Paranoid about missing my return flight home from Rome. What to do?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 2 Aug, 2023
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You don’t need to stay up all night, just go to bed early the previous day (and your whole family too). If you allow yourself for 10 or even 12 hours of sleep, you will certainly wake-up easily, probably even before the alarm clock. Also wake-up at 03:30 in the morning the previous day (with an alarm clock) to adjust your body, and then go to bed at 17:30. You will all wake-up with ease in the morning, and will have much more energy to do things quickly and efficiently, with much less risk for mishaps.
The 3 hour figure is there to make sure people don’t all arrive at the very last moment. Check the airline’s website for when they close the check-in counters – that would be the actual time when you absolutely need to be there. It’s usually 45 minutes for EU flights and 1 hours for international ones.
From my point of view 1.5 – 2h should be sufficient for an international flight.
If you are too worried about getting there in time, just take a taxi. Depending where your hotel is located in Rome, you may need a taxi anyway to get to the train station.
Travel agents usually recommend some ridiculous 3h, but in reality much less is needed. 1.5h in most cases is more than enough, and on many flights the check-in desk closed only 40 mins before departure (you need to double check your flight though, flights to the US might be different). In any case, RELAX. You have plenty of time. You can set two or three different alarm clock if it makes you feel more secure, but there is really no reason to stay awake the whole night 🙂
Depending on where you are staying, the cost of a train trip for 3 may be comparable to a taxi ride. Going with the latter will be far less stressful and you can leave as early as you want, as long as you organize a dispatch with your hotel concierge.
Good luck, and with a 3 hour buffer, I wouldn’t stress too much even if you have to ride the train.
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“3 Hours” is a very common recommendation for international flights at many airports around the world – and it’s almost always far more time that you need. Airlines like to get passengers to the airport early, not only because it gives more buffer if there are any problems, but also as it spreads out the “rush” period before the flight – you can imagine what the check-in counter would be like if the entire plane turned up exactly 90 minutes before the flight!
As long as you are at the airport 2 hours before you will have plenty of time (even 60 minutes is enough at some airports!). Given you’re traveling with a young child and in an area you’re not familiar with I wouldn’t recommend cutting it any more fine than that. That’s not to say that planning to catch the 5:52am train isn’t a good idea – obviously the earlier you get there the less chance of something going wrong.
As far as easing your worries, the best recommendation I can make is to make sure that you’ve got multiple alarms set for the early start. An alarm on your phone, one on the in-room clock, and a wake-up call from the front desk wouldn’t be overkill in a situation like this, and means that if one does fail for some reason (phone hangs, power outage in the room, etc) you’ll still have something to wake you up!
Check with the front-desk in advance for any hints on getting to the train station – perhaps the entrance nearest the hotel isn’t open until 7am, or before 6am you can’t buy tickets from the ticket booth, etc.
But most of all, don’t panic! If you plan on the 5:52am train as you are, then you’ve got some buffer in case of problems. Short of something major happening, you’ll make it easily! And you can always sleep on the plane 🙂
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