Italy · Basilicata
Plan your Matera trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
Sasso Barisano
Best for first-timers who want a cave experience without the roughest edgesThe more polished, restaurant-and-bar-dense half of the old town, with Matera's highest concentration of design cave hotels — a comfortable, central base for first-timers.
A design cave hotel near Via Madonna delle Virtù
Look for a property that keeps the original tufo walls and vaulted ceilings exposed rather than plastering over the cave character.
€€€A small guesthouse carved into the upper Barisano lanes
Upper lanes mean a short uphill walk home but genuinely quieter nights than rooms right on the main route down.
€€Sasso Caveoso
Best for repeat visitors and anyone prioritising atmosphere over convenienceSteeper, quieter and closer to the raw, pre-restoration feel of the Sassi, with rock churches on the doorstep and ravine views from several terraces.
A cave room with a ravine-facing terrace in Caveoso
Confirm exactly how many steps separate the room from the nearest car park before booking — this district is the steepest in the old town.
€€€€Civita
Best for a central base with easy orientationThe ridge between the two Sassi, anchored by the Duomo — central to everything, with easy access down into either district and some of the best rooftop views in town.
A boutique hotel near the Duomo terrace
Rooms on the ravine side of Civita often share the cathedral terrace's panoramic view at a fraction of the walk.
€€€The Piano (the modern town)
Best for budget stays and travellers with a carMatera's ordinary plateau town beyond the Sassi, built largely to house families relocated from the caves in the 1950s — unglamorous, genuinely local, and noticeably cheaper.
A modern hotel on the edge of the Piano near Via Roma
A ten-minute walk or short taxi from the Sassi entrance, with far easier parking than anywhere in the old town.
€€Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Sasso Caveoso
The older, rawer of Matera's two cave districts, facing the Murgia ravine directly — steeper, quieter, and still showing patches of the derelict,…
Tip Visit in late afternoon when the low sun hits the cliff face across the ravine and turns the whole district gold.
Sasso Barisano
The more restored and commercially developed of the two Sassi, dense with cave hotels, wine bars and restaurants built into centuries-old rock…
Tip Come for an evening drink on a terrace carved into the cliff — several bars here have genuinely spectacular ravine views with none of the queue.
Matera Cathedral (Duomo di Matera)
A 13th-century Apulian Romanesque cathedral perched on the ridge of Civita at the highest point of the old town, with a bell tower visible from…
Tip The terrace just outside gives one of the best orientation views over both Sassi districts at once — a good first stop before you descend into either.
Casa Grotta di Vico Solitario
A preserved cave-house museum showing exactly how a Sassi family lived before the 1950s relocation — a single room shared with the mule, with the…
Tip Go here before touring a cave hotel; seeing the lived reality first makes the restored version far more legible.
Chiesa di Santa Maria de Idris
A rock church carved directly into the Monterrone outcrop in Sasso Caveoso, with a modest facade that gives no hint of the cave interior and faded…
Tip The short climb to the church doubles as one of the best photo points over the rooftops of Sasso Caveoso.
Palombaro Lungo
A vast underground cistern beneath Piazza Vittorio Veneto, hand-carved over centuries to collect and store the city's water supply — walkways now let…
Tip Book the short guided slot in advance; the cistern is only accessible on a scheduled tour and numbers are limited.
Belvedere Murgia Timone & Parco della Murgia Materana
The nature park on the far side of the Gravina ravine, home to further rock-cut churches and the single best full-width view back across at the Sassi…
Tip Drive or taxi across for sunset — the light on the Sassi from this side, with the whole ravine between you and the city, is the view every postcard is chasing.
MUSMA (Museo della Scultura Contemporanea Matera)
A contemporary sculpture museum spread through the restored caves of Palazzo Pomarici, pairing modern works with the raw cut-stone rooms themselves.
Tip The lower underground galleries, carved straight into the rock, are as much the exhibit as the sculpture inside them.
Day trips from Matera
Alberobello
The trulli capital of Puglia, about ninety minutes away — whitewashed conical-roofed houses clustered on a hillside, a different but equally unlikely…
Day tripCraco
A fully abandoned medieval ghost town about forty minutes from Matera, evacuated after decades of landslides, now a strange, silent film set of a…
Day tripGravina in Puglia
A smaller, lesser-known cousin of Matera with its own cave-cut quarter and a dramatic Roman-era bridge spanning its ravine — quieter, and genuinely…
Day tripAltamura
A bustling Puglian town built around another IGP-protected bread tradition, plus a cathedral and, on the edge of town, a museum devoted to the 1998…
Day tripEverything to do in Matera
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting there and around
Matera has no major airport and no mainline train station in the historic centre, which keeps it blessedly uncrowded relative to its fame and mildly annoying to actually reach.
Flights
Compare fares into Matera and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Matera
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.