Monopoli is the perfect base for Puglia. It’s a beautiful little port town in its own right, and it sits right in the middle of everything: the trulli of Alberobello are 30 minutes away, Ostuni is 40, Bari is 45, and Matera is about an hour and a half. Even Lecce and the beaches of the Salento are doable in a (long, very worth it) day.
I spent a week there and did a day trip pretty much every day. I was with my family of seven people, and we scoured the region for the best beaches and towns we could find. So expect this to be very beach-and-town-centric. Who would want it any other way?
These are the six best day trips from Monopoli I’d recommend.
Quick Answer: The Best Day Trips From Monopoli
1. Quiet beaches near Monopoli: Cala Verde and Cala Sottile, 10 minutes south of town.
2. Ostuni + Costa Merlata: the white city in the morning, the beach in the afternoon. 40 min.
3. Punta Prosciutto, Gallipoli and Lecce: a big loop around the Salento. Lecce at night is the highlight. 1 hr 50 min to the first stop.
4. Alberobello: the trulli town. Go for sunset. 30 min.
5. Matera: the one you can’t miss. Stay from the afternoon into the night. About 1.5 hrs.
6. Bari: the pasta street and the best focaccia in Puglia. 45 min, or take the train.
Only have time for two? Matera and Lecce.
Getting Around: Rent a Scooter if You Can
You’ll want your own wheels for most day trips from Monopoli. Puglia’s trains are fine between the big towns on the coast, but the more under-the-radar stuff (the beaches, the countryside, the hill towns) is much easier with a car.
But if you know how to ride a scooter, rent one of those instead. When in Italy, right? A lot of the roads you’ll drive are stunning, winding through olive groves, past old stone walls and trulli sitting in the middle of fields, and on a scooter you feel all of it.
Plus, parking is way easier: you can squeeze in almost anywhere.
I wouldn’t take a scooter on all these day trips, as the rides for some would either be too long or just boring. I’ll mention whether or not to take one in each day trip I discuss.
No car or scooter? You can still do most of these. Monopoli’s train station is right in town, on the main line down the coast, so Bari, Ostuni and Lecce are each a direct train away. Matera has a direct bus, and for the rest, a tour that picks you up in Monopoli is the easiest option. I’ve added a public transport section to each day trip below. Omio is the easiest way to check times and book both trains and buses.
Note: Scooter newbie? I did a whole day trip through Chianti on a Vespa if you want to see what it’s like. Just don’t make Puglia your first time riding.
One important warning: ZTLs. Almost every old town in Puglia (Monopoli, Ostuni, Lecce, Bari, Matera) has a Zona a Traffico Limitato, a limited traffic zone with cameras. Drive in without a permit and you will be fined. We speak from experience. Look for the round white sign with a red border, and park outside the old town.
Day Trip 1: The Quiet Beaches Near Monopoli
This one is barely a day trip, but you can’t stay in Monopoli and skip the coast. And if you’re in Monopoli for an extended period of time, you’re not going to want to drive multiple hours every day.
The beaches in town get packed in summer. But head about 10 minutes south and the coastline turns into a string of little coves with crazy clear water, and some of them are a lot quieter than the rest.
My two favorites:
- Cala Verde: a perfect little sandy cove with calm turquoise water. Park at Cala Vergine and walk 5 minutes to the left along the rocks.
- Cala Sottile: a narrow inlet surrounded by pine trees, so calm it feels like a lake. Park by Camping Santo Stefano and walk 5–10 minutes.
I wrote a full guide with three more, plus exactly where to park and walk for each one: 5 Quiet Beaches Near Monopoli (Without the Crowds).
There are also tons of boat trips that leave from Monopoli’s port and cruise up to the sea caves of Polignano a Mare, which is another way to see the coast without all of the crowds. I linked a few options below.
This day trip is doable by either car or scooter.
Public Transport
In summer, there’s a beach bus from Monopoli’s train station that runs down the coast to the beaches south of town, stopping at Santo Stefano (near Cala Sottile), Porto Giardino, Torre Cintola and Capitolo. Trenitalia sells it as one combined train + bus ticket called the Monopoli Beach Link (pick “Monopoli Spiagge Lido S. Stefano” as your destination). It only runs in season, so check the timetable before you go.
Otherwise, a taxi from town to the coves only takes about 10 minutes and won’t be too expensive.
Note: This is Offpath, my interactive map app of hidden gems around the world. Cala Verde and Cala Sottile are pinned. If you find a spot of your own on these day trips, you can add it too!
Day Trip 2: Ostuni & the Costa Merlata Beaches
Ostuni is about 40 minutes south of Monopoli, and the Costa Merlata is just 10–15 minutes below it on the coast. They’re so close together that it would be a waste not to combine them: the town in the morning, the beach in the afternoon, or vice versa.
Ostuni: The White City
Ostuni is known as La Città Bianca, the White City (which refers to the buildings, before anyone gets the wrong idea). The whole old town is piled up on a hill and every house is whitewashed, and the effect is really mesmerizing.
And the white isn’t just for looks. The houses were traditionally painted with lime, which is a natural disinfectant. The story goes that it helped keep the plague out in the 1600s, and it also reflects the sun, which keeps the houses cool in summer.
I don’t really have a list of sights for you guys to tick off. Just get lost in the maze of staircases, arches and tiny alleys, and work your way up to the cathedral at the top. It dates back to the 1400s and has a huge stone rose window on the front.
If the hill is too much in the heat, or you’re just super lazy, little three-wheeled Ape cars run tours through the old town. I linked a couple below.
Costa Merlata: Beach Afternoon
From Ostuni, drive down to the Costa Merlata for the afternoon. This stretch of coast is full of small rocky coves. Merlata means serrated, so literally think of it like a serrated knife: a consistent pattern of narrow coves cut into the coastline, one after the other.
One great option is Torre Pozzelle: park by the busy beach, walk 5 minutes to the left down the path, and you’ll reach a quieter cove with a sea cave you can swim into and stand up inside.
I again go into more detail in my guide to the quiet beaches near Monopoli.
However, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t spend a ton of time exploring the beaches on the Costa Merlata. And there are tons of them. So I highly recommend being adventurous and trying to find your own spots!
This day trip is definitely doable by scooter, but I’d recommend taking a car because the highway cuts the trip time in half.
Public Transport
Ostuni is easy by train. Direct trains from Monopoli take only about 20 minutes and run throughout the day, with tickets from around €3 (check times on Omio).
The catch is that Ostuni’s station is about 2.5 km below the old town, and it’s all uphill. There’s a local bus up to the center, or a taxi takes about 10 minutes (roughly €10–15).
The Costa Merlata is harder without a car. A taxi from Ostuni is the simplest way down to the coast. If you’re going car-free, I’d do Ostuni on its own and save the beaches for another day.
Day Trip 3: Punta Prosciutto, Gallipoli & Lecce
This is the big one.
You head way down into the Salento (the heel of Italy’s boot) and do a loop: beach in the morning, Gallipoli in the afternoon, and Lecce for the evening, then drive back to Monopoli.
It’s a long day, around 4.5 hours of driving in total. But heading south – for at least one day – is something you shouldn’t miss. Especially not Lecce.
Oh yeah, don’t take a scooter for this one.
Note: The drive times: Monopoli to Punta Prosciutto about 1 hr 50 min, then 50 min to Gallipoli, 45 min to Lecce, and 1 hr 20 min back to Monopoli on the highway.
Punta Prosciutto
First stop: Punta Prosciutto, on the Ionian coast (the west side of the heel). Yes, it means “Ham Point.” No, I don’t know why either.
The beach is beautiful. Soft white sand, and the water is super clear and also very shallow – you can walk out for minutes and still stand.
It seemed more like the Caribbean than Italy, and a huge contrast to the rough and rocky coastline on the Monopoli side.
Spend the morning here, grab lunch, then keep going south.
Gallipoli
About 50 minutes down the coast is Gallipoli. The name comes from the Greek Kallipolis, “beautiful city,” and it lives up to it.
The old town sits on its own little island, connected to the newer town by a bridge. Walk the old walls that wrap around the edge of the island, and stop at the Spiaggia della Purità, a small sandy beach tucked right below them.
Gallipoli is really nice, but don’t spend a ton of time here – because Lecce is the star of the show.
Lecce: The Star of the Show
It takes around 45 minutes to drive inland to Lecce. Aim to arrive by early evening and stay late. Have dinner here and drive back to Monopoli at night. You can thank me later.
Lecce is called the “Florence of the South”. And just as Florence is my favorite city in Northern Italy, Lecce became my favorite in the South.
The whole old town is absolutely stunning, with elaborately decorated buildings, beautiful open courtyards, and history everywhere.
The whole city has this warm golden color, which when combined with the ambient lighting at night produces an incredible effect.
Start in Piazza Sant’Oronzo, the main square. Half of it is taken up by a Roman amphitheatre from the 2nd century AD, which nobody knew was there until workers dug into it in 1901. Only part of it has been dug up; the rest is still under the buildings around the square.
Then grab a pasticciotto. This is the pastry of the region: shortcrust filled with warm custard. My advice for Puglia in general is to eat as many pasticciotti as humanly possible. The best one I had was from Pasticceria Natale, a couple of minutes from the square on Via Trinchese. Get one warm if you can.
From there, just walk. Two places you can’t miss:
- The Basilica di Santa Croce: the most famous building in Lecce, and the best example of Lecce’s Baroque style. Its facade took almost 150 years to finish, and once you see how much detail is carved into it, that makes sense.
- Piazza del Duomo: a huge square that’s closed in on all sides, so you only see it once you walk through the entrance. At night, with everything lit up, it’s honestly breathtaking.
Public Transport
Lecce is the easy part. It’s on the same train line as Monopoli, about 1 hour 10 minutes away on a direct train, and trains run from early morning until late at night (check times on Omio). So you can still stay for dinner. Just check when the last train back leaves.
Gallipoli is doable too. Regional trains and buses run from Lecce and take roughly 1 to 1.5 hours (Lecce to Gallipoli on Omio). That makes for a very long day, though, so I’d pick one or the other (pick Lecce).
Punta Prosciutto is the hard one. In summer, Salento in Bus runs beach buses from Lecce out to Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto, but it takes a while and the timetable changes every season. Without a car, I’d skip it and spend the extra time in Lecce.
Day Trip 4: Alberobello
You’ve likely seen Alberobello at some point on Instagram: a whole neighborhood of little white houses with cone-shaped stone roofs, called trulli.
It’s only about 30 minutes from Monopoli, and the drive is beautiful. You start on the coast and climb up into the hills of the Itria Valley, through olive groves and old stone walls, with trulli dotted around the fields. This is the one I’d do on a scooter if you can.
Go in the late afternoon and stay for sunset. During the day, the tour buses take over the town. By sunset most of them are gone, the light turns golden on the stone, and then the trulli light up. It feels like a completely different place.
We were lucky to have one of the most stunning sunsets I’ve ever seen when we were there. I’m not sure how much of it was the sunset itself, and how much was just the beauty of the town.
Honestly, both.
The History of the Trulli (and Some Fun Facts)
Trulli are made of stacked limestone with no mortar at all. The domed roofs are layers of flat stones, each ring a little smaller than the one below it, until they close at the top.
And there’s a great story about why. In the 1600s, the land here belonged to the Counts of Conversano, and the Kingdom of Naples taxed every new settlement. So the story goes that the Count had his peasants build their houses without mortar, so they could be taken apart quickly whenever the king’s inspectors came around. No town, no tax.
I wonder what the inspectors would’ve thought when they saw hundreds of stacked piles of stones all over the place. But it’s the story everyone in Alberobello will tell you.
Today a lot of the trulli are shops, bars and B&Bs. Wander up and down the streets of Rione Monti, and step inside one. The thick stone walls keep them cool even in August.
Note: One of the links above includes transportation from Monopoli, so it’s a great choice if you don’t have a car.
Public Transport
Alberobello is surprisingly difficult without a car. It’s only about 19 km from Monopoli, but there’s no direct train: the rail route needs at least one change and can take over two hours. Buses are faster, sometimes under an hour, but usually involve a change too (check buses on Omio).
And since the whole point is staying for sunset, you’d also need a late connection back. Honestly, the tour above with transport from Monopoli, or a taxi (about 30 minutes each way), is the easier way to do this one.
Day Trip 5: Matera
If you only do one day trip from Monopoli, make it Matera.
I’m serious. This is one of the most unique places I’ve ever been, and you will not see anything like it anywhere else. It’s technically just over the border in Basilicata, not Puglia, but it’s only about an hour and a half from Monopoli.
We drove by scooter, and it’s definitely doable. But for many, that’s a long ride, and you’ll likely be driving back at night – so make sure you’re comfortable with that.
Matera is built into the side of a ravine, and the old town (the Sassi) is a maze of houses, churches and staircases carved straight into the rock. People have lived in these caves since prehistoric times, which makes Matera one of the oldest inhabited places in the world.
From “the Shame of Italy” to James Bond
Matera’s history is wild. Until the 1950s, thousands of families still lived in the caves, often sharing a single room with their animals, with no running water or electricity. When the writer Carlo Levi described the poverty in his book Christ Stopped at Eboli, the country was shocked, and Italy’s politicians started calling the Sassi a “national shame.”
In the 1950s and 60s, the government moved around 15,000 people out into new housing, and the Sassi sat almost empty for decades.
Then it turned around completely. The Sassi became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, people started moving back, and the caves were slowly turned into hotels, restaurants and bars. In 2019, Matera was a European Capital of Culture.
Mel Gibson filmed The Passion of the Christ here, using Matera as ancient Jerusalem. And more recently, it was the setting for the opening of the James Bond film No Time to Die: watch the first few minutes and you’ll see Daniel Craig racing his Aston Martin through the Sassi, spinning in circles in the square, and hopping a motorcycle by the church.
Go in the Day, Stay for the Night
You need to see Matera both in daylight and after dark. They’re totally different vibes.
Get there in the afternoon. Wander down into the Sassi, go into a cave church or a casa grotta (a cave house set up the way families lived in it), and find a viewpoint for sunset. As the sun goes down, the whole city turns gold and pink.
Then stay. Once it gets dark, thousands of little lights come on across the caves. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in Italy. Have dinner in one of the cave restaurants, then walk the old town one more time before you drive back.
Matera is bigger than you realize at the beginning. Make sure to do a decent amount of walking through the old town to get the full picture. Allow yourself to get lost in the maze.
Public Transport
There’s no direct train to Matera, since it isn’t on the main Trenitalia network. The easiest way is the direct bus from Monopoli, which takes about an hour and a half (check buses on Omio).
The other option is the train to Bari, then the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane line from Bari to Matera. It takes longer, and parts of the line are sometimes replaced by buses.
Either way, check what time the last bus back leaves before you plan your evening. If you want to see Matera at night (and you do), it’s the perfect excuse to stay over.
Note: If you want to stay for the night, I highly recommend it. Especially if you want to sleep in one of the caves, which, as I’ve mentioned, have been transformed into these really quaint and charming boutique spaces. Check out availabilities on Booking.com.
Day Trip 6: Bari
I’ll be honest: Bari isn’t quite as necessary as the other day trips from Monopoli. It’s Puglia’s big city, and outside the old town it’s mostly that, a city. But it’s an easy half day, and two things make it worth the trip: the pasta street and the focaccia.
If you have a car, then great, but the train is faster anyway, so no worries if you don’t. Plus, you don’t have to deal with city traffic or parking.
Strada Arco Basso: The Orecchiette Street
Head into Bari Vecchia, the old town, and find Strada Arco Basso. Here, the local women set up tables right outside their front doors and make orecchiette (“little ears”), Puglia’s signature pasta, by hand. They roll and shape every piece with a knife and their thumb, incredibly fast, and lay them out on wooden trays to dry in the street.
Go in the morning, when they’re busiest. You can buy a bag to take back and cook at your place in Monopoli.
While you’re in the old town, stop at the Basilica di San Nicola. It holds the relics of Saint Nicholas, a.k.a. the original Santa Claus. In 1087, a group of sailors from Bari sailed to Myra (in modern-day Turkey) and took his remains, and the basilica was built to house them.
The Best Focaccia in Puglia
Now, the important part. Go to Panificio Fiore, a small bakery in the old town, and get a slice of focaccia barese: thick, crispy on the bottom, soaked in olive oil and topped with tomatoes and olives.
It was the best focaccia I had in Puglia, and I tried a lot of focaccia. Get there early, before it sells out.
Public Transport
Bari is the easiest of all. Direct trains from Monopoli run all day, take about 25 to 45 minutes, and cost from around €4 (check times on Omio). From Bari Centrale, the old town is about a 15–20 minute walk.
Final Thoughts
Monopoli is the perfect base for Puglia: beaches 10 minutes away, and lots of charming, historic, and incredibly unique towns close by.
If you only have time for two day trips from Monopoli, do Matera and Lecce, and stay into the night in both. If you have a sunset to spare in Alberobello, or an afternoon in Ostuni, go for it. And eat a pasticciotto every chance you get.
Offpath, my map app
Hidden spots. Real places.
Swimming holes, beaches with no name on Google Maps, waterfalls you have to hike to, and viewpoints with nobody else at them. All on one map.
Know a spot like this? Add it to the map, credited to you →
