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Logistical advice for car rental in Rome - pick up and return

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Let me start by saying we have absolutely no interest in picking up a rental at Roma Termini. This will be our 3rd trip to Rome and we know the lay of the land well enough to acknowledge we do not want a car in Rome. So here is our situation and I would love to read the suggestions of others.

We will arrive at FCO from Athens and then spend a week in Trastevere without a car. After the week in Trastevere we are going to rural areas in Campania in the Sele River Valley near Contursi Terme. A car is required. In the past, we have rented at the Naples airport (not my favorite option) and at the train station in Salerno—which worked pretty good but in those situations we were continuing to travel and using trains. For this trip, after a week in the Sele Valley we will return to Rome for our flight home the next day.

We are looking to spending our last night at the airport area and debating on turning in the car and then staying at Hotel Tiber to have a little bit of area ambiance for our last night, or just taking the easy route and staying at the Hilton at the airport. Our flight leaves at 10:00 am so we will need to be at the airport around 7:00; so looking to reduce departure morning stress, and thus will likely turn in the car the night before.

So having provided the convoluted logistics, here are my questions/requests for guidance.

1) Where would be the best place to rent a car? Just go ahead and train from Rome to Salerno and rent in Salerno? Or train to FCO (so we could return to FCO) and rent the car and then drive to Campagna?

2) turn in the rental at FCO and then taxi/shuttle to and from Hotel Tiber?

3) does staying at the Hotel Tiber provide a little feeling of still being in Italy? Or again, should we just stay at the airport?

Obviously I have a tendency to overthink things, but I would appreciate others insights and suggestions to any of my questions. Thank you in advance for any of your thoughts and insights.

Posted by
2791 posts

There are lots of options in Rome for where to pick up the car. You’re not limited to FCO or the city center. You could find a rental office on the outskirts of Rome, close to a highway to avoid city driving. You can use google earth to check out the route you would take from the office to the highway. Just take a taxi there to pick up the car. Then return the car to FCO.

Posted by
8035 posts

Pick up in Salerno
Drop at FCO

I would probably stay at airport Hilton since flight is so early

Posted by
503 posts

I would absolutely spend the night in the town of Fiumicino, at the Tiber or other hotel, also you can enjoy the lovely town of Fiumicino and have a great dinner before your departure the next morning. I would not arrive at FCO more than two hours in advance, so I'd get there by 8am. We return our car at FCO the evening before, take a taxi to our hotel in Fiumicino, and take a taxi to FCO the next morning. Try to find a good map showing directions to the car rental return at the airport....we use SIXT and the return was in a stacked parking garage

For dinner in Fiumicino, if you can spend a good amount of euro, Pascucci is one of the beat seafood restaurants in the Rome area; it's just one of many good restaurants in that town. For pizza and an inexpensive dinner, I also like Clementina. Reserve a table for the first; you do not need to book for Clementina.

Posted by
16 posts

I like the idea of picking up in Salerno and dropping off in FCO. If you decide to pick up in Rome, let me know and I'll tell you a great Hertz garage in Testaccio to pick up your car. We have dropped off our car in Rome in different ways. We have dropped the car off in the center city and stayed one night in the center and had a driver pick us early (around 6:00am) for an easy ride to the airport. The driver only cost 50 Euro. We also dropped off the car at FCO and stayed at the airport hotel. OK, nothing special, but an easy morning. A lot of this may be driven by cost - picking up in one place and dropping in another so do your homework.

Posted by
370 posts

We have picked up in Rome and returned in Venice and picked up in Sorrento and returned in Bari. Picked up in Venice and returned in Pisa.

Can you fly into Rome and out of Naples?

Posted by
192 posts

Thank you to everyone for their gracious recommendations.

We will likely take the train to Salerno and pick up the rental there. It's easy and the surcharge to return in Rome is minimal to non-existent depending on the rental company.

We have made reservations in Fiumicino. Based on the information of others and "google street view walking around" I think we will enjoy our last night there and maybe devote a couple of days to staying in the area in the future.

@ekscrunchy Thanks for the advice to arrive at the airport 2 hours before. We have flown out of FCO once before and arrived three (3) hours ahead of time, which was way more than sufficient. Its reassuring that at least one other person feels 2 hours is adequate. I am looking at renting and returning the car to a decently rated service that opens at 7:00 am and just returning the car in the morning and then walking over. We have sky priority and I am looking to schedule security through Clear FCO QPass or purchase Fast Track to hopefully keep things moving.

Again, thanks to everyone for weighing in.

Posted by
16675 posts

If you want to minimize driving and the headache of Rome's traffic, you can return the car to Salerno and take the train from Salerno to Rome.

Check the prices on www.autoeurope.com
If you absolutely want to pick up the car in Rome (and return it in Rome), you can select ROME ALL LOCATIONS as your pick up point and your return point. The one way rental entails a minor fee (usually around 20 euro depending on the company) but the price difference in pickup location can be huge. Picking up at Fiumicino is usually the highest possible rate, Rome Termini station is generally the second highest (but significantly smaller than the airport), all other city locations will be approximately the same (and much cheaper). The airport pick up for my rental next week would have been $12 per day more than picking up in the city.

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