The perfect holiday in Puglia, the quiet corner of Italy with Europe's best beaches
Most overseas visitors gravitate to the Valle d'Itria, an area of olives, orchards, trulli (pointed roof houses) and gleaming white towns, while Italians from the north come in their thousands to pack Puglia 's long beaches in summer. The Gargano juts into the Adriatic, with forested hills and fine beaches. South lies Salento, the heel proper, where cliffs drop into the Adriatic on one side, and powdery Ionian sands beckon on the other.
For more Puglia inspiration, see our guides to the region's best hotels, restaurants, bars, things to do and beaches. Plan your 10-day trip with our ultimate itinerary.
In this guide:
How to spend the perfect day in Puglia
How to spend the perfect week in Puglia
When to go
Where to stay
How to get there and how to get around
Know before you go
How to spend the perfect day
The perfect day: morning
Arrive in the early morning. From the airport, stretch your legs on the streets of Bari's Old Town – seeing the nonne making Puglian speciality orecchiette pasta, with tables and drying racks set out on the narrow streets – before travelling on to your base, in Valle d'Itria, an area of olive groves and hilltop towns. Staying at one of Puglia's masserie (grand fortified farmhouses) turned rustic-chic hotels, such as Masseria le Torri. Its chalky façade gleams under the southern sun, with gardens shaded by fig, olive, mulberry and cherry trees.
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Daily Mirror
4 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Popular town 'on the brink' as hundreds of cruise ships bring tourists flooding in
Kotor, a coastal town in Montenegro, is a hugely popular tourist destination - but its soaring visitor numbers are reportedly beginning to have a negative impact A coastal town in Montenegro has been battling to manage its massive influx of tourism, creating overwhelming crowds and sparking fears about environmental damage. The stunning town of Kotor sits on the Adriatic coast and boasts UNESCO World Heritage Site status. It's nestled near the limestone cliffs of Mt Loven and is famed for its twisting narrow streets and medieval buildings, including numerous Romanesque churches. The town also appeared in the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale. Hundreds of vessels dock in the harbour daily, bringing many of Kotor's visitors. This has prompted demands to increase the bargain €1 (86p) charge that cruise ship passengers pay to access the town. In other travel stories, Spanish beach bars demand urgent action as they reveal cost of Brits staying away READ MORE: I can't stop booking this £32 hotel right next to huge beach — it still has dates free for summer Cruise ship visits to the destination have been climbing over the past decade, with the town seeing roughly 500 additional arrivals last year, reports the Express. On one day alone last August, 5,000 holidaymakers poured into the town from cruise ships. Kotor itself has just 23,000 residents. This is reportedly causing serious harm to the marine ecosystem. According to the latest reports from the Statistical Office of Montenegro, over 2.6 million people visited the country in 2024. There were also a total of 15.5 million overnights, with 96.1% being foreigners mostly from Serbia, Russian Federation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine and the UK. The UN's GEF Adriatic Project states: "Although the population size increase [in Montenegro] is relatively low, the number of tourists drastically increases every year, which poses a significant burden on local sewage capacities and increases the costs of their construction and maintenance." Milica Mandic, a scientific advisor at Montenegro's Institute of Marine Biology, expressed her concern: "Such a number of cruisers requires a study to determine the maximum environmental load." There have been numerous protests across Europe over the past year as locals express their dissatisfaction with the massive influx of tourists in their cities and towns. Popular holiday destinations include Spain, France, and Italy. This had led many Brits to ditch them and opt for other places to spend their summers. Local Kotor tourism director, Jovan Ristic, voiced his concerns: "The life of our neighbours is becoming increasingly difficult during the tourist season. All similar tourist destinations are working on reducing or selecting passenger ships and seriously collecting excursion fees."
Times
20 minutes ago
- Times
An expert guide to a great (and affordable) late-summer break in Croatia
Here's a tip you can have free: late summer to early autumn is when Croatia is at its best. Temperatures ease, resorts relax and the sea is its warmest. That's not an observation based solely on my 20 years of visiting. Last month the European Travel Commission noted that about nine per cent of European travellers had switched to holidaying in so-called shoulder seasons. Why? Friendly temperatures and prices reduced by half from peak season. Ah yes, the prices. You can spend big on Croatia nowadays, dropping more than a grand a night on premium stays during high season. The question is — whisper it — do you need to? Sure, luxury hotels feel like a treat, a proper indulgence, but if there's one thing I've learnt about Croatia it's that a memorable stay can be found anywhere. You won't find a place with a warmer welcome, and the seas are some of the cleanest in Europe. That's why we've compiled this list of hotels for September and October breaks. It includes a few expensive stays for a splurge, but most are priced for affordable holidays, especially if you look beyond poster destinations such as Dubrovnik and Split. Given our term-time dates, we've skipped family hotels for adult stays: wellness specialists in quiet areas, such as Maslina Resort on Hvar and rural wine hotels including San Rocco in Istria; chic city stays in Dalmatia and rustic bolt holes on island backwaters. All are places to remember how to relax, to discover what Croatians call pomalo, which translates roughly as living free from schedules. You'll know it better as the holiday jackpot. This article contains affiliate links that will earn us revenue Here's a stay in the north Adriatic, and the Kvarner Gulf mountains that most visitors bypass. Restored by a German-Croat family, its farmhouse has expanded organically into an eight-room bohemian village. It's a stay of simple rustic-chic rooms with pea-green shutters, stone the colour of shortbread and original beams (the best have balconies); a bolt hole for reading books and dips in a small pool, and for good organic vegetarian food eaten at a communal table. In short, it is a stay of heart and soul. It's not even remote — the beach at Crikvenica is four miles away and Rijeka is a 30-minute B&B doubles from £87 ( Fly to Rijeka It's a sign of where Cres may be heading that Marriott chose this rustic island for Croatia's first Autograph Collection hotel, which opened in March. It's quite a shift for Cres, a nicely scruffy, Italianate medieval town where you'll eat gelati as small fishing boats chug from the harbour at dusk, yet ten minutes' walk away there's this slick wellness hotel, with sunloungers before the sea and a chef who's shooting for Michelin stars in nine-course tasting menus. The marketing people are calling Cres 'Croatia's often forgotten island'. I'd come soon if I were B&B doubles from £212 ( Fly to Rijeka Before you read this, check the price below. Astonishing isn't it? That's not the reason the Romans called Rab 'Happy Island' (Felix Arba), nor is it why Edward VIII, holidaying here with Wallis Simpson in 1936, felt so, um, joyful he went skinny-dipping. It'll boost your mood too. Rab, in north Croatia, is a love letter to the art of gentle holidaymaking: slow days in a villagey medieval capital, long lunches, 22 sand beaches. The Arbiana was around in Edward's time, and while its classic decor won't make the heart beat faster, it's a charming stay with the sea just Seven nights' B&B from £1,070pp, including flights and car hire ( The Alhambra's Cube Spa was named world's best at the Luxury Lifestyle Awards last year. In 2023 Alfred Keller, its Michelin-starred restaurant, took the top prize at the World Culinary Awards as Europe's best fine-dining hotel restaurant. Not bad for a five-star on a Croatian island few Brits have heard of. Modern Mediterranean sums up the decor in a hotel created from two art nouveau villas integrated by a glass-skinned block. Refined describes the atmosphere in a secluded pine-cloaked bay. Come to indulge between spa and sunloungers on the bay. B&B doubles from £352 ( Fly to Rijeka I chose a backstreet one-star rather than paying over the odds for an out-of-town mega-resort when I first visited Zadar two decades ago. Since then a new breed of central independent boutique stays has helped to raise the profile of Dalmatia's historic third city. This one's as central as it gets, scattering 16 rooms across an early 20th-century house, a 19th-century former military building and a medieval monastery. Such is Zadar's jumble. All are different but united in being elegant, modern and arty without showing off. 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This month it launched a smart 13m speedboat for private excursions or celeb-style transfers from Split airport. Details B&B doubles from £437 ( Fly to Split I was sceptical when this opened in 2021. It looks like the lair of a Bond villain, and you'll need a similar bank balance to afford it. What were eight ultra-luxury suites doing carved into the hillside of an island backwater of the Zadar archipelago? The answer is Croatian starchitect Nikola Basic's concept of a 'landlocked yacht', where glass-fronted rooms frame views of seascapes (and olive groves, but you get the point). Like an exclusive cruise ship, it's escapism with an infinity pool, gourmet restaurant and spa. Unlike a cruise ship, you can leave whenever you want B&B doubles from £666 ( Fly to Zadar • 17 of the best cruises in Croatia The thing you need to ask about Dubrovnik is whether you genuinely want to be in the old town. Magical first thing, it's chocka by 10am in summer. Sometimes it's better to find a nice resort out of the centre offering everything you need and day trip in. 'Everything' at this 371-room five-star, refurbished in 2020, means three restaurants and three bars, a 2,000 sq m spa, a pool bigger than Dubrovnik's main square, knock-out views, and sea activities. It's 20 minutes' walk from the old town and — the clincher — it costs a quarter of the price of most central Five nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,391pp • Rixos Premium Dubrovnik hotel review: a swish five-star with fabulous views• More hotels in Dubrovnik We all want different things from hotels. For some the location comes first. For others it's style or good wellness facilities. Which brings me to this stay. The century-old five-star of Dalmatia's biggest city is no longer the most luxurious in town, nor the chicest. So why am I a fan? Well, they've spruced up the art deco and added a spa (rooms remain small, mind; corner ones are best). Breakfasts served by lovely staff are eaten poolside. Bacvice beach is moments away. And although a ten-minute walk from the old town, it's always an oasis of B&B doubles from £235 ( Fly to Split There are many cool stays in Croatia's best city. This isn't one of them, although it's one of the most memorable. A former Venetian noble's residence turned into a heritage hotel, it's a lucky dip of Renaissance beams and gothic fireplaces. The hum of laughter and conversation drifts in from the most handsome square in the old town — the corner room Vid Morpurgo has a balcony over the action. Caveats? The rooms are small by modern standards, and the decor is more homely than high end. And there's no parking. You won't find a nicer stay in the action of old Split, B&B doubles from £318 ( Fly to Split • Best luxury villas in Croatia You want Dubrovnik. You also want bygone Croatia. This is the answer. Part of the Adriatic Luxury Hotels group, this once dowdy three-star on a pretty harbour emerged from a complete refurbishment in 2022 to become a bolt hole for the superyacht crowd. The 21-room hotel in a historic house pulls off the neat trick of French elegance without appearing to try too hard. Don't be fooled — such effortless style takes a lot of work. Breakfast on the harbour terrace among potted orange and lemon trees is a joy. Dubrovnik is accessible by regular water taxis. Don't bet on making B&B doubles from £379 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Lesic Dimitri Palace is the luxury choice in dreamlike Korcula old town, but Tara's Lodge is a better bet for beach holidays. Think of this small modern block with 17 minimalist rooms as a four-star beach club. You'll drink morning coffee on a balcony — sea views are worth the extra £30 — then breakfast served by friendly staff. Days will pass between the private beach and Mediterranean cuisine in Mimi's Bistro. What more do you need? Possibly a car. Though Korcula island is accessible by ferry from Split or Dubrovnik, the old town is two miles from the B&B doubles from £118 ( Fly to Dubrovnik All set for an end-of-summer splurge? Then to Brac island we go. It's Croatia's have-it-all destination: gentle harbours with waterside restaurants, day trips to Croatia's most famous beach Zlatni Rat, hourly ferries to Split (Dalmatia's sexiest city) until midnight. The splurge is this adult-only five-star at Sutivan. Where other hotels are greige, it's a stay of bold, Italianate glamour with first-rate spa facilities. A place for lazy days with books beside a beautiful pool or on 280 sq m of private beach. Boats and mini-cabriolets are available to rent. Bikes are free. Luxury B&B doubles from £328 ( Fly to Split Rovinj is the pin-up of the Istrian coast. Seemingly created for Instagram, it has dreamlike Venetian streets and nightmare crowds. A report by Which? Travel in May recorded 133 visitors in Istria for every resident — the second highest number in Europe after the Greek island of Zante. There are a lot of day-trippers, even in September. That's where this adults-only five-star 20 minutes' walk from the old town comes in. The restaurant is excellent, the mood is calm. There's a luxury spa and a large pool. A private beach club sits alongside the hotel. Kick back by day and, when crowds ease and temperatures cool, drift into town to experience one of Croatia's most bewitching small towns hazed by a golden Three nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,568pp ( Welcome to the 1970s playground of the Adriatic. Rubbing shoulders were Abba, Sophia Loren and, um, Colonel Gaddafi. Look, it was a different era. By the 1980s five stars had become two. In 2022 it reopened after a £34 million spend that included gutting the place, and promptly won hotel of the year at the Croatian Tourism Awards in 2023. Radisson spent big because the location is peerless: beside the sea on a pine-clad bay yet three miles from central Pula. Perhaps also because vast Seventies spaces upgrade nicely into a refined modernist aesthetic. Jet2 has a new Pula route this year. What you save on flights, splurge here B&B doubles from £184 ( Fly to Pula • 18 of the best Croatian islands to visit In the 2017 movie Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, filmed on Vis island, Donna says she aims 'to make memories'. What she really sought was a bohemian lifestyle on an island far out to sea. Enter this relative newcomer to Croatia's most far-flung inhabited island. The ten-room stay in a historic harbour house is a fine match for a destination that gets more boho-posh by the year. Fine art photography on the walls, cool rattan armchairs, lovely staff, bikes to borrow ― it nails laid-back luxury. Expensive, perhaps, but what price the opportunity to live out the Mamma Mia! fantasy of a simple, stylish life for a fortnight?Details Two nights' B&B from £728 ( Fly to Split This is the year to visit Hvar, Croatia's glitziest island. Negative headlines from a modest beach club scene led authorities to introduce noise restrictions in March (85 decibels, in case you're wondering) and there's a no-nonsense approach to misbehaviour. The goal is to return Hvar Town to being a buzzy small harbour with Venetian Renaissance architecture. Good luck to them, but if you're choosing to visit you'll probably seek some nightlife, so it makes sense to stay somewhere modern, stylish and beside the water. This fits the bill. Boats bob outside, Carpe Diem cocktail bar is opposite and Hula Hula beach club is just around the bay. Details B&B doubles from £253 ( Fly to Split The Elafiti island Lopud has shifted from backwater to Dubrovnik day trip in the 20 years I've been going. Obvious, really — the harbour's pretty, Sunj beach has sand. Anyway, that's where Sipan island comes in. The castaway cool of Bowa beach club aside, the next island on is the anti-Lopud: three miles of nicely scruffy harbours, vineyards and Renaissance chapels. Most people get around on foot. If you're after nothing more than books, strolls, swims and quiet nights, you'll fit right in. The Kristic family's hotel is spotless, friendly, has a small pool and is bang on the sea. They'll transfer you from the airport by B&B doubles from £120 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Second cities such as Sibenik make for more rewarding breaks. They're generally quieter, have fewer tourists and are better value. This hotel, which opened in 2021, proves the point. It compacts all that is good about this small overlooked city in Dalmatia — an old town with a splendid cathedral, good restaurants, sea views — into a small hotel installed in a 17th-century monastery. Open the shutters and you'll see either old stone the colour of ivory or sea and islands that beg for day trips by ferry. Wallow in a rooftop hot tub and you'll see the cathedral spire above roofs. Now check out the price. Beat that, B&B doubles from £117 ( Fly to Split Trogir's fate is to be near Split airport and too often bypassed. Yet Unesco describes it as one of Europe's finest small towns: Romanesque churches, palaces from centuries under Venetian rule. So it is. What it doesn't say is that it has a pretty harbour that seems purpose-designed for pottering around. Stay at this pleasure palace for discerning aesthetes, sophisticated in its Scandi metropolitan style (geometric print throws, rugs skimming parquet floors) while being relaxed. There's the requisite spa plus two pools. The 'beach' of the name is scruffy shingle, but there are sandier stretches on neighbouring Ciovo island, linked by bridge. Parents rejoice: there's a babysitter B&B doubles from £175 ( Fly to Split For romance — historic lodgings, morning coffee before day-trippers arrive, siestas after lunch, strolls to bed after dinner — only the old town will do. This intimate house fits the bill nicely. On a narrow side street, it has 16th-century stone and beams in suites — smaller Standard and Attic rooms are in an adjacent cottage — but cons are mod. Decor is understated, with white walls and buff fabrics upholstering antique furniture. While rooms in the house have modest kitchenettes (those in the cottage share a kitchen) breakfasts are served in-room. Luggage transport into the old town is a nice B&B doubles £368 ( Fly to Dubrovnik Throughout August, Zrce beach on Pag island is Croatia's answer to Ibiza. Go in September or early October and the island reverts to its older self: bare pink-white mountains as austere and magical as a desert, still inlets and modest holiday resorts like Novalja. You're a couple of miles outside Novalja at this rural wine hotel. I first visited when it opened in 2003 and it remains criminally under-valued; one of those little black book finds. Here 11 rooms and suites make a virtue of simplicity, Michelin-starred chef Matija Breges does creative things with island dishes and staff are B&B double from £182 ( Fly to Zadar The 'Rocco' was one of Istria's first smart wine hotels when it opened in the northern wine hills in 2004. It has been eclipsed by more luxurious stays since, but you'll get a week at this 13-room place, with flights, for the price of three nights elsewhere. You're hardly roughing it either. Expect beams and stone walls, a pool and modest spa, free bikes, estate olive oils and wines in the restaurant. Better, it's not isolated like some rural stays, sitting at the edge of Brtonigla, a town yet to be overtaken by tourism. If you want that, it's ten miles away on the coast and in hill-town Motovun. Details Seven nights' B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,533 ( Do you have a favourite hotel in Croatia? Share it in the comments
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Fury after influencers 'tip off' tourists to €2 gondola rides in Venice
Venetians are furious after social media influencers exposed a well-kept local secret. Content creators recently tipped off tourists about the traghetto gondola - a cheap ferry service used by Venice locals to cross the Grand Canal at points where there are no bridges. The 'traghetto gondola' is a public service provided by the city that allows people to cross the water quickly at points where there are no bridges. The journey takes just a few minutes and has always cost just two euros for visitors or as little as 70 cents for residents, The Times reports. For years, the traghetti were used almost exclusively by Venetians. But that changed when influencers began promoting them as a budget way to enjoy a gondola ride. Now, the 'travel hack' has left the service oversubscribed, with long tourist queues forming at the crossings. Travel guides have advertised the traghetti - which differ from Venice's traditional gondolas in that they are steered by a single gondolier rather than two - for years. But, residents say the recent promotion of the travel hack by influencers is to blame for the dramatic surge in tourists wanting to use the service. 'With this gondola, for only €2, in four minutes you can cross the Grand Canal, just the time to take a photo to send to your friends,' said the YouTuber Giovanna Santoro. The Instagrammer 'Eat with Ange' said: 'It is a really quick ride, but it's great for solo travellers or anyone who doesn't want to pay €80-100 to experience a gondola ride.' It comes as Europe struggles to cope with a recent surge in tourism - with some areas being forced to introduce special measures in an attempt to combat the problem. Last month Europe's most famous holiday hotspots were busier than ever -despite anti-tourism protests taking place across the continent. Images show swarms of holidaymakers packed shoulder-to-shoulder and forming huge queues waiting for trains and buses in some of the most beautiful destinations in Italy and Greece. In the Italian village of Varenna - famed for its tiny streets and colourful facades of houses - Brits have complained of crowds so dense they were barely able to reach down to take their phones out of their pockets. Meanwhile, footage from the Greek island of Santorini - adored by influencers for its breathtaking sunsets and views across the Mediterranean- show thousands of people inching along narrow streets with barely enough room to pass each other. Some areas have introduced special measures in an attempt to crackdown on overcrowding. Portofino has banned walking barefoot, picnics, and drinking booze on the streets among a swathe of other prohibitions. Tourists risk being fined for carrying out a variety of actions typically enjoyed abroad. From July 15, travellers in Portofino will no longer be able to walk through the town barefoot, in swimwear, or topless - or sit in the piazza in such attire. Consuming alcohol on public streets has also been prohibited, with only restaurants, bars, and designated areas left to booze in. Begging, sitting, or lying on the streets, walls, sidewalks and parks has also been banned along with having picnics. The new ordinance, signed by Mayor Matteo Viacava, will take effect during the summer season and temporarily expire on September 30. Anyone who is caught violating the regulations before then will be subject to a fine of between £22 and £433. The goal of the latest crackdown is to protect the 'peace and quiet of residents and tourists' in the exclusive coastal resort which brings in up to 100,000 tourists during peak season - despite the town only having a population of 400.
