Polignano a Mare stands on limestone cliffs about twenty metres above the Adriatic, roughly 35 kilometres southeast of Bari in Puglia. The old town sits directly on the cliff edge with houses built out over the drop, and the sea has cut caves into the rock beneath them.
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THE FIRST THING TO KNOW IS THAT THERE IS NO SANDY BEACH. Polignano's famous cove, LAMA MONACHILE, is a small crescent of large pale PEBBLES at the foot of a dry ravine between two cliffs, crossed by a Roman bridge. It is genuinely spectacular and it is also tiny, free, and in July and August so crowded that you cannot see the stones. Everything else is rock platforms, ladders into deep water and sea caves. If you want sand, this is the wrong town, and that is the most common disappointment here.
THE SECOND IS THE COMPARISON WITH OSTUNI, 45 minutes south, because most people choose between them. POLIGNANO IS ON THE SEA and is about the water, the cliffs and the caves. OSTUNI IS THE WHITE CITY ON A HILL eight kilometres inland and is about the lanes and the olive plain. Polignano is smaller, busier per square metre and more of a day-trip town; Ostuni is a better base. Our Ostuni packing list covers the other, and our Puglia packing list covers the region.
THE THIRD IS THAT IT IS VERY BUSY FOR ITS SIZE. Polignano has around 18,000 residents and takes an enormous number of day visitors from Bari and the cruise terminal, concentrated in a small old town. Mornings before ten and evenings after seven are a different town from the middle of the day, and staying the night is what makes it work.
The Cove, the Terraces and the Caves
One famous cove, a cliff-edge old town, and caves you reach by boat.
LAMA MONACHILE, also called Cala Porto, is reached by steps from the Roman bridge on the old Via Traiana, and the view from that bridge is the photograph everyone takes. The pebbles are large and hard on bare feet, there is no shade at all, and the water is deep almost immediately, which makes it poor for small children and excellent for swimming properly.
THE OLD TOWN is small, white and entirely walkable in half an hour, built on the cliff with arches, balconies and a scatter of terraces that look straight down to the water. The best of them are the Terrazza Santo Stefano and the Lungomare Domenico Modugno, where the bronze statue of the singer stands with its arms open; he was born here and wrote Volare, and the town has not stopped mentioning it. The poems and phrases painted on the steps and walls throughout the old town are a local initiative and are part of the character.
THE SEA CAVES are the thing to do if you do one paid activity. Boat trips run from the harbour, typically an hour to ninety minutes, into the Grotta Palazzese and the other caves cut into the cliff beneath the town, and from the water you see how precarious the houses look. The Grotta Palazzese itself holds a restaurant inside the cave in summer, which is famous, expensive and more about the setting than the food.
SWIMMING is from the cove, from the rock platforms north and south of the town, or from the small beaches at Cala Paura and San Vito a few kilometres along. The water is exceptionally clear, it is deep, and there are no lifeguards on most of it.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Bari, Monopoli and the Valle d'Itria
Half an hour to a capital, an hour to the trulli, and the whole coast between.
BARI is 35 minutes north by train and is the regional capital, with a dense walled old town, the basilica of San Nicola and a serious street food tradition. The train line along this coast is frequent, cheap and genuinely useful, which is unusual in southern Italy.
MONOPOLI is fifteen minutes south, a working port with a good old centre and far fewer visitors. ALBEROBELLO and the trulli are 40 minutes inland, covered in our Alberobello packing list, with Locorotondo and Martina Franca in the same valley. CASTEL DEL MONTE, Frederick II's octagonal fortress, is about an hour and a quarter northwest and is a World Heritage site worth the detour. MATERA is about an hour and a half.
Getting around: THE TRAIN IS THE RIGHT ANSWER HERE. Polignano's station is a ten-minute walk from the old town and the regional line runs up to Bari and down to Brindisi frequently. A car is useful for the Valle d'Itria and useless in the town, where parking is limited, paid and some distance out in summer, and where a restricted traffic zone applies in the old centre.
When to Go
May, June, September. July and August are extremely crowded.
A hot Mediterranean coastal climate. June to September runs 28 to 33C with strong sun, with the sea warm enough to swim from June to October and reaching about 26C in August; winter from December to February is mild at 13 to 15C and wet; spring and autumn are warm and settled.
MAY AND JUNE ARE THE PICK: the sea is swimmable from mid-June, the light is good, and the day-trip volume has not peaked. SEPTEMBER is arguably the best month of all, with the water at its warmest, the heat easing and the crowds gone after the first week.
JULY AND AUGUST ARE THE PROBLEM AND IT IS WORTH BEING BLUNT. Lama Monachile is a small cove and in high summer it is shoulder to shoulder by nine in the morning, the old town lanes are full all day, and the prices rise sharply. The town is still beautiful at six in the morning and at nine at night. If August is your only option, plan around those hours and stay the night rather than day-tripping.
WINTER IS MILD, QUIET AND HAS A SPECIFIC DRAW: Adriatic storms hitting the cliffs below the terraces are genuinely dramatic. Some restaurants close, the boat trips stop and the swimming is for the committed, but the old town is empty and the light is beautiful.
Is Polignano a Mare Safe for Women Travelers
Very safe. The water and the cliffs are the real hazards.
US State Department travel advisory: the Italy advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
THE WATER IS THE FIRST AND MAIN RISK, and it is not the same as a beach resort's water. The sea at Lama Monachile and off the rock platforms is DEEP IMMEDIATELY, with no shallow shelf to stand on, there are no lifeguards at most entry points, and the entries are over large pebbles or ladders bolted to rock. Swells on this coast arrive quickly and the rock platforms become genuinely dangerous when the sea is up; people are hurt getting out rather than getting in. Swim when it is calm, enter where others are entering, and treat a swelly day as a day not to swim.
CLIFF JUMPING IS THE SECOND AND NEEDS SAYING ONCE, CLEARLY. The town hosts a professional cliff diving competition from these terraces, which makes jumping look sanctioned. It is not: people jump from unauthorised points, the water depth varies with the swell and the seabed, and visitors are injured and occasionally killed doing it every few years. Watching the professionals is the activity; jumping is not.
THE CLIFF EDGES are the third. The terraces and viewpoints are partly unfenced, the limestone is friable and the drop is twenty metres onto rock. In the dark, with a drink, taking a photograph backwards, is the combination to avoid.
THE SUN IS THE FOURTH: no shade at the cove, white walls reflecting, and a town where the main activity is being outside on rock.
Italy is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as an Italian resident. That means the same ticket, the co-payment Italians make, rather than nothing, and it does not cover repatriation, so travel insurance sits on top of it. Italian public hospitals are good and the emergency department, the pronto soccorso, treats anyone who arrives. Pharmacies, farmacie, are marked with a green cross, are staffed by pharmacists who can advise and dispense for minor problems, and post a rota for nights and Sundays on the door. Tap water is drinkable across the country, including from the public fountains that are common in Italian towns.
On crime, Polignano is a safe small town whose main risk is the ordinary one of a crowded place: pickpocketing in the packed lanes and at the cove in high summer, and bags left on rocks while people swim, which is the specific local version of it. Take as little as possible to the water. Bari station and the city old town warrant more care than anywhere here.
Socially this is easy. The town is used to very large numbers of visitors, English is widely spoken, and a woman eating alone or swimming alone is completely unremarkable. The evening passeggiata along the Lungomare is the local ritual.
The Polignano a Mare Packing List
Something for your feet in the water, which is the local item
The cove is large pebbles, the alternative entries are rock platforms and bolted ladders, and the sea floor is stone. Water shoes or sturdy sandals make the difference between swimming comfortably and not swimming. We have no affiliate link for them, because our registry carries no water-shoe product we can stand behind, and the advice matters more than the link: buy any pair before you arrive.
Sun protection with nowhere to hide
A wide brim sun hat, high factor sunscreen reapplied after every swim, and a long sleeve sun hoodie, which is the most useful garment for a day on the rocks because the cove has no shade whatsoever and the white walls reflect.
Swimwear, two sets, and a rash top
You will be in and out of the water all day. A long sleeved rash top solves the back-and-shoulder burn that catches everyone who spends a day on a rock platform.
Base layers, for the evening and the shoulder seasons
The sea breeze on the terraces drops the temperature noticeably after dark and spring and autumn mornings are properly cool. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women handles a cool evening on the Lungomare and does not hold smell across a week of salt and heat.
Shoes with grip for wet rock and steps
The steps down to the cove are stone, often wet, and the old town lanes are smooth. Flat shoes with a real sole. Merino wool socks if you are walking the coast paths.
A dry bag and water
A dry bag, because everything you own will be on a rock next to the sea. An insulated water bottle, since the cove has nothing and the old town fountains are the refill.
The small things
A light packable rain jacket for women for winter and spring. A towel that dries, because you will use it repeatedly. As little as possible taken to the water, since bags on rocks are the local theft. AND THE TWO THINGS THAT DECIDE THE DAY: go to the cove before nine or after six in summer, and do not jump off anything.
Essential Resources for Women in Polignano a Mare
Emergency numbers: 112 for all emergencies, the single European number for police, ambulance and fire. 113 for police directly. 1530 FOR THE COASTGUARD, which is the number that matters most in a town where the hazards are in the water. Coverage is good throughout.
Main hospital or clinic: Polignano has a local health facility. The nearest emergency departments are at Monopoli, fifteen minutes south, and the Ospedale San Paolo and Policlinico in Bari, about 35 to 40 minutes north, which is where anything serious goes. Dial 112.
Official health authority: the Ministero della Salute, the Italian health ministry. Carry a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU card. The nearest emergency departments are Monopoli at fifteen minutes and Bari at about forty, and a diving or cliff injury here goes to Bari
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Rome.
Official tourism authority: ENIT, the Italian national tourist board. And with the Polignano a Mare tourist office, which holds the sea cave boat timetables, the Grotta Palazzese arrangements and the current state of the cove access steps, which close for works from time to time
There is no sandy beach. Lama Monachile is large pebbles at the foot of a ravine, free, spectacular and tiny. Everything else is rock platforms and ladders.
The water is deep immediately with no shallow shelf and no lifeguards at most entries, and the rock platforms become dangerous when a swell is up.
Do not jump from the cliffs. The professional competition held here makes it look sanctioned; visitors are injured and occasionally killed every few years.
Go early or late in summer. The cove is shoulder to shoulder by nine in July, and the town before seven and after seven is a different place.
Solo women safety assessment: Polignano a Mare is an easy place to be alone, thoroughly used to very large numbers of visitors, with English widely spoken, a woman eating or swimming alone entirely unremarkable, and an evening passeggiata along the Lungomare that is a comfortable local ritual to join. On crime the risks are those of any crowded place: pickpocketing in the packed lanes and at the cove in high summer, and the specific local version, BAGS LEFT ON ROCKS WHILE PEOPLE SWIM, so take as little as possible to the water. Bari station and old town warrant more care than anything here. THE WATER IS THE REAL HAZARD and it is not a beach resort's water: the sea off the cove and the rock platforms is DEEP IMMEDIATELY with no shelf to stand on, the entries are over large pebbles or bolted ladders, there are no lifeguards at most of them, and a swell arrives quickly and makes getting OUT the dangerous part rather than getting in, so swim when it is calm and treat a swelly day as a day not to swim. CLIFF JUMPING IS SECOND and needs saying once clearly: the professional diving competition staged from these terraces makes it look sanctioned, it is not, depths vary with swell and seabed, and visitors are injured and occasionally killed every few years. Third, the terraces are partly unfenced above a twenty-metre drop onto rock, which is a poor combination with darkness, a drink or a photograph taken while stepping backwards.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Italy travel guide for women. For the region, see the Puglia packing list; for the white hill town inland the Ostuni packing list; and for the trulli the Alberobello packing list. For why wool rather than cotton across a week of salt, heat and cool evenings, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
