Luxury holidays to Puglia | Tailor-made luxury hotel holidays

An Expressions tailor-made holiday to Puglia is an opportunity to explore a gentle land of immense character with a wealth of architectural sights and glorious scenery, both on the coast and in the interior. One of the most startling impressions of Puglia must be the contrasting colours of azure and white, enhanced by the green of olives and vines. Typical sights in Puglia are the trulli, the low lying white-washed houses with beehive-like conical grey roofs, flat fields of grain, olives and vines and here and there perfect examples of mediaeval castles or splendid Byzantine-influenced Norman churches and cathedrals. Red chillies can be seen drying from the wrought-iron balconies of white-washed houses in the villages, whilst broom and mint grow wild in the fields. The coastline of Puglia is noted for its long sandy beaches and the beauty of the hilly Gargano peninsula with bays sheltering beneath dramatic cliffs - a stunning location for your holiday. Our hotels in Puglia tend to be a mixture of 'masserie' - fortified farmhouses that have been converted and extended to be luxury hotels a short distance from the beach, historic hotels in the Baroque city of Lecce and some beachside hotels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Puglia has quietly become one of Italy's most interesting regions for food, precisely because it has not yet been packaged for a mass audience in the way Tuscany or Piemonte has. The region produces an enormous quantity of olive oil, and its gastronomy leans on orecchiette and other dried pasta shapes, mozzarella and burrata from its own dairies, and seafood along the coast, all served with a simplicity that reflects genuinely local ingredients rather than a refined restaurant tradition. Its wines, particularly Primitivo di Manduria, are only now gaining wider recognition outside Italy. We can arrange a private visit to a mozzarella producer and a local market, a masseria hotel kitchen built around estate-grown olive oil and vegetables, or an introduction to a small Primitivo producer rather than a large commercial cantina. Because so few UK visitors have discovered this side of Puglia, the experience still feels like a genuine find rather than a well-trodden food trail.

Trulli are the small, whitewashed, dry-stone houses with conical grey roofs unique to the Itria Valley around Alberobello and Locorotondo, built without mortar using a technique thought to date back centuries, originally so that a house could be dismantled quickly to avoid a tax on permanent dwellings. Staying in a genuine trullo, as at the Leonardo Trulli Resort, gives a far more intimate sense of the building than a passing look from a coach ever could. Masserie are a different tradition again: fortified farmhouses, often centuries old, built to defend an estate of olives and vines, and now converted into some of Puglia's finest hotels, such as Masseria San Domenico, Torre Coccaro and Torre Maizza. Both forms are entirely absent from the more familiar Tuscan or Umbrian villa, and together they give Puglia a distinct, almost North African quality found nowhere else on the Italian mainland.

Lecce's Baroque is genuinely its own school, known as barocco leccese, made possible by the local pietra leccese, a soft golden limestone that could be carved with an intricacy quite unlike the heavier stone used further north. The result, seen at its finest in Gabriele Riccardi's church of Santa Croce and the Duomo rebuilt by Giuseppe Zimbalo, is a lighter, more exuberant style than the Baroque of Rome or Naples, decorative to the point of theatricality. The city also holds the Romanesque church of Santi Nicola e Cataldo, one of the most important in the Salentine peninsula, giving a useful counterpoint to the later Baroque. Because Lecce receives far fewer visitors than Rome or Florence, it can be explored at leisure, and hotels such as the Patria Palace or the Risorgimento Resort, both in the historic centre, make it easy to base a stay of several nights around the city itself rather than treating it as a day trip.

Puglia's coastline is long, varied and, by the standards of Amalfi or Capri, remarkably uncrowded. The Gargano peninsula in the north has a dramatic coastline of cliffs and sheltered coves, with boat trips out to the Tremiti islands for those who want to explore further, while the Salentine peninsula in the south combines vineyards and olive groves with grottoes such as the Grotte di Castellana and a gentler, more open coastline. Along the coast near Monopoli, hotels such as La Peschiera and Don Ferrante offer a quieter, more low-key style of luxury than the more famous Italian coastal resorts, often with a private beach and a genuinely local restaurant rather than an international menu. For clients who want the sea without the crowds, or who want to combine several days on the coast with inland visits to the trulli valleys and Lecce, Puglia's beaches offer a markedly different pace to the Amalfi Coast.

Puglia remains far less visited by UK travellers than Tuscany or the Amalfi Coast, and that lower profile is part of its appeal: hotels, restaurants and producers have not yet adjusted their prices or their welcome for a high volume of foreign visitors, so a Puglia holiday still has the feel of an undiscovered region rather than a well-marketed one. That said, the two combine well for clients who want both experiences in a single trip. Our Amalfi Coast, Basilicata and Puglia touring holiday flies into Naples and out of Bari, with stays in Amalfi, Maratea and Monopoli, giving a genuine sense of the contrast between Italy's most famous coastline and one of its quieter alternatives. For a shorter trip, Puglia and the Amalfi Coast can also be combined as a straightforward two-centre fly-drive holiday. Either way, we would always recommend allowing enough time in Puglia itself, rather than treating it as an add-on.

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

● Long or short stays
● Combine a number of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to Italy and within Italy, combining flights, hire-car, rail, ferries and private transfers

Our special interest holidays to Puglia

● Food and wine holidays
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
● Family holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday

Call us on 01392 441245

Highlights of Puglia

Explore the Gargano peninsula with its dramatic coastline of coves and cliffs, beaches and forested interior. Take a boat trip to the Tremiti islands off the coast of the Gargano. The Salentine peninsula should be discovered for its vineyards and olive groves, megalithic remains and grottoes including the Grotte di Castellanata.

Cultural highlights of Puglia

The cultural highlights of Puglia are to be found in the quality of the Norman religious and secular architecture and the Baroque of Lecce in particular. Highlights include Lecce's church of Santa Croce begun in 1549 by Gabriele Riccardi and with a magnificent 17th Century facade, the loggia of the 15th Century Palazzo Vescovile, the Duomo rebuilt by Giuseppe Zimbalo (lo Zingarello) and the church of Santi Nicola e Cataldo (the most important Romanesque church in the Salentine). Bari possesses the Basilica di San Nicola, one of Puglia`s first great Norman churches. The 15th Century frescoes in the church of Santa Caterina d`Alessandria in Galatina are of particular merit. In Bitanto`s Romanesque cathedral is an Ambo by Maestro Nicola dating from 1229 with a bas-relief showing Frederick II and his family.

Festivals in Puglia

Martina Franca holds the Festivale della Valle d`Itria in late July/ early August. Bari holds a historical parade of St Nicholas on 7-10 May and a procession on the sea. Galatina has a curious tradition coinciding with the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul on 28-29 June as tarantism has survived here. Lecce has a feast for the patron saints of the city on 24 to 26 August.

Gastronomy in Puglia

Olive oil is produced in enormous quantities and this together with local fruit, wine and seafood feature in the regional gastronomy of Puglia. Specialities include Focaccia bread flavoured with olives, fennel and chicory, Panzerotti (pasta with anchovies, capers and strong ricotta cheese), Tiella di Cozze (rice, potatoes and mussels), Melanzane alla campagnola (aubergines roasted and soaked in oil, garlic and basil). Dried pasta of all shapes and sizes is also a regional speciality. Puglia also is a great wine producer. A light red is produced at Cerignola and a robust red at Bari. Red Primitivo del Salento or di Manduria are well known.

Puglia travel information

Puglia is reached very easily from the UK by air. We suggest the use of a hire-car to explore the region.

By air

There are airports at Bari and Brindisi. The closest airport for a direct flight from London is Bari with British Airways. 'No frills' airlines fly into Bari and Brindisi.

Car hire

We include a hire-car with all our holidays to Puglia. There is no additional charge for collecting your car from one place and returning it to another.

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

Our special interest holidays to Puglia

● Food and wine holidays
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
● Family holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday

Call us on 01392 441245

Here you will find a map of Puglia showing the locations of the hotels that we offer

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

Our special interest holidays to Puglia

● Food and wine holidays
● Cultural tours for individuals
● Private guided sightseeing
● Art, history and heritage holidays
● Family holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday