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The flights at the moment are the winter schedules and the flights are one day into Bari, the next Brindisi, both in the evening. Last summer there were flights daily into both Bari and Brindisi. The Bari flight was in the morning and the Brindisi one in the evening.
We are hoping this will change back about April time.
I've never bothered with the Bari flight myself but believe it is about an hour from the aiport to the Ostuni area,but perhaps someone who uses it can confirm.
Hope this helps

Thanks for your help. I will wait till the spring before I try to book any flights.

We have driven from Bari, not a difficult trip, just a little longer than flying into Brindisi.

Did the trip last night. We allowed three hours from leaving our house in Ostuni to take off time. This allows time to top up with petrol, return the hire car, check in, etc. Did it last night with at least an hour to spare and the road was quite busy. From Ostuni just hit the dual carriageway along the coast. Turn left for Bari and right for Brindisi. Brindisi is probably about three quarters of an hour closer, but has less facilities if you do arrive early. Just bear in mind that if you fly back on a Sunday it can be difficult to find a petrol station open to refill the car. Both airports very clearly signed from the dual carriageway.

If you hire a car from Herz you can return it to another airport without any surcharge (we had flown into Brindisi).

Pick the flight with the most convenient flight time (or the cheapest fare, and they can vary considerably). The journey to Stansted is almost more of a consideration for us - missed the flight Friday evening due to ridiculous traffic on the M25!

Have a good trip.

We sometimes fly into Bari and out of Brindisi, as last summer the Bari flights were morning and the Brindisi flights evening, so we made our weekends last longer. There isn't much in it - Brindisi is a bit closer, but both are a really easy drive to Ostuni. Where are you staying in Ostuni?

Dont forget an ½ûÂþÌìÌà Motorway guide...I want to go now

Thank you all for your advice - it will come in useful.

I met a couple at my ½ûÂþÌìÌà class who have a house in Ostuni with 3 beautiful apartments. They were handing out brochures and I brought one home to look at not even knowing where Ostuni was . Then I started looking at this forum and I soon started to learn all about Ostuni and Puglia from all you lucky people who either live there or have a holiday home there. It sounded so nice we have decided to book the biggest apartment which has a large terrace which overlooks Ostuni I can't wait!!! I have got a quick Italy fix in January when I am having 3 days in Venice so that will have to keep me going until June !! Looking on here every night is good as it makes me realise that I am not the only Italy obsessed person around - there are a lot more around than I thought!

3 hours seeems to me rather excessive to travel from from Ostuni to Bari. We have made the journey a number of times and 1.5 hours is usually sufficient. If you are unfamiliar with the area and have to drive it might be better to fly to Bari rather than Brindisi which is closer, especially if it is likely to be dark. our second visit found us floundering to find the masseria we had booked in the dark. The journey from Bari is easy just follow the signs.
Ostuni is wonderful in the summer. We have been going for just one year and find it more enchanting each time, as we get to know it better.
Be careful in the high season though. You do not say when you plan to travel, but in August Ryanair's flights get very expensive, especially at the weekend.
This year in August we found it cheaper to book Alitalia from Manchester than Ryanair from Stansted, but this is very dependent on period and perhaps on where you live in the UK.
Puglia is a very nice area, but not so sophisticated as the north of Italy. This to many of us is its charm, but much depends on what you expect to find.
Enjoy your visit

Brian

Agree the journey time is usually under 1.5 hours. The three hours was to allow for all the extras (that we are good at forgetting). Have had some very close shaves. Its easy to forget the time for refuelling, etc and the Ryanair checkins close on the dot of 40 mins prior to take off.

We have booked to go in June so hopefully it won't be to expensive. How far in advance do Ryanair advertise their flights? I think the earliest I have booked is in May to fly in September. We normally fly from Stansted. I am hoping we can get a flight early in the day so that we can arrive in daylight. I remember arriving in Forli in the dark and having to find the hotel- it was hard work!!

Ryanair seem to have two seasons, summer schedules and winter schedules. The summer one seemed to finish about the end of October and then instead of flying daily both to Bari and Brindisi they changed to one flight a day alternating airports. They used to do a very early morning flight to Bari and a late afternoon one to Brindisi if I remember rightly. Hope that they resume this schedule. I have tried to look for booking at Easter but they don't go that far forward yet (or didn't when I looked) but I am presuming that once they release their summer schedule they will allow booking all the way through.

We will have to wait and see. One word of warning - when they changed from summer to winter schedule their fares seemed extremely expensive around the changeover - it may work in reverse and they will be cheaper when and if they resumt two flights a day to Puglia, but it may not - pays to keep a close eye on the website.

June will be a lovely month to visit. Have fun.

I find the best way to obtain the cheapest flights is to register on line to ryanair.com and they then email you all the offers as they become available but to get the very best prices you may have to be adatable on your dates avoiding weekends if possible. But don't jump at the first prices of the season as they can reduce further them before they increase them again!