide in my hand.
Posted by
6273 posts
You do have to be careful these days with the proliferation of junk books. There is a Nat Geo, and that's probably your best bet, aside from the Puglia section of general Italy books like Lonely Planet (the Southern Italy book) and Rough Guide, which offers a "mini book". You can get a lot of info off their websites for free. I am a book person too, but in the case of Puglia, I would rely on the many good websites. You'll have to confirm public transport info online anyway. For cultural info, the Blue Guide is still tops!
For areas like this, I also look to newspaper and magazine articles, plus blog posts and the like.
This website is flashy, but I found it to have unique and interesting things: https://imaginapulia.com/
And don't discount a good old fashioned tourism website--I find these really help you grasp the different sub-regions:
https://www.viaggiareinpuglia.it/it/homepage
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
17082 posts
I think Lonely Planet has a guide to Puglia and Basilicata
National Geographic does too.
Rough Guides has one as well.
Search on Amazon or their respective websites and you will find them.
The official tourism portal of the Region of Puglia is here:
https://viaggiareinpuglia.it/it/homepage
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
7418 posts
We just recently got back from a 3-week Puglia trip (and it was awesome). I had spent way too much time in the past 12 months researching everything I could find on the region, I bought half a dozen guidebooks, everything I could find except the garbage-scraped DIY dreck that the amateur hustlers and our overlords are hawking on Amazon. I ended up with a large stack of mostly junk.
To my great disappointment, I found none to be particularly good. To my astonishment, I thought the best of them was in fact the National Geographic book, though it certainly has its share of shortcomings (teeny, tiny print for one). I'd say get the Nat Geo one for starters, skip the rest, and spend a lot of time searching here and elsewhere online, to create your own guidebook. Print it, take it to the copy shop and get it bound, bring it along in PDF and paper, you're all set.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
3715 posts
Puglia has a lot of surprises once you’re there. It’s a place where you want to spontaneously explore places that aren’t always included in the guidebooks. Places like Ceglie Messapica and the countryside around Locotorondo were amazing.
People were incredibly friendly as well, and that is a big part of Puglia’s magical attraction.
I now get why it’s such a popular place to visit.
Posted by
OP
Tacoma, WA, USA
689 posts
Thank you everyone. I generally spend a lot of time researching a trip so I’m ok with compiling information from many sources.
When I get a rough draft I’ll post for your feed back. Even though I was hoping not to rent a car I think we will to get the best experience.
David from Seattle. I opened the “Boom” and got a map with many numbers in the Lightroom program, Can you tell me more about it?
Thanks again everyone!
Posted by
CA, USA
1384 posts
We found the book "Lonely Planet Puglia & Basilicata" useful in describing Puglia and for planning our visit 2 years back. The books is 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 walking tour videos. To find the blogs just do a web search for the name of the town you're interested in.