Rome FCO hotel for early AM flight??

Yes, it is asked frequently. Almost daily in fact. The hotels at FCO are expensive because they know why you are staying with them. The Hilton is described as ordinary and not worth the money. One suggestion is to stay at a reasonable hotel in Rome and have your hotel arrange to have a shuttle waiting for you 3.5hrs before your flight time. The shuttle will be about 40Euro but you should be able to save that much over the hotels at FCO. Plus, you can savor your last evening in Rome and not at the airport.

More reasonable hotels at Fiumicino are the Mach2 and Cancelli Rossi. They both have shuttles but they may have to be called to pick you up early. I don't know if they are free or not. You can see more choices at www.tripadvisor.com. Type in Fiumicino, Italy. Then, select Map on the left side of the page.

Uhoh... 3.5 hours ahead? We're staying at Residenza Cavaleggerri in San Vincenzo and our flight leaves at 12:45p. On Via Michelin, it indicates the travel time of 3:20, so we thought we'd leave at 7AM.. that puts us there at 10:20 and we have a rental car to return... so I figured we'd be at the airport ready to go 2 hours before our flight. Is there a pressing reason to leave ourselves more time at the airport? I figure I'll be spending enough time in airports not to get up extra early to hurry up and wait!
Experienced FCO travellers, please advise. Thanks in advance, all! This blog is a wealth of valuable info from gracious and experienced travellers!

Sally, if you have an international flight out of FCO to the U.S., you may want to consider getting there 3.0hrs before the flight. Many travelers have indeed reported that they were fine with 2.0hrs. We have also had traveler's report that they needed all 3.0hrs as the security lines were very long and things didn't go well. Your choice.

Jackie, your hotel should be able to arrange a taxi or shuttle service for you, as suggested by Larry. If it were me, I'd bite the bullet, stay in the city center, and get up early. You can try to doze on the plane and you'll be trashed when you get home regardless, so half an hour really won't make that much difference. Not only is it cheaper to stay in the city, but you can enjoy your last night in Rome far more.

Sally, if my flight were one of the first ones out at 7am, I might gamble and go for the 2 hour window. When I flew out at 10:30am last year, I got to the airport at 7:30am and had plenty of time to kill & no lines. Since you will be leaving more towards the middle of the day, I'd allow at least 2.5 hours, if not the 3 recommended by Larry. Especially since you are driving back in and dropping off a rental car, I'd allow extra time for getting lost, delays in returning the car, etc. As mentioned to Jackie above, a bit more sleep that morning really probably won't have that much impact--and you can nap at the airport if you have extra time.

I was there in May; the b & b had a taxi pick us up at 4:00 a.m. and it showed up on time. At that hour, I would get there 2 hours before my flight. I would stay in the city another night and have the hotel make arrangements for your taxi.

Thanks Liz & Nancy. For some reason i'm terrified that a taxi won't be very motivated to show up at 4am, regardless of who makes the arrangements. I'm still looking for a good place to stay, as I just found out the Courtyard is booked.

Has anyone ever heard of Hotel Sirenetta in Ostia? I've read some reasonable things about it, but when I called to reserve a room they didn't even ask for a CC#, which I thought was odd and makes me a little nervous.

Thanks again for the kind responses!

Ive had taxis called by two different hotels and they both showed up on time.I think that when the hotel calls the taxi companies are looking for repeat business and will be reliable.

Sally, How early you get to the airport partially depends on if you are flying directly back to the States or if you have to change planes in Europe. We flew from FCO thru Lisbon. We arrive only 1 hour before the flight and quickly made it thru security. It was a 0630 flight, we left Rome at 0500. No Problem. We used Roma Shuttle.

Sally - I'll echo some of Larry's thoughts. If you are flying a US flagged carrier from Rome to the US then you will have to leave from Terminal 5, a new Terminal only for US and Israeli carriers. The location, and more "intense" security procedures make this remote terminal a little more time consuming. It opened in May and now they are more practiced... but it's still "different" than going through B, A or the AA Terminals. For Terminal 5 I would use the standard 3 hour mark.

If you're connecting in Europe, then on to the States, you will most likely not have to go through Terminal 5.

You CAN call a taxi the day before and they WILL be there at whatever time you select. Verify the rate on the call - and as you ask, your hotel can and will call for you also - just be standing there when they do! But I certainly would not spend my last night in Rome near the airport...

Ciao,
Ron

Great info on the terminals, thank you! I guess since we're flying to Munich, then on to the US, we'll be lucky and not have to be quite as early. Please let me know if I misunderstood this in any way!

We had a 0630 flt and wanted to be at FCO by 0400. Hotel recommended a chauferred(?)car. Cost us 70 Euros, but was there on time and only took us 30 minutes to get there. We did not see a taxi onthe streets at that time, so double check before you count on a taxi at those hours.

stay close to termini station and take the leoanardo da vinci express train 2 per hour for 9.50 euro

As a follow up to my original post, I thought i'd let anyone interested know that we stayed in Ostia Lido at the Hotel Sirenetta (very basic) and they arranged for a taxi to arrive at 4am. It was there on time and we were at the airport in 15 minutes. Worked great.

We would have stayed near Termini and taken the train to the aiport, but it doesn't start running until around 6am daily.

Happy travels!

Just a historical note. With visitors, friends, family, business associates, etc coming to see us, we've probably had 20+ groups need to leave our house (or their hotel) at 4 -5 AM. Almost without exception they have used the Taxi service (We have TIM phone service and they have their own contact #). Each time the taxi has been there ON TIME! If you call from a cell phone, they will send you a text message when you're taxi is dispatched

Ciao,
Ron