Reservations for hostels necessary?

It depends on the city and which hostel. Sometimes you need a reservation, sometimes you don't. If they are in a city where a big event or trade fair is happening, their favorite hostel might be full. Sometimes it is enough to make the reservation that morning or the day ahead of time. This is when wifi is useful and companies like Booking.com will come in handy.

These are the cities that are definitely on the itinerary: Brussels, Munich, Berlin, Bern and Amsterdam. They are planning approximately 4 days in each city. Thanks!!!

Since they know what cities they are planning on staying in, they may want to at least have a list, addresses, numbers and such of the Hostels available to them. Hostel World, http://www.hostelworld.com, can help them with this. The individual sites may provided info on reservations.

Do some dummy bookings so you can see if places are already fully booked. University students here will have finished for the year and many will be seeking to do something similar, so it will be busy. If they know where and when why not book now?

Personally, if dropping Brussels isn't an option, I would at least halve the time spent there (dullest city in Europe IMO) and add it to Berlin, which is great value for students and there is enough there to fill a week.

Hi,

In Munich and Berlin are tons of hostels, both HI and the private, independent ones. Do they have a particular hostel in mind where they want to stay? If no, then they don't need to reserve, unless they're picky as to where they prefer to stay.

Hi,

Another comment....In both Berlin and Munich I don't recommend staying at the HI hostels, 2-4 in each city, the private, independent ones are nicer, newer, better places to meet people of all ages/ nationalities, have no school groups or curfew, have 24 hr check-in, are located close to the main train station, the Hbf, whereas the HI one in Berlin on Kluckstrasse (named after the general) is the most central in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The main difference is that a hot dinner is served at the HI hostel, which is not the case in most private hostels. The private hostels have the facilities to cook your own meals. You may want to consider this feature in choosing a hostel...coin laundry facilities are at the private hostels.

If your son and friend are into history, in particular war history, the Resistance Museum (Gedenkstätte deutscher Widerstand) on Stauffenbergstraße in Berlin is a few minutes from the HI hostel on Kluckstraße, ie signs point the way.

There should be no penalty to reserve ahead for a couple of planned stops. When making a reservation, note any cancellation policy for no-show fees, deadlines, etc.

amy,

For travel in June it would be better to have reservations, as there will likely be lots of people travelling then. With advance reservations, that will allow a choice in which Hostel to use and which part of the city to stay (some hostels are located some distance from the city centres).

I often use HI Hostels as I've found that the facilities are fairly consistent from one property to another and they're well run. While they can be busy with school groups at times, I'm not sure that will be as much of a problem in June. Having an inexpensive HI membership provides slightly cheaper rates and preferred booking over non-members. Have a look at their website for further information.

I've also stayed at some independent hostels and those can also be good, but some of them can be a bit dodgy. If they can find one that offers four-bed dorms, that's usually a good choice. Some also provide a washroom in each dorm room, which makes things a bit easier.

For stays in Hostels, they'll each need to pack a few extra items.....

• Towels - most hostels don't provide those
• Flip-Flops - if the shower is down the hall, nice to have some footwear
• Soap / Shampoo
• Padlock (for Hostel Lockers) - I would highly recommend a smaller but more robust Padlock, preferably a keyed model. DO NOT use the cheap TSA luggage locks, as those simply don't provide any measure of security. You may find it helpful to speak with a Locksmith in your area.

As they're both 18, I'm assuming this is their first trip abroad? There are a few other points to mention. Will they be travelling with any technology, such as cell phones, cameras, Laptops, etc.? They'll need to address the issues of Plug Adaptors and determine whether chargers are capable of use on 220 VAC electrical systems.

Are they planning to use Money Belts? They might find it helpful to have a look at Europe Through The Back Door prior to their trip, as that provides a LOT of good information on how to travel well in Europe. It's especially relevant for first time travellers.

It depends on their travel style. If they're okay with staying in pretty much any hostel situation (i.e. not-terribly-central location, big 24+ bed dorm rooms, less popular hostel), they'll probably be fine. For a couple of 18-year-old boys, that could very well be fine, and unless there is a big event going on in that city, there will likely be a couple of beds somewhere in each major city. In my personal opinion, I don't really value spontaneity enough to risk getting stuck in a big dorm room at a crappy hostel, so I would look for well-reviewed ones and reserve in advance. Of course, I'm 30 and not 18, but I think this would've been my opinion 10 years ago, too.

I've stayed in quite a few hostels and generally I'd say no; for normal travel, you don't need reservations. If it seems like a busy time of year, calling in the morning to confirm you will be there that night is often enough to save you a bed.

There are some exceptions to this rule. Some hostels are always packed. Berg Stahleck is a good example of a hostel that is always full. If you don't get reservations, you will end up at a different hostel. Other places are event driven. Don't plan on getting a hostel bed last minute during Oktoberfest in Munich.

Not all hostels are equal. It's worth doing the homework. In some places, better locations or better accommodations are hard to get. Also, there's a difference between sleeping in a 4-person dorm room and only being able to get into an 8-person room (with one bath/shower) because you didn't book ahead.

@ amy....True, that not all hostels are equal as regards to the issue of age limit. That has been abolished in the HI hostels, not so with the private, independent hostels. Some of them do have an age limit, where the max age of the guests is 35., ie, 18-35. Still, this doesn't apply to you. In Munich next to Wombats hostel (a private hostel with no age limit) are two private hostels next to each other, both of which have the max age limit of 35.

Just to throw in my two cents... I would reserve. It's easy to do online, and it prevents a lot of uncertainty and potential stress. You don't want to be trudging around an unfamiliar city for several hours looking for a bed (I've seen it happen). Or waiting in line outside a popular hostel at 8am for the front desk to open (the traditional thing to do pre-Internet).

It's quite likely that the best located, best reviewed hostels in these cities will fill up at times in June.