Cycling Puglia & Matera

Excellent tour.

Have just returned from a brilliant 8 days with a great fun group of people. Its a beautiful part of Italy with plenty of pretty towns and villages that differ from one to the next and great mixture of peaceful countryside and coastal views. The bikes were very comfortable, with gel seats and easy to ride. Everything was very well organised and the staff at every hotel were welcoming and friendly and getting our rooms every day was quick and efficient which is so important after a long day in the saddle! The food was fantastic and I tried so many things I haven't tasted or heard of before! The afternoon at the farm location with the most stunning pool is a real treat after a very hot ride! There is plenty of spare time at the end of the ride of a few days or that could have been because we had an efficient group that all kept up. Nobody was particularly super quick or slow and our leader kept a good pace the whole week.

Emanuele was an excellent guide. He went above and beyond to create a truly memorable cycling trip for all the people on the tour. This trip is a photographers mecca, the towns we visited were so unique, beautiful scenery and visiting UNESCO world heritage sites. An excellent group of like minded people whose company we all enjoyed sharing a laugh over a beer at the end of the day.The roads we cycled were very beautiful, mostly very quiet and a couple of days were more challenging with the hills but quite manageable. The accommodations were truly memorable from Sassi to Trulli to a Convent.

As a novice to cycling the group could not have been more supportive and helpful in getting me to learn the joy of gears. Thank you one and all. Matera and the Puglia region are fabulous if you get the chance to visit SE Italy do. Matera and Leece are candidates for European Capital of Culture 2019 and both would be worthy winners. Leece would pip it for me because of the architectural ruins. The Adriatic coast is beautiful and the smell of liquorice on the wind is amazing.

Beautiful countryside, just the right amount of challenging hills, and amazing food and drinks - what more could you ask for? This trip is so well planned to see the best that Puglia has to offer. Matera is a must see (we spent a couple extra nights there and HIGHLY recommend it if you can), but the real gem here is the countryside full of olive groves, old farmhouses, small towns, and beautiful sea views. Our personal favorite parts were the small towns we stopped in daily for a cappuccino breaks - you won't see these places from a bus. Our group leader (Manny) made the trip unforgettable - he kept a good pace, told us just the right amount of history about the area, and made sure we well fed and taken care of. While we didn't require van support - we always knew he was there if needed - and brought fresh snacks (and water) daily to all our stops. Of course the highlight for us was staying at Maseria Bosco (day 4) - the old farmhouse was the perfect place to stay for the evening, surrounded by olive groves, and the restaurant was amazing. Thanks to all the recommendations and support from Exodus before our trip - we got engaged this night, they went above and beyond to make it perfect!

Excellent rating for the leader and route. However a few hotels were damp and musty due to the early date of holiday.The first and last hotels were by far the best.

We had 6 fabulous days of cycling through amazing sceneries and villages . Always changing , never the same always exciting to get to a new place discovering different foods, wines , gelatto flavours!

A wonderful trip with a dedicated and passionate guide, Antonio, who was determined to ensure we experienced the best in the safest possible way. It was reassuring when he would direct the traffic at tricky intersections. Pierrot was his conscientious and polite offsider. The itinerary was carefully selected to showcase amazing locations, cultural experiences, landscapes and history. The Sassi, Trulli were only two stand outs in a landscape of fields splashed with red poppies and yellow, pink, and white wild flowers. The accommodation was generally good to very good. The price of food, the coffee, aperitifs and gelato was so cheap compared to the north and our home country.

This was my third cycling holiday with Exodus and I can't wait to book the next one. Once again, I chose somewhere where I had no previous knowledge, thus making it a bit of an 'Adventure. Inevitably slightly apprehensive about how well I would fit in to a group of sixteen people that I had never met before. My worries were needless; we all got on famously and just got on with enjoying the well organised trip. Great hotels, food and wine. Distances not too challenging, although the heat was at times. All breaks, rest stops and overnights were entirely adequate. Important to bear in mind that this is first and foremost a cycling holiday. There were many occasions when, as a keen photographer, I would like to have stopped but that wouldnt have been fair on the 'Back Marker'.

This was a hugely enjoyable trip made by our delightful and knowledgeable guide, Marinella Bozzetti . The tour took us through beautiful countryside and fascinating historic towns and the distances and hills were reasonable for regular cyclists with a good level of fitness. I would rate the trip as excellent but felt our tour guide could have done with more back up - at the very least there should be a spare bike of equivalent standard so that bikes could easily be replaced if necessary.