Late March, considering staying a few days after arrival at FCO in either Fiumicino town or Ostia. I did a quick search but am not seeing hotel recommendations for either place in the forum (at least in the last 6 months). Anyone have thoughts on where to stay a few nights before heading to Palermo for RS Sicily? Should I just be looking at airport hotels, and then finding transportation to Ostia Antica?
TIA.
Why would you do this? What are you planning to do during these days? The airport is less than an hour by train to Rome, so most people want to stay IN Rome. The only exception is usually for a very early flight out, you may want an airport hotel the night before.
The only reason I would consider to stay in either place is to catch an early flight, although in such case I would even prefer to stay at the Hilton airport. If you just plan to visit Ostia Antica, stay in Rome itself in the city center and visit it from there. Going to Ostia Antica from the city center is not much longer than from Ostia Lido or from Fiumicino.
Why do you want to stay there? We only do for if our flight out is early in the morning, not one of Italy’s special places. . Fly ahead to Palermo and see all of the wonders that the RS tour skips, a lot of them.
Well, this is why I am asking - is this a reasonable idea. Maybe it isn't. Maybe that's why I can't find much for hotels.
We have been to Rome a few times and with only perhaps 2 nights, thought it might be different to unwind in a smaller town along the coast. Ostia Antica seems like an interesting but low-key sight-seeing stop. Keep in mind, one of the days is pretty much toast due to travel exhaustion. We would then fly out to Palermo a day or 2 ahead of our tour, so didn't want to stray too far from the airport...
I considered this for our last trip, but we ended up staying in Rome. However I had read this:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/stay-in-ostia-to-visit-ostia-antica
Thank you @Lisa, that link is super helpful!
If you haven’t made travel arrangements yet, I would go to Palermo the day after your arrival to Rome. Since you have seen Rome already, maybe you could stay at the airport Hilton hotel before the flight to Palermo. By doing so you would have at least one some extra night in Palermo before the tour starts. I’ve never taken the tour of Sicily but I see that the tour has only 2 nights scheduled in Palermo (basically a day and a half) which in my opinion is insufficient. You need at least 3 nights in Palermo, and even a fourth one of you plan to take a day trip to Cefalù by train (about one hour away). The tour does not go to Cefalù.
