Hotels - book in advance or on the spot

We're doing mid-July ED. Driving to Salzburg and then working our way through the Alpenstrasse to (potentially) Lucern and then Nurburgring. We booked hotels in Munich and Sazlburg.

For the Alpenstrasse drive I wanted to have the freedom to explore at our own pace and choose accommodations on the spot. How easy is it going to be to find an hotel/B&B in the middle of July in this area? I think I prefer these quaint German B&B's. Is booking on the spot something that's commonly done or is it likely to be extremely busy and we need to book hotels in advance for every night?

Originally Posted by vint101

We're doing mid-July ED. Driving to Salzburg and then working our way through the Alpenstrasse to (potentially) Lucern and then Nurburgring. We booked hotels in Munich and Sazlburg.

For the Alpenstrasse drive I wanted to have the freedom to explore at our own pace and choose accommodations on the spot. How easy is it going to be to find an hotel/B&B in the middle of July in this area? I think I prefer these quaint German B&B's. Is booking on the spot something that's commonly done or is it likely to be extremely busy and we need to book hotels in advance for every night?

i wouldn't risk it.

either there's nothing available and you're looking at some posh Schloss @ 600 euro a night OR you find some BB but it ends up crappy.

people have done it, thought if you wanna do it. Some ended up in really nice, charming places that are off the beaten path.

And then there was a dude who ended up sleeping in his car because there was nothing available in a 100mi radius.

So, up to you. If you like reading reviews and planning ahead, book now. If free spirit is you, chance it!

you should definitely book in advance. The better ones are always booked up. Trust me planning is good, just don't over plan because you'll end up rushing.

I had similar thought but booked in advance as I know if I get a crappy hotel, it would screw my previous and next day...

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We went the first of June and generally booked a room one day in advance in the area you mentioned. There are plenty of B&B's, pensions , etc in that area. We generally booked online. I can't speak for later in July. As you know, all of Europe goes on vacation in August. I don't know how many "start early".

Planning ahead is one of things that make ED exciting.

I have had no problems with one-day-ahead bookings in October but I would not want to take a chance on doing that in July - especially if your Alpenstrasse trip falls on a weekend.

If you decide to wing it I would start looking for a hotel around noon. The distances on the Alpenstrasse are not great and if you have to retrace some of your driving after check-in that will be three times as much fun.

I'm in the "wait to see where the day's travels takes you" camp. There are plenty of little places along the way that you should be able to find overnight accommodations in, even in the summer high season. The towns along the Alpenstraße are not enough of a destination on their own to warrant booking a summer holiday. Most of these towns also have some sort of tourism office that can help find a local place to stay for the evening in a gasthaus or vacation apartment (Fe-Wo).

If you're nervous about it and have a german cell phone/sim card or internet access, you can call/email ahead on your intended route for the day. That at least allows you day-to-day freedom to explore along your route.

Now items of caution:
1) if you are a large group or have unique needs (cribs, pets, etc), I would at least call the day of or night before to check on availability if not book a room
2) do a quick search on area activities for the dates you plan on being there to make sure there aren't any major activities/fests.

gesoffen: If you're nervous about it and have a german cell phone/sim card or internet access, you can call/email ahead on your intended route for the day. That at least allows you day-to-day freedom to explore along your route.

That is a good plan. I do not speak German so I do not think that I would be able to communicate my hotel needs over the phone. So what I have done in the past is to ask the front desk or B&B owner to make my next night's reservation for me. For me it is much easier to communicate in person. And, OK, I am cheap too so I hate burning up cell phone minutes. Of course this approach of booking one night in advance eliminates some of the spontanaeity that I think you want. But it is a reasonable compromise.

10 years ago I would have advised just to wing it. However now with even the tiniest mom and pop places on sites like booking.com things tend to fill up in advance, especially in popular months like July.




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Thanks for the feedback, guys! It's just two of us, no special needs. We usually book everything in advance but I was going to try to "wing it" this time, especially since I haven't done a driving vacation in Germany before and I don't have a good feel for how long things take. Looks like the opinions are split on this topic so I guess I'll try to book in advance and maybe cancel if worse comes to worst.

We are planning on leaving Salzburg in the morning, doing Grossglockner and then getting on the Alpenstrasse. Can you recommend an interesting town/hotel to stay in that would be somewhere on the Alpenstrasse, a reasonable driving distance from Grossglockner and put us on the path to Fussen?

Have some fun and be adventerous. First off, you really can't know if a hotel will be good or bad until you get there. So even booking the hotels online and in advance won't guarantee an awesome experience. If you are in a major city (Frankfurt, Munich) then you may want to book in advance. We did for Frankfurt and Zurich the Westin and Marriott at about $100/night through priceline. FOr mom-n-pops we booked, and most of them didn't even ask for credit card/deposit (very trusting). We were happy with all our choices.

I 100% agree with the freedom thing...we planned 1 thing per day, and made sure to have time for other things (including naps in Zurich during the day). When we went to Neuschwanstein castle, we ended up having more time on our hands because the lines were so long - so we, at the last minute, went some place else. Good things to help you

1) A travel paper book of the country you will be in. This will give you good suggestions. If you have iPad get digital version....it's nice to see pictures/maps
2) GPS (my droid was having issues, but the g armin worked great)
3) Sim card with data plan so you can look up places
4) Good attitude


Don't listen to the above who say that either things will be sold out or you will have to pay MAJOR money...that's nonsense. While there is that possibility, there is also a good chance you will find availability and reasonable prices. May doesn't seem to be like a high tourist season.

I tend to book ahead for short trips to save time and in very large cities, like Paris. For a longer driving vacation, I tend not to book ahead. Once I visited Munich and had a completely open schedule. I ended up taking a different route than originally thought.