Tarifa gay bars

I first heard about Puglia when a friend moved there to start a new life with his Italian boyfriend. He reported back that along the glittering southern Italian coast there were dozens of gorgeous beaches for swimming, with clear waters and hot rocks on which to bask after a dip. The wild, rugged beauty of the region was also, he said, a major draw for the Italian gay population, and there was a great scene out there.

Off the gaydar

He made it sound like the gay equivalent of The Beach - a utopian never-never land, unspoilt and still off the radar of the gay circuit party set who dominate other beach hotspots such as Mykonos, Provincetown, Massachusetts and Fire Island, New York. I booked my flight that day.

It was here I went first. A wooden decked area with a bar was split over different levels, with a jetty running down to the sea. Lying around on sunloungers, the fashion crowd mixed with burly bears. The atmosphere was very relaxed, gay I found a quiet spot on some rocks, over which I scrambled to the warm, turquoise sea when I fancied a dip.

Unlike some gay beaches where body fascism rules and you feel invisible if you don't fit the honed and toned stereotype, Puglia's scene is much more bohemian with an "everybody welcome" ethos. It's a no-frills restaurant on the seafront where the catch of the day included sea urchins and calamari, and locals drank wine out of plastic jugs while occasionally getting splashed by the waves.

Once part of a 15th-century monastery, this newly renovated townhouse is great value for a small group it sleeps up to six. Lemon, orange, clementine and pomegranate trees grow in the courtyard and there's a beautiful roof terrace with views of the monastery bell tower. Samsara Beach Club, a hip bar on Lido, another stretch of beach south of Gallipoli, was one tip-off.

In between beach visits, eating and sleeping, I explored Lecce's baroque churches and palaces, and its one gay bar, Alter Ego Via Massaglia 15where a drag tarifa holds court and a kooky lesbian spins tunes. It was easy to meet people here, and gay find out about various after-parties, usually at a dance club out in the sticks that often involved hitching a bar with a friendly bar.

The spontaneous, find-out-on-the-night culture was refreshingly organic; a nice break from the corporate clubbing of places like Ibiza where superstar DJs and the jet set have pushed up the prices. Gay travellers who like a package holiday with rainbow flags on every corner and nightly bar crawls through a city's hip gay district may not get Puglia.

It's a little rough tarifa the edges and requires effort to uncover its charms. But if you crave a bit of adventure, this is an unspoilt slice of heaven. Ryanair ryanair. Il Giardino Segreto sleeps six and can be booked directly giardino. For information on Italian gay nightlife, visit salentogayclub.

Richard Bence is travel editor of Attitude magazine. With its brasher Balearic sister Ibiza grabbing all the attention, Mallorca often gets overlooked, but there's plenty of fun to be had on the small-ish Palma gay scene. Es Trenc beach, on the south-east of the island, is popular with the wealthy A-gay crowd.

Stay El Hospes Maricelhospes. The El Carmen barrio is the creative hub of the Spanish city and its gay scene. Most bars are mixed.