traveling to Europe without any reservations for anything...Is it possible?

Its doable, but a lot depends on where and when you are traveling. If you are going to be spending a lot of time in the big cities, hotel prices in the summer can be sky high, and rooms scarce. In this case it might be best to use each city's tourist office to find you a room. They will have master list of which hotels have rooms; just tell them your budget and they will hook you up. Off-season gives you more flexibility and cheaper prices, during this time period you can simply walk up to hotels you see listed in the guidebook and usually get rooms. Get a copy of Rick's "Europe through the Back Door", it contain lots of great advice for first time travelers, especially those going without reservations.

its possible but it can consume a fair amount of your limited time. Two suggestions I'd make are these. First, stay more than one nite in a place. That way you avoid the daily time cost of finding rooms. Second, many hotels have books that list pretty much every hotel in their country and are willing to call ahead and book for you. Its much easier to have a native speaker do the calling if you know what your next destination will be. But don't feel too tied to this; sometimes its fun to take the train to a city, decide if you want to stay or not, and if not keep going!

It is definitely possible, though, as others have stated, it depends on where you are going, when, and for how many travelers. It is much easier to find a room for one or two people, but if you have more than that you need a larger room or 2+ rooms. This is trickier, but still can be done.

My dad worked for an airline for numerous years and we flew standby all the time. One of our strategies would be that we would have reservations except for he first night. That way, if we didn't get there the first day we wouldn't risk paying a no show fee. If we got there on the first day, we just had to find rooms for one night. By checking the loads you can get a rough idea of if you'll be able to get out that day, though you never know.

If you show up with no reservations it helps to have a list of places to call. Also, check cancellation policies. Some hotels allow you to cancel up until the day of (not many B&Bs, but some hotels). In that case, you could always call and cancel.

I rarely get reservations. I call ahead in the morning to find a place for the next couple of nights. Sometimes I have to call more than one place, but I haven't gone homeless.

I have traveled to Europe almost exclusively in May, September and October. The cost and crowds are less and the weather is generally good. I don't know how it would be in the high season.

The only reservations I normally get are for my flight (I don't have the stand-by option), day of arrival lodging (one less thing to think about when I land), museums in Florence and Burg Stahleck hostel on the Rhine.

You would have to choose your destinations carefully (ie, don't expect to find a room in Munich during Oktoberfest), but you can do it easily. Just go straight to the TI office at each destination, if there is one, and inquire.

Actually one of my experiences was getting a room in Octoberfest with no reservations, which is why I now call ahead in the morning.

I arrived in Munich by train about 9 AM on opening day of Octoberfest. I had intended to simply ask the TI for a place. The line was ridiculous and it looked a little like the trading floor at the Chicago Mercantile.

I was worried that I might have to sleep in a nearby town. I went to a pay phone and started calling. After maybe a dozen calls, I found a nice pension a short busride from Marienplatz at the going rate.

It can be done, but that experience was less than comfortable.

It's very possible in my opinion.
Some problems you might have in peak season because soem hotels might be full and then you will need to look at different ones.
Just a tip: go online and search for available rooms when you know for sure where you will be instead of wasting time going around the city.

One of the best trips I ever took was Flying into Athens, and having a Ticket out of Milan in 3 1/2 weeks. Never had issues with Hotels or transportation. Some will tell you that valuable time from your travels will be lost looking for a place to stay, but oddly that comes from people who always make reservations months ahead. I usually can find a room quicker than most can locate the hotel they made a reservation at.

When we travelled without kids we did so without any reservations. Even in high season that wasn't a problem.

Travelling with kids I'd find it way too stressful to go without reservation.

I would also look for reservation if you going during special events, e.g.

• Octoberfest in Munich (I know more than one person who ended up sleeping in the train station)

• major Soccer events/Olympics (this year June in Switzerland/Austria)

• Rhine in Flames

• easter in Rome

My father and his wife never make reservations. They stay with friends or family for the first night or two, and arrange a hotel or a stay for the last night before they fly home, but other then that they usaually for for at least 3 weeks(they always lease a car, and you must take it for at least 3 wks) and just drive all over,and stay where they land so to speak.

They have a car so do not need to stay in city centers.They do not take car into Paris but park in outside and take metro in, while on the road, they stop fairly early in day and look for hotel. My dad likes to start the day on the road early ( like 7 AM) so by 2 he is happy to stop for day , get hotel and sightsee.
I have done a trip with him once( as an adult) where the routine was drive early each morning, get afternoon hotel, sometimes just one off the highway if we were in transit. He did on that trip book a room in one destination, Zermatt, as it has only a finite amount of rooms in summer. Everywhere else was fine

In most cases, no reservations required - unless special events happen in the town you want to visit (just as it is at home).
Check in with Tourist Info if arriving in a new stop over earlier in the afternoon; in some smaller towns there are interactive bulletin boards to link up with lodgings directly. However: If you plan on arriving later in the evening, you take your chances.

Hint: don't plan to stay where the American guidebooks direct you to - sorry, even RS; not only will you run in nothing but English speakers, but many of them have booked ahead. Instead so some research ahead of time (tripadvisor.com) note down some possible lodgings, and then plan on visiting a couple.

Europeans travel also, and popular vacation spots are often booked in summer or winter for extended periods. If you stay only overnight, you may have a better chance in these places, except for weekends.

A little research goes a long way.

http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti28.html

Hi In,
... the above link is right here at Rick Steves web site. The subject is finding a room. Lots of good tips...

...We have never had a problem traveling without all the reservations. Our practice is to reserve the first night in Europe, and the last. Might add, we don't make it a practice to travel there during August when Europeans go on holiday for their month, with pay.
ciao! P

Hi - I too work for an airline and travel stand-by a lot.

Can I say to you that you are approaching this the wrong way.

Always, always, always have a plan B backup ( outbound and return ).

The tickets you and I travel on are 'zonal' so they can be switched to another route if one flight goes full. For example if you want a flight from JFK to AMS and it goes full all you do is switch to a flight from JFK to BRU and grab a train into Amsterdam.

Next make friends with your airline's Reservations Agents and phone them about four days before departure. Ask them for a full availability check ( including any overbookings and the number of passengers like you who are booked on the stand by or 'sub-load' list ) then do the math. If all the passengers and all the sub-loads add up to 8 less than capacity, go for it. If not cancell you hotel reservation and re-schedule.

This is really, really easy, once you know the basics. PM me for any help you need.

Hello In. I like Kristy's strategy. If you do not know what day you will fly to Europe, make reserations for rooms, for all but the first night. And cancel reservations, if necessary. If you do not have any reservations the day you fly to Europe : bring information about many hotels and B & Bs with you. The day you arrive in Europe, Telephone for reservations for each night. If they do not answer the Telephone, send E-mail, or use the hotel's website, if they have it. A problem with searching for an available room when you arrive at a town, is that a group of people in a tour bus may have reserved rooms for 45 people in the hotel that you want to be in, and no room will be available for you.
If you do not have a reservation when you arrive at a town, go to the Tourist Information office : a person working there might be willing to Telephone local hotels for you, reserve a room for you, no fee. I did that at small towns in Germany.

thanks for the great ideas and info! we hope to go in july of this yr> I hope we can find B and B's or rooms in Italy and France at this time. We plan to do train travel and buses so we will be somewhat limited in what we can choose. Guess we will ask at the tourist office when we arrive...thanks for the tip!

If you don't mind travelling like a backpacker and finding hostels to stay in, you will have no problems!! Hey, it's an adventure, have fun!!!

might be fun for a true seat of the pants back door adventure... hmmm bad choice of words but... go for it! if there is anything at all you feel you MUST go to - a hotel or tour or museum - then reserve that on line or well ahead just incase, esp if during summer. but showing up for B&Bs or hotels or asking locals might get you really great places not listed in books. sounds cool to me - if you are easy going and have enough time to have a flexi schedule!

Since my dad was an airline pilot, I traveled non-rev for 20+ years which really taught me to travel light and last-minute. It is very possible to travel this way any time of year but do not expect to be able to get into any of Rick's recommended hotels. Or, if you do, you may only be able to stay for one night or whenever their next scheduled guest is to check in.

There will be some days where you find a room right away, other days where you may not find anything and you'll have an entire wasted day. You really need to have a go with the flow personality and/or a high tolerance for bad hotels.

As a funny side note, my brother traveled for almost 6 months and rarely ever got a hotel. He would stay up for a couple days at a time in a particular city. When he got tired enough, he would go to the closest airport and catch a plane to wherever the next one was going. Sometimes even to the States and then straight back to Europe...10 hours of rest and fine dining (first class)