Accomodations in Rome?
 

We have decided to take our 2 teens, age 16 & 18, to Rome over Christmas holiday. I have looked at previous posts recommending the Excelsior, the Nazionale, Albergo del Senato , & the Ponte Sisto hotel. Would any of these work for a family of 4? Do you know of less expensive options?
The boys are 16 & 18 and have never been to Europe so we hope to make this a fun trip.
We arrive Dec 25 and stay 8 nights- is it realistic to take a side trip to Florence OR
Naples in that time frame?

Of course, there are less expensive options... An apartment for one. Or a hotel with a lower rate than the four you've listed. I assume you're looking for two double rooms. What is your budget per night?

Yes, you could divide your time between Rome and another city. If possible, it would be more efficient to fly into the first city and out of the second city.

This place gets goods reviews--I enjoyed my stay there:

http://www.daphne-rome.com/

I though under 400 euro per night, is that realistic?
We would love to stay in an apartment but I want to be certain it is in a fairly good area and I don't know the city.

ellenem,
i'm waiting to hear from the Daphne!

I stayed at the Daphne Trevi with my niece, a college student on her first trip abroad, and she thought this place was great--nice room, goodish location, extremely helpful about tourist stuff, cellphone provided to use out and about, breakfast included. They even packed us a bag breakfast for our departure morning since we were leaving too early for a sit-down breakfast.

By the way, my stay was in 2006 so some features may be diffferent.

Thanks you so much . I am also looking at apartments through slowtravel while i wait to hear from the daphne.

I've stayed at Hotel Smeraldo for 8 nights, near Campo dei Fiori last year at Christmas, it is definitely a buget conscious hotel, so only basic amenities, but it was clean and in a good location. The continental breakfast was very mediocre, we had our morning coffees at the cafe/bar across the street.

I've also stayed at the Hotel Adler for a week a couple years ago at Christmas. A good, basic hotel, closer to the main train station (off Via Nazionale), so a bit more of a walk to the historic center, but a good location for using buses (that go up & down Via Nazionale) and a metro stop just around the corner. The continental breakfast was much better here then at the Smeralda, but that is something that can change year to year.

I also stayed at the Hosianum Palace this past May for 2 nights it is a bit more upscale than the Smeralda or Adler, but in a very good location, you can walk just about anywhere in the historic center of the city and it's just a block or so from Largo Argentina with lots of bus and tram connections.

I'll be going back to Rome in 3 weeks and this time will be renting an apartment from Rome Capital Apartments. They were easy to deal with and very responsive to my emails. If you look at apartments located in the Piazza Navona or Campo dei Fiori area you will be in the middle of "everything", if you what a bit quieter location you can look at the Trastevere area.

I don't have the website addresses at the moment, but if you google the names of the hotels and apartment company their websites should come up.

We've stayed at the Fontanella Borghese three times. It's offering special rates through Dec. 27th that are well under your target budget. I like its location about halfway between the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona.

http://www.fontanellaborghese.com/home_ing.html

Both the Fontanella Borghese and its sister hotel, Due Torri, are offering not only the special rate through Dec. 27th but also a free night for stays longer than 3 nights. The Due Torri is slightly closer to the Piazza Navona.

http://www.hotelduetorriroma.com/home_ing.html

Thank you. What fabulous options!
Other advice.....I love Florence but since we have never been to Italy with the boys (16,18) , do you think it would be more realistic to take a day trip to Naples or fly "open jaw" through either Naples or Florence with only 8 days (we fly from the eastern US).
I'm not sure which city the boys would enjoy more, because, although Naples may be a bit warmer, one is studying the Renaissance and the other taking Archeology this semester. Very tough choice. I wish we had a month!!!!!

eye-- would you consider an apartment?

Viajero2,
Absoutely! I have started looking at those also but I have no idea regarding locations. DH and I are very early risers, not so the teens, so a place were we could go out for coffee in the early morning or they could stroll (relatively safely) at night would be terrific.

Check out Sleep in Italy, they now have their website where you can select the "neighborhoods". Choose Navona or Pantheon area. You can find a very nice apartment for far less than the cost of a hotel.

Once you find the apt., then use Trip Advisor and SlowTrav to check reviews on the place.

www.sleepinitaly.com

www.tripadvisor.com

www.slowtrav.com

Hi eyemom,
Our family of 4 stayed in this apartment in Rome. We loved it especially the terrace which we used even in late November. The location was perfect but the disadvantages were the 84 steps (no elevator) and very small shower (interior height just under 6ft).
Sleep in Italy were a pleasure to deal with.
http://www.sleepinitaly.com/info-ges...id_appartam=30

Eyemom - we just stayed in an apartment with three kids near Piazza Navona and it was fabulous. I checked and it is taken for your dates but there are lots of others. We find it so much better than a hotel.

PS we used Roman Reference.

eyemom-- I totally understand the overwhelming feeling when trying to downselect a place to stay in Rome. I tried an apartment stay after staying in hotels in Rome on earlier trips. I don't think I'll ever stay at a hotel in Rome again!

The area you want to stay in is called Centro Storico. Campo de Fiori is also lovely, followed by Piazza Spagna, and Colosseo/Roman Forum areas. Take this order as suggestions and "spring board" to start searching for apartments. Its sound that you would need minimum 2 bedrooms. Try now this as search criteria on the sites cited above. I hear great things about Perfectplaces.com. I used vrbo.com and holiday-rentals.com. No complaints on neither of these sites. The prior recommendation by dave about slowtrav.com is priceless.

The holidays fill out quickly so this is a task that you want to set aside some time soon as with patience and a notebook do research and annotate.

Best of luck. Sounds like an awesome trip already.

I agree with <b>daveesl's</b> post word for word.
Limiting your search to the two "neighborhoods" he suggested in SleepInItaly's pull-down menus on their website and also selecting "4" people will narrow down the number of apartments to a managable level.

SleepInItaly is very highly regarded on Fodors and Slowtrav (Though I have always ended up using other agencies).

Their 2BR 2BA "Paradiso Big" apartment right on Campo dei Fiori looks especially appropriate for a family with 2 teens.
The various "Giulia" units are also in a fantastic location.