Mercure Hotel Fiumicino Airport. Looking at its location I expected it would have a good view of departures off 16R, the usual departures runway, and it did. There’s a Best Western in the similar area but my points prejudices don’t allow me to stay there! Rooms ending xx01 to xx19 have the required easterly view. There’s nothing in the way at ground level and departures are sufficiently high that any floor is OK; there are five floors in total.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/GgJTxkgNQJotDMnb8
Getting there is the challenging part….
1. There is a hotel shuttle bus that charges €6 each way and operates between 05:50 (first departure from hotel) to 22:30 (last departure from airport). These operating hours are quite rubbish for an airport hotel.
2. Taxi mafia – as I arrived late, around 23:15, I tried Uber: €35 it said, which seemed ridiculous for c. 2 miles. So I got a regular taxi from the terminal front. €35 the driver said, giving some sob story about late night charges in the area. So, it would seem there is a definite taxi mafia here that will sting you whatever (and reading more about it, it seems Uber only got a licence here under conditions set by the taxi drivers mafia).
3. Walk, it is doable and takes you round the runway threshold/16R climb out, so wouldn’t miss anything that you’d see from the hotel.
4. Local bus. Refusing to pay €6 let alone 35 (and not being particularly enamoured with walking) to get back I went exploring. To the immediate north of the hotel is a small bus terminus, marked on Google Maps as ‘Capolinea Bus’ but known locally as ‘Foce Micina’. Google does not have any bus information. Route number 8 leaves this terminus on the hour and half hour between 05:30 and 23:00 except 21:30. It serves Terminal 3 on the arrivals level on the outer road, at a stop marked ‘Shuttle to Fiumicino City Centre’, and is just before the hotel shuttles. It is only a few minutes to get there from the terminus, and it’s a circular route. Bus fare is €1.50 if bought on the bus and €1.00 if bought from a machine. There are no machines at the airport, and those in Fiumicino town are actually repurposed car park ticket machines and still have the blue ‘P’ on them!
Local bus map: https://www.trotta.it/pdf/mappa_fco_inverno_2023.pdf route 8 is the red one, the numbers are the stops, of which there are only six on the entire route!
Departure times: 05:30 - 06:00 - 06:30 - 07:00 - 07:30 - 08:00 - 08:30 - 09:00 - 09:30 - 10:00 - 10:30 - 11:00 - 11:30 - 12:00 - 12:30 - 13:00 - 13:30 - 14:00 - 14:30 - 15:00 - 15:30 - 16:00 - 16:30 - 17:00 - 17:30 - 18:00 - 6.30pm - 7.00pm - 7.30pm - 8.00pm - 8.30pm - 9.00pm - 10.00pm - 10.30pm - 11.00pm
https://www.trotta.it/active/linee_invernali_fiumicino.aspx?m=1#undefined19
Terminal 3 map, local bus 8 goes from immediately east of the hotel shuttles
https://www.adr.it/documents/10157/31899622/Terminal-3-q.ta-2.jpg/27b4daa9-f45e-239d-2fe2-adabb679c075?t=1718360223018
