FCO or Ostia Hotel night before cruise and transfer advice

[bb2]

My husband and I will be arriving at FCO by 8:30 am the day prior to our cruise out of Citavacchia.  We would like to spend the afternoon touring Ostia Antica.  Would it be better to stay at an airport hotel or a hotel near Ostia Antica or Lido di Ostia.   Which would be easiest as far as transfer to the hotel then to the park?

 

Also, which location would offer easier/less costly transfer to the port the next morning?

 

Any recommendations and insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks so much!!

[gkkapp]

Hi-

In 2017 we stayed in Fiumicino and toured Ostia Antica.  We stayed at the Comfort Hotel Roma.  Stayed there before in 2011.  Here's a link to their website: http://www.comforthotelfiumicino.com/en/  They have shuttle service from the airport to the hotel and back again and are close to restaurants ATM's and a grocery store.  We did not go to Ostia until the next day.  The site is HUGE and requires a lot of walking.  Since you are flying from the USA you will be tired once you get to the hotel.  I think you will be too tired to really do the site justice.  IMHO, it would be better to come in a day sooner, get a good night's sleep, go the next day and stay another night.  To get to Citavacchia the day of the cruise we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport and took a Princess Cruise Line transfer to the ship. 

Here's what we did from our trip log:

 

Monday October 9- Rome

We arrived at Heathrow Terminal 5. We did not have to go through “passport control” as we figured we would. However, we did have to go through security again. Looking for the gate for our connecting flight to Rome we discovered that the gate would not be announced until 40 minutes before departure, so we had more waiting. The flight was full and we could not even get a drink of water until all passengers who paid for their drinks were served. We finally arrived in Rome and claimed our luggage. Passport control took longer than we wanted, and when we went to the pickup point for the shuttle to the hotel, the van had just left. So we waited some more. Finally a van arrived and delivered us to the Comfort Hotel Roma. By this time we were exhausted. We checked in and walked to a nearby ATM. Once again our local bank card would not work so we decided to wait until the next morning to try the other card. Then we walked to a nearby grocery store to purchase bread, chips and cold cuts for our dinner plus a large round pastry (similar to one we had in Rome in 1985!!) for breakfast the next morning. 

 

Tuesday October 10

We had breakfast on the patio of our hotel room – the pastry and coffee and tea. After breakfast we walked to a nearby ATM for some Euros. The ATM card from the credit union worked with no problems!!! We arranged for a taxi to take us to Ostia Antica, the ancient port city for Rome. The taxi picked us up at 10:00 and in less than 15 minutes delivered us to the entrance. We arranged for our taxi driver to pick us up at 3:00 that afternoon. We explored this sprawling old city that was buried by sediment from the Tiber River and excavated by workmen under Mussolini. We had lunch in the cafeteria; Karen had bruschetta and Gary had lasagna. We continued to explore after lunch but it was getting warmer and we were still tired from our long trip. We were back at the entrance by 2:30 and our taxi showed up shortly after. Back at the hotel we rested a bit and then went out walking to find a place for dinner. We found a pizza shop that looked good but it closed in the afternoon until 6:00. So we walked a bit more until 6 when we returned for pizza and coke zero. We bought another pastry for tomorrow's breakfast, and then back to the hotel and early to bed.

 

Wednesday October 11

After breakfast on the patio, we checked out and waited for the 10:00 hotel shuttle to take us to the airport where we would board the Princess transfer bus to the cruise ship. 

 

Hope this helps-

 

<<<Karen>>>

    

[gkkapp]

I'm moving this thread up so maybe the OP will see it.

 

<<<Karen>>>

[bb2]

Thank you, both for your travel information and post assistance.  I think we will choose our hotel, than either continue on to Ostia Antica for a few hours or just crash and relax until our cruise the next day.