Rome Garden Hotel

“Fantastico experience, did not want to leave!”

Cannot agree with the poor reviews, the staff were lovely, and cleaned the room whenever we requested, it is quaint but it is in the middle of an ancient city, an old beautiful building and amazing links to the city centre. We stayed for 10 days, in blistering heat and the air con could have been b… more

Cannot agree with the poor reviews, the staff were lovely, and cleaned the room whenever we requested, it is quaint but it is in the middle of an ancient city, an old beautiful building and amazing links to the city centre. We stayed for 10 days, in blistering heat and the air con could have been better but why do people get so upset about things if they aren't provided with uber modern facilities and staff like lap dogs? There were plent of 'posher' hotels locally, yes, but they could be any where in the world - i at least felt like i was in italy whilst still in the hotel room! I will come here again, the breakfast server Anna was the sweetest person I have ever met, and the other staff gave me some tips about where to get my glasses fixed, were always polite and nothing was too much trouble. And the breakfast was italian - lots of choice, did you want a british fry up like at home or the real deal?

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“Quiet hotel in busy a city”

We stayed here for a week. We had a lovely garden room with nice views. The room had all we needed, comfortable beds and a nice hot shower. The room has a fridge and a safe, the air con worked well. The room was secure and cleaned daily to a high standard and nothing was too much trouble for the st… more

We stayed here for a week. We had a lovely garden room with nice views. The room had all we needed, comfortable beds and a nice hot shower. The room has a fridge and a safe, the air con worked well. The room was secure and cleaned daily to a high standard and nothing was too much trouble for the staff. They helped with any issues we encountered in a timely, friendly manner and helped with our heavy cases. Reception staff were helpful and pleasant, also evening drinks are served in the garden area. Breakfast was tasty and well organised, there was plenty of choice and it was regularly replenished. It set us up for the day. Would recommend and stay again.

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“Pleasant and comfortable enough.”

A 25-30 minute walk from Termini railway station, which is how we arrived in Rome from Florence, and 10 mins from Castro, the nearest metro station, Its set back slightly up a short drive off a busy main road, and when you see it you think ‘oooh, this looks nice’. Well it is, but there is somethi… more

A 25-30 minute walk from Termini railway station, which is how we arrived in Rome from Florence, and 10 mins from Castro, the nearest metro station, Its set back slightly up a short drive off a busy main road, and when you see it you think ‘oooh, this looks nice’. Well it is, but there is something you need to know. While you are checking in, you are asked if you will need a ‘taxi’ when you leave. The reception guy offers to book you one. We fell for it. We were flying back home from Ciampino, which is the Ryanair airport – in that it appears to be run by the Irish airline – but isn’t as easy to get to as Fiumicino, the main Rome airport, and we were quite reasonably advised that the best way to get there would be by taxi. To cut to the chase, when we did leave, we found we were sharing a plain black Mercedes minibus style vehicle with another family. We were told it would take at least an hour at that time of day, mid-afternoon. It took about 40 mins, in truth at a very busy time of day, even for the suburbs of Rome, which in parts appeared to resemble a war zone. It was fairly obvious it wasn’t a proper taxi, and while everything was fine, the driver did seem occasionally to be a bit unsure of where he was going – we circumnavigated one roundabout twice – and when we arrived at the airport we were dropped off not at the official taxi rank, but just outside the terminal at a general drop off point, another clue that this wasn’t a proper taxi, but just a racket by the hotel. The worst thing was we were originally told it would cost a flat € 60 for the service, and as we were sharing we kind of thought perhaps it would only be € 30 for each family group, but when we were dropped off the driver wanted € 60 per family, so he pocketed € 120. We have since discovered that if we had arranged our own proper official taxi, the fare would’ve been probably in the region of € 35 - € 40. And then while we were sat outside the terminal at the airport – the Ryanair flight was inevitably considerably delayed - we noticed there was a bus sitting there that shuttled between Termini station and the airport. Anyway, yes, its a nice enough hotel, our room was well decorated with decent furniture. The shower was tiny, no idea how anyone of shall we say a larger build would manage. The hair dryer weirdly worked for 20 seconds at a time, once every 5 minutes. Then we discovered the cooler/fridge/mini bar didn’t work, despite being full of bottles and cans. I told reception about the fridge before we went out for a day of sight-seeing after breakfast and they said they would look at it straight away. We got back late mid afternoon and they still hadn’t seen to it. Another word with reception, and a few minutes later a guy came to the room, pulled the cooler out of its little cupboard and flicked the a switch on the back of it. Why was it turned off ? And the ‘do not disturb/service the room’ note you hang on the door-knob is ignored. It is also a bit noisy, lots of slamming doors. Breakfast ( ‘continental/American’ ) was quite good, except the so called fruit juice was simply coloured water as far as we could tell. To get about Rome, suggest you got to the nearest Metro station and by a 24, 48 or 72 hour ticket. Not a vast system, but it isn’t expensive and will get you about. I’m sure the tickets will work on the buses too, but because the roads are so chaotic we didn’t try them. It is entertaining just standing near a cross roads and taking in the amazing driving antics. Although many cars have battle scars, its astonishing that most do not. The relatively nearby Borghese Park is lovely and worth a walk around. Yes, nice hotel, but organise your own taxi to the airport.

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