A Great Value and a Great Breakfast
Written: Jun 24 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good air conditioning, great breakfast, friendly and helpful staff
Cons: located outside the central city
The Bottom Line: The Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni is an excellent choice for your trip to Rome.
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| lernerj's Full Review: Exp Holiday Inn San Giovanni |
In May 2006, my husband and I spent three nights at the Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni hotel in Rome. We experienced only a few minor problems during our stay and would recommend the hotel without reservation.
Basic Hotel Facts
The Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni is located, while not exactly on the outskirts of Rome, not in the central city, either. In fact, it’s located a little further out than the name would suggest, as it is closest to the Ponte Lungo metro stop, which is two stops further out than the San Giovanni stop to which the hotel’s name seems to refer. The hotel is in a safe-looking area with a few average restaurants nearby; for anything else, you’ll need to take a metro, bus, or taxi ride to get into the central part of Rome.
We had a double room which had two single beds. The beds were adequate but nothing special, and the bedding was only a couple of steps above army blanket quality. The room was small (not much room to maneuver or lay out luggage or other belongings), but this is common in European hotels. The room had a private bath (not always available in European hotels, particularly in one- and two-star hotels) and air conditioning we controlled ourselves and which worked excellently to keep the room cool. The hotel was quiet; we never heard a sound from outside our room.
The hotel offers a free breakfast with the room, and as a business hotel, it also offers other amenities like internet access, secretarial services, and laundry services.
Our Experience
Overall, we were very pleased with our stay at the Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni. Upon our check-in, the desk clerk immediately unfolded a map of the city and marked for us the nearest metro stop and several major sites we’d probably want to see, warned us about some changes to the bus schedule due to construction, and told us a few other facts about getting around town. (Given that we had just arrived from our transcontinental flight, I’m not sure we caught it all, but we did our best.) When we had questions later, the desk staff was always helpful, and one morning when we needed to get quickly to a museum reservation appointment, they had a taxi for us in 5 minutes.
Our favorite thing about our stay was, by far, the breakfast. The breakfast offered at the Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni was without question the best breakfast we had in the nine hotels we stayed at during our two-week trip. The offerings included scrambled eggs, bacon, plain yogurt with honey and granola, flavored yogurts, fresh fruit, cereal, deli meats and cheeses, rolls, breakfast pastries, and juice/coffee/tea/hot chocolate. The food was delicious, of excellent quality, and plentiful; knowing we were about to leave for a long day of sightseeing, we had to restrain ourselves each day from not helping ourselves to seconds and thirds because the food was so good.
Although we were slightly worried about choosing a hotel a bit outside the central city, it turned out to be a great choice for us. The metro system was quite easy to use once we tried it, and so for a five-minute walk to the metro station and a five- or ten-minute metro ride into the city, we were able to get a much nicer hotel than what we’d have gotten for the same price in the city itself.
The only problem we encountered at the hotel was with internet access. The hotel claimed to have internet access in the lobby, but the whole three days we were there, the computer provided was broken. This turned out to be blessing in disguise, as it led us to go to a nearby internet café instead, where we learned that the hotel’s rate (which, if I remember correctly, was going to be 3 euros for 30 minutes of access) was very high and that public internet sites were much more cost effective.
Conclusions
In short, my husband and I were very pleased with our stay at the Holiday Inn Express San Giovanni. The hotel, although not in the center of town, still gave us easy access to the sites we wanted to see. The rooms were nicely air conditioned and, although simple and slightly crowded, were comfortable enough. The staff always gave useful advice to help us with our sightseeing needs. And we just couldn’t get over the great breakfast. I would recommend this hotel without hesitation.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lernerj
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Member: Jennifer
Location: Vienna, VA
Reviews written: 141
Trusted by: 99 members
About Me:
Sociology professor, reality-tv watcher, and kitty lover
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