Booking Hostels in Advance
 

I am going heading off on a 4 week trip starting in Amsterdam(June 22) and ending in Madrid (July 20). I'll be solo the first 3 weeks. I have a rough outline of where I'd like to go, but I would also like to be able to change my plans at the drop of a hat, jump on the route of some good-lookin gals, go party with some dudes, etc. I booked a hostel for San Fermin in Pamplona and my first two nights in Amsterdam, but I wasn't planning on booking anything else. I know its peak season, is this a bad idea? First time backpacking, only other Europe experience was a Contiki Tour. I have global rail pass, so I can go anywhere.

Thanks in advance!

Also, if you do recommend advance booking - any small towns/day trips/ cool villages along this route:

Amsterdam - Bruge - Brussels - prague - vienna - milan - Nice - Barcelona - Pamplona - Madrid

Personally, it would be too stressful for me not to know where I am staying in an unfamiliar city. But, it can be done. Most of the cities on your route have hostels and probably have some sort of tourists office that might help you find vacancies. You may want to post your question on Lonely planet's Thorn tree forum, that caters to a younger crowd.

I wouldn't worry about it if you aren't picky about where you stay. There is almost always some vacant room in a city (barring some really unusual festival or sports event, if that's the case you can move on). But you may have to spend more than you want or stay in a hotel instead of a hostel, if they are all full up.

I really think for that time period, you can't tie yourself down day by day this far ahead. I think your plan is fine, you have a rough idea, but maybe you can try to book hostels for the next stop when you are in a city and have an idea where you are going next? I don't know how feasible that is, I think you need a computer with you to be very easy to do. I'm not up on the latest technology, so don't know if you can do that by smartphones or if they even work in Europe.

I traveled around once when I was alot younger without reservations and it didn't kill me, and it was a pretty popular time period. But when I was in Bruges, I had a room that probably wouldn't have been something I chose myself, of course (kind of noisy and maybe not the best bargain). That kind of stuff. And when I got to Paris there wasn't any room available at the list of hotels I carried with me, from a popular budget guidebook. Those were the days precomputer, so that was about your only source of good hotel info. I think I finally got a room for one night only after calling about ten hotels. It was okay, actually, but I wanted to stay longer than one night. I couldn't go through that again the next day, so I just left by train for Amsterdam or somewhere, thinking that wasn't in the cards.

I wasn't smart enough at the time to go to the tourist office (or maybe didn't have the energy), as they will usually get you a room somewhere, but again, it may not be the best location (My niece did that once and the Paris tourist office stuck her in some modern chain hotel on the border of Paris).

I'll admit I haven't stayed in hostels in Spain so can't advise anything more specific, but you have to be flexible and be prepared to pay more than a hostel, if you have to.

I would put together a list of hostels and budget hotels now.

Then

1) Make sure they still have room now - if they don't you know you're in trouble

2) Assuming they still have room - reserve on the road a day or two in advance as you go - to avoid spending the best part of a day looking for a place to stay in each town - in what I assume is a budget price range

Thank you very much for all the very helpful info..

Rainy Day - posted exact same on Lonely planet, thanks for advice.

Christina - Good to hear your experiences and shows that flexibility can go good and bad on ya

NYtraveler - Great advice, I'm gonna get a little less laid back here. I'm already getting the vibe on a few cities that I should make more plans (northern cities and spain), which ends up being perfect cause those are the beginning and end of the trip.

You have to come back after your trip and tell us how it worked out. I always thought it would be great to just roam in Europe for a summer, my husband got to do it in his early 20s, while in college. He slept in some shady hostels, even on roofs in Greece and Turkey, and in remote suburbs in Rome and in Spain. He met some great people and made friends.

Take this opportunity while you can!

In our recent trip to Spain, regarding hotels, I found out that room rates vary constantly at a certain point I found my self with a reservation at X rate for a hotel in Barcelona, at the time when their web site was offering a better rate, that is a a month later than my original reservation. I had made the intial reservation in their website, that is in the same place, fortunatelly I had not been tempted to pre paid, so simply I cancelled the one month old reservation and did a new one at better rate. What if I had not checked? Of course I would have paid more, penalized for doing a reservation ahead of time. I have noticied this again and again same thing happened to us on a January trip to Washington DC, again later I found the same rate including breakfast this time, huge difference...so again I changed, this time on the phone.
To day with computers and hotels offering a different rate for each day, anything goes.

I wouldn't worry too much about finding hostals along the way. But if you go to fantastic San Sebastián at the coast before or after Los Sanfermines (as many do), I would book in advance. Lots of affordable places in the Parte vieja/old town with probably the highest concentration of bars in all of Europe. And the best food.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/tr...articles/68207

Pension Larrea is right on the main square in the Parte vieja, I stayed here several times a hundred years ago, and it's still run by the same lovely woman: http://www.pensionlarrea.com/presentacion_i.htm

At Urkia, in the middle of the city center, you can get a single room for 35€ in July. Three minutes walk to the beach and five minutes to the Parte vieja. Seven minutes to the surfer's beach at Zurriola. http://www.pensionurkia.com/index.html

About one hundred hostals around town, but I've experienced serious trouble finding a place in San Sebastián in and around San Fermín times.

... and I recommend you to spend a couple of days in vibrant Bilbao after San Sebastián/Pamplona and on your way to Madrid. Several nice villages along the coast between San Sebastián and Bilbao (Zarautz, Getaria, Zumaia, Mutriku, Lekeitio etc). Did almost all summers in my twenties in San Sebastián and this area. About Bilbao: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/ar...navarra/bilbao