Flexible travel plans - Austria, Italy

Even in summer I have had no trouble getting rail tickets as I go in gen. However I am aware of there frequency in case there are only 1 or 2 scheduled a day then I would purchase at rail station the day bef.
Re hotels u can always use an accomadation service for a fee either added on or included in the rate. But for summer I prefer to know ahead and reserve. The lines can be very long. Hopefully u would be ok with reserving ahead by email for your first and last nights of your trip. Hostel dorms are quite open even summer but get there at there earliest ck in at popular hostels, not sure if u are even interested in hostels but many now have pvt rms even ensuite but those book ahead for sure. Hope this is the type of answer u were looking for. Europe continues to be very popular and for good reason. Costs have increased a great deal especially airfares but it does not keep the visitors away. Bolzano can be popular due to its proximity to the stunning Dolomites, here I would prebook as well as Innsbruck.

Yes, JS, exactly the kind of thing I was wondering! Thanks very much.
Right - buying return train tix on arrival is a good idea. Thanks for reminder.
No hostels for us, unless they offer a private room for two (some in Austria do this) Else we'll be just using small hotels and pensions.

You can use booking.com or a similar site to check what's available in your next city even while you are in transit; I usually check the night before if I don't already have a reservation. You could then call or email the place directly if you don't want to book through a third-party service.

As for train tickets, many stations have kiosks that take cash in case you find the window lines too long, look for images of euro notes and coins on the front of the machine. Credit cards must be chip and pin; most US cards are not, yet.

I think it's easy to travel without reservations. There are certain caveats; If you're going somewhere you know is going to be crowded, you need to be realistic about getting lodging. Book ahead there or have realistic options (like travel to the next town by train and find something there).

My last big trip without reservations was to Spain in April, high season in Spain, 2012. I created a list of places that would be decent lodging choices for all of my expected stops, put them on a spreadsheet, and kept them on an Ipod touch. Each travel day, I'd stop around ten and call ahead for the next destination.

In everywhere but Granada, my first choice was available. In Granada 1st choice was "completo", full. 2nd choice couldn't give me a room for all the nights but promised to figure something out, but I might have to change rooms. 3rd choice was available (but we decided it wasn't that nice of place). 4th choice was available and was perfect for us. Arriving in Granada without reservations to the Alhambra was also trying, but we used the advice in Rick's book and ended up getting in at a good time.

The only time I actually thought I was going to go homeless was on opening day of Oktoberfest in Munich. I made about ten calls with no luck, tried the TI but it was a zoo of people trying to find a place, went back to the phone with a longer list and eventually found a nice pension at a decent price - so even then, I ended up okay. When I left Munich, I had no problem finding something in Salzburg with no reservations.

Many travelers are now carrying laptops/notebooks with them, and large booking websites like Booking.com has accommodations in just about every location worldwide. You shouldn't have any trouble booking rooms on the fly. You could also go to the local tourism board in any town noted by the Big I, and they can find you a room for a small price.

The Tirol region of Austria and The Dolomites of Northern Italy have an incredible number of ski resorts, and an incredible number of small hotels/B&B's to accommodate skiers. One city outside Cortina has twice the number of ski runs as the whole state of Colorado, for example. There will always be rooms available.

And with frequent trains, you can get tickets as you go.

Guess it depends on your level of anxiety and/or affluence -- I booked all our trains well in advance and checked the walk-up price on the last one versus what we paid and certainly preferred paying €29 to the €70 they would have charged for a same-day ticket. Traveling around Christmas/New Years holidays we even paid extra for seat reservations (very handy going to and from Innsbruck! Not so nice for the people we threw out of our window seats.)
I used to do it on the fly, too -- but times have changed.

Well -- Anxiety, medium; Affluence, not at all.

I think there is a level of anxiety, too, with booking everything in advance and not being able to move at my leisure. We'll be on a long trip and would prefer to take our time and not feel "boxed in" for parts of the trip. Probably for longer stays or train rides I will book in advance, but I want to leave some time for "wandering".

We booked reserved seats in Germany on the Deutsche Bahn last year, but the Bahn is so badly organized we found out that the people in our window seats who we tried to kick out ALSO had reserved tickets for those seats - they were double booked, and we'd paid for nothing. Thanks, DB. :)

PS If you haven't guessed from our surplus of summer vacation time, and lack of $$, we are teachers with summer holidays :)

God bless you for being teachers! I'd suggest you hit Slovenia on your way "thru"......but that is not as easy on public transportation.....

JT,

You shouldn't have any trouble with the rail situation even in summer, as there will likely be frequent trains to where ever you plan to travel. If you're visiting smaller towns in Italy, there may only be Regionale service, and no reservations are possible with those and they're difficult to pre-purchase anyway. DON'T forget to validate Regionale tickets prior to boarding though, or the rides will become very expensive after the fines are added!!!

For the "fast" trains in Italy, if you don't pre-purchase tickets and buy locally shortly before travelling, you'll be paying Base Fare which is the highest tier. Tickets for the fast trains have compulsory reservations, which are specific to train, date and departure time, so you MUST be willing to commit to a specific train. If you're caught without valid reservations for the train you're riding on, you'll face hefty fines of ~€50-60 PP which will be collected on the spot!!! You'll have to decide whether spontaneity or saving money is more important to you.

I always prefer to book hotels in advance but I suppose it might be possible even in summer to just show up and get a room. However, you'll have to be flexible as you may have to settle for something "less desirable" in terms of location (far from the city or in another nearby town), price level (you may have to pay more as you'll have to take what you can find in some places) or comfort level (a room in a flea-bag hotel may be all that's available in some cases). Your choice.....

When I took 9-16 day road trips in the U.S. in my own car, I mostly traveled off-season and only made reservations for places that I knew would be difficult (like Yosemite Valley, Grand Canyon). I'd drive along, stop at whatever sight caught my fancy, and find a place to stay when the day was done. Only only once did I not find a place to stay in the town I thought would be my last stop for the day, so I drove another 15-20 minutes to the next town with lots of vacancies. But motels in the U.S. are plentiful and most are clean and offer all the necessities and many comforts.

In other countries, I am more comfortable knowing in advance where my hotel is and how to get there, especially since I'm carrying all my belongings by hand. Also, I don't have a phone when I travel, so it's not so easy to just keep calling until I find something. I don't mind having the itinerary set in advance. I've rarely been somewhere I would not have liked to stay at longer. But if I'd lingered, I'd have missed the others. I enjoy the planning, learning about my destinations and working out how long (or short) a stay will suit my trip.

If the itinerary includes expensive train rides, I generally lock into those for the huge savings. For shorter trips, I don't buy in advance, giving me the leeway to spend more or less of a day where I'm at before moving on.

Just wanted to clarify. Booking trains in Italy are for the fast trains - frecciarossa and frecciargento, and international trains, for instance, trieste to Innsbruck.
To go from Bolzano to Cremona or Trento you do not need reservations and fares are cheep.
Go and visit trennitalia.it website and you will find fares, timetables, all you need.
Apart from.what is called Sudtirol, you do not mention where you intend to go in Italy, will you visit Torino, Florence or Rome? I have good addresses there. How many of you are travelling? What is your budget per person?

Fran

Just wanted to clarify. Booking trains in Italy are for the fast trains - frecciarossa and frecciargento, and international trains, for instance, trieste to Innsbruck.
To go from Bolzano to Cremona or Trento you do not need reservations and fares are cheep.
Go and visit trennitalia.it website and you will find fares, timetables, all you need.
Apart from.what is called Sudtirol, you do not mention where you intend to go in Italy, will you visit Torino, Florence or Rome? I have good addresses there. How many of you are travelling? What is your budget per person?

Fran

I often travel without reservations. If you were a student ten years ago then you are still relatively young and probably rather enjoy the adventure of traveling spontaneously. You will notice some of the posters here say they used to travel this way and no longer do:) I don't think Europe has changed that much... they probably have:) There are times when I simply just want a plan, but that is usually when I am traveling to an event (Carnavale in Venice) for example, but for me freedom and excitement outweigh the comfort of a plan. No, I am not affluent and travel on a really limited budget... but I would rather end up spending a little more, if indeed I do, to have the kind of experience I have instead of traveling with a precise plan... that is almost torture for me. We all travel differently and at the end of the day it is all about how you enjoyed your trip. I am a photographer and usually have a car, so I enjoy being able to find wonderful locations off the beaten path and enjoy them till I am ready to move on.