traveling on short notice

Why not plan something you would enjoy? Book cancellable hotels and flights.

I have had many last minute business trips without long advance booking. Yes, it can be more expensive than a budget trip.

I would think some less travelled countries, such as Poland, Bulgaria, Romania.

In general, the central and eastern European countries will likely be less expensive (under any circumstances) than western Europe or Scandinavia. So think Poland or Hungary vs. France, Britain, or Sweden.

Maybe you can't swing the cost of the previous suggestion -- refundable airfares, hotels, etc. Or maybe your situation prevents you from committing to particular dates even if refundable. Then do some research on airfares and different countries to identify lower-cost options if and when you can "pull the trigger," and accept that you'll pay more for a late-booked airfare and maybe have to compromise on hotel and other choices. One approach might be to wait till you know, then if you can travel look for the best airfare you can find from your home airport to -- wherever! Airfare will likely be your biggest single travel cost, the rest is a matter of settling for whatever imperfect choices will be available when you are.

I don't think it matter, beyond avoiding any place with some special event going on. So do that research. You can always find an acceptable hotel, and Golightly price are a crap shoot no matter wen you buy them. A fight over that I have been tracking for 8 months hit its lowest price about 40 days prior to the travel date (not till december)

You can go anywhere you want. While many people here like to plan months in advance, and that's fine, I've been known to change my itinerary on the fly. In fact, just a few days ago I changed my plans for December. (I'm already in Europe.)

Figure out where you want to go now, and start looking into it. Book what you can now that is totally refundable. You may find a hotel or two unavailable, but there will be choices. Prices may not be the lowest booking at the last minute.

As Mr. E said, as long as there isn't a special event going on, you'll be fine.

I would suggest England, Poland , and eastern Germany, where you do not get the influx of international and US tourists. A week to prepare....it can be done easily as that relates to eastern Germany.

It may be more important to avoid the most popular tourist cities than to avoid entire countries. For example, with one or two weeks' notice you probably wouldn't be able to buy an online ticket to the camp/memorial at Auschwitz, so you'd have to skip it, take a tour at higher cost or go early, stand in line (outdoors) and hope. And Auschwitz is in Poland, outside Krakow.

With one week before departure time you might not even be able to get a regular-entry ticket to the Alhambra for the last day of your trip. There are several sights in Rome/Florence that would be iffy within that timeframe, too.

I bet there are a few places you've been thinking about. Tell us what they are, and we may be able to suggest whether they're likely to doable on short notice in May.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm actually looking to narrow the possibilities down to a few that I can research accordingly.

I don't have any particular place in mind. I've been to half a dozen or so countries in Europe and would probably happily go to any of them again, but I'll happily go anywhere in Europe and hope, in the fullness of time, to go everywhere before I run out of time.

This year, I'm not going to be able to book anything before a particular project clears my desk, and I won't be sure of whether or when, exactly, I'll be free until it does - which might not be until late April, or might not happen until much later. So. What I'm hoping to do is choose a few countries where my husband and I would be able to go without having much trouble booking accommodations - I'm reading more advice these days about booking in advance - and then start researching accordingly.

Unless you show up in France during the Olympics you won't have problems with accommodations. Overall Europe tourism is still below 2019 with Eastern/Central Europe doing a bit worse than Western Europe. So maybe think about Prague. Vienna and, or, Budapest.

How tight is your accommodation budget? That matters in this context.

There are cities where the top/popular sights either sell out way early or require timed entry tickets that can limit your scheduling choices if you buy them late. I would tend to avoid such cities for a trip like this in a popular month like May. I'd consider these problematic:

• Amsterdam: The Anne Frank Museum, Corrie ten Boom House, Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum could all be sold out for the entire length of your trip.

• Barcelona: Tickets would likely be available for the top sights (they really pack them in), but it would take extra time to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of a schedule with 5 or 6 sights in the buy-ahead category.

• Rome: Online tickets for the Colosseum, Vatican Museums, Borghese Gallery would all probably be sold out, though of course there are tons of other places that are no problem.

• Florence: I believe the Uffizi sells out very early. There may be additional challenges; I haven't been to Florence recently.

• Venice: You'd probably have to stand in line for entry to St. Mark's, because online tickets sell out early. Standing in line isn't an impossible thing to do; it took me 30 minutes to clear the line in late September 2022.

• Milan: The Last Supper tickets would be impossible on this schedule unless you were lucky and caught a last-minute returned ticket. I'm not sure about climbing the Duomo dome.

• Krakow: Auschwitz would be sold out for an extended period, and the Schindler Factory could also be an issue if Krakow wasn't at the end of the trip.

• Budapest: For the Hungarian Parliament there are times and even entire days sold out stretching out several weeks; one assumes May/June would be a lot tighter. But Budapest has many sights, so unavailability of the Parliament wouldn't be a deal-breaker for very many tourists.

• Granada: The Alhambra is sometimes sold out for a month or more, leaving you with more expensive options for seeing it.

I think the Louvre might be an issue, but one could spend months in Paris without seeing the Louvre. [Oops--wasn't thinking about the Olympics!]

I'm sure there are other problematic destinations; those are just the ones I can think of right now. I think availability of lodgings that meet your budget might take other places off the list of possibles, but perhaps you don't have significant budget constraints.

A trip involving lengthy train trips in high-cost countries (or multiple intra-European flights) could be extra-expensive on short notice because the bargain fares might no longer be available.

Just about anywhere you want to go except in Paris environs during the Olympics. If you want fewer tourists, Sweden in late May, early June is perfect. Days are long and outdoor museums are getting ready for summer, but the tourists aren't there yet.

My best advice is to keep it simple, which means fewer hotel bookings. So cities might be the order of the day. You could actually make a couple of plans and make refundable hotel bookings - then see what airline prices are doing when you know dates and whether or not you can go and how long you have.

I would second Budapest and Vienna, with Poland as a second thought - Krakow & Warsaw (maybe an additional city if you have 3 weeks and feel like it). Or any combination. I love Prague, but it might be busier. And in all of those cities, there is plenty to see and do that doesn’t require reservations ahead, beyond a place to stay.

But go wherever interests you!