We stayed one night after departing a 12 day cruise and were flying out the next day. After reading reviews of hotels by the airport we chose the Aran Blu. We were looking to just relax as it was beach front with dining choices. That is all we were looking for and were not disappointed. They have units with sea views in the front and rear view facing low rise residential apartment buildings. We reserved the sea view paying $20-30 more and it was worth it. We used Travelocity and payed $231with all taxes/fees included for "Standard Marine double with Sea View and Direkt am Wasser. Buffet Breakfast (2 Adults)" They were the only ocean front hotel in this residential area. The next ocean front hotel appeared 3 km/1.5 mi south. Directly across from the hotel is Roma Porto Marina to the right and a 3-4km/2-3 mile concrete beach front promenade to the left. The dark brown sandy narrow beach in front of the hotel is crescent shaped and is approximately 50 feet deep. There rocks spread out in the water and there is a shallow rock shoal 100 feet out extending up the length of the beach. As you walk up the promenade the beach widens to accomodate numerous beach/cabana clubs. Each culb has umbrellas and chairs in their repective club colors. A 150 foot concrete pier is approximately 3 km/1 mi. walk up the promenade. Walking out to the end of the pier reveals the water looks waist high out to the rocky shoal with sandy bottom. Looking both north and south of the pier one can see the numerous beach clubs and their colorful umbrellas. The avenue opposite the pier has stores, resturaunts, pizzerias. We purchased some cheese and crackers which we had on our oceanfront terrace with a bottle of Ruffino. The marina to the right of the hotel has several seafood resturaunts spread on the water side of the marina's promenade. Opposite them is a string of stores, shops, pizzerias that have a roofed`corridor to walk under. The pizzerias have chairs and tables to sit at on the promenade. The hotel has a free continental breakfast and served seafood dinner during our stay. We chose to eat dinner out as there was a small seminar in the hotels first floor meeting room and did not want to eat in a fairly full resturaunt after getting off of a cruise ship. The rooms are as described in the previous reviews. They include a safe, tv and small desk where you can enjoy hard wired internet access for 2 Euros for 1 hour, 5 Euros for 24 hours. They have wifi access as part of this purchase plan on the first floor. They serve breakfast starting at 7a.m. We checked out of the hotel at 7:10a.m. and were at our departure gate at 7:50a.m. The cab ride was 10 minutes. Throughout our trip we made all of our transfer reservations thru Rome Cabs (romecabs@yahoo.com - Stefano Costantini) which we discovered in these reviews. We were extremely satisfied with their service. They provided cars or vans and all drivers were early and held signs to easily identify them. We used them from the airport to Rome, Rome to Citivitavecchia, Citivitavecchia to the Aran Blu in Lido di Ostiga, and finally from the hotel to the airport. From Civitivecchia to the hotel in Lido di Ostiga was 130 euro. The cruise line wanted $150 for a bus shuttle to the airport upon which you would have to transfer your luggage to a taxi, at least 40 euro, to the hotel. Why bother, plus you get to the hotel earlier. They said check in is usually 4p.m. but they made a room available for us by 10:45 a.m. They will hold your luggage if you have to wait and you can walk around and explore the area while you are waiting. Fellow cruisers staying one extra day were at the airport hotels without these beach front options. Your choice: Beach or airport?

The Aran Blu is ultra-modern and stylish. It's clean, comfortable, and even includes garage parking. Some rooms have balconies overlooking the beach--with Philip Stark lucite chairs. Some reviewers have been disappointed, but if you know what to expect, Lido di Ostia can be a perfect place to stay if you have an early flight home. The town is a mostly working-class suburb of Rome. You won't find a lot of tourists, which can be a good thing. There's a nice paved promenade along the beach, although the beach itself isn't as clean as you might want. Apparently, there is a night life scene & lots of people from Rome hit the clubs here on the weekend. There is direct train service to Rome for just 1 euro, so you can make your last night special with dinner and a last look at the monuments at night.

We stayed at the Aran Blu on a very chilly, windy, stormy night in March 2008. It's a very modern, clean hotel right on the beach in Ostia. The room was spotlessly clean and offered all the ammenities you'd expect in a hotel. The bed was comfortable, the television got English channels, the bathroom was crazy modern. I liked it a lot.

Ostia isn't close to Rome, we had to take a train followed by a bus to get to the hotel. I would not recommend this if you were trying to enjoy the sites of Rome. We stayed here because it was our last night and we wanted to be close to the airport. The airport was only a 10 minute ride away, but as other writers warn, the taxi ride cost 35 Euros.

The hotel is directly on the beach. If you're expecting a slick, blue water, white sand Mediterranean beach like you see in the movies, you won't find it. Instead, there's a sweet, very long beach front of sort of rocky, black sand beach. Great for walking up and down, not so good for sunbathing.

There is a very long boardwalk filled with shops and a few restaurants. We spent quite a bit of time wandering and window shopping.

The staff of the Aran Blu was very nice and professional. They called us a taxi in advance for the next day, and gave us our wake up call right on time at 4:30 in the morning. They all spoke very good English.

I'd recommend this if you're looking for a quiet way to top off your holiday in Rome - a little sand, a little surf, a little seafood before heading off to the airport.

I choose this hotel for our last night in Rome before flying back the next AM. It is close to the airport and it is on the ocean so I thought it would be a perfect choice.

First a note: To get to the Airport you have to take a Taxi which costs between $28 and $40 euro...so you have to take this into consideration when looking at the cost of the room.

To get to this hotel we took a metro from rome to Lido North stop and then took a taxi to the hotel. As the below reviewer mentioned it is not a beautiful area of town, but I would not call it a dump and I did not feel unsafe.

The area right to the north of the hotel has a nice lounge/bar and a few nice restaurants, a couple of wine bars and some stores...I thought it was a very nice area (we ate a steak house there that was very good).

The hotel was very nice, excellent bathrooms, nice rooms, our room (like most I think) had a balcony overlooking the ocean and the marina and we had a very nice bottle of wine on our balcony with a nice sunset over the ocean.

The common areas were also clean and modern. The AM breakfast was adequate and the staff we very helpful.

All in all If you realize that the ride to the airport is expensive I think this is a good choice for a last night outside of rome on the ocean.