I see that we have puglia experts in this forum.
i hope you will give me some advise.

We have 8 days to spend in southern italy starting the first week of September.
We wld prefer to have our bases by the water.
.
Tentative itinerary is:

Day 1 fly into Brindisi; arrive 9am; rent car
Day 1-3 otranto or Ostuni
Days 4-6 Monopoli or Polingnano
Day 7 drive to Sorrento --hopefull the roads will be good
Day 9 drive to Rome

Is this a good plan? i know are missing the northern part.

Any suggestions for hotels? prefer by the sea/ocean.

Do visit Alberobello and the fabulous Trulli houses.

Hi Alainr: I think you would prefer Otranto over Ostuni because Otranto is right on the water and Ostuni is inland. We LOVED PaM and did a daytrip to Monopoli. Monopoli is nice too. It seemed a little bigger and slightly less quaint than PaM.

Since you don't need a car in Rome and the Al Italia prices are a steal I'd fly Brindisi to Rome. But then again I'd not bother with Sorrento.

What you have not included is a visit to Lecce, which is a bit like going to Rome and not passing by the Vatican.

Dai is right about the sea, however I prefer Ostuni which has views down to the sea.

There are a whole bunch of little towns I'd try and include Goia, Alberabello, Martina Franca. Each of these look a little dull from the outside, but drive inside and park the car, then start looking around and you will find the ancient city hidden inside the modern town.

That part of Italy is quite easy to drive around (outside the towns!) and we preferred to have one base and do day trips from there.

You can read our trip report here

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...t-do-italy.cfm

And see our photos here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...7635047994978/

Alainr:

Check out my web page report of our trip to Puglia.
Perhaps it will help you in your planning.

http://www.travel.stv77.com/puglia/puglia.htm

Puglia is fun, and still unspoiled with very little tourism from outside Italy.

we were NOT planning to skip lecce.
it wld be a day trip from Otrato or Ostuni.
is it too long a drive to do that?

if we wld skip sorrento, do you advise heading up to foggia?

Hi alain, no Lecce is not too far for a day trip. If you leave early and spend several hours there you can see a lot of things because even though it is bigger than the other destinations, it's really compact. I would not go to Foggia if I were you, I'd go to Trani instead which is another cool little sea side village.

Regarding the difference between Monopoli and PaM, We got a nice walk in PaM going north and going south of the main center of town, and since you like being by the water, there are a few places where you can spend time sunbathing and swimming in PaM. Plus with all of the cliffs there, it is really very beautiful.

It's interesting how some people love Trani, and others didn't feel it. Or Bilbo prefers Ostuni, but on the day that we visited both Ostuni and Otranto, we made the decision to return and stay in Otranto.

One thing I recommend is that you consider going to the caves in Castellana. We enjoyed that trip. Since we relied on public transportation, we had to take the one hour tour because my husband wanted to hear the English version, and we only had time for that tour in order to be able to return to PaM. If it were up to me, and if I didn't speak a lick of Italian, I would have preferred the two hour tour in Italian so that I could see <i>all</i> of the caves, and consult the internet if I had any lingering questions. If you go, get a hold of the schedule in advance because they shut down for lunch, and you don't want to show up and wait around until tours resume for the day.

http://www.grottedicastellana.it/en/

Dai
Trani looks lovely! thank you for the suggestion.

I am having a hard time to pick our 2-3 home bases.

Wld you recommend staying in Trani or just making a day trip from PaM?

I read on this forum advice to visit lecce for the day, but stay in another place. otranto seems like more of a drive from brindisi.

any suggestions wld be much appreciated!!

We did Lecce as a day trip from mesagne

We went to Lecce twice from our base in Galatina. Its easy driving in Puglia as there is little traffic. Loved Poligano de mare. We have a TR on most of our trip to Puglia
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...a-short-tr.cfm

I'm not a fan of Sorrento -- too crowded.

alainr: If you were to pick one of your bases in the south like in Otranto, you could drive down the coast and make stops at some of the most beautiful beaches all the way down to the tip in Leuca. Maybe stopping for lunch in Castro, or one of the other suggestions from the other travelers who write of where they stopped along the sea for some great meals. Then another day you could spend the day in Lecce, and another day you could discover Otranto itself, and its gorgeous cathedral with its mosaic floors.

Then if you were to stay in PaM or Monopoli as your second base, you could discover the Val d'Itria and its popular villages like Martina Franca, Locorotondo, Cisternino, Alberobello, and Ostuni.

There is so much to see just in the immediate area, that I don't know if I'd go up to Trani for a day trip. We <i>loved</i> Trani very much so when you had said how about Foggia, my thought was "skip Foggia and go to Trani!" But with only three days to explore per base, it seems to me that you have plenty of things to see in the immediate area of your bases. You could, however leave your second base and as you head north back towards Rome, spend one night in Trani since it is quite small and a cool little village with some nice restaurants and a great passeggiata along the lungomare before heading back to Rome.

I miss it so much!! Have a great time!!

"we were NOT planning to skip lecce. ... it wld be a day trip from Otrato or Ostuni."

I thought Lecce deserved much more than a day trip and was glad to see it in the evening, after day-trippers had left and the heat had dissipated.

"Wld you recommend staying in Trani or just making a day trip from PaM?"

I loved Trani, but I thought you said you were aiming for the southern part of Puglia? I'm having difficulty imagining how you are going to fit all these places in....

thank you for all your helpful suggestions

any suggestions for places to stay in otranto and monopoli or PdMare?
up to 200 euros per nite--prefer less. quiet rooms.
need to have a/c!!

we planned for 4 nights in monopoli area and two nights in Otranto as bases.
shld we change it to 2 nights around monopoli and 2 somewhere inland closer to martina franca or??? and keep the 2 nights in otranto?

If you are going to split your bases, Lecce is worth considering IMO.

Alain: Did you click on my name and read what we did in Otranto and Polignano a Mare? It's a very long TR, so you can skip right to the towns that interest you. The towns are highlighted in bold. If you read Lecce too, you'll see that we visited at least 5 villages on two different days with a driver.

As far as leaving 4 days for PaM to see the villages you mention, I can assure you that the towns of Ostuni-Martina Franca-Cisternino-Locorotondo-Alberobello are very close to one another. We visited all 6 driving in one day from Lecce. I am <i>not</i> suggesting you do that. It was good for <i>us</i> because I wanted to have a look at all of them, but what I am suggesting is that you can visit at least three of them in one day comfortably as a day trip, and spend a few hours at each of them. You do need to keep in mind that between 1 and 4 pm (at least) towns shut down for siesta and you hardly see anyone outside. Right after lunch wherever you are, you may be wandering all alone. Churches seemed to close around 1 pm, even the Castellana Caves closed down for lunch.

Maybe you could spend the siesta hours in Alberobello because as much as so many people love it, it is VERY touristy with shop owners selling virtually the exact same stuff and beckoning you in English (or whatever nationality you appear to be) to come in. I am going to guess that the town doesn't shut down during this time, but I could be wrong. I absolutely wanted to see it, and I am glad I did, but we were not captivated by its charm at all. The women we were riding with <i>really</i> enjoyed their hour and a half in Alberbello, but we were done within 30 minutes because it felt so commercial. Different strokes for different folks.

If you arrive in Brindisi at 9 am, after you get your luggage and car, you could head to Otranto with a stop in Galatina first (since you said you wanted to see it). Then after checking into your room in Otranto go see that Cathedral! Next day leave early for your day trip to Lecce.

Then pack up and head north to PaM and if you want a hotel, we enjoyed our stay at the Grotta Palazzese and at 140E a night for our great room (see my TR) you can be well under your maximum. If you want to save, you can cut your hotel rate in half by staying at a B&B.

Then if you have two more nights, you can do a little relaxing (from all that driving!) by hanging out in Trani before heading back to Rome or one night in Trani before spending the night in Rome (depending on your flight)

I agree that Alberobello is overrun with tourists. It was the only place we saw so many tourists.

If you've read any of the suggested TRs you will see that all the towns are relatively close and visiting from one to another is rather easy. When I was planning I couldn't decide where to base ourselves either. As it turned out it doesn't really matter since everything is so close and driving is no problem at all. We had an apt in Galatina and I picked our second base further North really because I liked what I read about it and I liked the owner so much. As it turned out her place was a touch out of the way, but it really didn't make a huge difference. We drove all over from her BnB and enjoyed driving the lovely countryside. We picked another location because we wanted to go to a certain restaurant.

I would just pick a town that sounds interesting in the Southern part, Otranto (which we didn't really love), Galatina or Lecce. then someplace north such as Ostuni, Martina Franco, PaM which we liked a lot. If you enjoy driving and wandering about you'll be happy wherever you pick. If you want to be by the water go with PaM.
Have a great trip. We were there in September and had fabulous weather.

Do try and stay in a fortified farm for one of your bases, nearly always in the countryside and maybe with restaurant on site, it is a great way to chill out.

I got married in the place so I'm always supportive of people who visit there. Follow my name back if you want to see how it went.