Rome Pre-trip hotels

Do you have either the Italy or Rome Rick Steves books? He discusses the various neighborhoods and makes recommendations that you can choose based on your interests. He also recommends lodging in all price ranges. By the way, the star system in Italy is only related to amenities provided (e.g. 24 hr front desk, elevator) and is not an indicator of quality. Some one or two star places are actually nicer than some three and four star places.

Don - You could stay in the same hotel as the tour will stay in and not have to move. Contact the tour office for the name of the hotel. You may get a discounted rate since you'll be on the tour.

Yes Michael, I do have the RS Italy guide book, but I thought that I might get some other traveler's recommendations based on their personal experiences. Grier, I tried that, but they indicated that they don't know which hotel they would be using. That would have been my preference. Am I trying to make my arrangements too far in advance? I am already also looking at booking our flights for the trip.

I've been using booking.com to find hotels; their reviews are only from people who've recently stayed in them. My favorite part of the city is the Piazza Navona/Pantheon/Campo dei Fiori area. Last summer I stayed at Hotel Genio, a few meters north of the entrance to Piazza Navona, near public transportation (including the cute #116 electric minibus that goes through and around the historic center), and has a rooftop terrace with great views. The hotel could use some updating, but it's clean and comfortable and the staff is very helpful.

Some places in Italy won't take May reservations until January, so you might indeed be trying too early. (I've discovered this in planning our May trip.)

The area around Termini was fine as recent as last year. This is the area we always stay in when in Rome.

Don, If you want to stay at the RS tour hotel, you can probably wait until they announce it. I rarely book hotels more than a few months in advance. You don't need to book right now. RS will probably send you the hotel info in December or January. On my last 3 trips, I've stayed in the Termini area because I've just had short visits and I appreciated being close to the station. On my last trip, I stayed at Hotel Sonya and was thought it was fine. However, if I were staying for a week, I'd choose a different area. I'd love to stay near Campo di Fiori or Piazza Navona or even in Trastervere.

Stay in tour hotel, its just too darn early to book or worry about it.. They always know ahead of time, but its just too far in advance! We stayed in Hotel Selene which was near Termini station,( this was 5 years ago though) seemed safe, but not terribly nice area. Hotel was fine thought, clean, a/c , nice new washrooms etc.

Well you "could" take the extra week to see parts of Italy that won't be covered by your RS Southern Italy Tour...like Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, etc. I'd probably head for Venice and then maybe stop in Orvieto on the way back to Rome.

Two years ago we took the southern Italy tour and went into Rome early. We had been there before, so knew some of the areas but not all. The tour hotel was in Trastevere so we decided to stay by the Coliseum for the pre tour hotel. We figured this way we would get to know 2 new neighborhoods on this one trip. Switching hotels wasn't that big a deal, we were about to start a tour where we would be switching hotels every few days anyway. You probably could wait until they announce the hotel and then stay at the tour hotel, but an alternative is to stay in an area that you're interested in and just make the move. Personally, we liked the Coliseum neighborhood and Pantheon/Navona neighborhood better than Trastevere. Either way,
Have a great trip!

If you can't get a room at the tour hotel, these meet your criteria; http://www.bbalcentrodiroma.com/eng/
http://www.lucianopascucci.net/indexeng.htm You can check Tripadvisor reviews for both. Different areas of the city so you can explore.

I just stayed at the Hotel Contilia for 3 nights after a RS My Trip. It is 2 blocks from the main train station Termini.....many bus lines, and metro (both A and B lines)
It was a good rate, clean, staff is really nice.

We have also used Hotel Contillia for short visits because of the location close to the Termini and a laundry across the street. In our opinion the breakfast is so so. For longer stays we much prefer Hotel Sonya - great lattes at breakfast. One year we shared it with a Rick Steves group that ended in Rome. Loved listening to their comments.

Since you're staying a week, I'd suggest you consider renting an apartment. You'll have a kitchen, as many bedrooms as you want, and best of all you can have a washer/dryer. You can google Rome vacation rentals - they're available in all neighborhoods. PS, you might consider a neighborhood like Trastevere - close to the main sights and lots of transportation options.

On our next trip my wife is pretty set on us getting an apartment in Trestevere. It has changed a lot in recent years and is no longer the poor neighborhood it once was.

Hotel Sonya was great. We stayed in the annex down the street. Super quiet, clean and fairly new. Staff went over the top for us.