Cycling Puglia & Matera

I have just returned from a fantastic week, exceptionally well organised and led by Michele our superb guide. Through his infectious laugh, confident and approachable manner he quickly developed an excellent group spirit. It was great to cycle through such a rich and varied landscape, visiting many UNSECO sites. He found amazing restaurants for us to eat at every night and organised a fantastic array of dishes for us to try. He was well informed about all the places we visited and for those that wanted to he would show us around.

Sara was an outstanding guide who enhanced our trip.

From the very start my wife and I were warmly welcomed by our guide Emanuele and our other 12 cycling companions. We had done a couple of other cycling holidays but this was our first with Exodus and with a leader who cycled with us along the way. Emanuele was fantastic - nothing was too much trouble for him, he has a great sense of humour and knows when to use diffent options when things might not go as expected. His vast experence meant that we visited places we would never have found ourselves - absolutely beautiful villages, landscapes and places to enjoy Italys wonderful food and drink. The cycling was on mainly good surfaces and well paced each day so that no one felt left out. Our group quickly became friends enjoying each others company and watching out for those inevitable potholes! We will definitely do another Exedous trip - we throughly reccommend it!

The sun shone,the bikes were sturdy to cope with the bumpy roads and the food was outstanding. After a long and undulating first day I thought I'd never keep up. But my legs did get used to the speed of the others and the hills became just a small challenge. A great holiday with lovely people.

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 fabulous, but not too difficult cycling trip through Puglia, stopping off in lovely hilltop towns and other places of interest. Sampling delicious local food. Varied accommodation. Great scenery.

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.

A varied trip with great cycling opportunities, mostly off main roads, led by an experienced leader. Emanuele was our leader, a local man with knowledge and passion for local history and geography. There were opportunities each day to eat and drink local specialities, and a couple of special treats such as cheese-making and olive oil tasting. There are no bus transfers, you cycle a good way each day, sometimes a few challenging hills and dips, sometimes a chance to cycle as fast as you want off road, but on good surfaces. Emanuele is an excellent leader who keeps control of the group at the same time as giving everyone the chance to go at their own pace. You don't need to be a strong cyclist to do the trip, there are always regroupings so that nobody gets left behind, and nobody feels left out. There are a couple of coffee and lunch stops where we were able to swim in the gorgeous blues of the Ionian Sea if we wanted, or just laze on a bench with a marvellous gelato. A couple of the hotels en route had swimming pools.

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.

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.