I will be traveling to southern Germany in May for my honeymoon and my fiancee and I have a disagreement. We are planning on visiting the many towns along the Romantische Strasse. I would like to go to the town and then look for a hotel. She wants to have everything booked ahead of time so we're guaranteed a place to sleep. Everything I read says that hotel rooms are in great supply in the beginning of May and that you can easily find one on the day of arrival.

So I have two questions:
1. Are rooms available with no reservation?
2. Are the rates the same for walk-ins and reservations?

And a bonus question:
3. How much should I expect for a double? I took a quick look around and it seems that 30-50 EUR is the norm.

Maybe she looks upon the booking ahead as a commitment that you are going to follow through with the marriage... LOL
I think a lot depends on your tolerence for such things. Personally we like to have everything arranged, signed and sealed. It may have more to do with what each of you can accept.
As for advice... cave in and do it the way she wants. It's a lot easier in more ways than one.

Don't you want a guarantee that you won't be walking the streets looking for lodging on your HONEYMOON?

Come on, guy. Reserve some hotels and be a hero.

Your 30-50 Euro budget - is that EACH or total per room? If it's total, then may I suggest you think bigger - it is your HONEYMOON! Who wants to spend it in a dump.

For myself, I like to have our hotel reservations booked in advance. It eliminates a source of stress for me, which is that we will have to scramble to find a place to sleep, spend precious vacation time searching something out, and possibly end up with something that isn't so good or nothing at all and have to move on to find a place - and the possibility of dealing with all of this when I am TIRED! LOL. Easier to just make the reservations ahead of time and avoid the entire issue. Some people see travelling without reservations as freedom and flexibility. For myself, I feel much more free when I know where I am going to sleep and I find I have a better time. It's just a matter of different personality types.

Perhaps your fiance is of a similar mind as I am. Or perhaps she would be willing to freewheel it on another trip but since this is your honeymoon, she wants to make sure things go as smoothly as possible and not risk ending up with some crap room to spoil the fun.

Either way - if she is not comfortable turning up in a place without reservations, for whatever reason, then go ahead and make them ahead of time.

You haven't really given any reason why you want to do this. Given your second question about the rates, I assume it's because you think you are going to save money that way.

YOu expect to find a double room with bathroom for 30 euro total anywhere? I would say 75-100 euro is more likely for a nice hotel. 30 euro won't get you much, if anything.

Are you planning to follow a fairly set itinerary? A compromise might be to book the first few nights in advance, then as the trip progresses, book the next hotel(s) a day or two in advance via internet cafe/laptop/phone. This way, you KNOW you have a room upon arrival.
This plan won't work if you accidently hit on a town that is holding their annual wine fest or something.

I meant to include a suggestion that you prepare a list of hotel choices before you leave on the trip, so you don't waste time researching during the trip.

Don;t know where you got the 30-50 euro number - but I would think at that price you'll be staying in the spare room above someone's garage. This is not the price for a real hotel room with a private bath. (Considering it's your honeymoon I would assume you want at least a clean hotel with a bathroom of your own.

As for the idea of looking for a hotel in each town - you can easily end up spending 3/4 hours sreaching for someplace decent. (The best, most economical places will already have been reserved by people who plan in advance. You'll find what's left.)

If you werre really traveling off season (Jan/Feb) it would be one thing. But a lot of people travel in May - and I would never risk this.

At a minimum reserve the hotel for the first night (be sure to check reviews on tripadvisor.com) and that may give you some perspective on price. Also, at least have a list of possible places for the other towns you want to visit. go to the web sites now and see how many rooms they have available - that will help you decide if they'll have anything left in May.

Okay, since apparently you don't have a mother or sisters or a good female friend to do what must be done to ensure you have a happy life together, please allow me:

The whole fly-by-the-seat of your pants thing might be nice for some backpacking trip but NOT FOR A HONEYMOON.

Are you crazy??? Do you really want to waste precious travel time frantically searching for a good room when you both are tired and grumpy at the end of a long day and you're dragging around 70 pounds (or more) of luggage? What if you don't find one or the only thing with availibility is a flea-trap? I promise, you WILL PAY FOR IT EVERY DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE AND HEAR ABOUT IT WHENEVER YOU WANT HER TO TRUST YOUR JUDGEMENT ON AN IFFY ISSUE.

Look, planning a wedding is very stressful. The honeymoon isn't just a celebration of starting your lives together, it's a recuperation and rest time from all the stress and the many things that WILL go wrong (that you will finally be able to laugh about years later).

So please do it right and don't risk a major screw-up at the dawn of your marriage. You don't have to go first class all the way if you can't afford that, but spend some time looking for special, at least mid-rate places (AND BOOKING THEM) so she feels her man has taken care of both her and her worries about feeling secure. Feeling cared for and secure is what a new wife needs most from her husband. Be her hero and provide it and you'll never regret either the extra euro or the time it took to arrange it all in advance. Plus, you can use the time you'd have spent looking for a place to spend the night actually ENJOYING the place you already arranged. (Um, and isn't that what a honeymoon is all about?)

You can still be spontaneous choosing your daily activities and where to eat. But leaving unplanned where to sleep on a HONEYMOON is a foolish, foolish, unnecessary risk.

I'm surprised at the responses to the low rates. To stay a little outside of a town such as Fussen I've seen rates of 30-50 for a double with a private bathroom and breakfast included mentioned on more than one website. It's not our budget, but why spend double that just to be 10 minutes closer to the center of town?

Yes it's our honeymoon, but we'd both prefer to save money for more important things like souvenirs and tours than a nicer hotel room. Sharing an intimate time in a nice hotel room is a nice idea, but given our budget we'd much rather get more in the travel department than the "romance" department.

With that out of the way, we'd definitely be booking at least one day ahead. I'm just wondering if every hotel in town will be filled at that point. From what I understand, the true "high" season is July/August, not the first few weeks of May.

Finally, to clear this up, I'm asking this because our itinerary is not set for the "R.R./Munich" part of the trip. We know we'll be in Wurzburg on a certain day, and we know that we'll be flying back to London on a certain day, but the stops in between are not set. I don't want to book a hotel in a town only to find that we've seen everything in the town by 15:00 and have to waste time that could be better spent traveling to the next stop.

Thank you all for your input. So far it's been helpful (even the incredulous responses ) I will check out tripadvisor.com but I think when I checked there before there were only 1 or 2 hotels listed for most of the towns we want to visit.

<<Sharing an intimate time in a nice hotel room is a nice idea, but given our budget we'd much rather get more in the travel department than the "romance" department.>>
I am afraid that anything more I would have to add would end up in getting your "thread pulled" - and that is not what you want.

Spiv -

Just for grins I googled hotels in Fussen and found Hotel Jakob advertising for 40 Euro per night.

I randomly plugged in a date in May (they were booked) but in April, a room for 6 nights would total 492 Euros. That's more than the 40 Euro they advertised, so PLEASE take this into consideration when looking.

I don't want you to get stuck paying more than you thought it would be. Just because a hotel advertises "Rooms from 40 E" does not mean they will actually have them at that rate. That could be the price for 1 person on a weekend, for instance.

So watch out and make sure you email the hotel and they confirm their rates.

robjame, I felt I got my point across without being too graphic. If the forum moderators feel otherwise, then they can do as they wish.

In the meantime, any useful replies are appreciated.

Last April we traveled in Germany by train and only made advanced reservations for our first stop. But, as someone else suggested we researched hotels on line and had a list of possibilities. We made other reservations one day in advance. It worked great for us allowing us to modify our schedule as we progressed; we stayed an extra night in one place that we really liked and were able to adjust the rest of the schedule.

For the Romantic Road, are you going to have a car? If so, you will hardly be wandering the streets cold and hungry.

There is a cluster of Romantic Road towns in the Dinkelsbühl> Rothenburg> Würzburg area. You may find a hotel that you really like, decide to stay there and make daily sightseeing trips by car or train.

Regards, Gary

Canterbury: thanks for the reply. Thank you for supporting the fact that there are hotels that at least advertise lower rates.

Gary: We're planning on taking the train, since the Eurail pass should cover it. How did you do your advance booking once you were there? Telephone or Internet? Do the small towns have net cafes?

Hi S,

How much of your honeymoon do you want to spend looking for a hotel room?

PS,

50E/night dbl is about as low as you should expect for decent lodging.

Before you buy a railpass, I suggest that you enter your itinerary at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

Well, I'll tell you that in May we have two holidays over here, Ascension and Pentecost. Ascension is the equivalent of Memorial Day in the US, beginning of the summer. My first year over here my husband and I decided to drive to the south of France without reservations and one night we drove around for hours and hours looking for a hotel that didn't have a "complet" (no vacancies) sign on it. We were barely speaking when we pulled into the parking lot of a Formula 1 hotel. We got the last room available that was in the process of being cleaned.

Do you know these places? The whole thing is made out of plastic and the sheet on the bed is one giant long sheet that is about the length of a football field and wraps under the pillow, around the mattress, up over you, and over the blanket. Anyway, it was not romantic queuing up in the hallway to use the plastic toilets and showers. Maybe Germany has these same holidays like France and Switzerland. We did start speaking again but I wouldn't want to spend my honeymoon like that!

Last May, my husband and I traveled in the Black Forest area of Germany. We stayed in a small village, Staufen, about 15 minutes south of Freiburg. We booked our hotel in advance (75 euro for a double, including breakfast) and were glad we did. It was sold out, as was every other hotel in the town.

May is not "off-season" in my opinion. There are several holidays in Europe throughout the month of May, so locals have the opportunity for long-weekend getaways. Also, many towns hold annual fairs and festivals in the springtime.

I have to agree with most of the other posters and recommend that you at least plan your itinerary and possible hotels in advance, if not book them.

Good luck and congratulations on your marriage.

Diane

In most of the towns along the Romantic Road, you should be able to find nice, comfortable double accomodations with private bath and breakfast in the 60-70 euro range.

But to be sure you get such a place, it is best (though not an absolute requirement) to reserve in advance.

Go to the websites of the various towns--most will have links to accomodations from big hotels to rooms in private houses. In Germany we've found pensions and Gasthoefe in this price range to be very comfortable and interesting--in a good way. Many will be connected to a restaurant or, if you're really lucky, a brewery.

Here's the accomodations page for Dinkelsbuehl's website as an example:

http://tinyurl.com/35az22