Best base in Puglia?

[RebeccaLenta]

My family & I (husband, 16 y/o daughter & hopefully two 20ish daughters) are planning to spend 2-3 weeks in Puglia in July, 2022. My first thought was to base ourselves in Lecce for ~2 weeks and take day trips around the region.

Now I'm starting to wonder if 2 weeks is too much time to stay in Lecce, and whether it might be better to do about a week in Lecce and a week based in another part of Puglia? Good idea? If so, I'm looking for recommendations for a second base location in Puglia. Ostuni? Trani? Vieste? Valle d'Itria?

For context, we fly in and out of Rome. We plan to spend ~5 days in Rome, visit family in Cosenza for ~3 days and then head to Puglia, perhaps stopping in Maratea or Tropea en route for a few days. We also plan to visit Matera.

We've travelled extensively in Italy & I speak Italian quite well, but this will be our first visit to Puglia. We're more than happy to explore off the beaten path & be the only non-Italians in a place. We don't like to jump around too much, preferring to plant ourselves somewhere. But as you can see, we've already got a lot on our wish list!

PS: Recommendations in & around Cosenza also welcome!

 

[Alpinista]

We did two weeks in Lecce, and, yes, it was too long. Our hotel was great. We found a lot of nice places to eat. The day trips were fantastic. But, in the end, it would have been better to move on to a second base further west.

We only did a day trip to Matera and something closer to there would have allowed a more extensive visit to that region. As an aside, we did a beach day while in Lecce and found that there was really not very much appealing to the beaches. In contrast, the drives along the wild coasts south of Lecce were really beautiful.

You will find the dialect and the food different in Puglia, but just adds to the fun.

 

[RebeccaLenta]

Thanks!

 

[Ian Sutton]

One week there and another in / around the trulli towns might be a nice balance

 

[RebeccaLenta]

Thanks Ian, I'm starting to think that's what we'll end up doing. Maybe tack on a day or two in Gargano? I'm having trouble finding lodgings in Gargano that don't look like the Jersey shore. :/

 

[RebeccaLenta]

We did two weeks in Lecce, and, yes, it was too long. Our hotel was great. We found a lot of nice places to eat. The day trips were fantastic. But, in the end, it would have been better to move on to a second base further west.

We only did a day trip to Matera and something closer to there would have allowed a more extensive visit to that region. As an aside, we did a beach day while in Lecce and found that there was really not very much appealing to the beaches. In contrast, the drives along the wild coasts south of Lecce were really beautiful.

You will find the dialect and the food different in Puglia, but just adds to the fun.

Any particular beaches you'd recommend?

 

[Alpinista]

Any particular beaches you'd recommend?

We only did one beach day and that was a drive to San Cataldo where we poked our heads into the beaches around the town and finally just plunked down for the day. Nothing we saw really appealed to us, but beach was at least clean, although not much available in terms of appeal. Can't remember the name of the establishment.

We drove all the way down to Santa Maria di Leuca during our trip and did enjoy stops for picnics and walks on the wild areas along the seacoast dunes.