BA_Jfan

I am flying into FCO to join my family on a vacation in a town about an hour from Rome called Fiuggi. Can someone recommend a car service and give me fare estimates? Preferably one I can book online. I don't need anything luxurious, just safe and clean. Quick googling found that a Mercedes will run me about 140 EUR one way, but I'm fine with a Camry.

Sciamano

So do you need a one-way rent? Because I don't thin in Fiuggi you will find a lot of rent agencies for drop off...
You won't find any Camry neither in Italy nor in the rest of Europe

Perche

It's impossible to answer this question without knowing important details, like when you are going, the size of your family, etc. If your family consists of two adults and a child, you can probably find a driver for a little less than $200. If you are doing it close to the Christmas holiday, the price might be $250. If your family consists of two adults and three children, you will need a driver with a van. If your family is larger than that, you will need two cars. All car services are the same. Just a guy in an apartment who runs a website and has contacts with drivers. You book on his website, he calls a driver that he knows. Most likely, he is working out of an apartment in London, Berlin, Tokyo, or somewhere in the USA, most likely in New Jersey. There is no car service company with drivers. You don't get to choose the make and model of the car, just the size. Just go to a website. They will require more information than you've given here, such as the size of the party, the street address you are going to, the time and date of pick-up.

PWMTrav

Groundlink from FCO has been fine for me. Just an app, but they seem to broker reliable drivers.

Perche

There is no such thing as a car service in Italy. Groundlink is run by a couple of guys from an apartment in New York City on 37th street and 7th Avenue, just upstairs from Bravo Pizza.

They use an untraceable area code of 855 so that if anything ever happens you can't find them. Basically, you contact them through their app, and then they try to find a car for you in any of 110 countries. They have no idea who the driver is. They just start contacting any driver in any of the 110 countries they claim to operate in. Each driver is an independent owner of their own car, none of them sign up to work for Groundlink, or anybody else. The two dudes in the apartment in NYC have no idea what driver they can find and send to you.

You can't differentiate one car service from another, because they are all just apps, being run out someone's bedroom, and they have no cars. Then, there are guys who own a car in Italy. When you contact the app, they try to contact a guy, any guy, with a car in Italy. The driver may pick up a ride from Groundlink, drop them off, and the next ride the same driver picks up is from a guy running his Roman car service app from Tokyo. Meanwhile, he's trying to find a car and driver for someone in La Paz, Bolivia.

PWMTrav

Re-read my post. I never said it was a car service, only that they have brokered reliable drivers in my use of it. Also, they were acquired by Boston Coach, so it's not a couple of guys in an apartment.

Perche

They call any driver available in the 110 countries they claim to serve. There is no reliability factor in it because they don't know who they are calling. The same drivers are available through all other car services. I just went on their website to book a car from Tokyo airport to New Orleans, and the response was that there would be an additional charge for crossing the Pacific Ocean, of $9,500. Then I tried to book from Kazaksthan to Mosul, Iraq, and they said they could do it but right now they are not driving through a war zone.

I don't know how many times this can be stated, there are no car services with a fleet of cars waiting to be at your service in Italy. There are just web sites usually run by a few college age people running an app. Go on the app and ask for a car from La Paz, Bolivia, to the Hyatt Hotel in New Orleans, and they will give you a rate.

There is no such thing as a car service in Italy. There are just individuals with cars, and they link up with all people running a car service website. If you book them on one website, you might get Marco. Go to another car service website, and you still get Marco. Marco has signed up with all of the web applications. There are no car services with a fleet of cars waiting to serve you in Italy. They are al just websites run by dudes who live in NYC, and I guess now in Boston, or Tokyo, or London, and they promise to arrange a car for you in New Delhi, by a driver they never met.

PWMTrav

You're free to keep stating it, but when people show up here asking how to book a car, you're also free to provide what you think are the right options. Believe it or not, some of these services are actually legitimate and work to provide a reliable ride, even if they don't own and operate their own fleet. I can only speak to the one that I've used and it's worked out very well.

BA_Jfan

Good to know there are no car services in Italy. Perche hasn't really answered my question though. I am arriving in FCO late on a Friday morning by myself and with my 50-60 pound bag. I just wanted to scope out what my options were and get an idea of what the fare should look like.

Perche

There are car services, they are just generally operated out of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Berlin, or London, or a junkyard somewhere in Italy. There are a number of people in Rome who have a car and they make their living that way. Generally a BMW. They don't work for a car service. They are independent.

Somebody goes to an app like Groundlink, Execucar, Roma Limousine, or whatever, none of which are located in Italy, and that app's website person sends out a blast text to all of the independent drivers. They are all apps run by a couple of dudes who have never set foot in Italy. It is not possible for one car service to be better than another. That is a complete misconception of how the car system in Italy works, with only a few rare exceptions. They are all using the same drivers.

There actually is a company in Positano that has it's own five cars. It's owned by 2 brothers. Other than these rare exceptions, there is no car service. You just go to any website, and they will contact one of the 500 drivers in Rome. Whether they show up drunk or sober has nothing to do with the website you choose. They are all the same drivers who link themselves to all of the same apps, more or less. You can book a car from five different apps, and you will still probably get the same driver.

No one can help you with the fare cost guess, because you are still keeping when you are going a secret. Prices can triple based on if you are going before or after Xmas.