Hotels - book in advance or not?

If you're going in the middle of the Summer, I would suggest securing reservations ahead of time. The cities listed are big tourist destinations, and rooms there are highly in demand.

If you're going in Spring or Fall, I would say at least have places your first night and last night arranged. If you have a notebook or good smartphone, you can make reservations as you go along on Booking.com or other many great room websites.

Have you considered flying open jaw into Amsterdam and out of Prague? Or into Munich and out of Amsterdam? Backtracking is expensive and very inefficient.

I hope your trip is for many weeks, as taking on so many destinations will be very, very tiring.

FYI: Zurich is a big city, not in the Swiss Alps, and I found it a little quiet on my last trip. And your 350 mile trip from Venice to Vienna requires two trains and a bus--and is pretty difficult. Many save Italy for a full dedicated trip.

In cities like the ones you are going to, regardless of the time of the year, there are always going to be people looking for places, and the ones that book first get the best places. On the other hand, in big cities, other than in really popular times, there are always big (expensive) hotels with lots of similar rooms, and unless they are filled, you can find one. If cost is no issue, just take what's there.

OTOH, the best bargains, in my opinion, are the smaller, family run places, and they are probably the places that fill up first. If that's what you want, book in advance.

Why would you be delayed. Don't take the last scheduled train of the day. You know the train's departure time; plan to be there.

It's mostly about personal choice. Some people would go crazy with worry not knowing where they will stay. Others are fine going on the fly. And you'll either spend time beforehand searching and booking or time during your vacation wandering (physically or online) and looking for places. On long trips, I've done a mix of both and use the web to book a few days ahead.

All cities are big enough that there will be rooms available any time of year, except for Munich at Oktoberfest and Munich/Milan during big conventions. Those are mostly in the fall but double check.

You can often score some good discounts with pre-booked rooms, but those often come with non-cancelation terms. So if you want flexibility, check the policies closely. It makes sense to at least pre-book the first and last locations.

Definitely do fly open jaw, or at least fly back from Prague to Amsterdam and catch your flight home from there.

In your case, a rail pass might be reasonable but you'll have to check things closely. Considerations: Can you get a 2nd class pass or must you pay for 1st class? You can get steep discounts on railfares booking ahead, but you lose the flexibility. High-speed and overnight trains all require seat reservations that require pre-booking and extra fees. Some lines limit reservations to passholders (like THALYS and SNCF). Would it be cheaper to fly some long routes?

I've done it with and without reservations. I prefer knowing where I will be.

You say a delay will affect all future reservations, I don't see why - just shorten your stay in the city of the delayed arrival and leave everything else as is. You may end up paying for a night that you are not using, but it happens.

You can book online even hours before you arrive, if you want some spontaneity.

I did the Vienna to Venice trip by train and bus, it might be more convenient to fly Venice to Vienna. Definitely look into a multi-city airfare so you don't have to backtrack all the way across Europe (that's a full day of travel time on a train), or you could fly from Prague to Amsterdam if your roundtrip airfare is that good.

elranchero,

looks like youre going to have a blast.

as far as making reservations for lodging, ive only done it that way. So far i havent had any delays or issues not making my travel plans work. I did miss book a train out of london to leeds on my trip last sept, but the great ticket people was able to make it happen for me with a charge. Ive also pre purchased all of the train tickets. an addition issue was that i jumped on an "express" train whereas my ticket wasnt. I was charged the different. I dont know how that happened since the train departed the station at the time on my ticket. On my train thru Belgium, they had a special going taht week where i could have saved 10 Euros. the ticket conductor informed of that, but i had purchased my ticket months in advance.

if you can be flexible when and where youre going, then i dont see why you cant do it w/o reservations. I choose to do it the other way for now. also, there are always pros and cons for doing it either way so use what works for you.

on the flip side, if i knew i was going somewhere thats going to have 90% of the worlds population in a small hick town, i would make reservations there. but thats just me.

happy trails.

We have done both, booking ahead and going into hotel after hotel looking for a room. My advice is book ahead if at all possible. Go on a site like booking.com to check out available hotels then go directly to the site of the hotel you like. Many times you are able to get a better price and the management appreciates it.
Have a wonderful time!

I have only done a visit to Europe without securing hotel reservations twice. Once in 1985, as a youngster,, travelling for almost three months. We always managed to find a dump to stay in.. some places were ok, but more then we wanted to pay.. other places were rather horrible( the place with the shared toilet in the hall and strict rules about never flushing even toilet paper down and a wire basket that sat on the floor in front of toilet loaded with other peoples used TP.. nice.. not,, or the place in Amsterdam that had mushrooms growing in shower room..
The other trip was with my father about 15 yrs ago.. we however had a car and were able to find decent roadside motels where ever we went. of course they were almost always outside the towns so a car was needed. We did reserve one room in Zermatt .

I think no reservations will work if you a) have a car or b) have a budget that allows you to take whatever the tourist offices can suggest for you.. keep in mind you will be arriving with luggage and maybe tired and now have to invest some energy and time in each city trying to find a place to sleep that night.

PS Tourist offices can be helpful so if you go with no reservations at least try and find them in each city you are arriving at.

I prefer to book rooms ahead of time for the peace of mind of knowing I have a place to stay, and it is a place where I want to stay. One thing I always do is know the cancellation policy of the place I am reserving. Most places I have stayed in have had a policy that allowed cancellations without penalty as long as you gave 24 hour notice, or something in that time range. If something does go wrong and you have to rebook rooms, it will be no worse than if you had to book rooms along the way anyway. So far on multiple trips using trains for transportation, nothing has gone wrong that has caused me to need to cancel rooms.

In our past trips to Europe most of the time we did not have reservations. Usually we reserved the first stop and then just showed up at the next place and found lodging (we did carry Rick Steves book for the country). This year we are going to Italy in May and I just looked at a few places to get an idea of cost. When I found that many places were completely booked for the dates we were interested in, I changed my mind. I am now in the midst of booking all our stops for a 4 week trip.

My advice would be get on the web and check out several hotels/B&Bs in the cities you intend to visit for the time frame you will be there. It they show available rooms I would relax.