Cheap Puglia Holidays for Couples: what to avoid, and where to go
- Christopher White
- Jun 12
- 13 min read
Updated: Jul 29
Going on holiday anywhere can be a real sinkhole for your hard earned cash, and that includes even the south of Italy. Despite its traditional reputation in the south as more rural, rustic and affordable, a Puglia holiday can rack up some impressive euro debits on your bank account if you’re not careful.
I’ve already written about all the ways you can explore Puglia on a budget – but what if you’re just looking for decent, cheap Puglia holidays for couples?
There are definitely ways you can find those sorts of cheap Puglia holidays, and I’m here for it. I’ve always loved finding a bargain, and this blog post is based on 15 years of that sort of mindset when I’ve visited Puglia!
What to look for in a cheap Puglia holiday for couples
The cost of living effect is real – and whether you and your partner are living together or not, holidays abroad are expensive. As a single person, I was more than happy staying with my friends on a manky futon in their living room, but now as I’ve grown older and gradually become more of a snob (and become un-single), I want our holidays to Puglia to be cheap, and include at least some elements of a decent standard of living that I'm used to back at home.
That would rule out staying in hostels or dorms. And whilst public transport is going to be your cheapest bet of getting around, it does limit your experience of Puglia to the train and bus times available (not terrible during July and August, but certainly limited outside of these months).
All in all, I’d say a cheap Puglia holiday for a couple might include these criteria – which are all eminently possible:
Flights: under £100 return per person
Accommodation: total spend of under £200 per person per week
Travel: car hire under £100 total for a week – or using public transport
Food & drink: total spend of under £150 per person per week
Total per person: under £500 per person, per week
How to do cheap Puglia holidays for couples
Let’s get into how you’re going to do your couples holiday to Puglia on the cheap – whilst still maintaining a semblance of normality:
Avoid package holidays
The first thing to say is: avoid package holidays by tour operators. Not only will you get a watered down experience of Puglia, but there will be people taking a cut from your trip. So undoubtedly you’ll be paying more for your holiday.
Instead, go for the DIY approach, as it’ll be much more enjoyable if you explore and make the holiday your own! Puglia is a place which is to be explored, as it has so many beautiful places to visit and experience. Sure, you can simply find an all-inclusive to stay in all week, but you'd be missing out on so much that Puglia has to offer, and eating in the hotel restaurant every night instead of exploring the thousands of fantastic local restaurants - you might as well find a cheap all-inclusive resort in Greece if that's what you're looking for.
Find cheap flights to Puglia
I can only speak as someone who’s flown from the UK, but there are some key elements to making your flights super affordable:
Fly to Bari or Brindisi from Stansted – as long as you don’t mind the crazy early flight times
Don’t take paid baggage: become an expert at taking as little as possible, and invest in a Ryanair or Easyjet-friendly bag which will go under the seat in front of you. If you travel from June to August, chances are that you won't need lots of clothing anyway - and many Airbnb's have washing machines for a mid-stay clothes wash.
Fly outside of peak months: July and August, and parts of June and September are all quite expensive, as are school holidays. If you can, try going during May, early June, late September or October – the weather will still be really nice and it will be less touristy. And flights are much cheaper of course.
Avoid other extras with the airline: don’t be tempted to get priority boarding – it’s a waste of money. If you do really need to sit together, when you do the free online check in, just pay to move one of you next to the other’s free seat allocation.
Get cheap car hire – or take public transport
I write about this on my Puglia Budget Travel Guide blog post – so I won’t repeat it here. But in essence it's about visiting Puglia in the shoulder months (April, May, September, October), when there will be much less demand for rental cars, so prices will be lower. And it’ll be lower still if you can drive a manual rather than automatic – and get third party excess insurance rather than pay for the company’s own.
Buses and trains are fine – and cheap – in Puglia. But they won’t enable you to explore the region fully…although you can still get around, and the train does go all the way along the Adriatic coast from Bari to Lecce.
Find cheap food and drink in Puglia
There is a certain juxtaposition with the food and drink in Puglia. With the south of Italy – especially Puglia – being home to ‘cucina povera’ (meaning essentially ‘poverty cooking’), much of its traditional food, like orecchiette pasta, cime di rapa, taralli, sea urchins and the like, has for hundreds of years been eaten because it was so cheap (and produced locally).
But the food culture of Puglia is well known also for its quality and innovation, and there are plenty of Michelin-starred and other fancy restaurants in the region. That means that you can easily blow 100 euro per person on a meal, with wine – and that’s just something I think is wrong! Especially as there are lots of local trattoria in smaller towns where you can eat your bodyweight in antipasti for just 20 euro a head.
For instance, Al Caminetto in Carovigno, where my father and I had about two tables full of antipasto and wine for 20 euro each. And in Ceglie Messapica, Vini Fritti e Cucina, again only 20 euro per head for all the antipasti you can eat, including wine. On a side street in Mesagne, L’Incontro serves amazingly tasty traditional food, again at unbelievably prices – and not a tourist in sight.
Stay away from the main tourist drags, avoid anywhere with someone outside holding a menu and trying to get you to go inside (that's good advice the world over).
Often we just find a restaurant on Google Maps – anything from 4.2 stars upwards is going to be great in Puglia – so find a cheap one with a decent rating and you won’t be disappointed.
Finding cheap accommodation in Puglia: what to avoid
Whilst there are plenty of amazing villas, trulli and other rentals available, they are sometimes quite pricey. But the glory of Puglia being very much a tourist destination is that there are loads of very affordable places to stay on your cheap Puglia holiday – from rooms in B&Bs, to studio apartments or even countryside villas.
Many of the cheaper ones are family-run, so whilst you might not get a pool or luxury fittings, you could find yourself with very attentive hosts who make you breakfast every morning and are proud to have you stay with them!
Avoid staying in luxury accommodation
If you’re not bothered about luxury in your accommodation, this will make your holiday so much cheaper.
Puglia’s accommodation has a couple of styles in my opinion: first, the expensive, luxurious and clean pales & whites type with ultra-modern luxury fittings; and second, the classic ‘this was my grandmother’s house’ type style. The latter will be so much cheaper, but you will feel like you got on a plane to the 1980s. Still, everything will work, and be sufficient for your stay!
Avoid staying in the centro storico – and trulli!
Everybody wants to either stay in the centro storico (‘historical centre’) or a delightful little trullo. But I have news for you: old towns, although beautiful, are just not accessible for your rental car, and you’ll end up parking miles away, or spending money on car parks (or even worse, getting stuck in the narrow lanes – which has happened to me). Plus of course they are much more expensive.
Obviously trulli are the typical Pugliese rural stone houses, and their quirkiness makes many a tourist want to stay there. But in my experience, they tend to be quite small, and hot (unless you have air conditioning). Instead, stay in a villa (often called ‘lamie’) which is basically a modern bungalow. Some properties have both trulli and lamie joined together, as modern times caught up with old.
Best budget lamie (villa) stays for couples:
1. Villa Beatrice, Serranova (from £80 per night - I've actually stayed here, and it's just a 10 minute drive from the beach)
2. Oasi della pace, Bisceglie (from £66 per night)
3. Villino Monte Sant'Angelo, Otranto (from £56 per night)
4. Alchimia SPA & Centro Benessere, Mesagne (from £38 per night)
Avoid staying in expensive touristy destinations
If you want to stay in Ostuni – fine. It’s a beautiful city, and from a vibe point of view it does feel like you’re in the most Pugliese of places. But it’s extremely popular with tourists, and as a result you will find that it’s more expensive than other towns.
Instead, find more ‘local’ destinations, like Ceglie Messapica, which is just a 15 minute drive from Ostuni, and much more affordable – for both accommodation, and food and drink. Another great alternative to staying in Ostuni, if you want cheap Puglia holidays for couples, is Carovigno - just down the road from la citta bianca, and a 10 minute drive to the beach. Its centro is really quite pretty and the prices here are much lower than Ostuni.
For example, at a bar near the piazza in Ostuni, you might pay 10 euro for a negroni – but in Ceglie, from a bar-café overlooking its lovely little piazza, you’ll pay half that. And just around the corner in Ceglie, there is a little restaurant which could be my favourite in all of Italy, Vini Fritti e Cucina, where antipasti, wine, dolce and digestivo will only set you back about 20-25 euros per person. In Ostuni, you’ll be paying double that.
The same goes for Polignano a Mare – which draws visitors in their thousands – and as a result, is expensive to stay in, and eat and drink. A cheaper alternative might be Monopoli, which is just down the road, and still on the coast.
Another expensive town you could avoid is Cisternino. It’s known as the place where rich Italians like to go on their holidays – and whilst it’s really pretty, it’s also expensive. Instead, try staying near Locorotondo or Martina Franca, both of which are not far away.
Alberobello is another town which I’d suggest avoid staying in, or near – because of the sheer number of visitors. It was the scene of possibly the most stressful sightseeing visit I’ve ever done, in the heat of a July Saturday a few years ago: utter carnage, with coaches, cars and pedestrians. Instead, make sure you visit early or late to avoid the crowds, and choose Locorotondo for your stay, which is a short drive and in my view, just as pretty (and it has better views).
If you do want to stay in those places listed above, try and find somewhere just outside of the centro storico, as apartments there may be better value, just off the main tourist drag.
Cheaper alternatives to stay in:
Ostuni > stay in Ceglie Messapica, or Carovigno
Polignano a Mare > stay in Monopoli
Cisternino > stay in Martina Franca or Locorotondo
Alberobello > stay in Locorotondo
Cheap accommodation in Ceglie Messapica
Options for cheap stays for couples:
Villa Adelaide (with pool, from £64 per night)
Antiqua Nova (from £59 per night)
Domus Petra 96 (from £59 per night)
Suite la Perla (from £64 per night)
Cheap accommodation in Carovigno
Options for cheap stays for couples in Carovigno:
BED&BREAD Piazza 'Nzegna (from £59 per night)
B&B CASAVACANZE CHIESA MADRE (from £59 per night)
B&B Demetra (from £79 per night)
Al Ristoro (from £51 per night - this is in Torre Santa Sabina nearby, and next to the beach)
Monopoli
Options for cheap stays for couples in Monopoli:
Casa Don Peppi (from £78 per night)
acquachiara (from £83 per night)
Dimora Dondona (from £99 per night)
Suite Monopoli (from £93 per night)
Martina Franca
Options for cheap stays for couples in Martina Franca:
Casetta Monti del Duca (from £53 per night)
Vittò (from £58 per night)
La casa di Babele (from £74 per night)
La dimora di zio Nino (from £66 per night)
Locorotondo
Options for cheap stays for couples in Locorotondo:
Suite centro storico (from £62 per night)
Bed & Breakfast La Collinetta (from £52 per night)
Da Giò (from £79 per night)
Nonno Pasquale house (from £78 per night)
Stay in other lesser-known towns
Two towns which I highly recommend considering if you want a cheap Puglia holiday for couples are Mesagne, and Brindisi. I’ve even written a separate blog post about why I think they’re the undiscovered gems of Puglia!
Mesagne (pronounced just like lasagne, but with more ‘meh’) is actually a great strategic location for your trip, as it’s close to Brindisi – practically the gateway to the Salento peninsula – and close enough to the Adriatic coast to be on the beach within 30 minutes. It’s also an easy route to Grottaglie (the city of ceramics), and a short hop up to Ostuni if you do want to explore. The town’s centre is actually super cute, and has quite a few modern little bars. You’ll also be avoiding swathes of tourists – it’s mostly locals here, and as such the prices are so much more reasonable. The only drawback is that because it’s inland, it gets even hotter here then the coast. Which probably won’t be a problem if you’re at the beach all day.
Options for cheap stays for couples in Mesagne:
Perla Suite (from £57 per night)
Terrae Rooms Rental (from £55 per night)
Castrum Rooms (from £41 per night)
Puro (from £36 per night)
Brindisi, as I discovered recently, is another untapped source of charm in Puglia. I’d flown into the airport tens of times, but never actually ventured into the town itself. What I found was an old town packed full of baroque churches, a delightful promenade along the harbour, wide avenues of cafes and shops, and again, mostly locals. In Brindisi you’ll still find nice holiday properties, but they will cost a lot less than those in towns like Ostuni.
Options for cheap stays for couples in Brindisi:
Asariel Splendido appartamento (from £63 per night)
Verso Oriente (from £55 per night)
Le Palme Holiday Home (from £63 per night)
Lorenzo Luxury House (from £68 per night)
Trani: whilst I’ve only been here once, some friends were renting an apartment by the coast and absolutely loved it. It isn’t really on the tourist trail, but has charm in bucketloads. You can also get the train here from Bari.
Options for cheap stays for couples in Trani:
I Colori della Puglia Rooms (from £91 per night)
LA CASETTA Di GUENDALINA (from £65 per night)
Casa Romito (from £61 per night)
Edward Rooms & Wellness B&B (from £90 per night)
Lecce: an old university town, there are lots of young students here, and that lends itself (somewhat like Bologna in the north) to a great vibe. Unlike other Puglia towns, it’s also not based on a hill – and the train station is in the town itself (unlike Ostuni or Carovigno for instance). Perfect for getting a cheap apartment to enjoy all the lovely little bars and restaurants.
Options for cheap stays for couples in Lecce:
BnB FICO (from £94 per night)
Damasa Rooms (from £58 per night)
Luz de Salento B&B (from £55 per night)
Dimora Giusti (from £79 per night)
Cheap Puglia holidays for couples: they’re absolutely possible!
Hopefully this blog has given you food for thought. With cost of living prices increasing, it’s a great idea to attenuate your travel plans accordingly – and it’s possible to navigate the landscape of expensive tourist traps to find an experience that will give you an authentic Pugliese stay – whilst also being a cheap Puglia holiday for couples. Happy holiday planning!
Did you enjoy this blog post? If you did, I'd really appreciate if you could share it on social media, or with your friends and family. My mission is to reach as many people as possible with my passion for Puglia - and I've written this from a place of love. By sharing this blog, you'll be helping me carry on doing that. Thank you!
You might be interested in my Travel Guide: 7 Day Puglia Holiday Itinerary (for flying into Bari)
Do you need something a little bit different?
I can help you with a custom travel itinerary for Puglia. Just send me a message and I'll be pleased to help!
Commentaires