Getting to Polignano a Mare is easy, and the one thing that catches people out is the car. This is a small cliff town on the Adriatic coast of Puglia, half an hour south of Bari by train, with a historic centre that is closed to traffic and enforced about it. Here is how to arrive, how to get around once you have, and where to go from here.
Arriving by train
This is the answer for most people.
Polignano sits on the Bari to Lecce coastal line and the service is frequent. From Bari Centrale the regional train takes roughly 25 to 40 minutes depending which one you catch, with the fastest around 24 minutes. Fares sit in the region of 3 to 5 euros, and there are about 35 direct trains a day.
The station is a walk from the historic centre, about ten to fifteen minutes on foot, downhill on the way in. No transfer, no ticket queue worth worrying about, nothing complicated.
If you are coming from further afield, connect through Bari. From Lecce it is a longer run up the same line. From Rome you take a fast train to Bari and change.
Arriving by air
Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport (BRI) is the one you want.
From the airport, take the shuttle or train into Bari Centrale and change onto the coastal line. Allow around an hour and a half door to door, more if you are unlucky with connections.
Brindisi airport also serves Puglia and is further away. If you are choosing flights, Bari is the convenient one for Polignano.
Arriving by car, and the thing you must know
The old town is a ZTL.
A zona a traffico limitato, a limited traffic zone. It is clearly signed, it is camera enforced, and fines in Puglia run 80 to 100 euros. Do not drive in to have a quick look or to drop bags. People do it every week and the ticket arrives at their home address months later.
Park outside and walk in. That is what everybody does, including people staying at hotels inside the walls.
The most convenient lot for the historic centre is Piazzale San Francesco, just south of the zone and easily reached from Via San Lorenzo. There is also a 220-space car park about seven minutes’ walk from Piazza Aldo Moro, charging around 1.50 euros an hour.
In July and August, arrive early or expect to circle. Parking in a town this size is finite.
Getting around once you are here
You walk. That is the whole system.
The historic centre is small, closed to cars and crossable in ten minutes. The furthest most visitors go on foot is Cala Paura, about a kilometre and a half out, or Cala Ponte Marina for the boats.
Wear shoes with grip. The limestone in the old town is polished smooth by several centuries of feet and it is genuinely slippery, particularly in leather soles and particularly after rain.
For anything beyond the town, the coastal train handles the seaside destinations and you want a car for the interior.
Day trip: Monopoli
A few minutes down the same coastal line, and the easiest thing you can do from here.
Monopoli is bigger than Polignano, less polished, and has a proper working harbour full of blue wooden boats. It has a real old town, a castle on the water and, importantly, better beaches than Polignano, because it has actual sand.
If Polignano feels like a film set on a busy day, Monopoli is the corrective. Half a day, easily.
Day trip: Bari
Half an hour north by train.
Bari Vecchia, the old city, is a dense knot of lanes where women make orecchiette on tables in the street and sell it to passers by. The Basilica di San Nicola holds relics that have drawn pilgrims from across Europe for nine hundred years. The seafront promenade is one of the great Italian evening walks.
Bari has a reputation as somewhere to pass through on the way to the airport. It deserves better than that. Give it a half day at least.
Day trip: Alberobello and the trulli
Inland, and you want a car or an organised tour.
Alberobello is the trulli town: thousands of conical drystone roofs packed into two districts, a UNESCO World Heritage site and completely unashamed about being a tourist destination. It is busy, it is commercial in places, and it is still worth seeing once because there is genuinely nothing else that looks like it.
Go early, walk the quieter Rione Aia Piccola as well as the busy Rione Monti, and get out before the middle of the day.
Day trip: Ostuni
The white town, stacked up a hill above a sea of olive groves, about an hour south.
Ostuni is the one people fall for. Whitewashed from top to bottom, medieval, tangled, with views across the plain to the Adriatic. It pairs naturally with Alberobello on a single day out by car, and it is the better of the two if you only pick one.
Day trip: Matera
Two hours or so each way, and honestly not a day trip.
Matera is the sassi: cave dwellings cut into a limestone ravine, continuously inhabited for millennia, evacuated in the 1950s as a national embarrassment and now a European Capital of Culture and one of the strangest, most beautiful places in Italy.
It is in Basilicata rather than Puglia and it is a completely different order of experience from the coast. Give it an overnight if you possibly can. Squeezed into a day trip it becomes a rushed walk through somewhere that deserves a slow one.
Which day trips are worth it
If you have one spare half day: Monopoli.
If you have one spare full day and a car: Ostuni and Alberobello together.
If you have one spare full day and no car: Bari.
If you have two nights spare: Matera, properly, not as a day trip.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get from Bari to Polignano a Mare?
By regional train from Bari Centrale, which takes roughly 25 to 40 minutes depending on the service, costs about 3 to 5 euros and runs around 35 times a day. The station is a ten to fifteen minute walk from the historic centre. It is far simpler than driving, because the old town is closed to cars anyway.
Can you drive into Polignano a Mare old town?
No. The historic centre is a limited traffic zone, clearly signed and camera enforced, and fines in Puglia run 80 to 100 euros. Park outside and walk in. Piazzale San Francesco, just south of the zone off Via San Lorenzo, is the convenient lot, and there is a 220-space car park about seven minutes from Piazza Aldo Moro at around 1.50 euros an hour.
Which airport is closest to Polignano a Mare?
Bari Karol Wojtyła Airport, about an hour and a half door to door via a shuttle or train into Bari Centrale and then the coastal line south. Brindisi also serves Puglia but is further away, so Bari is the practical choice if you are booking flights specifically for Polignano.
Do you need a car in Polignano a Mare?
Not for the town itself, which is small, walkable and closed to traffic. You want a car only if you plan to explore inland Puglia, particularly Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d’Itria, which are awkward by public transport. The coastal destinations like Monopoli and Bari are easy by train.
What is the best day trip from Polignano a Mare?
Monopoli if you have half a day, because it is minutes away by train, less polished and has better beaches. Ostuni if you have a full day and a car, because the white hill town is the one most people fall for. Matera is the most remarkable of them all but deserves an overnight rather than a day.
Read also: Where to Stay in Polignano a Mare | A Polignano a Mare Itinerary: One to Two Days | The Complete Guide to Polignano a Mare
