Cycling Tour in Puglia

If you prefer to arrive the day before please let us know and we will help you organize your pre night at the same hotel used on tour, and early transfer from Brindisi airport at additional price. This is recommended just to allow you more time to settle in and get ready for the tour.

Cycling Route Info on day 1: Main Route: 24mi/500ft of elevation gain | Extra loop adds: 13mi/300ft

Cycling Route Info on day 2: Main Route 40mi/1050ft | Extra loop adds: 10mi/250ft

Fly to Brindisi Airport and join us for a 1-hr group transfer to our accommodation for the next two nights: a masseria (an old fortified farm offering accommodation and food) in the Salento area. Check in and relax before meeting your guide for a light lunch and introduction to the tour. Later, we enjoy a warm up ride to the medieval village of Acaja with its Spanish fortress, then a walk in the local organic gardens featuring aloe vera, lavender, wheat, grapes, olives and much more! Top your day with a delicious dinner served at the masseria and with only local recipes and ingredients.

Highlights here include: the World Wildlife Fund managed Natural Reserve of Le Cesine by the sea featured on our extra loop; the white-washed sea town of Otranto with its Aragonese fortress and the cathedral dating back to 11th C.; the elegant city of Lecce,  capital of Salento and famous for its Baroque buildings.

In terms of local recipes, be sure not to miss the typical sandwich from Salento area called “puccia” (derived from the word pouch) sliced and stuffed with different local ingredients such as spinach, cheese and cured meat.

Cycling Route Info on day 3: Main Route: 46mi/800ft | Extra loop adds: 12mi/200ft

Cycling Route Info on day 4: Main Route: 41mi/13230ft | Extra loop adds: 10mi/570ft 

Today we leave the Salento area, famous for its native grapes such as Negroamaro and Primitivo, which we’ve been enjoying in full-bodied earthy reds, and move inland, arriving at the charmingly walkable town of Mesagne, named for a local tribe, the Messapi, with a castle dating to the 11^th century. Mesagne became an important center in Roman times, given its location on the Appian way (one of the most important connections between Rome and southern Italy). 

Highlights on these days include a visit and tasting to a pastry maker in Ceglie Messapica, and a visit to a local winery in Salice Salentino.

Unforgettable is also the loop ride and visit to the hilltop gem of Ostuni, which offers a collection of whitewashed structures that glitter when the sun strikes them, perched to afford views out over a seemingly endless sea of silvery olive trees and the sparkling Adriatic beyond. Inhabited since the Stone Age, it was built without a plan, as its labyrinthine web of streets clearly illustrates.

Our stay in this area allows us to immerse ourselves even deeper into the local culture through the folk music and dance called "pizzica," performed live by a local group over dinner!

Cycling Route Info on day 5: Main Route: 40mi/1920ft | Extra loop adds: 15mi/900ft 

Cycling Route Info on day 6: Main Route: 25mi/1250ft | Extra loop adds: 5mi/200ft 

From Mesagne we ride to picturesque Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site quintessentially representing Puglia with its distinctive conic-shape dwellings called trulli. For two nights, we have the chance to overnight in our own trulli, (accommodation to be confirmed depending on availability) and enjoy a visit of the town museum, which is housed inside a series of conjoined trulli, a type of Albergo Diffuso.

Albergo diffuso was born In the 1980s, when the marketing consultant Giancarlo Dall’Ara sought to rescue semi-deserted towns in Friuli after an earthquake, constructing a hotel not by demolishing old buildings in order to erect something new, but rather by renovating the existent buildings and placing hotel services within them. It’s “dispersed" because you may find reception in one building, dining in another, and bedrooms "scattered" in others, all within easy walking distance, all woven into the fabric of the local community.  

Our first dinner in Alberobello features a chef in action in his own restaurant sharing one of his favorite recipes on a cooking demo, while preparing the next course for us! On these days we also visit a multi-awarded olive oil producer to learn about one of the most important ingredients of the Mediterranean cuisine over a delicious tasting.

Another highlight here is a visit and lunch at the village of Locorotondo in beautiful Itria Valley, named one of “the most beautiful villages in Italy” (i borghi più belli d’Italia, a designation established in 2001 with the aim of preserving and maintaining villages of quality heritage), which shares Ostuni’s luminous whitewashed, perched position. The name of Locorotondo means “round place” in reference to its circular historic center.

On our last day, after a visit to Martinafranca, we enjoy a mozzarella-making demo and tasting with a local expert casaro (cheese-maker in Italian), and also stop along the coast at Polignano a Mare to enjoy a private boat ride, exploring the rugged coastline and its grottoes from the pristine blue sea. Then we celebrate over dinner in Alberobello the end of our journey through this charming region in south of Italy.

After breakfast catch our 1-hour group transfer to Bari airport. If you have more time consider to extend your stay in the area. Buon viaggio (“Safe travels” in Italian) and see you soon!