How To Manage Wanderlust On A Puglia Villa Holiday

As you may have gathered from my other blogs, my preferred mode of holiday is a road trip as I am eternally curious about what’s around the corner or at the end of the road. As someone with a strong wanderlust, or desire to travel, the idea of staying in one place on a villa holiday without exploring makes me twitchy. However, sometimes a villa holiday is just what the doctor ordered – good for a short break, getting the family together when older children have flown the nest, or relaxing if you need a recharge.

So, how can you manage wanderlust when you are on a Puglia villa holiday?

Why choose Puglia for a villa holiday?

Puglia is in the southern peninsula area of Italy, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east. For a long time, Puglia was undiscovered by foreign tourists and felt like a remote and unspoilt part of Italy. Its popularity with foreign tourists has risen in recent years, however it still feels special and relatively underdeveloped compared to other parts of the country.

My research suggested that Puglia would offer a good range of villa options, beautiful cities and stunning coastlines, all within good range of each other. Add in sunshine and wonderful Italian food, and Puglia seemed like a perfect destination for a villa holiday with our children (late teens/early twenties at the time).

NOTE – Puglia is the Italian name for the region, whereas Apulia is the English version. However, use of either version is fine.

Booking your Puglia villa holiday

When is the best time for a Puglia villa holiday?

We visited Puglia in the third week of August and enjoyed bright sunny days and temperatures in the high 20s each day. There had however been a heatwave in Southern Europe in July when temperatures soared into the 40s, so be aware that it can get extremely hot in the summer months.

The shoulder seasons of Spring and Autumn can offer lovely, milder weather if you are not tied to UK school holidays.

Try to book a trullo for your stay in Puglia

Puglia is famous for its special ‘trulli houses’ (old fashioned circular buildings with white stone walls with a conical slate roof), particularly in the Itria Valley region. Many trullo have been converted into villas offering a unique experience to stay inside these cute houses which remain cool in the heat. Try to book a trullo villa if you can one that suits your needs and budget.

There are lots of villa options in Puglia depending on your budget, how big your group is and whereabouts you want to be based. We booked through a well-established, reputable villa company, but secured flights separately through British Airways as we collect BA Reward Points. I would advise booking a villa with a pool if you can, as cooling off in the pool after sightseeing in the heat became a highlight of our Puglia villa holiday.

Which airport do you fly into for a Puglia villa holiday?

Our villa for 6 people was on the outskirts of a small town called San Michele Salentino which is located 30km west of Brindisi Airport or 100km south of Bari Airport. The flight times into Bari Airport worked better for us so we just accepted the longer drive to the villa.

Hiring a car and driving in Puglia

Make sure that you pre-book your hire car to make sure that there is one available on arrival. We had to order two hire cars for our party of 6 as they did not have large vehicles available for hire. We collected the cars from the AVIS rental at the airport which is located right next to the terminal at Bari Airport.

The motorway (or Autostrade) from Bari Airport to our villa took a bit of getting used to as the local style of driving is much faster and more fluid than in the UK (with fewer ‘middle lane cruisers’), but we settled into the drive and soon arrived in San Michele Salentino (about 1.5 hours drive).

Organising your time on a Puglia villa holiday

With the villa and flights booked, I then turned my attention to how we would spend our one-week Puglia villa holiday, aiming for a good balance between relaxation at the villa but also exploring some new places. Our modus operandi could be, either to:

1. get up early each morning for sightseeing, followed by relaxing afternoons at the villa, or
2. alternate a day of sightseeing with a relaxing day at the villa.

Whilst I would have preferred the first option, I was aware that the ‘youngsters’ in our group would probably want later starts, so we broadly worked with the second option. This gave us 3 days for sightseeing, plus some time on our final day before our flight home from Bari Airport.

What to see on a Puglia villa holiday?

From our villa’s location we were able to visit the following places during our weeklong stay:

• San Michele Salentino – our local town for buying provisions and evening strolls
• The ‘Trulli Town’ of Alberobello and neighbouring hilltop town of Locorotondo (50-minute drive northwest from the villa)
• The beautiful university town of Lecce (1 hour drive south from the villa)
• Ostuni, ‘the White City’ (20-minute drive from the villa)
• Matera and Gravina in Puglia – visited on our way back to Bari airport (1.5-hour drive to Matera, 30-minute drive to Gravina and further 40-minutes to Bari Airport)

NOTE – The third week in August is Italy’s main holiday week and we were warned that the beaches would be rammed, even from very early in the morning. As a result, we decided to give the beach towns a miss this time and save these for a return trip in the future.

What is the town of San Michele Salentino like in Puglia?

San Michele Salentino was an attractive, untouristy inland town. In the heat of the day, San Michele Salentino looked quiet and sleepy with closed shutters, sheets drying on the balconies, and more cats than people on the streets. However, as day turned to evening, Piazza Marconi, the central square, became a hive of activity with locals drinking and chatting in the outdoor café bars whilst their kids happily made their own entertainment in the square.

A lot of the buildings in San Michele Salentino were made of white stone to reflect the sun, which gave the town centre a bright and cheery feel. The main church on Piazza Marconi had a beautiful, tiled basilica which glinted bronze in the sunshine, and a small neighbouring square called Piazza Dante had painted quotes and poetry on the walls which looked pretty.

San Michele Salentino is not a ‘destination town’, but we found it authentic and charming, and all the locals we met were happy to help – we wanted to buy a cake for a family celebration and so the Villa Manager recommended a baker who produced a wonderful cake with a custard centre at short notice.

The only sightseeing trip we did in San Michele Salentino was to visit an Olive farm and bottling factory on the edge of town. This is a community project where the local farmers bring their harvested olives to be bottled in the shared factory. We enjoyed chatting to the owner of the factory and tasting virgin olive oil varieties at the end of the tour, before making some purchases.

Please let there be a next time!

Puglia had long been on our Italian wish-list for a visit, and it did not disappoint. Puglia proved to be a great destination for both relaxing and exploration; we felt very well rested by the end of the week but had also visited some memorable places.

Always the sign of a good holiday, on the plane home, I wrote a list of places to visit on a return, including Monopoli, Gallipoli and Otranto. Ostuni would be on the list again but for a daytime visit, and a return to Matera for an overnight stay in cave which we didn’t have time to do on this trip. Polignono e Mare (and the coastline more broadly) is also unfinished business for us as we had a boat trip booked which was sadly cancelled due to wind.

Whilst a villa holiday is not necessarily a cure for wanderlust, they can be good for getting a flavour of a place and helping you decide whether you would like to return. In the case of our Puglia villa holiday, it created a desire to return for a longer road-tip.

Thank you so much for reading my blog, I hope you found it useful?

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Enjoy your travels!