Finding places to stay the night.

Is it easy to just "wing it" and find lodging once we are there?

I was in Hallstatt a few years ago in August, and I saw a Zimmer Frei sign. So it's probably possible. October aught to be easier than August.

However, a lot of other people are booking ahead online, and when they find a good deal, they don't say, "I'll book someplace less favorable and leave this for someone who comes to town without a reservation". They book it and you get what they don't want.

Winging it is one of the best ways to maximize the cost of your vacation.

I'm with you on the value of flexibility. On my first visit to an area, it's hard to guess how much time I'm going to want to spend there.

Are you driving or taking public transportation? I'm guessing that you're driving (though obviously not into Venice), and that does give you a bit of flexibility if you encounter an unexpected festival that has filled all the local rooms. I'm a bus/train traveler, and what I've done during the last two summers is reserve rooms over the internet during the trip, usually just 24 or 48 hours ahead. For Venice, I'd probably try to do it earlier.

I haven't been to the small German and Austrian towns you plan to visit, but I'm guessing October isn't peak season for them. I used booking.com in eastern Germany last summer. You can start with your booking engine of choice (reading a bunch of reviews), identify a few possibilities, then try to find their individual websites with Google. That sometimes saves some money.

In the pre-internet days I used to arrive in a city, head to the tourist office, and arrange a room there if possible. Otherwise, I wandered around looking for something. The latter was somewhat time-consuming and stressful. And that was before the advent of cheap intra-European flights, which has vastly increased the number of people bouncing around Europe and competing for hotel rooms. Now, I'm much more comfortable knowing where I'm going to sleep when I step off the train or bus. I would also not want to arrive after dark without a room reservation, because I have trouble finding and reading street signs in order to navigate to small hotels in the dark.

It's my impression that attractive small towns out in the country but near population centers are often popular weekend destinations for locals. Hotels can be very heavily booked on Saturday night, causing jacked-up prices or no vacancies at all. I observed that several times in Spain this summer when I was visiting cities near Madrid. I don't know whether your destinations might be subject to the same syndrome.

We always wing it and have no troubles find reasonably priced comfortable accommodations. October is shoulder season and you should have plenty of options. I would usually check the night before we head to a new place and book online.

I agree that getting room reservations for the first and last nights of your trip are best.
I carry a Chromebook and can find Wifi just about anywhere in order to find rooms. I usually go on Booking.com--the largest website of all for rooms. The internet gives you a new found freedom when traveling, especially when you find a city or town that's especially attractive to you.

Thanks a lot for the replies! I appreciate all the advice. And yes, we are driving. I have read that Venice had parking just outside the city. I'm am hoping this all goes well without too many hiccups!

As long as Oktoberfest has ended, you shouldn't have trouble finding a room in Munich. You'll have your choice in Füssen or GaP.

Try and find places with free wifi so you can use your phone/tablet and try and book the day ahead at least while you are on the road. It can often be a lot easier to find something you are happy with 24 hours ahead, than scrambling at 7pm for something that same evening.

if the town you're in has a tourist information office, they can help you find and book a room in your next destination..

We travel with few reservations frequently. That does not mean that we show up blind, we do some research, have a few prime options. and usually focus on an area, like the town center to group them and make it easy to visually compare a couple places and choose. On occasion we would call ahead or book online a day or two ahead. I am a bit surprised that someone has not come on and castigated you for risking wasting time finding a place instead of sightseeing, but I have to say I rarely recall ever wasting time finding a place, in fact I could probably walk directly to one of my places of choice or the area I planned on staying and get a room quicker than many could wander the streets trying to find the place they booked six months ago.

Of the places you mentioned, I might do a bit of planning for Venice (or did you mean Vienna?).

I did mean Venice. We are making our way from Salzburg to Venice.
All this advise has been a great help.

Hi,

Winging is easy if you go to small towns not swamped by international tourists, since you can always recognise the small hotels and Pensionen. Upon arriving you can check if the hostels (assuming there are some there) have rooms. Being stuck on a strict time schedule is locking yourself in. From your list you should not have trouble finding a cheap but nice place in Villach.

I like to reminisce about the good old days of just winging it as a solo traveler. Now older and married, i usually pre-book everything online in advance.

If you want to see what it is like to wing it, i suggest you pretend you are on your trip right now and just see if you can book a hotel room online in each of your cities for tomorrow night. If you can do it for Sept, you should be able to do it in Oct, notwithstanding Oktoberfest.

Ah, the good old days.

No email
No online bookings
No smartphones
No web based review sites
No credit cards accepted in some establishments
No internet for research

Just a guidebook, pay phone and shoe leather.

Yeah, one of the best trips my wife and I did was 3 1/2 weeks, open jaw ticket into Athens, Greece, out of Milan, Italy. Absolutely no reservations, transportation, or other pre-made arrangements.

Exactly...traveling back in yesteryear with travelers checks, Rail Pass, (I still do that anyway), no reservations, no electronics to bother with, night trains in France,

Given those two choices, I would not wing it in Maine either were I to go there. Except for Vienna, I would wing it in Austria...Graz, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Linz, Villach....no problems with that.

One should not wing it in Maine in the high season for sure but the shoulder season no problem.

It's not hard to wing it in Germany and Austria in October. There are several ways to do it.

I used to prepare a list ahead of time and call those about 10 am the day I would arrive. I usually ended up in my first choice at something below the rate I would have reserved at - because it's a room that would have gone vacant.

With a smart phone, or something that works with WiFi (I pod, tablet, etc.) you can use online booking sights as you go to get rooms (booking.com, tripadvisor.com, etc.). You may also find good deals, last minute, at Air BnB - I haven't tried that.

You can also drop in a TI and ask them to help you get a room for the night.