wch

Hello,<BR><BR>My husband and I would like to visit Rome the first full week of May and we need some advice.<BR><BR>Air fare: Right now, we can fly Air France to Rome, via Paris, for about $711 each. Is this a fairly good deal for round-trip to Rome in May or should we wait for one of the web deals to pop up in March or April? I don't want to wait too long and then run the chance of there being less availabilty or less flexibility.<BR><BR>Hotel: We would like to stay at someplace fairly central in Rome and are looking to pay in the $60-$100 range. Does anyone have any suggestions or favorite places? We are not very picky. Just a clean place with a bathroom in the room (but not required).<BR><BR>Thanks for your help.

Cathy Morris

Hi<BR>My husband and I booked our vacation to Italy with a website www.cheap2travel.com. the prices are really good on hotels, you can call them and they find cheap air and can customize any itinerary you want. We paid only like $600 each for airfare in June so you should be able to find alittle cheaper

Rex

Hi wch,<BR><BR>This is such a simply thing - - but you have to tell where you are originating to know if your airfare is good, bad or mediocre. From Dublin, Ireland it's WAY over-priced. From lots of places - - say, for example - - almost anywhere between Denver and Bangkok, it sounds pretty good to me.<BR><BR>Even the comment from Cathy Morris doesn't mean much without specifying from WHERE!<BR><BR>And lodging in Rome for $60-100 per night is pretty slim pickings, unless you mean per PERSON per night.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Rex

Simply awful to make such a typo as to type "simply" - - instead of "simple" - in the first sentence of my post above.<BR>

wch

Sorry about that.<BR><BR>$711 round-trip is from Houston, TX.<BR><BR>Also, what is a more realistic hotel budget for Rome in May?

steve

go to aventinohotels.com and check out villa san pio or st anselmo. nice looking place<BR>i am also going in may and will stay there. wait until march or early april and you can probably go to Rome for ~$500. i went from San Diego to Paris last May for $420 on US Air. the year before from San Diego to Milan for $480 and that was in late June. Have fun

Vita

Pensione Panda by the Spanish Steps would fit your budget. I stayed there last October and wasn't disappointed.<BR><BR>www.hotelpandaparadise.com

Book Chick

Also, check out Casa Howard at www.casahoward.com<BR><BR>They do have air-conditioning, and especially in late May, this might be a consideration. I just spent a little over a week there, and it was extremely pleasant and I thought very reasonably-priced & well-located. Other options may be the Hotel Parlamento and the Hotel St. Gregoriana. (They were two other places I researched prior to booking with Casa Howard that were reasonably-priced and in a good location.)<BR>Buon Viaggio,<BR>BC

Ingrid

Also try Hotel Tea near the Borghese Gardens. About 80 euros a night for a double.

cheryl

Lucky you. Just returned from Rome and<BR>want to go back. Keep an eye on USAir, <BR>they offer direct flights from Philly<BR>and they're the only airline I know of<BR>who offer on demand movies, tv, etc.<BR>Really helped on the 91/2 hr. flight<BR>home. We stayed at the Smeraldo in the<BR>Campo de' Fioro area. Great starting<BR>location, 5 min to Piazza Navonna, Pantheon, 10 min to Colosseum, Forum,<BR>Trevi Fountain. It's a simple hotel,<BR>staff very friendly..we paid under $100<BR>with continental style breakfast and we did have a private bathroom - will<BR>be higher when you go. Even though it's<BR>on a very narrow street we asked for a<BR>room in the back because of noise. Here's their website: http://www.hotelsmeraldoroma.com

Monica

I also stayed at Hotel Smeraldo. I don't remember which room we had, but it was quiet in the evening. Great location and under $100.