Book accomodations ahead or drive and find?
 

Hi all,

My wife and are fairly experienced travelers and we enjoy the adventure of visiting new places with only a small amount of planning. After flying into Munich in early September, and visiting with family, we plan to drive south into Italy, maybe as far as Cortona. Allowing 5-7 days for the trip south and back should give us a decent pace I think. Would we be okay waiting to get a room as we go or should we book ahead? Our requirements aren’t much, a clean room and bed with hopefully a bit of breakfast included. Zimmers, B&Bs, farmhouses, bathrooms down the hall are all ok. We’ve made some great friends staying at farm houses and single rooms. I’ve done a good bit of driving in Bavaria, Austria, and Italy, so I don’t have any concerns there. Oh and by the way we've not been south of Bolzano and north of Perugia.
Thanks so much!
Ken

Wing it! My wife and I have been traveling to Europe every May and/or September for the past 22 years. Sometimes we have a reservation for the first and last night but the rest of the time we just find a B&B, Zimmer or small family run hotel along the way. It gives you much more freedom and the ability to move on if you get to a location and find it is nothing special. The area you are traveling is loaded with places to stay and the time of year is perfect for traveling without reservations.

Yes, no problem at all. I'd stay in Kals the first night. Easy driving, friendly folks. :-).
http://www.kals.at

Yes, I'd stay there. :-)

No need to book ahead, just go to Tourist Information. It's in the center of the village. When it's "too hot" in Munich, I usually go there.

I love planning my itinerary and WHERE I stay is as important to me as any other part of my trip. I don't want to have to settle for something because nothing else is available or I'm too tired to keep looking.

Of course, I always research the areas I am visiting and know pretty much what there is to see and do when I get there so I don't think I'd be traveling to a place that was "nothing special".

But as you say your requirements aren't much, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a place to sleep.

Anywhere Kals or wherever will be o.k. Basic German will help a lot! September is easy. Tons of possibilities.

We had the same dilemma, planning a trip for this spring. It seems like the older I get, the more I appreciate knowing where I'm going to spend the night (and eat dinner!). I find I now have a tendancy to start angsting at noon about the evening's accommodation, if it's not booked.

Thanks for the information and your opinions.
kettamic - Thanks for your reply, it gives me confidence we can travel as we like. Would a good rule of thumb be have the room by 4 or 5pm?
logos999 - I've been over Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße a few times, but I'm not familiar with Kals. We did use B108 to get back to our lodging and I see that Kals am Großglockner is close. A good friend recommended staying in the Zillertal area. Even if we don't stay, we may stop in to see the area or stay on the way back. Or you never know, we may not get past Tirol and spend the time there. My German is very basic. I bought the Rosetta Stone program and give it some hours a week.
bettyk - I understand your method of traveling completely and we do travel that way at times. It's just that this portion of our trip is totally free lance. We have another 8 days that is planned with activites and lodging booked ahead. We normally day trip from a central spot, figuring a number of trips to take and then do them (or not) depending on our mood or the weather.
just27 - understood. When I was younger I did so many things, that now makes me wonder why I did.

Zillertal has far too many tourists, Kals is "off" the beaten path but really lovely. It's "behind" the Glockner and can only be accessed from the Felbertauern road (B108). Most people are too lazy to drive into that valley. :-). I'm sure, the people at the tourist information speak English. (95% German and Austrian tourists, the Dutch don't go there, I believe it's because they fear the road is too small for their campervans :-) ). The tourist information will make the reservation for you and show you, how to get to your "Pension". You should be there before 5pm otherwise, they may be closed! You cannot see the Glockner from the village itself. The town has two parts Großdorf and Kals, Großdorf has quite a few nice Pensions but no store. The billa supermarket is "downtown" Kals.

Thanks logos999,
Sounds like we'll visit Zillertal (or my friend will give me heck) and stay in Kal. I really appreciate the help. Oh and I've taken your advice in another thread and will skip Oktoberfest this year.

You're welcome :-) The park rangers have a slideshow every few days, in German only, but it's worth it anyway. (Only a few meters from the tourist information, but on the right side of the road) They'll present all the animals you can see in the park. If you're really lucky, you'll see an eagle fly. A few days there and you're ready for Munich again. But yes, do skip Oktoberfest!

I think you shouldn't have a problem finding somewhere to stay, there are so many B&Bs and small hotels! In Austria the places always include breakfast (very good ones). It's great if you speak some basic german, because if you go to some B&Bs in a small village in Tirol for instance...they won't speak any other language than that! Same for Italy, some basic italian is good...but in the north (South Tirol) the speak german too. I think it's great not to have too many plans, you will discover places which otherwise you would never see.

mangiacrauti,

Thanks for your reply. And I whole heartily agree with over planning taking away from the adventure of traveling. My basic German isn't really too bad but my Italian is almost non existant. I'll learn some by Sept but not as much as I'd like.

Ken

I agree with Kettamic, Wing it. To BettyK, I have traveled to many places that sounded interesting and were "special" to the person recommending it but turned out to be nothing special to me.

Kettamic et ux have been travelling to Europe twice a year for 22 years ... I'd probably feel pretty confident by then! (Based on my personal winging-it experiences, I still vote for a bit of front-end planning which allows me to better enjoy where I am.) It's all good. It just comes down to who you are.

just27: I agree with you. It DOES depend on who you are. Winging it is certainly not for everyone. Fortunately my wife likes to travel that way too so it works for us. Winging it does not mean you don't have "front end planning". We always have a plan. We also have the ability to stay longer at a place that we like OR we have the option to continue down the road. We travel to Europe in May and September but not always twice a year.

Our very first trip to Europe was over planned and tightly regimented. We had a good time, but decided we wanted more flexibility in our travels. There are degrees in between over planning and "winging it completely". And each degree fits somebody's perferred method of travel. It's all good. Last April we did a cruise around Italy and Croatia and after the cruise we allowed for 2 days to drive into the Umbria region to get an idea of what it was like. It was an adventure! We had no room booked for the first two nights, but we did have one for Sunday night when we returned to Rome, before flying out. We drove from Civitavecchia to Spoleto where we found a nice hotel atop the mountain, nestled in the woods. About 40-50 Euro and I believe it included breakfast. We drove around sightseeing, visiting a few hilltop towns including Spello, which a Fodorite friend recommended. After walking up and down for a couple of hours we had fantastic "pizza margherita" and some very good wine at a local eatery, along with some laughs with the cook and the servers. Everyone understands laughter. And now we are headed back to spend more time there. I think we'll base in Cortona and day trip from there. But we may change our minds!

wallyhook, I've NEVER found that to be the case in all of our travels.

We never overplan our trips. But we feel like we are making the best use of our time by knowing ahead of time where we will be staying and what sightseeing options are available. We will use a town as a "base" for doing day trips to other places in the area.

This works great for us, but we all travel differently.

As an update we have booked a room at the airport Marriott (I work for Marriott) for our first two nights. Then we are headed south to Kals, then on to Siena for 4 to 5 days. We aren't going to book ahead so we can stay flexible, but we have found a place (through here) that we hope will have a room. We'll stay there and day trip and then move on traveling as we feel like it on to Brussels. My wife has always wanted to visit.

Hope you like it in Kals. And do also take the cable car to the Blauspitz if you can. It's a nice walk up there, but you shouldn't be afraid of heights. The path is at least 2 meters wide, so it's not really a problem. I just would really have enjoyed a handrail. You'll see what I mean.