Specific Information About Our Puglia Biking Adventure
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Puglia Biking Adventure :: May 24 - 29, 2016 Meeting & Finishing Times & Places We meet on the first day of the trip at 1:00 PM in the lobby of the Hotel Corte Altavilla in the town of Conversano, about an hour from Bari. You should plan to eat lunch before our meeting. After brief introductions, we will begin our biking right from the hotel. Unless you arrived the night before, your room might not be ready, and you should have your helmet available and be dressed in your biking clothes. The tour will end in the morning on the last day of the tour with a final ride, showers, and then a shuttle to the Polignano a Mare train station, which is only 30 minutes and a few Euros from central Bari. When and Where to Arrive & Depart All flights to Italy from North America are overnight “red eye” flights. If you are not spending much time in Italy prior to the tour, we suggest you book a flight directly to Bari, which will require a connection (most likely but not always in Rome). Because you need to go through immigration, pick up your luggage, and make your way to Conversano from the airport, it will be difficult for you to fly from the United States on May 23 and meet the group on time on May 24. Instead, you might plan to arrive in Italy at least the day prior to the tour start. This extra day, in addition to giving you time to reach Conversano, should also allow you to recover from the international flight. If you do arrive early, we recommend you book a room for the night before the tour (May 23) at the Hotel Corte Altavilla in Conversano (the same hotel we will stay in the first night of the tour). If you will be spending extra time (for example in Rome) prior to the tour, you can also take a train to Bari. Departing from Italy, you will again likely not have the opportunity to take a flight home on the last day of the tour. Instead, at minimum you should plan to spend one extra night in Italy and fly out the next day, either from Bari or Rome. If you fly out from Rome, you can take a train from Bari (four+ hours) or take the short flight from Bari to Rome. Because the airports in both Bari and Rome are outside the city center, the train is actually a nice option. Pre-Tour and Post-Tour Transportation If you choose to fly in early or depart late, you will also need to arrange transportation. Prior to the tour: If you arrive at Bari Airport and are heading to downtown Bari, the easiest way is to take a taxi, which should cost around E20. You don’t need a reservation. Just go outside the terminal and use one of the official taxis. If you wish to skip Bari and head straight to Conversano (which is what we recommend since Conversano is a nicer town), you have a variety of options: The easiest, but most expensive, option is to take a taxi, which will cost you approximately E65. If you are staying at our Conversano hotel (Hotel Corte Altavilla) the night before the trip, you can ask them to arrange a private transfer for you. The cost for this is approximately 70 euros for 2 – 3 people. You can email them directly to arrange this and confirm times and pricing: [email protected] Page 1 of 12 PUGLIA BIKING PRE-DEPARTURE INFORMATION Copyright Zephyr Adventures Puglia Biking Adventure :: May 24 - 29, 2016 A cheaper option is to book a private airport transfer in advance using a service such as http://www.airportcitytransfer.com, or www.shuttledirect.co.uk which is reasonably priced, especially for small groups. You may also try www.autoserviziamodio.com, a licensed private car & driver service based in Puglia. There is also a privately-operated railroad (http://www.fseonline.it), which serves Conversano from the central Bari station. You’ll need to walk several hundred meters from the station to the hotel. Please note this train does not run on Sundays! After the tour: We will drop you at the Polignano a Mare train station for the half hour train ride to the Bari central train station. You don’t need to reserve this train in advance and it costs only a couple of Euros. You can expect to reach Bari by 12:30 PM. If you plan to fly directly from Bari back home to the US, you probably won’t be able to reach home that day and should plan to spend another night in Bari or Rome. If you are continuing to Rome, you can do so by train (four+ hours) or take a train or taxi to the Bari airport for the short flight to Rome. If you need to reach the airport early or will be traveling to central Bari you can take a taxi from our final hotel in Polignano a Mare. The hotel can arrange this for you the day before you depart. There is also a train (www.trenitalia.com) running to central Bari that takes 30 minutes and costs only a couple Euros. If you wish to rent a car for travels in the area after the tour, which is the best way to get around southern Italy, you might consider using the broker www.autoeurope.com, which works with major rental companies but usually has better prices. There are no major rental companies in either Conversano or Polignano a Mare, so your best bet is to rent a car in Bari. Delays In Your Travel Plans If you happen to get delayed and can’t meet us at the appointed time, please do one of the following: 1. Call our first hotel, the Corte Altavilla: 011-39-080 495 9668 from the US, or 080 495 9668 within Italy. 2. You can also try leaving a message at our office in the United States (888-758-8687) but we are not guaranteed to receive this promptly. 3. We will include specific guide contact information (mobile number and/or email address) in our pre-tour email to the group, generally sent out two weeks prior to the start of the trip. We will be spending the first day and night in Conversano, so you’ll have time to catch up with the group if you are delayed, although you may miss some of the activities. Possible Pre-Tour and Post-Tour Travels If you have the time, it is certainly worth extending your tour in southern Italy. Here are a few ideas for you to consider: Bari is the capital of the province of Puglia and is a main economic center for southern Italy: a university town with an important port. That said, it probably is not worth using it for more than a quick stopover before or after the tour. For lodging, we can recommend the Hotel Boston (www.bostonbari.it) at Via Niccolò Piccinni, a large hotel that is perfectly located in central Bari. It is three-stars, nice but not luxurious. It is next to the old city, the castle, and the cathedral but 1.1 kilometers from the central train station, so you’ll either need to walk or take a taxi if you arrive by train. You can reserve your room directly on the hotel’s website. Rome is a fantastic city that should not be missed if you have never been there. It is filled with cultural, historical, and architectural sights. While the city is huge and at first daunting, the central district is quite Page 2 of 12 PUGLIA BIKING PRE-DEPARTURE INFORMATION Copyright Zephyr Adventures Puglia Biking Adventure :: May 24 - 29, 2016 manageable on foot with a good map. If you only have a day or two extra, a good option would be to arrange a layover in Rome. You can get from the airport to the center of Rome via bus or train (Leonardo Express to Stazione Termini). We recommend you reserve a hotel in advance, and choose a hotel in the city center. The Gargano Peninsula and Gargano National Park is located a few hours north of Bari. Jutting out into the Adriatic Sea, the peninsula is rocky, forested, and beautiful. It is a well-known tourist area and so there are plenty of hotels and restaurants. You’ll need a car to see the area. We don’t go south of Ostuni on our tour, so heading to the southern tip of Puglia is an interesting option. Check it out on a map and you’ll see why this area is called the heel of the boot. It is only a three-hour drive from Bari to the southernmost point. For a longer extension, we love the idea of visiting Sicily. You’ll want several days to explore the island. You can fly from Bari (via a connection in Rome) to one of the major airports (such as Palermo or Catania) in Sicily. Alternatively, you can drive to Sicily: it is six hours from Bari to Sicily by car and you can rent a car in Bari at the end of the tour, drive to and spend time in Sicily, and then fly out of Sicily. Purchasing International Airline Tickets With a little searching, you should be able to find an affordable ticket to Italy. Go to the transportation page of our website for suggestions on surfing the web to buy plane tickets.