Things to do
The 10 best beach clubs in Puglia (and one that no longer exists)
In Puglia a beach club is called a lido, and the word stretches from a wooden hut renting parasols by the hour to a hotel’s private bay with a sushi counter. The sea is the same in both. What you pay for is shade, a lounger that is not sand, a shower and lunch you did not have to drive back for.
The gap between a good lido and a bad one is almost never the water. It is whether you can get in, and what it costs on the day. The ten below take bookings in ten different ways, and their prices move by a factor of two inside the same month. Start with the one to cross off.
Cross this one off first: Samsara Beach, Gallipoli
For fifteen years Samsara, on the Baia Verde strip south of Gallipoli, was the name every guide to Puglia nightlife opened with. It is gone. The council declared its state maritime concession forfeit back in 2017, the structure was left to rot on the sand, and in April 2026 the crews finally started demolishing the ruin. The stretch it stood on is returning to being spiaggia libera, free public beach.
You will still find it recommended, with opening times and lounger prices, on review sites and on most English-language listicles published this summer. Do not drive there. If you want that beach, the working lido on the same sand is number eight below.
The ten beach clubs, north to south
| Club | Town | Coast | How you book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pizzomunno Beach Club | Vieste (FG) | Adriatic | Spiagge.it or phone |
| Lido Cala Paradiso | Monopoli (BA) | Adriatic | Online |
| Lido Bambù | Capitolo, Monopoli (BA) | Adriatic | Through Masseria Torre Maizza |
| Coccaro Beach Club | Savelletri (BR) | Adriatic | Phone, hotel guests first |
| Lido Stella Beach | Pilone, Ostuni (BR) | Adriatic | Phone or WhatsApp |
| Lido La Sorgente | Torre dell’Orso (LE) | Adriatic | Walk in |
| Bagno Marino Archi | Santa Cesarea Terme (LE) | Adriatic | Walk in |
| Lido Baia Verde | Gallipoli (LE) | Ionian | Online or phone |
| Bahia | Porto Cesareo (LE) | Ionian | Web app |
| Samanà Beach | Punta Prosciutto (LE) | Ionian | In person only |
1. Pizzomunno Beach Club, Vieste
The only entry on the Gargano, on the Scialara sand directly beneath the monolith that gives Vieste its postcard. The Rena restaurant behind it does lunch and dinner, so a day here can end without moving the car.
Parasols are booked through Spiagge.it from the club’s own site, or on the phone during opening hours, which puts it between Bahia, where a web app does the whole job, and Samanà, where you turn up and hope.
2. Lido Cala Paradiso, Monopoli
Built on the low rock south of Monopoli towards Capitolo, with parking, real changing rooms, free showers, three beach volleyball courts and two five-a-side pitches. It is a family lido, and the one here where a family of four spends a day for the price of two loungers at Coccaro.
3. Lido Bambù, Monopoli
The beach club of Masseria Torre Maizza, at Località Capitolo just south of the town. Worth naming precisely, because at least one widely-copied guide puts Lido Bambù in Gallipoli, on the wrong sea, 140 km away. Capitolo is a wall of lidos for six straight kilometres; this is the quiet end of it.
4. Coccaro Beach Club, Savelletri
The beach club of Masseria Torre Coccaro, on a private bay of fine sand off the SP90 north of Savelletri. Fish restaurant and sushi bar open into the evening, a miniclub, massages, morning yoga and a boutique. The most complete day out here, priced accordingly. If you are staying at one of the luxury masserie inland, this is where your hotel will send you.
5. Lido Stella Beach, Pilone
At Contrada Pilone, on the coast road below Ostuni, and the answer to the eighty-kilometre hole most beach club lists leave between Monopoli and the Salento. It sits inside the Parco delle Dune Costiere and is one of the few lidos to carry the park’s own mark for its environmental policy, with signs explaining the dune flora you are lying behind. Thirty-five cabins, a Mediterranean kitchen, and DJ sets in the evening.
6. Lido La Sorgente, Torre dell’Orso
Running since 1976 on the Litoranea at Torre dell’Orso, in the middle of the bay, with the Due Sorelle stacks to the south. Unfashionable, unrenovated, and the reason to go is that it sits on the best-shaped beach in the Salento without charging for the fact.
7. Bagno Marino Archi, Santa Cesarea Terme
There is no sand. Bagno Marino Archi is built into the rock arches on the cliff at Santa Cesarea Terme, and you get into the Adriatic down a ladder into deep, clear water. Sun terraces cut into the stone, a bar above them, and the best swimming on this list if you are a confident swimmer and the worst if you have a toddler.
8. Lido Baia Verde, Gallipoli
On Via Litoranea Santa Maria di Leuca, a few minutes from the old town, on the same shallow turquoise water where Samsara used to stand. It is also the only club here that publishes its day rates: an umbrella and two loungers costs €25 in June, €35 in July, €50 between 7 and 23 August, and €20 from 1 September (the lido’s price list, read in October 2026). The same square metre of sand doubles in price for seventeen days.
9. Bahia, Porto Cesareo
At Via Torre Lapillo 97, on the strip between Porto Cesareo and Torre Lapillo. Built almost entirely in wood, split into a beach, a kitchen doing Salento dishes and sushi, and a sunset bar. The reason it works in August is boring: you book your parasol from a web app before you leave the house.
10. Samanà Beach, Punta Prosciutto
The dunes at Punta Prosciutto are inside a regional nature reserve and the sand is the whitest in Puglia. Samanà sits in the middle of it, with guarded parking, lifeguards, a bar and live music in the evening. One rule matters more than everything else: umbrellas are booked on site only. No phone, no email, no messages. In the first fortnight of August that means arriving before nine.
What a day actually costs
Lido Baia Verde’s published list is the clearest picture anyone gives, and its shape holds along the coast: €25 in June and €20 in September, €35 in July, roughly double for the fortnight either side of Ferragosto. A single lounger runs €10 to €15. Hotel clubs such as Coccaro and Lido Bambù are a different market and publish nothing.
Move your week by seven days and you halve the beach line of your budget, which is the same argument as our guide to the best time to visit Puglia. And every club here has free public beach within a few hundred metres, because a Puglia regional law keeps at least 60% of each town's coastline free for public use. You are paying for shade and a lavatory, not better water. If you would rather not pay at all, start with the best beaches in Puglia.
Prices from Lido Baia Verde’s price list, read in October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Samsara Beach in Gallipoli still open?
No. Its concession was declared forfeit in 2017 and demolition of the remaining structure began in April 2026. The beach is returning to free public use.
How much is a sunbed in Puglia?
Lido Baia Verde in Gallipoli charges €25 for an umbrella and two loungers in June, €35 in July, €50 between 7 and 23 August and €20 from 1 September. A single lounger is €10 to €15. Hotel beach clubs cost substantially more and rarely publish rates.
Do you need to book a beach club in Puglia?
In July and August, yes, and the method differs by club. Bahia has a web app, Pizzomunno and Lido Cala Paradiso take online bookings, and Samanà at Punta Prosciutto takes them only in person on the day.
Which is better for beach clubs, the Adriatic or the Ionian coast?
The Ionian side around Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto has the white sand and the shallow water. The Adriatic between Monopoli and Santa Cesarea has rock, deeper water and the hotel clubs.
Boat trips from these same towns
A lido gives you a lounger. A morning on the water gives you the coast the lidos are built on, and these four leave from towns on this list.
- Vieste: the sea caves by traditional boat, four hours in a wooden gozzo, with swims in coves you can only reach from the water.
- Gallipoli: boat tour with swim stops and aperitif, three hours along the Ionian shore, with Sant’Andrea island seen from the sea.
- Porto Cesareo: kayak and snorkelling to the Isola dei Conigli, the shallow water that makes this coast.
- Polignano a Mare: the sea cave cruise with aperitif, if you are basing yourself north of Monopoli.
Booked through GetYourGuide. We checked whether the beach clubs themselves could be booked there: in Puglia they cannot, so the sunbeds stay a phone call or a walk-in.
Raised in the province of Brindisi, 30 years in Puglia. About this site