Puglia Grand Tour: Part 4 Back to the coast: Polignano a Mare and Monopoli

Published on:  | Last updated: 14 March 2018

This section of the tour heads down to the sea and the towns of Polignano a Mare and Monopoli - two of the nicest places on this section of the coast - before heading inland again to Gioa del Colle en route to Matera. 

Both Polignano and Monopoli are charming places great to just while away some time. There are no spectacular sights (although Monopoli has a cathedral and a castle) - small port towns with a lively an inter­esting centro storico. Full of stone-paved streets and alleyways leading into little corners filled with potted plants and flowers. Flowers and washing on the balconies.

There are tourists around, but they’re not as touristy and some other places in the area. In the harbour you can watch the fishing boats loading and unloading, and along the sea front are ship repair and shipbuilding yards.

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Distances
Alberobello - Polignano a Mare 31 kms
Polignano a Mare - Monopoli 10 kms

Options

If you are consid­ering doing this route as a figure-of – 8 using the Bicitalia Ciclovia del Adriatico to follow the coast, then you might want to simply head across country to Gioia del Colle on the next section.

Connections

This section of the route connects with the Bicitalia Ciclovia del Adriatico.

There are two campsites near Monopoli - the closest is the Camping Santo Stefano however this is only open between mid-May and mid-September. The Residence Atlantide a little further down the coast at Capitolo, is open all year round. The gps download folder includes a route between the Atlantide and Monopoli.

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Puglia street scene

Puglia street scene

More information

Places to stay

Hotels and B&Bs

Find and book places to stay with Booking.com

Booking.com pages for places on this section of the route:

About these links

If you use these links to book accom­mod­ation Booking.com will pay me a small part of their commission. This helps support the costs of producing this site.

I use Booking.com to find and book places to stay when there are no campsites in the area. The large majority of hotels and many hostels are now on ‘Booking’. I like it because it means that I can get almost-instant confirm­ation. The rating system is also a reliable guide to the quality of the accommodation.

I’ve never had a problem finding places to keep my bike —even if it’s a cupboard or store room. I always use the ‘special requests’ field on the booking form to tell the hotel that I’m travelling with a bike, which gives them the oppor­tunity to let me know if there’s a problem.

Many properties offer free cancel­lation but it’s a good idea to check the condi­tions as these vary from property to property.

Campsites

  Map of campsites along the route:  PGT-campsites-map-show map in overlay    |    PGT-campsites-map-show map in new window 

Transport and services

Trains

There’s a train station at Monopoli.

Places to eat

I haven’t eaten there, but I wish I had known about the Hotel Ristorante Grotta Palazzese in Polignano where the restaurant has a terrace built inside the sea cave under the hotel - check the website and you’ll see what I mean. However, it gets mixed reviews on TripAdvisor.

I can defin­itely recommend the Trattoria Pizzeria Neuro in Polignano a Mare.

Articles in this series

Polignano a Mare - Puglia

Polignano a Mare

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