Brindisi
You can be here in December for about €581, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Shoulder season in December: 15°C days, sea 16°C.
The Salento season runs from late May to late September; in August the roads to the Ionian beaches are stuck and the coves near Otranto are full by nine. June and September have the same sea with half the people, and the late-summer Notte della Taranta draws crowds to the inland towns.
Best months here: June, September, October. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Brindisi is the end of the Via Appia and a ferry port for Greece, a low-key town with a Roman column and a long seafront that most people pass through on the way to Salento. The reason to fly here is the peninsula south of it: Lecce's Baroque, two coasts, and towns that still dance the pizzica at summer festivals.
What you can do
- 01Walk Lecce's old town in the evening light for Santa Croce's carved façade and the Roman amphitheatre on Piazza Sant'Oronzo.
- 02Eat pasticciotto for breakfast in Lecce and a rustico for lunch, then a caffè leccese with almond milk over ice.
- 03Swim on the Adriatic side at Torre dell'Orso or the Grotta della Poesia near Roca, then the Ionian at Punta Prosciutto.
- 04See the mosaic floor of Otranto's cathedral, a twelfth-century Tree of Life, and the chapel of the martyrs' bones.
- 05Drive the coast road from Otranto to Santa Maria di Leuca, where the two seas meet, stopping at the Ciolo bridge.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Base in Lecce for a first visit, Otranto or Gallipoli for beaches; Brindisi itself is for one night by the ferry.
Unusual things
- ◦The abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate, a Norman-era monastery in the countryside north of Lecce restored by FAI.
- ◦Specchia and Presicce, inland Salento villages of stone courtyards and underground olive presses, quiet even in August.
- ◦The Cesine reserve south of San Cataldo, a coastal marsh with bird hides and a beach without buildings.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Bus to Lecce, 40 min, €7; car useful for coast
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- Brindisi airport is ten minutes from the town and has a direct bus to Lecce; trains link Brindisi, Lecce and Ostuni, but a car is needed for the coast and the villages.
- Clock
- Same time as Stockholm (Europe/Rome) derived
- Daylight
- 9.3 hours of daylight in December · sunrise 07:05, sunset 16:22 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Good to know
In August, beach parking near Otranto and Porto Cesareo fills early and some coves close when full; summer heat regularly passes 35 degrees.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Stockholm in December, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Hurghada
Sharm El Sheikh
Cairo
Luxor
Marrakech
Agadir