travelfunky

Hello All!

We returned from our 9-day trip in Rome last night and I wanted to share some of our "best decisions" with you, since this board helped me immensely with the trip planning.

1. Long layover at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris- I made sure our layovers were 3 hours so we wouldn't miss our connecting flight. That airport is very frustrating- inefficient, confusing and slow- I think many people probably miss their connecting flights all the time! Make sure you have at least a 3 hour layover.

2. Airport transfer with Rome Shuttle Limousine. http://www.romeshuttlelimousine.com/
They were prompt for both the pickup and return and it was so nice to just be whisked out of the airport without having to figure out how to hail a taxi. Plus, at 35 euros, its a good deal.

3. Albergo Del Senato hotel- seriously, you can't beat the location. I had some problems with the bed, but I tend to be super picky about pillows and the mattress- I think jet lag does that to me. My hubby had no problems though. Nice clean rooms. Literally walk out of the hotel and right into the Pantheon. Nice desk staff. We requested a room with a view of the square- probably would have been a little quieter if our room was in the back.

4. Context Rome- I can not say enough about this group. We booked 2 tours with them- their Ancient Rome tour (Palatine Hill, Forum and Colosseum) and the Vatican City tour (Vatican museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peters). I was so glad not to be in one of those groups with 10 million people and the tour guide waving a big ugly flag. The guides were very knowledgable, spoke good english (we had one that was american, and one was Brazilian but hardly had an accent). We did these tours the first 2 days of our trip and it greatly affected the rest of our trip. The cost is a little higher than a normal tour group, but totally worth it. We kept saying how we wished we had more funds to have more tours with them. A great thing about this group is their main office is in the US so your credit card is charged in dollars in the US- no conversion fees, no credit card "fraud" problems.

A few things we might have done differently:

1. We booked train tickets ahead of time with Context Rome. We didn't have any problems with that, but we would have been totally fine if we would have waited until we were there.

2. We booked a trip to Tivoli/Hadrians Villa/Villa D'Este with Enjoy Rome. They wouldn't let us book beforehand- they wanted us to come into their office when we got there. Would have been a lot easier if we went to Vastours (the group that actually does the tour) when we got to Rome.

All in all- great trip, great food, tons of walking.

edhodge

Thanks, travelfunky! We have booked those same two tours with Context Rome and wondered if I could have saved myself some money. Sounds like it was money well spent.

Are you going to post a trip report?

Dayle

Hi funkytravel,

Glad to hear you enjoyed those tours with Context Rome. I did the same ones in Sept and although my budget is small, I felt it was money very well spent!

Ciao

ira

Thanks for sharing, T

cantstayhome

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm with you on the Albergo del Senato and Context Rome. Best decisions we made, too, due in great part to the comments I found here.

butter924

Thanks for the report!

Albergo Del Senato sounds great, what type of room did you have? I'm wondering if there's a big difference between the basics and suites....