Bari, Italy:
Before booking this trip, I had never even heard of Bari, Italy! With such a long way to travel, I knew we would need to arrive the day before to be on the safe side. I searched Cruise Critic for Bari hotels and activities but didn’t find much so I began my own detailed search. After finding some hotel options I cross-checked online reviews and prices. I ended up choosing The Bari Palace Hotel based on reviews, location, price and the ability to do 4 people in a room (a quad). That can be hard to find in Europe.
Transportation from Bari Airport to Hotel:
I had a bit of difficulty finding affordable transportation or transfer from the Bari Paliesse Airport to the hotel. I knew we didn’t want to utilize public transportation because we arrived at night and we would have been coming off of a 17 hour travel day. After much searching, I found a company and booked their services online, crossing my fingers that it was a legit company. It was and they were there waiting and transferred us and all of our luggage to the hotel no problem. The car was clean and comfortable.
* Just a tip, when I made the reservation online, I forgot that most parts of Europe use military time…like 14:00 instead of 2:00 p.m.. The driver said he showed up at 8:00 a.m. because I didn’t put 20:00. He came back at night when he realized my mistake but he also charged us a penalty of about ¾ of the cost of the transfer in addition to the actual transfer. An expense we weren’t counting on.
The hotel was perfect! Great location, elegant and welcoming…the staff was very helpful and friendly…and the rooms were lovely. Our bathroom was huge with a big tub and very modern. After a long day of travel that tub was a welcome sight!
We had dinner in the dining room that night and it was delish…but kind of expensive. We slept too late for the complementary breakfast in the morning but they found some croissants, juice and coffee for us and served it in the bar area in the lobby. In the morning, we could see the ship from their banquet room balcony!
We didn’t do much in Bari. We walked to the Bank Napoli a few blocks away to exchange some money. It was hard to find somewhere that would do the exchange and even at this bank you would have thought we were taking out a mortgage with all of the paperwork they did! Then we walked towards the water…had our first gelato and wandered a bit.
When we checked out, the hotel called a taxi for us. They asked the driver to take us to The Basilica St. Nicholas for a quick look and then on to the cruise port. It was perfect and plenty of time. There was a wedding finishing up and it was fun to see the wedding party taking pictures out front. Very festive.
On our way to the ship, we did see two of the little mini-trains for sightseeing but I wasn’t able to get the name off of them. That might have been a nice option to see Bari.
We had dinner in the dining room that night and it was delish…but kind of expensive. We slept too late for the complementary breakfast in the morning but they found some croissants, juice and coffee for us and served it in the bar area in the lobby. In the morning, we could see the ship from their banquet room balcony!
We didn’t do much in Bari. We walked to the Bank Napoli a few blocks away to exchange some money. It was hard to find somewhere that would do the exchange and even at this bank you would have thought we were taking out a mortgage with all of the paperwork they did! Then we walked towards the water…had our first gelato and wandered a bit.
When we checked out, the hotel called a taxi for us. They asked the driver to take us to The Basilica St. Nicholas for a quick look and then on to the cruise port. It was perfect and plenty of time. There was a wedding finishing up and it was fun to see the wedding party taking pictures out front. Very festive.
On our way to the ship, we did see two of the little mini-trains for sightseeing but I wasn’t able to get the name off of them. That might have been a nice option to see Bari.
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