Hi, I'm planning a trip to Puglia and Sicily in May of 2024. This needs to be an escorted tour since we don't want to drive ourselves around the countryside. We have never taken an escorted tour and could use some suggestions. It needs to be a small group tour and could be split between the 2 areas of Italy. I thought 4-5 days in Puglia and 10 days in Sicily. Anyone have any experiences that could help me?
Thanks, Linda

We used Sicily Tours in Tunisia, but as the name implies, they offer tours of Sicily. We were very happy with them. They usually limit their group to 12 to 16 persons

https://www.sicily-tour.com/

For just 4-5 days, I think you could manage on your own in Puglia and I don't know of any tours that short. You could hire a private driver to take you through the Itria Valley one day. The driving was really so easy!
This Italian food writer I follow has detailed the tour operator that she used here: https://www.italianfoodforever.com/2...-one-to-three/

Sicily has especially well developed high quality bus routes, AST and interbus are the big 2, throughout the island. Trains also exist but of varying quality.

Quite easy to do Sicily without a car, we spent 13 days last year, using the bus and train. IMO you don’t need a tour operator, you can DIY for a fraction of the cost.

You need more time in Puglia!
We combined Puglia and Sicily in a trip a few years ago. Both are very reasonable places to visit. We flew from Bari to Palermo on Volotea avoiding going through Rome at a cheaper cost and more time traveling. We traveled independently which is easy in both locations. We changed our itinerary occasionally.

Thank you for your feedback. I will look into the suggested tour groups as well as reconsider if we could plan the trip ourselves and use local transportation. I always find this site so very helpful.
Linda

I may be late to this party, but just in case. We are doing a short escorted tour in Puglia in April, 2024 with Pulialy https://puglialy.com/. We will also spend time on our own, but we are at a stage where we are modifying the way we travel, as in less driving. We have never done an escorted tour, but this one sounds like it will be a good fit. Based out of Ostuni, participants book their own lodging, and are on their own for dinner. The tour days are from 9:30 a.m. to around 5, and include many of the surrounding sites.

https://www.yltourdmc.com/ Ylania is very good

First define the places you want to visit. Then book a ryanair flight from Bari to either Catania or Palermo. Most tourist places in both areas are of easy reach by both, local train and bus.
In 4 days you can visit almost nothing in Puglia, may be just Bari, Matera, Castellana, Alberobello, Lecce and Otranto or Gallipooli.