4 Star Puglia Food & Wine Tour Reviews — 1 to 6 of 6

We had the most delightful Guide, Ilenia. She was just beautiful and so considerate and kind. We enjoyed only having 13 riders in the group. On 3 of the days, we were treated to authentic Italian food in little villages or out of the way places. Sadly, the choice of hotel in Lecce proved to be extremely disappointing. The other places we stayed were quite good and one, in particular, at Gallipoli was outstanding. There was quite of bit of road riding at times. The scenery in the Puglia region was average - lots of dead olive trees and in the back streets there is lots of dumped rubbish. Having said that, the trip was excellent and the group we rode with was fabulous.

The inland parts: more hilly and definitely a more rocky tandscape.We were disappointed with the Trpsite information we did not receive prior to arriving: no water bottles provided; use of an app on our phone that we barely managed to get to function before heading out. Again Solentobihpkes was fine. They just didn't know what Tripsite had not told us. For navigation we had no reason to not expect a freestanding Garment like device like friends on other trips had. "And, by the way, did you bring a battery pack since the phone will quickly run out of power?" Luckily the tour company had an extra pack for us. Others seemed to have been told about the navigation system and the need for battery pack. They probably books with a different agency.

This was the first bike tour my wife and I had done together. We intentionally chose the Puglia tour because of the moderate daily distances and relatively flat terrain. We went out of our way to choose the guided tour option departing Sep 16 but due to a monumental mistake on my part, we ended up booking our flights at a later date and switched to the Sep 23 self-guided option.

The tour was very enjoyable. We were fortunate in that the weather was clear and the temperatures mostly moderate, with only a short interlude of rain on one of the days. Some of the riding was by the coast, but much of it was slightly inland, amongst olive tree groves and small, quaint Apulian towns. The hotels were satisfactory, the reserved dinners were generally very good, and the reserved breakfasts were acceptable. The self-guided option worked out very well, the maps were easy to follow, and it would likely become our default approach in future. We did meet a number of others along the way, running into each other at recommended stops on the route, at the hotels or at reserved restaurants.

The bikes (my wife on an e-bike, me on a regular hybrid) were in very good condition and the local tour company and their staff were very helpful and service-oriented. The Tripsite staff was also very helpful in providing information and getting us booked, and despite all of their fair warnings that we would lose our payment if we cancelled our trip after a certain date, were happy to accommodate our request to change from the Sep 16 guided option, for which we had paid a high season supplement, to the Sep 23 self-guided option, for an additional fee. Bearing in mind that this was due to a mistake on my part, we appreciate that they made the change, though we would have saved a significant amount of money if we had gotten things right in the first place!

Overall, happy to recommend the region, the tour, and both the local provider and Tripsite.

(Side note for those who follow a vegan / WFPB diet: I was able to get by with fava bean purée with chicory, grilled vegetable side dishes, pizza, pasta, and lots of bread with olive oil!)

The coastline rides, most restaurants and hotels were to our expectations. The scenery inland was not something I would do again. The landscape inland is littered with dead olive trees and and after 1 day of it, it becomes very repetitive.

Great scenery along the water and nice hotels in the towns Really enjoyed the towns we stayed in Bikes were great and comfortable and staff was friendly Too tired to swim but saw many beautiful swimming spots. We did self guided so Got lost a bit and ended up doing 70k all days except 1. Overall fun experience and would recommend seeing Alberobello and Matera while in the south of Italy as a side trip.

Fantastic group of riders from all over the world..ride from Lecce to Otranto was simply the best
Breakfast and dinners were very well organized
Would like to have seen more snacks during the day and more visits bt the support van
Should also consider an additional guide for the back of the group…cycling pace was very slow at times