Hi there,
Can anyone give any recommendations for hotels in Puglia?

JudyC: I saw your recommendation on another thread of Hotel dell'Erba in MF which looked really nice. Martina Franca looks like a nice place to base yourself for a few days.
It looks like we could walk from the station to the hotel. True? DAlso, did you stay in Lecce? Did you like your hotel there? Where else did you stay?

Does anyone have any other recommendations in Puglia that you'd like to share?

We plan on spending 2 weeks there. Some of the towns that I'm considering visiting are Alberobello, Ostuni, Otranto, Lecce. If we stayed in MF, we could see some of those towns by local rail as opposed to driving.

Thanks for sharing.....

You might consider stopping in Trani as well. It's easily reached by train, and has a remarkable cathedral.

I hope you enjoy Puglia as much as I did!

Thanks Kja, If we decide to rent a car, I could see doing so near Bari and driving up the coast to the Gargano Peninsula. That might be an idea. Spend a week between Alberobello and Otranto and then a week going up the coast to the G.P.

Any other recommendations for towns, hotels, restaurants? Did you drive in Puglia? Where did you pick up your car?

Time for my recommendation for my favorite hotel anywhere in Italy. Do not miss a stay, and particularly dinner at the wonderful Hotel Grotto Palazzese in the delightful little coastal town of Polignano di Mare, just south of Bari.


http://www.grottapalazzese.it/

We used it as a base for traveling over much of the area particularly Alberobello, Ostuni, and Otranto, but also stayed in Matera at the Hotel Sassi, and also stayed a few days in Lecce.

Thanks for the reminder NP. I remember quite a while ago reading about your stay and I remember the restaurant pictures. It's very striking. I had thought that this place was in the G.P., but I can see it's right where I want to stay for a few days.

Do you remember if they have a train station in Pol. a Mare? Did you stay in the town of Lecce or nearby? Did you like the hotel Sassi?

Loved the hotel Sassi. We were driving that trip and parked our car at the bottom of about a thousand steps up to the hotel, but it's also possible to enter from above.

We stayed right in Lecce at the very nice Patria Palace Hotel. It's normally pretty expensive but since it was August it was very cheap and almost deserted! I'm thinking we did it through Starwood as it had a Sheraton connection then. The town was very quiet then and many restaurants were closed. But we still loved it.

I don't think there is a train station in Polignano, but there is decent bus service. That seemed to be true of most of that area.

To Pilates,

In this past January, I traveled from Rome by train to Lecce, touring around the area then north along Adriatic Sea, end by Venice, totally 3 weeks, the whole trip by train and bus without any difficulty.

Because of the transport, I chose accommadations by easy walking distance from train station, and centrally located preferable, usually 2-3 stars, except in Venice.

In Lecce, I stayed at Hotel Delle Palme, out of town centre, but withing easy walking distance, and 10 minutes to Train/bus station, clean,cheap and functional rooms, restaurant not bad,the street is quiet in the night.

From Lecce, I daytripped by train to Otranto- lovely seaport and old town, beautiful romanesque churches, excellent restaurant.

Next, I stayed at Hotel dell'Erba in Martina Franca, less than 10 minutes walk from train station, another 10 minutes walk to old town centre, lovely rooms and common area, good restaurant, but I would highly suggest eating in old town.

From MF, I visited Ostuni by bus, and train to Alberobello, Locorotondo and Taranto (old town a bit gritty, but very interesting).

Then I sides tracked to Matera for one night, styed at Albergo Italia (nice and clean room, basic breakfast) in old town centre, with excellent view of Sassi and Cathedral. In the night, the whole town outside of hotel was vibrant with people.

From Matera, I took train to Trani (with one of the best setting cathedrals I have ever visited), stayed at Hotel Royal, again in town centre, about 5 minutes walk to the station. Many good restaurants by the harbour.

From Trani, by train daytripped to Bari and Barletta.

FAAAABULOUS info!

Thank you NeoP. I'm going to check out both of those hotels. BTW, The Grotto Palazzese closes that rocky restaurant in October. Bummer. That's when we are speaking of going. It's not a deal breaker necessarily. Did you stay in the main building or did you get one of the apartments?

JudyC, So great to hear that you did it rather easily via train and bus! What I have read so far is that it's easy to drive around there because it's flat. Regardless, we don't like to drive if possible and have no problem hopping on a train, a bus, or hiring someone to take us an hour away. I'm going to check out your accommodations too. I like the idea of staying off the beaten path and paying 100 euro more or less for a room.

Judy, did you take the night train from Rome to Lecce? If yes, Did you get a cabin? Did you reserve the space on the internet in advance? Through which website? Would you do it again or would you travel during the day?

I picked up 3 books on Italy from the library today. I'm going to look those over tomorrow and Thursday. I'll probably have more questions for you Judy because the way you traveled is identical to how we are planning on traveling.

I just realized that the website for Grotto Palazzese had been totally redone.
We were in one of the two "annex" rooms -- but I wouldn't call it an apartment. It was outside and around the corner off a street through big barn like doors. If you look at the website and then rooms, you'll see a couple pictures of a room with a totally arched stone (brick) ceiling. One picture shows a tiny balcony cantilevered over the sea and a white small sofa next to it. Another picture shows the blue bedspread. That was our room -- one of the most atmospheric I've ever stayed in. Also on the pictures of the restaurant, you can see a little balcony in the rocks off and above to the right looking down on the open terrace. That was our balcony.

Oh, not having the restaurant might be the deal breaker for me. Sitting there in the open air with the waves literally crashing under and behind us was soooo magical. The big dining room inside was kind of cold and generic.

But there are also some intriquing little places to eat in town.

There is a train station in Polignano a Mare - an easy walk of maybe 8 minutes from the Grotta Palazzese. (I'm still indebted to NeoPatrick for making sure I ate there!)

To Pilates,

Unfortunately, being a light sleeper, I had to take afternoon train instead of night train to Lecce, bought ticket at Termini one day ahead.

Certainly it's more flexible to drive around and I do drive a lot at home; but except for business, I haven't driven for pleasure in Europe yet, as it's a bit too much for me to drive, navigate and enjoy the sceneries at the same time. So far, for the trips in Europe (3-4 months every year), the public transport seems working all right.

NP: Thanks for the details. I love details!

kja: Thanks.

JudyC: Thank you. I think we don't drive because we don't like the way each other drives! For us, it's so much better to leave the driving to anyone, anyone but US!

Have you read my recent trip report? I spent 11 days in Puglia this past May. Do a search under my name, it is called "My Party in Puglia". I will be happy to answer any specific questions afterwards.

When are you going?

Hi Flame. Thank you. I must have read your report when you first posted it because when I was reading it this morning and saw the link to CASA DI LUCIO, I bookmarked it this time. It looks like a really neat place to stay. I made many notations from your report and I'll probably be re-reading it again!

We are hoping to go sometime in Sept or October. If we're unable to grab a couple of weeks at that time, then our plan is to go in mid April. I want to have at least 16 days.

I was also glad to see your thread again because two people wrote of books that are dedicated to Puglia. I plan to buy one or both of them.

Hey Pilates.

I did not write about nor stay at Casa di Lucio. Must have been someone else.

In any case, glad you were able to get some help from my report. We LOVED Puglia. Have a great time !!

Hey Flame

Boy am I confused. Check out your entry on 5/24/2007. You provided a link to a place where you had a bite to eat.

This is what I think you wrote. Please help me to understand how I got this wrong...

We walked around for a long time, stopping at every corner for pictures and "wow-ing". We stopped for a drink and sandwich around 3 PM at a lovely little outdoor seating area of a hotel called La Casa di Lucio, Hotel Relais, on Via S. Pietro Caveoso 66; Tel 0835-312798, www.lacasadilucio.it.

http://www.lacasadilucio.it/

Pilates - I apologize. You are correct. The reason I did not recognize the hotel name was because I misunderstood you and thought you meant that we had actually stayed there. Yes indeed we only had a bite to eat in their small outdoor patio and the place looked very special. Sorry for the confusion.

JudyC: Where did you go to Matera from, and how did you get there?

To Holly, Sorry to reply so late, as I just checked this thread now. I took train from Martina Franca to Bari (frequent regional trains), then changed to Matera.

Thanks for posing the question Holly, and thanks for the answer Judy. We may or may not go there with a car. Now, we're talking of going to Puglia in May.

There are certain towns in that region that seem to be "must sees" and Matera is one of them. As I recall reading, that town is on a hill. In my experience with hill towns and their train stations (Assisi, Taormina) you need to find transportation from the station to the town...can anyone tell me if that is true in the town of Matera? Or is the station right in town?

Thanks Flame for clearing that up.

I recently wrote to the Grotta Palazzese and they don't have a definitive day of opening the restaurant. It depends on the "environmental conditions". He wrote that surely they will be open by mid May. (nice guy who wrote to me) The prices for one of the rooms that Neo got is now 260 euro. I'd like to splurge a couple of nights there.

If we can actually get serious and pick the dates then I will call Amex and book it with f/f miles. I haven't done that before with Amex, but we have a crap load of miles and we aren't getting any younger. It's time to GO! Andiamo!