We'll be visiting Garmisch,Oberammergau,Stuttgart and surrounding areas for a week in early November. Should we make reservations for every night now or is it easy enough to find rooms available without planning ahead? In your experiences, do the prices change when you make reservations ahead of time?<BR>My wife and I would like to keep our travel plans open if possible.

Not sure I would leave it to luck; the region you are visiting is actually quite busy in the winter months as it caters to skiers and hikers (great ski slopes and mountain hikes!). For a week visit, I would pick two home bases (Garmisch and another town) and keep it flexible to account for weather, etc... In my experience, the price changes when is 6pm and the hotel still have plenty vacancies, then you can negotiate. That said, if I only had a week in a place I would maximize the time spent sightseeing and minimize time on details that can be arrange ahead of time. Have fun planning! You are going to one of the most beautiful places on earth!! (IMHO).

Peter: IMO you do not need to make reservations this time of year - it's not ski season yet, not enough snow early Nov. Really early Nov is pretty much off season for everything. I much prefer not to make reservation and never have trouble even when traveling during the summer. And, yes I think you can get better rate when you are there to do a little bargaining in person.

My wife and I spent 5 Thanksgivings in a row in Germany and never made reservations. We always found a place. <BR><BR>The way we did it on our first trip when we were rookies was to go to the local "I" Tourist info and tell them what we needed. They always found us a place in our price range.<BR><BR>To do it on your own just look for a place with ZIMMER FREI posted outside. Most places like to have their rooms booked early and some close early in the day so I would not wait too late in the day before selecting a place as it may already be closed. These small Mom and Pop places do not stay open for 24 hours like a large hotel.<BR><BR>Having said that, I agree with one of the posters above. You do not want to spend your entire trip having to secure a place to stay each day. You will enjoy the trip more by basing in one or two spots.

Thanks for the information you provided-it helped to solidify our plans quite a bit. We've decided to use Garmisch as one of our home bases for the week and have yet to decide on our second town for later in the week before we head back to Munich. Any suggestions?

Oberrammergau. Gorgeous town, it is the closest thing I've seen to a fairy tale town.

You do not need to stay in Oberammergau if you are staying a week in Garmisch as the two towns are very close.<BR><BR>Another great area is Berchtesgaden/Salzburg area. Beautiful scenery and not that bad of a drive to Munich.