I have just started to look for hotels in Rome. Which one would you say is a good location? We would like to be close to main attractions.

Thanks,

Clau

Most of Rome is pretty tight so just about anything between the train station and the Vatican is walkable. We normally stay in the area just to the west and south within a few blocks of the train station. Just easier getting to and from the train station. If you get real close to principle attractions, the rates jump considerably.

I do not care for either the Vatican area or the train station area.

The Pantheon/Piazza Navono is IMO the best in the city but the nicer hotels there are pricey.

I agree with kfusto. If you post your budget, you'll get lots of good suggestions for hotels in the area.

But kfusto is correct in that the hotels get pricy around the attractions. We have spent about two weeks, off and on, in the train station area, and it is fine. Close to the train station (a couple of blocks) is a little seedy looking but we have found it safe -- at least through early evening. Six, eight blocks further is nicer with reasonable prices.

Clau,
Did you give up on the idea of Trastevere?

I am still thinking about Trastevere. What would you pick between Trastevere and Plaza Navona area? I would like to stay within the 100 euro range (I could stretch it a little bit). Any specific hotel names?

For 100E your money will buy more in Trastevere. Perhaps Arco de Lauro (sp)?

Trastevere is beautiful but very noisy at night (bars, restaurants, a lot of people in the street) and not so good reachable with public transports as the Navona quarter. I would recommend you the Hotel Arenula, near Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona. On nycerome.com i've seen that rates are between 95 and 125 euro and the hotel is located near the Tiberine Island which faces Trastevere (there is also a good map on this website)

Hi

I see that some posters are worried about the location of the hotel in Rome and how they will be able to get to the different locations. My wife and I went to Rome a couple of years back and we stayed near Termini and that was not a problem at all. I have a couple of links that might be of some help First of all I have made a Google map of Rome that shows you where some of the attractions are located and you can find this map here: http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy_map.htm

Another useful link is http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ . This is a Google map tool where you can measure distances. With this you can zoom in on Rome (or any other place) and measure distances from one attraction to another.

Another useful page is http://mapfrappe.com/ . On this page there are two maps...first indicate a know area on the top map (e.g. an area of NYC)...and then zoom in on Rome on the lower map. Now you will get an outline of NYC on Rome and that should give you an idea when it comes to size.

Here is the trip report with pictures and links that I made after the Rome trip: http://gardkarlsen.com/rome_italy.htm

Hope this helps

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Sorry, jannefr, I have to disagree with your description of Trastevere. I don't know the whole area but our hotel was on a very quite block with almost no traffic. The little shopping street in front of us pretty much closed up at night and we were a short block or two from the trolley that took us four stops into the historical centre.

hdm: where did you stay in Trastevere? we just booked the Arco DeLauro and I'm told it's very quiet there at night. I hope that's really true!

We stayed at the Hotel San Francesco and it was lovely. There are a bunch of recent comments on here about it because Clau was asking about Trastevere. Search Hotel San Francesco both on here and on TripAdvisor. It was our first trip to Rome and we must have booked it by 'guess' but we were really glad we did.

plafield: when are you staying at the ARco de Lauro? I was thinking of making a reservation there for September

I've been searching for the last few days, but increasingly, some hotels I was considering are now full so I would get in there swiftly. I have used www.booking.com as it offers lots, has a useful mapping function and is 'book now, pay later'. I've had to settle for one near the train station, but that suits fine. We will walk the major sights on Day 1, take the tube to the Vatican on Day 2, and bimble about on Day 3.