Travelling to Puglia

Lecce is often mentioned as a good home base in Puglia. What do you enjoy doing?

Love to walk and sightsee, take in the Roman ruins, get to know the locals, eat where the locals eat, drink the local wines, stay in low cost hotels, and drive the country side. Love access to the beautiful beaches and water but not the focus if the holiday.

Shelly; we loved Puglia, but don't tell anyone else about it. It is fun, cheap, the food is awesome, the sights are wonderful, the people are warm and friendly. My wife almost bought out the shoes stores in Lecce when she saw how cheap the Italian shoes were! Lecce is a mini Siena. And the restaurants in Puglia; OMG! (send me a PM when you finish your itinerary, and I'll send you some recs.) Pick up a Lonely Planet guidebook and do some reading, and pick the places that you want to go. A rental car is a must, and so is a Michelin Italy map, and your personal GPS. Some great bases are Lecce and Trani(Trani; great lo-cost B&B one block from water. Awesome waterside restaurants.) We drove down from Rome (4 hr trip; beautiful) and flew back on one of the lo-cost inter EU airlines (see Whichbudget.com) out of Brindisi. Good hi-speed trains are available to the area...but after that; furgetaboutit. Here is a great story about Puglia from the NY Times: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06Puglia.html?pagewanted=all

Thank you so much for your kind response. Do you recall the name of the B&B in Trani? Sounds like an ideal location for seeing the area. Can't wait to share your ideas with the 'group' we travel with. I will try the link to the NY Times for the article. Cheers.

I spent about two weeks base camped in Lecce, diving down from Rome and back to the Airport Hilton. The drive is easy but not short, about the same distance as Calgary-Saskatoon. I drove south from Lecce along both coasts and criss-crossed all over in between. I also explored Alberobello and vicinity. I doubt that you can hear Greek radio during the day. Puglia is across from Albania. I heard day-time Albanian radio and I saw Albania across the Strait of Otranto. Puglia is a seaside destination for Italian vacationers in August, so if you go in that season the beaches will be crowded and the roads may be too. I was there in March. I felt like I was Puglia's only tourist. Puglia is larger than you expect and not all destinations can be a day trip. Trani is a 270 mile round-trip to Lecce, and even longer to the tip of the peninsula. The Gargano Peninsula is beautiful but the round-trip from Lecce is 400 miles, so I never went. Here is a advert that will get you fired up. Play it loud. http://www.viddler.com/explore/Discoverpuglia/videos/1/

Shelly, Otariidae makes a good point; you will need at least two bases to see just parts of Puglia. Read the Lonely Planet guidebook, and decide what interests your group. Trani and Lecce are both excellent choices. From the Trani area we went and explored the coast as far south as Monopoli, and inland we saw the Grotto Castellena (a must), Matera ( a must), Alberbello (OK) and some of the other towns. From Lecce we explored all the wild East coast to the bottom of the "heel" , and also went to Otranto. We also explored the West coast of the heel and drove down to Gallopoli. The B&B in Trani is the Albergo Lucy. Read the reviews in Trip Advisor; in fact use TA to check out all of your potential lodging pics. Make sure that you look at Agritourisimos and Masserias. You walk a few blocks to the awesome seaside restaurants. PS make sure that you play the audio slide show in Frank Bruni's NY Times article! PPS They don't have any Moulson in Puglia; but they do have some excellent wines, in fact, most of the "vino de la casa" (house wines) were really good.

Thanku great comments from 'O' and 'G'. I agree TA is a must before we book anything. Used the agritourism site last year and found a superb farmhouse in Adine, a Medievel hamlet in Chianti country and was the highlight of our trip. Not farmilar with your second recommendation but will give it a go. Will buy a new Lonely Planet. Our Italian stops at maybe 20 words. Always have managed to communicate but Puglia will most likely be a challenge. Sounds like 2 weeks is really needed. But we want to squeeze in Sicily too on this trip. Cheers

Thanku great comments from 'O' and 'G'. I agree TA is a must before we book anything. Used the agritourism site last year and found a superb farmhouse in Adine, a Medievel hamlet in Chianti country and was the highlight of our trip. Not farmilar with your second recommendation but will give it a go. Will buy a new Lonely Planet. Our Italian stops at maybe 20 words. Always have managed to communicate but Puglia will most likely be a challenge. Sounds like 2 weeks is really needed. But we want to squeeze in Sicily too on this trip. Cheers