Hi everyone,
I'm planning a trip to Puglia towards the end of June (currently June 21st - 25th with the potential of extending by 2 days) and I'd love to hear some advice on what our itinerary should look like. I'm travelling with a friend (21M & 25M) who's never left the country before, but he's always had an idea of visiting Italy and, as I've travelled a lot before myself, I'm trying to make it a memorable experience even if it's only for a short period of time.
We're planning to fly into Bari on Sunday 21st 21:05 and we'll be flying out of Brindisi at 22:35 on Thursday 25th. As such, the plan would be to make our way down the coast. I've dove a little too deep into researching so I've heard about Bari, Matera, Polignano a Mare, Monopoli, Alberobello, Lecce, Cisternino, etc. and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the number of potential places to visit - hence I'm coming here for advice.
I know 100% we'll be wanting to visit Matera and since it's inland from Bari, we will probably check that off the list pretty early. Beyond that, we're flexible. I've heard that Bari is a good base but that some other locations are nicer, so I'm wondering whether we should base ourselves in Bari or simply use it to travel further down the coast and stay elsewhere?
My friend is a bit anti-crowds and prone to stress so I'm trying not to overwhelm the itinerary, plus I've heard that Polignano a Mare in particular can get very crowded as a bit of an Instagram hotspot so I may steer clear from there.
All in all, we've got 4-5 days to spend between Bari/Brindisi and I'd love to hear what you'd recommend. Thank you!
P.S. any fun/unique experience recommendations would be great too - I think we'd appreciate some of these more than visiting typical tourist attractions.