Cycling Holidays in Puglia: A Self-Guided Multi-Day Trip Built Around You

A cycling holiday built around your dates, not a fixed departure

This page covers one thing: a complete multi-day cycling trip in Salento, from two days up to a week, always starting and finishing in Lecce. It's different from a straight bike rental, where you get the bike and plan everything yourself, and different from a single day out on our self-guided bike tours in Puglia page, which covers half-day and full-day routes. Here, the bike, the route for every day and the planning around it come together as one trip.

You tell us where you'd like to ride and how many days you have. We propose an itinerary and a quote. Every trip is self-guided: you ride at your own pace on a route we've built for you, with the GPX file for each day, printed notes as backup and my phone number the whole way. Nobody from SalentoBike rides with you, and you book your own rooms — we're happy to point you to places we know along the route. For a shorter version of the same idea, see self-guided bike tours in Salento and bike routes from Lecce.

Most multi-day cycling trips we looked at for Puglia quote one total price for a fixed group departure and a set itinerary, and several list a starting point outside Salento. Here the trip always starts and finishes in Lecce, the days are whatever you choose, and the route is built around you — not a slot on someone else's calendar.

How it works

1. Tell us roughly where you'd like to ride and for how many days — a stretch of coast, a specific town you want to reach, or simply "as much of Salento as we can cover in five days".
2. We propose an itinerary with daily distances, based on routes we already use, and give you a price.
3. We build each day's route, prepare the GPX files and the printed notes, and tell you which places to stay we'd pick along the way.
4. We confirm the bike size and the pickup point in Lecce, and send the final plan before you arrive.

Possible starting points for your itinerary

These aren't fixed itineraries — they're routes we already know well, useful as a starting point for a conversation about your trip. We'll adjust the distances, the number of days and the level of climbing to match your dates and fitness.

The Two Seas loop. A loop from Lecce out to San Cataldo, San Foca, the Le Cesine wetland reserve, Roca Vecchia, Torre dell'Orso, Calimera, Copertino and Porto Cesareo, back to Lecce — 115.7 km (71.9 miles), 391 m of climbing, close to flat, mostly on asphalt provincial roads. Distance and elevation from the Tour dei Due Mari route on piste-ciclabili.com. For a week-long holiday we'd typically split this over two riding days, with rest and sightseeing days built around it, or extend it further south.

The Litoranea, Otranto to Santa Maria di Leuca. 52.6 km (32.7 miles), 430 m of climbing, asphalt throughout — provincial road SP358, the last 8 km on SP87. Distances from bici.style. This works well as one strong day within a longer trip, with nights either side in Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca. Worth knowing: this stretch is the subject of an active roadworks project by the Provincia di Lecce to add dedicated cycle-path sections — rideable today, but we check the current state of the road before every departure.

An extension into Valle d'Itria. If you want a second landscape within the same week, the Ciclovia dell'Acquedotto Pugliese offers roughly 22 km (13.7 miles) of dedicated, traffic-free gravel path through Valle d'Itria, north of Salento proper. Source: Regione Puglia. It adds a day of travel each way, so it fits better in a week-long trip than a short one.

Tell us which of these appeals, or describe the trip you have in mind, and we'll work out days and distances from there.

Prices

Every multi-day trip is quoted on request, because the price depends on the number of days, the bike and the route. The published day rates for shorter self-guided routes are on self-guided bike tours in Salento: from €90 per person for a half day, from €100 per person for a full day. Rooms are booked by you, so they're not part of our quote.

Included — bike for the trip (road, gravel or e-bike, your choice) · helmet, lock, lights, bags and pump · repair kit and spare inner tube · a route for every day, built around your dates · GPX files and printed route notes · a briefing before you set off · my phone number for the whole trip.

Extra on request, priced individually and confirmed when you enquire: delivery to your accommodation, extras such as SPD pedals or a second e-bike battery.

Where your holiday starts and finishes

Every multi-day trip starts and finishes at our base in Lecce, Via Francesco Ribezzo 2D. You can call or message us any time — our phone line, +39 320 4864478, is answered 24/7. Depending on the route, the actual meeting point on day one can be Lecce, San Foca or Calimera, or another location by arrangement; we confirm it once the itinerary is set. Pickup at our three bike depots is free; delivery elsewhere is priced on distance.

Before you go

Salento's secondary roads carry little traffic outside town centres, but the routes above run on shared carriageway rather than dedicated cycle paths, aside from the short Acquedotto Pugliese section. Water refill points are limited between towns, especially along the Two Seas and Litoranea routes, so they're marked on each day's notes rather than left to chance.

For help planning the rest of the trip — getting to Lecce, where to stay before or after your riding days — see our Salento travel guide. For background on the towns these routes pass through, including Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca, see our guide to the best places to visit in Puglia.