Puglia in September 2023 - Porto Cesareo Trip Report

We visited Porto Cesareo the last week in September 2023 so this trip report refers to that time of the year. We have travelled a lot in Puglia but this was the first longer stay in this part of the Salento region and we enjoyed our it very much.

1. We were in an apartment to the north of the town, just before the first sandy beach and so we liked the fact we could get to the centre on foot. Heading south towards the town, just at the end of ‘our’ road a paved footpath along the rocks took us to the first car park and playground area and harbour which was all very clean and pretty. Small boats, low rise buildings, palm trees, ducks. The seafront is very attractive and makes a longish walk south all the way round past the tower and the ‘island’ towards the small beach and beyond. This was our favourite late afternoon, waiting for the sunset, walk. Often enlivened, once we’d discovered it by a stop at ‘Dolci Tramonti’ for coffee and ‘spumone’ - a typical ice-cream dessert of the area.

2. Food. One of the reasons we love Puglia is the food. Porto Cesareo excels in fish. Apart from the large number of Pescherie packed with different types of fish at very reasonable prices open morning and afternoon and even on Sunday, in the small harbour a few local fisherman arrive with their small boats about 8 or 9 a.m. We also found a good bakery Muci Maria Addolorata which also does gastronomia. We tried just bread, rustici leccesi and parmigiana di melanzane bcause we only discovered it a few days into our stay. There’s a market on a Thursday.

4. Porto Cesareo makes a good base to visit these places by car:

Galatina

Manduria

Gallipoli – Porto Selvaggio

Copertino

Lecce

all of which we visited, and Galatone and Nardò, which we didn’t.

5. The sea is all they say the sea in Salento is……clean….transparent… splendid. Just look at the photos on Google. Then have another look at the photos….of the sea…..yes…. the sea….because the beach is not the sea. See(hah) what I mean? To be fair we arrived from Vieste, kilometres of spectacular enormous empty beaches. The beaches along this stretch of coast are narrow. Some of the famous ones you read about if you write ‘best beaches in Salento or near Porto Cesareo’ on Google are just a narrow strip of sand in front of that beautiful sea. Put ten people on the Torre Chianca ‘beach’ or cove, and it felt crowded to us. I might go back to the area for the sea, but not for the ‘beaches’, even if the sand is white(ish). Some of the Lidos were already closed, most were still open the last week in September.

Conclusion At the end of September we found Porto Cesareo large enough to have everything we needed without being chaotic and full of day-trippers like Gallipoli. We enjoyed our week very much and definitely hope to return.