finding accommodations off the cuff

WHEN will you be traveling to those countries? Can you name areas you're planning on staying already?

Mid june thru the first week of July. We have booked rothenburg, Ruette and hallstatt for the first part, we plan on going to southern austria, thru switz, then back up the rhine towards frankfurt

You have a tough variable in having a group of five. I enjoy traveling that way, but it got a little tougher with a kid involved. I have had good luck going into the town's tourist information office and asking their help in booking rooms.

I usually travel in May and June, though, so don't know if your travel time is getting too crowded.

Also, you don't say if you'll be traveling by train or car. A car gives you a little more flexibility to find rooms away from town centers.

3 things that, taken together, will make it more challenging for you to find accommodations off the cuff:traveling in the summerwith 3 youngstersand finding accommodations for a group of 5

It could require a good bit of time to hunt down accommodations. Two or three rooms can be pricey. A single unit for 5 is commonplace and inexpensive, but such places are commonly booked in advance by German families.

With 5, I would absolutely positively rent an apartment in strategic spots on your route for several days at a time - and daytrip to the other destinations you have in mind. It's so great to have all extra room and to be able to stay put comfortably for several days.

Vacation rentals, or Ferienwohnungen, are much less common in larger cities, where they tend to be found in hotels and tend to be expensive. But if you wanted to visit, say, Munich, there are thousands of them on the outskirts in smaller, more scenic, more rural towns. The tourist authority in these towns keep complete lists and will often help you find a place. Diessen, a pretty town on Ammersee lake, is just one example. The town TI has this webpage with dozens of listings:

diessen.de/private-zimmer.html

You can also look at this commercial website for ideas too:

www.accommodation.de

But don't hesitate to call the local tourist offices of towns that you're interested in. They'll almost always speak English.

Please be aware that school vacations will be on at different times as you travel through those 3 countries. This might affect your accommodation search. Here is a website that will tell you when vacation is in each of the states you will be in.

http://www.holidays-info.com/School-Holidays-Germany/2009/school-holidays_2009.html

I have found the opposite with renting apts. The big cities have tons of places available. One just has to google it or ask the Tourist info in the cities to help out.

Heidi,

How are you going to travel? By car/train, fly?
If you fly or train it's a bit difficult to start looking for hotels, especially when you travel with kids. Another problem I see is to find a larger room for 5.
If you travel by car, then I don't see a big problem.I did the same thing a few years, I traveled in August in most of the Western European countires and the only time I had a problem was in Germany. We stopped at a few hotels and the reception was closed before 9PM.

thank you to everyone, and we will have a car

Heidi,
My dad and I did a trip from France to Switzerland , about 10 years ago, with nothing but our accomadation in Zermatt booked, ( if you are going somewhere like that you must book ahead) we always found places outside of cities, or just off highways that were like cheapo motels..
My dad and my stepmom did a similar trip last July, 4 weeks, all over, and they booked first and last night only.
Three points, they always started looking for accomadation early in the day, by 1 or 2 pm at latest, and they accepted staying in non descript places outside of tourist area( some of these chain hotels are positively souless, you can actually check in by machine, and never even see staff, weird) , they also were a group of 2.

I do think you will find it harder with a group of five. You will almost always need two hotel rooms. And since you are unlikely to find connecting rooms, it could mean two rooms not even near each other.

You could definately do this, but really, it would be nice to do as another poster suggested and book some apartment type accomadation and use them as bases.

Heidi,

Given that you'll be travelling "mid-June thru the first week of July", I'd strongly recommend planning your stops a bit more precisely and pre-booking accommodations. That's pretty much "peak travel season" in the countries you listed, and the "worst case scenario" is that upon arrival in a new city, you have to spend a LOT of time looking for a place to sleep. That's a waste of valuable travel time IMHO!

The other challenge is the size of your group, which is another very valid reason for pre-booking. While there are advantages to spontaneity, I don't think that's the best idea in this case.

Good luck and happy travels!