Otranto, Puglia
Trek road, gravel and electric bikes, dropped off at your address and picked up again at the end. Minimum 3 days. No shop to find, no counter to queue at, nothing held on your card.
from €35 a day 3 days €45 a day · 4-7 days €40 · 8 and over €35. From 5 days we deliver and collect free.
Search for this in English and every result says the same thing: get in touch for a quote. You are planning a holiday from another country and you would like to know the total before you commit to anything. So here it is.
| Length of hire | Drop-off | Pick-up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 days and over | free | free | €0 |
| 3-4 days | €20 | €20 | €40 |
Two separate journeys, one out and one back, which is why the short-hire total reads €40 and not €20. Better on this page than as a surprise line on the last day.
Cross five days and the transport stops being a cost. At €40 a day, a five day hire is €200 a bike with both journeys included. That is why the fifth day of a hire works out cheaper than the third.
We will deliver anywhere in Puglia, but once you leave Otranto no single figure fits. Three things set it: the distance to your address, the number of bikes going there, and how long you are keeping them. As a band it runs from €20 to €250 per leg. The top of that band is the Gargano, the spur of land at the opposite end of the region, and almost nobody is up there.
Per leg is meant literally: the run out with the bikes and the run back for them are two separate drives, and both are counted, each way. You get the exact number once you have given us the street address — a town name is not enough to price a drive.
At Lecce, San Foca and Calimera the handover costs nothing at all, whatever the length of hire. Which one suits you depends on how you arrive: Lecce if you come by train and have no car, San Foca if you are already on this coast — it is north of Otranto, on the same strip — and Calimera if you are staying inland, roughly midway between Lecce and the sea.
Any map gives you the distance. What a map will not tell you is how long it takes on a bike, which is a different number entirely: it depends on the surface, on the wind and on how much the road goes up and down. Distances below are in kilometres, with the miles in brackets, because road signs here will only give you the first of the two. These are the three rides we suggest most often to people with a short stay.
The closest beach that is worth the ride. The last kilometre is a dirt track with nothing growing over it, and in July and August that stretch under a vertical sun is the part people remember badly — go before nine and it is a different outing. An electric bike copes with the track fine; it is packed, not loose. Use the lock we leave with the bike: there is no bike rack down there, only pine trees.
Turn inland and the road stops rolling and picks up more shade than the coast ever has. The detour through Giurdignano takes you past dolmens and standing stones sitting in working fields — no ticket office, no fence, no opening hours, usually a farmer somewhere in view. This is the ride to save for a day when the sea wind is too strong to enjoy the coast.
The hardest of the three and the one worth planning the day around. South of Otranto the road never settles: no climb is long, but nothing is flat either, and shade is rare enough that you notice each patch. In the afternoon the south-westerly gets up and you ride home into it. Treat it as a morning ride, and if you have never ridden a road that keeps tilting, take the electric.
Going north instead, about 45 minutes of riding brings you to San Foca, one of our three free handover points: you can end the hire there rather than back in Otranto, provided it is arranged in advance. It is not automatic and we will not promise it without confirming first.
Make and model, so you know what you are getting before you land. These are the same bikes we run all season on these roads, which is why we can tell you how each one behaves on a dirt track and which part of it wears out first.
An endurance road bike: relaxed geometry, not a race position. The right choice if you are staying on tarmac and want to put in real distance without being folded over the bars by the second hour.
This frame takes no rack and no panniers.
Gravel bike on 42 mm tubeless tyres. On the loose final kilometre into Baia dei Turchi that is the difference between riding and concentrating. If you only want one bike that handles everything around Otranto, this is it.
For the south coast and its constant tilting, or simply for arriving somewhere without having sweated through your shirt. Range 50 km — about 31 miles — which covers a full day on these rides with room to spare.
The battery is built into the frame and does not come out: it charges with the bike parked next to the socket. Worth knowing if your room is up three flights of stairs and the building has no lift. A second battery takes it to roughly 100 km.
Electric mountain bike with a 356 Wh battery that lifts out — you carry it upstairs and charge it in the room. Range 70 km in Eco mode, which on rides of this length means two days without thinking about it.
We have three of them.
| Length of hire | Per day | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days (the minimum) | €45 | €135 |
| 4-7 days | €40 | €160 - €280 |
| 8 days or more | €35 | from €280 |
Supplements: Rockrider electric +€5 a day, Trek electric +€10, second Trek battery +€10.
Already on the bike when we hand it over: a lock, a bag fixed to the frame, a mount for your phone and a light at each end. Inside the bag: a pump, a repair kit and one spare inner tube. A helmet comes with every rider. Nothing here is an add-on and nothing shows up on the bill.
On request and at no charge: a Garmin mount. Pedals — SPD, SPD-SL or Look — €5.
There is no booking calendar and no live availability on this site on purpose: the fleet is small and we assign it by talking to people, which also means we can tell you when a size will not fit you.
Nowhere. There is no shop and we do not pretend to have one. The bikes come to you — house, hotel, b&b, campsite — on the day and at the hour agreed, and we return to the same address at the end.
From 5 days of hire, nothing. On a 3 or 4 day hire, €20 per leg, so €40 once the pick-up run is counted.
Yes, 3 days. Below that the two drives cost more than the hire, and we would rather write that down than hide it inside a higher daily rate.
No. A copy of a passport or identity card, and on long hires sometimes a small bank transfer. Nothing is blocked on a card and there is no pre-authorisation to chase your bank about afterwards.
Brindisi is the closer of the two airports, Bari the larger one further north. Most visitors hire a car there, which is also why the delivery question matters: if you want the bikes waiting at the airport or at a first stop elsewhere in Puglia, that is outside Otranto and is quoted separately.
The walled town is a limited traffic zone — you will see it signposted ZTL, zona a traffico limitato. Cameras read the plate, and the fine reaches your car hire company weeks after you have flown home, with an administration fee on top. In August, finding a legal space near the walls is mostly luck. This is one of the reasons we deliver: the bikes come to you and the car stays where it is parked.
Yes, but not on the main line. Otranto is served by Ferrovie del Sud Est, a regional operator, and you normally change at Maglie. It runs a seasonal timetable that is redrawn each year, so check it before you rely on a train back in the evening. Taking a bike on board costs nothing extra on these services — worth knowing if you want to ride one way and take the train back.
Baia dei Turchi, about a quarter of an hour. The final stretch is unsurfaced and has no tree over it: in summer it is an early morning trip, not a two o'clock one.
Hot, and with a south-westerly that gets up in the early afternoon. On the south coast you take it head-on going home. The rule we give everyone is the local one: out early, back for lunch, and in the shade for the afternoon.
Gravel for Baia dei Turchi and for the inland roads, where the surface changes without warning. Electric for the south coast, which never stops going up and down. Road bike if you are staying on tarmac and want the kilometres.
If that somewhere is Lecce, San Foca or Calimera, yes, and at no cost: those are our three points. San Foca is on the same coast, to the north. It has to be agreed when you book, not decided on the morning.
We reply within a few hours, in English. If you would rather have a conversation, WhatsApp is quicker.
Or write to salentobikerental@gmail.com, or call +39 320 4864478.