Ciao Travelers!

iKangaroo administers customer satisfaction surveys at different hostels / hotels in Europe and one trend that we have recently discovered is a high incident rate of travelers getting drunk in Rome and running into problems such as: run-ins with the locals, getting rolled (i.e. waking up on a street corner with no pants, cash, credit cards, etc) , going to the hospital with alcohol poisoning, feeling like they got ‘drugged’, passing out on the night-bus and ending-up in “the middle of BFI” (bum f %#* Italy) and numerous other incidents that are pretty dangerous including a death in 2001. Hey, we love a good night out so we are all for pub-crawling, but to create a safer experience we have put together this check list of things do to prevent becoming a member of the Roman ruined.

1. Eat and drink water before you pub crawl. As obvious as this sounds, we hear that a lot of people show-up asking “where can we eat” only to start drinking and end-up face down at the 2nd pub. Remember that you have been walking around all day and are probably dehydrated so make sure that you drink a lot of water.

2. Pre-party not! We hear that pub crawlers drink a bottle or two of vino rosso (red wine) prior to pub crawling.

3. Put 20 Euros aside for the cab ride back to your hotel / hostel. Chances are it will not cost that much, but it would be the best 20 Euro you can spend. Apparently a lot of travelers will spend all their cash and then try to walk to their hotel, which in a lot of cases has turned into disaster because… well… they are in a strange city and drunk.

4. Have the address of your hotel written down somewhere to show to the cab driver or to get better directions.

5. Don’t mix everything. Pub-crawlers typically mix wine, beer, mixed drinks and all those “mystery free shots”, which is a recipe for destruction.

6. Try not to pub-crawl on the night before you are scheduled to leave. One of the tour-guides / reception workers that we talked to really loved talking about all the people that try to pull an all-nighter, only to pass-out and have to stay another night.

Special thanks to Rome(ing) Tours www.romeingtours.com, Yellow Hostel www.the-yellow.comand Hostels Alessando www.hostelsalessandro.com for helping us put together this list.

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