We're taking Rick's advice to pack light, and are hoping to pack only 4 days clothes for a 14 day trip. I have book a small apartment in Florence that has a washer. I don't really want to sit in a laundromat in Rome, or pay many euros for someone else to wash clothes. I am wondering if there is a budget priced hotel or B&B in Rome that would have washing facilities. Or am I better off renting another apartment. I have found 2 BR apartments from 135 euros a night, there are 4 of us. Is that as good as it might get?
Cross Pollinate has some apartments that are alittle less than that depending on when you are going to be there. Check it out.
I think finding a hotel with laundry facilities is a long shot. We always use the laundromats. Drop it off in the AM and pick it up later. Hotel Contilia near the train station has a laundromat across the street. For the convenience I think the prices are reasonable.
There are several landromats in Rome with drop off service and many double as an internet cafe. The apartments may have washers but I would be surprised if they have dryers - you'll have to make sure there is plenty of time for your clothes to dry.
Good point. If you're going to drop your clothes off at a laundromat, then the clothes you take should be ready to stand up to the most severe washing (hot water, hot dryer). Anything else should just be washed by hand in your sink and hung up in your room to dry.
Our daughter lives in Milan & was surprised to learn that Italian washers & dryers are totally different than in the U.S. Among other things, they take much longer than ours do. The service of dropping them off at a laundromat & picking them up later sounds like a stress free option. That keeps your time with the sights rather than stressing with a foreign laundry system.
There's a nice self-service laundromat on Via Cavour in Rome run by a young Asian couple. It's around 8-9 euro for wash and dry, but for 1 additional euro they'll dry and fold your clothes and hold them for pick-up later in the day. Lots of locals do that. If you're interested, I may have their card and could give you an exact name and address.
We have used a couple of laundromats around the train station with no problem. But we don't take any clothing with cotton so shrinking is not a problem for us. European washers/dryers are a lot difference than US -- designed to be highly efficient, use much less water and hardly any soap. From the washer you generally put the clothes in a high spin machine to further remove water prior to using the dryer.