we are looking for a decent 3 or 4 star hotel in rome for a 5 nite stay. should we be staying near the main train station for convenience? we are also planning to do some day trips outside of rome. thanks so much!

Have you tried the Hotel Aberdeen, sweetie darling? It gets rave reviews from top Fodorites.

The Great and Powerful Pippy, just back from Wengen

The train station isn't the greatest choice of area to stay in, in my opinion. A little bit seedy (not awful) and not very convenient to seeing the sights in Rome itself. Considering that seeing the "highlights" in the Centro Storico and Vatican alone will take up your entire 4.5 day stay, I'd opt to stay somwhere more central. We've stayed in several hotels over the years. Hotel Teatro di Pompeo has an excellent location and is quite a nice little place. What is your budget?

P.S. We've stayed at Hotel Oceania which is across the street and down a bit from Hotel Aberdeen. The location is known as Via Firenze which is a good compromise of being near the train station but not in the immediate vicinity. It's reasonably close to the main sights as well (esp. the Borgeses which is un-missable!)

Star rating in Europe is not the same as in the states. What is your budget?

I had a very enjoyable 7 nights in April at the Hotel Amalfi. Six-seven block walk to Termini (flat walk, no hills). The hotel is basically on the Piazza SM Maggiore so not in a seedy area. Easy walk downhill to lots of sites and you can grab any bus to Termini to get back without climbing the hill!
http://www.hotelamalfiroma.it/rooms.htm

Whether convenience is compelling enough to stay near the Termini depends on where you are going and how often you plan to go out of town. Even when I do day trips out of Rome, it has never been compelling enough for me not to stay in the historical center. Also the star rating is a facilities rating: having laundry service, elevators, 24hr front staff, etc, increase the rating independent of the quality of the service. I have had lovely stays in 2 star hotels where I got to talk with helpful owners as well as being treated like nobody at a 4 star hotel.

We just returned from Rome and stayed at the Albergo Santa Chiara which is about 150 feet behind the Pantheon, a very central location. We were able to walk to the Borghese Gallerie and Modern Art Museum, the Coliseum, and the Vatican (stopping for gelato and/or a frizzante bottle of water on the way. We highly recommend this hotel, both for overall quality and for its superb location.

I do not agree that the areas west or north of Termini are seedy. Two of the most expensive hotels in Rome--St. Regis Grand and the Exedra--are situated at Repubblica which is right in front of Termini.

Monti, which is the neighbourhood around Maria Maggiore, is a very nice place and was recently featured in an article in the New York Times.

Yes, the area south of Termini is very untoward and louche, but I would gladly stay in Monti as my favourite church--Santa Prassede--is there as is Trattoria Monti.

Maybe some here live in suburban housing developments in Iowa or Texas and are not used to life in big cities like Rome, London, New York, Paris, Chicago, etc. Maybe that is why they think the area around Termini is "seedy"?

Pippy, born in London

inhotelsgroup.com Intercontinental Ville

on top of the Spanish Steps much better area a few blocks from

dodgy Termini area personally try not to stay there.

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Hop the metro for 1 euro and head for

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Happy Travels!

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For convenience make sure to stay near a metro stop. You would have to check because I don't remember for sure but I think the blue line was the main one that offered the best convenience for getting around. Rome has excellent transport.

The Intercontinental on the Via Sistina is NOT that great a hotel. It certainly is no Hassler, which is a few doors down.

The Via Sistina is also one of the biggest rip-off streets in Rome. The shops on this street charge 4 euros for a takeaway coke and don't give you the correct change back.

The man at Blue Ice overcharged me for a gelato and when I complained pretended he didn't speak English. Ha Ha, Monsieur DeFarge.

It is nice to stay near the Borghese Gardens however.

Pippy

Welcome back, thin.

Hi debb,

What are you looking for in a hotel that it must be 3 or 4*?

What is your budget?

We were very pleased with http://www.hotelmaikol.com/

I agree-the Intercontinental VILLE is....! Very disappointing but the staff think they are the best-quite full of themselves!!!!!!

Resdienza Cellini is a wonderful little place--no more than a ten min walk from Termini. Just gorgeous, and great owners /satt 9at leat, when we stayed there in 2005).But we did wish we'd been a bit closer to Coliseum, the River, etc.
i agree with TexasAggie in that you should probably look somewhere a bit more central.You can take a cab to Termini for your day trips.

Don't get too hung up on the stars in Italy. They have nothing necessarily to do with how nice the hotel is, how good a service you'll get, location, cleanliness, etc. The stars are based on a checklist of amenities--for example, if the staff doesn't have uniforms, the hotel can't get more than 2 stars. Hotels get stars for things like large lobbies, conference rooms, in-hotel restaurant, parking--things that you might or might not care about. Some of the nicest hotels we stayed in were 2 star properties.

Now it is probably more likely that a 4-star will be nicer than a 1-star, but not necessarily.

In three weeks of staying in Rome over four visits we have used Aberdeen, Sonya, and Contilla. All three stars and very convenient to Termini with Contilla being the closest. We prefer the Sonya (across from the Opera House) because my wife thinks they make the best lattes and only three blocks from Termini. Dodgy,seedy, etc. is often in the eyes of the beholder. Just back from a week in East Village in New York and think that the Termini area looks better. Cannot beat the area for convenience to transit with good local restaurants.

Hi Pippy/Thin,
Good to see you back. I grinned as soon as I read "sweetie darling" . The area I was referring to was the area south of the Termini. I stayed in a cheap youth hostel there 8 years ago and it was truly the only time I've been really scared/uncomfortable in my world travels. Perhaps it isn't rational (i.e., it's an emotional barrier), but I've never had the desire to stay so close to the train station again in all my return visits to Rome. The ambience of the centro storico is also a big pull away from the area. There are certainly plenty of nice hotels in some of the other areas you mentioned near the Termini.
Hope all is well for you, TA