Hi We are going to get to Florence on midweek @ 6:30pm in mid Sept. We have made a reservation with Auto_Europe rental agency to pick up a car at Florence airport. I understand from Florence to the Cetona (we have reservation for a week) more than couple of hours drive (south of Siena). Since it is going to be hard on children driving all the way to our destination we would like to drive out of Florence and stay somewhere (hotel…) for that night and next day continue driving. Any suggestions where to stay with our two little ones close to Florence? Is there hotels near airport that we can stay, this way we will save a day in Car rental as well?
I'm sure others with direct knowledge will jump in and help, but I did check mappy and it shows the drive from Florence to Cetona as only being an hour and 25 minutes. Assuming that your rental will not be available on your first day in Florence, I would consider staying right in Florence rather than driving at all out.
After a long flight with the kids it would probably be nice to just alight somewhere briefly to get them fed properly and a bed.
Posts: 196 | Location: San Francisco Bay Area - Danville to be exact | Registered: 18 July 2001
tdandmd and Pecepe thanks. I will check your links and see what I can do. tdandmd, "staying right in Florence rather than driving at all out" you are absolutly right.
Is there hotels near airport that we can stay, this way we will save a day in Car rental as well?
Another option, if you want to save even more on your car rental, is to take a cab into Florence when you arrive and stay overnight in town. Then pick up your car at a downtown location and save the 14% airport surcharge.
To Pecepe: Novotel is in the mid of Osmannoro - old Florentine dialect for "the brushwood", as in ancient times it was a wild zone, and now is a ugly industrial district. The place may be appropriate to a businessman having to work there but frankly it cannot be recommended to a tourist.
To Jim Zurer: I second your advice. The airport in Florence is very close to the city and most hotel can be reached in 10/15 minutes by taxi. As almost all the car rentals are in the Borgognissanti area, an hotel in that zone would not be a bad choice.
oh, I did not know that. so if I get to downtown Florence by taxi and stay there for our first night and pick up the rental from there would be better for us right? Any hotel you recomend, our children are 3 years and 8 month.
We just returned from a trip to Italy. We flew into Florence and stayed 2 nights at a downtown hotel (Hotel Caravaggio on Via Nationale) before picking up a Europcar on Saturday morning at Borgognissanti. It took over an hour in line to get the car with people lined up waiting on the street in the sun, no place to sit. My husband and I left part of the family at the hotel and then drove back to the hotel to pick them up and that was good as it would have been a scene at the car pickup place with our luggage, a teenager, a 9 year old and an 80 year old.
If you do take a taxi to the car pickup place with the whole crew try to go early and I think the line won't be so long. We got there a little before 10 am. It also probably wouldn't be so long in the afternoon. I think we went at the worst time. If this is your first morning in Florence though, and you are jetlagged, getting there early to pick up a car downtown may be daunting.
Getting a hotel very near the car pickup place would make it easier for all of you to get the car together or for one of you to stay with the kids at the hotel and the other go pick up the car and find the way back to the hotel without much trouble.
The drive back to the hotel for us was a little hard as this was our first driving experience and we missed a turn and then had to find our way back through a maze of downtown Florence oneway streets to make the correct turn. (We had one of us driving and the other navigating; I think it would have been hard for the driver alone to figure it out) But once we picked everyone up we easily found the road out of town to the A1 and it was not a problem at all to drive out of Florence. The road is well marked and once you are on it headed to the A1 you don't have many twists and turns.
We got from the airport to the Train terminal by the shuttle bus from the airport which leaves every half hour. It was modern, clean and comfortable and costs 4 Euros per person. With little ones a taxi might be easier but I don't know the cost for that and whether the bus would be a lot cheaper. The bus was definitely comfortable enough for taking small children, though. We walked to our hotel from the train station which was a bit hard pulling the luggage along rough narrow sidewalks. I'd probably take a taxi if I had to do it over, but people without much luggage or any children could easily take the bus from the airport.
>>We flew into Florence and stayed 2 nights at a downtown hotel (Hotel Caravaggio on Via Nationale) before picking up a Europcar on Saturday morning at Borgognissanti<<
This is definitely an issue...especially on Saturdays when many people are arriving or renting a car prior to going to a villa rental. The same thing happens at airport rental locations......we had horror stories about Saturday morning car pickups in Rome when it took five hours for some people to get their car. On Saturdays, either pick the car up very early or wait until the morning rush subsides
An option would be for one parent to walk to the car rental place, get the car, and call the second parent, who could then come to the rental place with kids and luggage in a taxi. ---Marlene
Posts: 568 | Location: Boston, MA | Registered: 11 May 2004
LynK, Marlene thanks for the info. It is going to help us very much. I think the good news is that we are arriving to Florence on Sept 22nd and on 23rd we are going to get the car. So it is not "Saturday", thank God. LynK, can I email you some how and get some more info from you if it is possible for you? Again I appriciate all of your help.
The Novotel was suggested only because it is an inexpensive, very short taxi ride from the airport. Plus it is moderately priced, and it appears to be a comfortable place for one night with amenities which could prove helpful for a young mother travelling with her two infants. Lugging all the stuff that is essential for travelling with two infants makes it important to expeditiously get to a good place to rest and tend to the children. Getting settled as soon as possible would be the first order of business in my opinion. This is especially so after a travel of a few hours and more so if the trip was longer. Too, adding the taxi ride cost to the center of Florence plus the hotel cost in Florence proper would be a bit more costly than the one close to the airport.
If budget weren't a concern, I would recommend a car and driver for transport and the Helvetia and Bristol in the center of Florence for residence.
Peter
Posts: 1366 | Location: Essex Fells, NJ and Longboat Key, Florida | Registered: 21 July 2002
We recently returned from Florence. We stayed at the Unicorno Hotel which I highly recommend. The car rental places are a short 4-5 min walk from the hotel. You do not want the expense of a rental car from the airport. It was our first time driving and it was easy. Don't let anyone scare you!
Posts: 87 | Location: Pgh.,Pennsylvania | Registered: 20 March 2005
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