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Necessity of reservations for family rooms in August?

Posted by (Washington) on

I am traveling to Germany next month with my husband and our two small children (young toddler and an 8-year-old). We are traveling with a rental car and staying in some cities with my husband's family and friends. But, for other blocks of the trip, we will be traveling alone with just us and our two kids. My husband made reservations with Legoland for a couple days but wishes to go reservation-free the rest of the trip that we are just traveling with our little family so we don't have to worry about where we end up and for how long. The flexibility sounds wonderful, but I'm terrified we will end up with nowhere to stay. It looks like it is hard to find family-size rooms in hotels. My small toddler shares a bed with us at home and would have a hard time if my husband and I had to split up in different rooms. I see I can book "free cancellation" rooms online, but the rates are higher. Should I do it anyway? Or am I being foolish and it will be easy to find rooms with the kids in tow? Here are the cities I expect we will be needing accommodations:

Hamburg - for a night during the week

Berlin - two or three nights during the week

Somewhere between Berlin and Munich - one night

Munich - a night or two during the week

Memmingen - three nights over a weekend

Somewhere along the Rhine river for four or five nights (Bacharach, Koblenz, Bonn, or somewhere) - over a weekend and a few weekdays

Posted by
321 posts

Hi Mukmom- with that much travel and several 1 night stands, you don't want to spend time searching for a suitable hotel. And family rooms are not very plentiful. Make the cancellable reservations for peace of mind. Especially in the large cities as there are festivals going on and sometimes the rates are very high. You could vary your routing as needed. Also Berlin to Munich really doesn't require an intermediate stopover unless you really want to.
Have a great trip!!!

Posted by
12040 posts

Can all of you sleep in two large beds? If yes, it shouldn't be that hard to find rooms. Especially in the cities. You may not get your first choice of lodgings, but you should be able to find something. But if you need three beds, that'll be much harder to find.

The kids will not want to miss Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg.

And if Legoland isn't enough, you can also consider this toy-based themepark near Nürnberg. Also near Nürnberg, there's this indoor waterpark (with saunas for mom and dad).

Posted by
6113 posts

I would not travel anywhere in Europe in August without reservations if I needed a family room, as these are more limited than standard doubles. One night stays may cost more per night than if you stayed for 3 nights.

With children, you will probably want to stay as centrally as possible, but city centre hotels will charge c €20 a day in parking fees and you will not need a car whilst in the city, so this is a waste of car hire costs too!

You may find things easier without advance reservations if you stayed in smaller more rural towns rather than the major cities.

Posted by
11613 posts

Check cancellation policies carefully, some places require up to 72 hours' notice.

Posted by
2297 posts

August is high season for family vacations in Europe. I would thus not travel with kids in tow without reservations.

Family rooms in hotels are not very common, many families rent vacation apartments. Do consider those as an alternative! They give you more room and are often cheaper.

For a stay on the Rhine I would look at a stay at one of the castles. Your kids will love it! However, that definitely requires reservations as it is a very popular options, it would be a miracle to get a room or even just a bed in a dorm without reservations. Here are a couple of them:

http://www.jugendherberge.de/en/youth-hostels/bacharach390/shortportraet
http://www.kolpinghaus-auf-schoenburg.de [website is English only but the managers are fluent in English and respond to English emails]

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