Puglia Full-Day Tour: Bari, Trulli of Alberobello, Castel del Monte and Sassi of Matera

This tour was beautiful however we felt rushed at the end and would have liked to stay at Matera longer. I think it's too much in one day. The guide was perfect person for the tour but I would recommend staying away from talking about politics with clients. Politics are a sensitive subject.

This is a difficult review to write. We had booked this full day tour only a day before we arrived at Bari and had it confirmed for an 8am start for what was an 8 hour tour. The guide rang us at our hotel at 8pm the night before the tour to say that because we had booked so late, he could not pick us up at 8 but if we wanted to go ahead with the tour he could start at 2pm. As it was that or no tour and we had no More time in Puglia we agreed. On the day he rang us from reception at about 1.20pm to say he was there. All of the above was very unsatisfactory but we agreed not to make any issue and just enjoy the experience. Overall the tour was interesting and enjoyable and as we were the only tourists we sat in the front of our guide's mini bus/people mover. Castel del Monte was interesting but took too long because you need to catch a special bus from the car park to the castle and on the way back we had to miss two buses because they were overcrowded with big tour groups. That put us behind schedule and we arrived at Matera close to dusk. Matera is Magic and we would have liked to spend more time there but obviously were were running against the clock. Within 30 minutes of leaving Matera it was dark and we assumed the trip would be cut short but found ourselves in Alberobello about an hour later. Fortunately, the truly area was still alight and alive with people which in itself gave a different perspective from seeing it in daylight. But again, by this time it was about 8pm and we still had an hour's drive back to Bari, which we did at a rather fast speed, or so it seemed to us but maybe that was normal. We arrived back at our hotel At about 9pm. It had been a long and tiring day but we were glad we got to see Matea and Alborabello especially. In summary , our guide was clearly passionate and committed to his region Puglia and was informative and good company. However, I think the itinerary is too ambitious and would suggest that the castle be deleted.