Is the train the best way to get from Rome to Bari? Am I correct that it's about a 4 hour trip? Then, from Bari to Polignano a Mare...bus, taxi? Any info appreciated.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
It depends on what you mean by "best," I suppose. You're indeed going to find that Puglia is more difficult to navigate than central and northern Italy. One trick that I've picked up for how to get to someplace is to locate the website for a few hotels in that town and see what they tell you about how to get there. So try googling "hotel polignano a mare" and see what you get. Good luck.
Posted by
Catadupa Alamere, CA
515 posts
There are trains from Termini to Bari I think that takes 4+ hours. When I planned my Puglia trip I wanted to use trains to see the sites. But I found that all of the sites that I wanted to see were car only trips. So I used just a car
Posted by
Eugene, OR, USA
14 posts
This reply is a little after the fact for Allison's question. But, since I'm sitting here in Ostuni about a half hour by train from Polignano a Mare and we've gone to Bari twice by train, I wanted to let you know that there is a train from Bari to Polignano a Mare that takes about 30 min and at this point costs 2.30 euros. For train travel in Italy, it is best to go to the Trenitalia website where you can search for departures and arrivals to and from any points where the trains go. They have a link at the top for English. It's best to put a time of departure earlier than you anticipate leaving, then you can always go forward to see other times, but you can't go backwards in time in the search results. Also, if you are over 60 and anticipate doing a lot of train travel in Italy, you can get a Carta Argenta for about 30 euros, giving you a 15% discount on fares. When searching trains from Bari to Polignano a Mare, you may want to put "Bari Centrale" the main station. Because if you just put "Bari" it seems they list all the other possible stations in Bari. While it might be true that hotel sites give directions, I still think you can do it much better on trenitalia.com But trains south of Lecce (end of the line for Ferrovia dello Stato) it's a different train company and a different site (I think it's called FSE)
For driving, you can get precise directions from Google Maps or ViaMichelin.