Staying in Rome

Check out www.venere.com

On this site you can choose location/price/stars.

It will also help you to find the sites closest to the hotels.

For convenience, stay by Termini. Not the nicest area of town, but if you need to be by the station to get to the airport find a hotel here. You can easily catch the metro from the train station to get to any major site. We used Rick's book for a hotel a few years ago and were sorely disappointed. the hotel was terrible and over priced. Now we use Venere!

Hi James--I do think you can find a place that is central, safe, convenient, and less than $300 a day. I have stayed near Termini and found it less charming and safe than staying elsewhere, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's many people's first choice. I prefer being closer to the old center, like the Piazza Navona or Campo dei Fiori areas, so I can walk to sites and stroll in the evening. You might find a hotel that offers car service to the airport, if you're willing to pay for it, or find one that's near a taxi stand or bus stop to get you quickly to the station. I would not discount Rick Steves' recommendations too quickly. Sure, some of his recommended places are not great, but he is usually clear about saying when a place is fancy/plain/barebones. Prioritize your wants, check out RS' recommendations, check out sites like venere and orbitz, read reviews on tripadvisor,fodors and other websites, post a short list of hotels here for opinions.

I agree with the above and would suggest geting hold of Rick Steves' Rome or italy books for plenty of solid recommendations.

Venere is great but also look at Trip advisor. Venere allows you to choose hotels in a specific area so you aren't going through lots of hotels in areas you are not interested in. Trip advisor often has several popups of different sites giving you rates and then you can choose the one you like and book. I use both regularly and have always been pleased with my choices. The other thing I like is that they take a credit card to reserve your booking but you are not charged until you check out. I have also had to cancel a booking and did so with no penalty.

Check out the Albergo Del Senato (/www.albergodelsenato.it/) a great hotel right by the Pantheon or Nicolas Inn (www.nicolasinn) a B&B that has great rooms at much less then $300/night.

On our trip this year we stayed at the Hilton at the airport. They have a free shuttle that goes into the city (into the city on the even hour and back to the hotel on the odd hour) This was fabulous! They drop you right at the "wedding cake" building which is at one end of the forum. I think the first shuttle in the morning is at 8 and the last coming back to the hotel is at 11 pm - so you can get the night life. It worked out so well for us we will do that from now on. No public transportation required.

We just got back and spent 3 nights at the Hotel Adler in Rome. It was about a 10 minute, easy walk from the train station, which we liked. It was also about 1 block from the handy Rome Metro so it was easy to get around. And we did a lot of walking around there too. It was a safe area and we really liked the hotel. We paid 115 euro per night and we would recommend it and go back again. They had a lovely breakfast that you could eat out on a covered terrace. Staff was friendly and very helpful.
Tom and Sherry Trojanowski
steger, IL

We stayed at Hotel Romae near Termini Station. Great hotel with free internet. Easy access to metro. I found if you email the hotels directly, you get a cheaper rate than by going through venere. Try info@hotelromae.com

I also like Hotel Adler and Also Hotel Italia.They are both 3-4 blocks northwest of the train station.It is busy area but the hotels are on side streets.It is safe.I believe the area around the train station that appears unsafe and seedy is northeast and east.