Do you always have reservations for your loding?

That type of day-before web stuff worked for us during 5 1/2 months in Europe in 2006. It worked previously on shorter trips, as well. Crowded places in high season practically beg for reservation. Thus, London and Paris woulod be candidates. Thewre are so many kinds of lodging and so many places (suburbs and outlying neighborhoods), that web contacts almost always work

Hi Marylee-I am leaving soon on my fourth trip abroad and my experience has been it can work both ways. The main drawback to booking as you go is you may get stuck paying a lot at the last minute for a place that isn't that great. You will most likely find a place-but you may pay way too much for a really noisy hotel or something like that. You also have the added stress of scrambling around at the last minute. I agree that you need to have a room booked in a big city for sure. I would also recommend you have the night before you leave Europe booked to save yourself that stress at least. You'll want to get a good night's sleep before taking such a long flight. Good luck!

Some of it depends on how picky you are. I travel on a budget, and quiet and a good location are both important to me. So there usually aren't too many places that fit these requirements, as a result I book ahead. But if you value spontaneity and anyplace will do (which is a perfectly fine way to travel), you can always find something especially if you go to the tourist information desk located at most train stations. But if you have a lot of parameters you need to take into consideration, your choices will be fewer and the good places will fill up in advance. Just be honest about your preferences.

You can always find a place to sleep but it may not be the quality or price you wanted. Use Venere.com or Laterooms.com for bookings a day or two before. If you plan on visiting Venice book as far in advance as possible - the city is always busy. The thing that concerns me is that you state you have never been to Europe before. Hotels have different standards in Europe than in the US. A European 4-star hotel is nothing like a North American 4-star. The days of finding a luxury hotel for a dirt cheap price are pretty much over now that the Internet has changed how hotels are booked. You will certainly get a taste of variety of lodging available in Europe.

What we want in hotel or BnB, is that it's clean, comfortable, & safe. We will make reservations for the big cities, we already have reservations for our first week in Paris 4 nights, and Barcelona 4 nights, then onto Italy. Just trying to get this somewhat together, but want some flexibility too. Thanks for the help

I book my first night's lodging ahead of time.

I'll also get reservations for places that are often full.

Other than that, I call ahead in the morning to find a place.

I'm not picky (toilet down the hall, hostel, pension or budget hotel are all fine as long as they are clean and quiet). I also travel in Spring and Fall so days worrying about a place are rare.

I'm not sure I would use my technique if I traveled high season or needed a specific type of lodging (en suite, three star, American style hotel).

I have done it both ways, but I much prefer booking ahead, only because I don't have the stress waying on my mind while I am traveling. Without booking ahead you are able to be more free and that is great too. I would say only book ahead in the places you are certain you want to go. This ensures you will enjoy those places that mean the most to each of you. The rest of the time, get lost and find the most amazing little B&B and have the greatest experiences of the whole trip. My favorite moment in Ireland was when we could not find a hostel or B&B and ended up in a tiny village in the countryside. The next morning we ended up exploring an abandoned castle for 5 hours. It was worth being lost and worried just to have that experience. There will always be someplace to stay, even if you have to hunt for it.

Good thoughts, Amy. You could also look at booking ahead as "being more free" because it frees you from having to spend part of every day having to look for a place to sleep and not getting the best deal because the people who booked ahead snapped up those.

Well we now have almost everything booked except the last 10 days, I think I will leave it that way until we get there, with the exception of having our last night booked. Amy, when you talk about finding the tiny village in the countryside, that sounds like my kind of travel. All the planning is part of the fun for me, but I also like not being tied to having to be somewhere. Thanks for peoples thoughts.

We book first and last night only. The only time we book anything else in advance is if it is a special place that requires advanced booking. We've not had any problems finding places as we go. We do always make a point of finding a hotel/B&B/whatever by 3:00 and once that's out of the way, we enjoy the rest of the day with no worries. We mostly stay in 3 star hotels, but have stayed in some very nice 2 star hotels. Check them out before checking in.

Hi Marylee. My husband and I spent a month in Italy in Sept 2006. We had reservations the first two and last two nights. Outside of that we selected hotels as we went. This way we could go and see the room before we stayed. I do agree with the others that major cities almost always require advance booking. We stayed in small Italian towns (Varona, Padua, Ravenna, Assisi, Orvieto, Sorrento, Luca, Sienna). Even then there were a few times that we had difficulty finding a place, usually if we were getting into a town on a Friday.

Marylee, I always pre-book my accomodations, as I don't want to waste valuable travel time looking for something when I arrive in a new city (especially when hauling around a 50 lb.+ Backpack). This also gives me some control over the price range and which part of the city I'll be staying in. Don't assume that in mid-September there will be lots of vacancies, as there seems to be a lot more people travelling at that time of year.

To provide a few examples from my trip in Sept./Oct. 2006, I watched two Australian couples spend several hours looking for a room in Riomaggiore (C.T.). They managed to find the only room left in town, and I'm not sure what they paid? I also spoke with some girls in Siena who arrived in town in the late afternoon and couldn't find ANYTHING, even in the Convent. Their solution to the problem was to get a bottle of wine and sleep in the streets! Finally, it took a lot of effort for me to find a room in Rome at that time of the year. It took some "creative help" from a friend on another message board to get that sorted. I have no doubt that I could have found a room in one of the Hotels, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about paying the higher rates.

I always like to have the transportation and lodgings fairly well sorted.

Cheers!