Last Night of Trip--Rome City Center or Airport Hotel?

At what time are you flying out in the morning?

Taking the Leonardo Express from Termini to FCO is easy and relatively inexpensive (14 EUROs I think?).
You can stay close to the station to make it easy to catch the express.
Just be prepared to pay for a taxi if there is a strike.

Yes, according to the Trenitalia website, the Leonardo Express trains run from the Termini station starting at 5:20 a.m., take 32 minutes to get to the airport, and cost 14€. I was wondering whether you’d consider going directly to the Amalfi Coast upon arriving in Rome, so you could consolidate all of your Rome time at the end - it could work well if you’re arriving in Rome reasonably early.

Booking.com shows a lot of hotels in the town of Fiumicino, on the shore just beyond the airport. You might try exploring these, looking for one with a good reliable shuttle to FCO. Or, as was suggested, a hotel close to Termini so you can take the Leonardo Express early. I was fine with the Hilton right at the airport, but I don't share your "lack of love" for airport hotels. (I don't love them but I love the convenience.) I'd think your budget would give you many choices.

A lot of it depends on the departure time of your flight.

The last stop on our April 2022 trip is Siena, and we are spending the last night in the Rome Airport Hilton. But I am trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear by booking a private "transfer tour" from Siena. They will take us to Montalcino for a couple of winery tours, and more wine with the included lunch. Then, we will be dropped off at the Rome Airport Hilton, with enough time to get our Covid tests.

Maybe you can find something similar from wherever you are staying on the Amalfi Coast.

If your flight is super-early, like our flight home this past October that was before 9:00AM, you’ll need to be checking in 3 hours earlier, so that’s before 6:00. The owner of the apartment where we’d been for a week downtown called and reserved a taxi for us at 5:15AM. Rough, but we’d been in town a whole week, and did t want to relocate to the airport for that last night.

Previous trip, we’d been elsewhere in Italy, and just got back to Rome for that last night. We stayed at the Airport Hilton (nice restaurant!) and walked 2 minutes to the terminal. If your flight is early, go with the airport location. Of if you don’t need to be checking in at (or before) the crack of dawn, a city-center location would be more doable.

Depends on when your flight leaves; if it is late morning the city centre is easily doable by taxi or train. For three persons taxi is about the same cost as train and is door to door.

I stayed at Hotel Tiber in the fishing town of Fiumicino, about 10 minutes by shuttle from the airport. It’s a nice modern hotel on the river and a short walk from the sea. Hotel has a nice restaurant, a small rooftop swimming pool, and most rooms have balconies. There are a number of other restaurants nearby,

1- What time is the flight?

2- Where does the flight go? Does it land in a Schengen country? This affects how early you need to be to the airport ( out bound passport processing or not)

3- With 3 people, the cost of a taxi is just a bit more for door-to door service from a central Rome hotel to FCO, so would not bother with the train.

On a recent trip to Italy, our last two nights were in Rome, and we spent them at Hotel Santa Maria in Trastevere. (Great hotel! But it has a very limited number of rooms so tends to be booked up unless you are reserving well in advance.) Our flight out of FCO was at noon. A cab picked us up at the hotel at 8:30 a.m., and by 9:00 we were being dropped off at the airport. By 10:00 a.m. we were all the way through the health screening line, check in line, security line, passport control line, and sitting in the gate waiting for the flight. Things went super smoothly for us that day, despite it being the first day that Italians were able to fly to the US for non-essential reasons, the travel ban having been lifted (Nov. 8). The cab cost 50€. Our hotel arranged it for us. Three Leonardo Express fares will cost you 42€. For the extra money, just get door to door service with a cab. Our travel companions had a different flight home than ours, and left the hotel at 5:30 a.m. for their cab ride to the airport. All four of us were very happy to have a lovely final night in Rome's city center instead of being in an airport area hotel. Stay in city center!

Another variable to consider is the internet service at the Rome city hotel- with all the covid paperwork required, can you download everything as required by the airlines before your flight home?
Safe- and healthy - travels!

Thank you all so much for your responses! They helped me to think things through more clearly. Decision has been made. We are going to stay in the city center at the Lancelot Hotel (154 euros, recommended in Rick's guide, has a triple room) and take a taxi to the airport for our 9:30 flight the next morning. I truly appreciate the time everyone took to respond, I wish you all happy and safe travels!!

We stayed at the Campo dei Fiori. We arranged transportation to the airport through the hotel.

I feel very strongly against airport hotels. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, assuming you are staying in the airport city. Obviously coming in from a farther-out town may make transit to the airport in time for an early flight impossible. But from core city to airport? There is no reason for an airport hotel.

Here’s why - it’s your last night of a trip. Do you want to go to a nice dinner and walk around the lovely streets of Rome or do you want to sit in a generic room by the airport? If your flight is not super early, would you like a sunrise walk and coffee from a nice coffee bar in the center, or a business style breakfast? Airport hotels to me end the trip a night early.
And moving to the airport saves you little time. A car from Rome takes under an hour. Airport hotels still require a shuttle, often 10 minutes and some only come 1-2 times and hour. Sure, there are hotels IN the airport, I don’t know if Rome has that, but if you mean a regular airport-area hotel, those save little time. Maybe it’s just me as an early riser but I’d gladly get up 30-40 minutes earlier in order to not stay at an airport hotel!

The easiest thing is to stay wherever you want in the core city and pre-arrange a cab/private car service. Should be under 60euros. Most hotels will do so for you.

I do apartments so can’t suggest a hotel, but there should be plenty in your range. Look in the Piazza Navona area so you are close to the nice evening goodbye-Italy walk I’m imaging!

The Hotel San Carlo arranged an early morning taxi for us and it was actually a rather pleasant ride to the airport.

Most of these hotels will give you a "brownbag" breakfast if you're leaving before the buffet opens.
Safe travels!

This past Ocotber we stayed inside the airport at the Hellosky hotel. The rooms were new, clean and oh so convenient. They didn't have a lot of Amenities, free coffee in the room or carpet on the floor but was so nice for an early flight. Just walk out of your room, down a hallway and you are in the airport.

I have done it both ways. When it just my wife and I we prefer to stay in the city center so we can go out the night before. We are also early risers so getting up early to catch a flight is never a factor. We have had 6:40am flights out of FCO a couple of times and we hired a private taxi (suntransfers.com) to pick us up around 3:30am and it wasn't a problem. I do recommend that you notify your hotel ahead of time that you plan to depart that early so they will have someone at the desk. When our kids were younger we would opt for an airport hotel just to make the morning less stressful. Since you are coming from the Amalfi Coast you most likely won't be in Rome until midday or later anyway. I think a 14 year old can handle getting up early too. Teenagers can sleep anywhere at the drop of a hat so the early morning taxi will give them a good nap. I'd stay somewhere like Locanda Navona or Hotel Due Torri and arrange for a car to pick you up to get to the airport. You will want your hotel to be in a location conducive to walking to sites/restaurants etc. Good luck and happy travels!