Wow, things must have changed alot in the last 20 years. My husband and I went to Germany, Austria & Switzerland for our Honeymoon in July for 2 weeks. Had absolutely no real plans let alone reservations for our second week. Had no problems finding a hotel and stayed in some very quaint villages and hotels. We never stayed in a large city though. Intimacy was not an issue as we were there to experience the countries. Plenty of time for the other stuff later.I am glad to read this as my son and I will be there for a week mid-May after a school tour and I was just going to "wing" it. Guess I better figure out an itinerary and make some reservations.

Things have definitely changed in the last 20 years, as European travel in general goes. Many more travelers.

May is now considered a very popular time to go to Europe.

It stands repeating that hotels that say they have rooms at certain rates, often don't. At least plug in your dates to see what rates are on those approximate dates.

A room outside of town may not be easily accessible from the train station. It may not even be accessible from the train station.

Your fiancée wants to do book ahead. It's her honeymoon, too and it's what she wants. My husband just said you could have a really rotten honeymoon. He also just said that it is the beginning of your marriage, and you may spend the rest of it apologizing.

If you want really inexpensive decent rooms, I suggest you start to book now.

My husband all just suggested that you not be stubborn. He is a really good husband and knows what he's talking about.

OK - you are obviously concerned about budget, and don't want tp pre-book.

But then you talk about a Eurail pass. Most of the time a Eurail Pass is NOT a bargain. Are you sure that is what you want to do? The rail pass will likely waste much more money than you would spend on nicer accomodations.

You do sound pretty sure of your ideas and I really wouldn't want you to plan my honeymoon. Be a sport - give your fiancee what she wants. Just think - if you follow your current plan and things go badly - you can expect to hear "I told you so" for the next 25 years.

Spivonius,
Save the Eurail money by looking into a German Pass or even BayernKarten (2-5 people traveling together on local trains from 9am on in bavaria for around 30 Euro), then save years of potential grief by giving up the desire to "not lock yourself in" to hotel rooms.

Believe me, it's far better to have the peace of mind of a reservation in hand than the fret of not finding a place when cold, hungry, tired and frazzled. Sure, you might find out that you've "seen it all" by 15:00 in a small town, but that's when you can take in the little pleasures like a drink on the terrace, a quiet walk in the Altstadt or snuggling in your clean, comfortable hotel room.

What's to lose? You minimize your risk and, earn the appreciation of your new bride. Quite frankly, you'll enjoy wherever you wind up if you to into it with a positive attitude.

Regarding your original three questions:

"1. Are rooms available with no reservation?" -- Well, yes and no. You are correct, the high season is July/August not the first few weeks of May. That being said, there are plenty of folks visiting in May. Hence the first rooms to go are usually the ones that are the best value and most centrally-located. I would expect to pay higher rates for the convenience of not having to book ahead (I have done this when I have gone away for the weekend on a whim and paid rates closer to 90 or 100 euro). And, I would feel more comfortable if you were driving--finding a hotel last minute with a cell phone, car, and GPS is not bad at all. It might be much more challenging on foot or by taxi.

2. Are the rates the same for walk-ins and reservations? -- In my experience, if there has been any difference, it has been nominal.

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. -- I agree with the post by RufusTFirefly. You can certainly stay in comfort for 60 to 70 euros per night along the Romantische Strasse--but these rates are harder to come by if you have not booked ahead.

So, I guess you need to balance the benefits of freedom of not having reservations with the risks of higher cost and time spent as you are traveling to secure lodging. Certainly, I would want to have reservations when the risks seem high (for example, weekends, holidays, festivals) and do a cost-benefit analysis on the rest.

Best of luck to you and your bride and happy travels!

The Bayern-Ticket is a bargain as you appear to be staying in Bayern (Bavaria). I think that it went up to 27 euros this year. Train lines do not serve all towns along the Romantic Road, Dinkelsbühl is an example. You can use a bus transfer there also on a Bayern-Ticket:

http://www.bahn.de/-S:PtVORN:eNNIONN..._tickets.shtml

We made our daily reservations by both internet and by phone. Sometimes the hotel had a computer terminal. The main tourist office in Rothenburg has computer terminal. We did a lot of our research on the Hotel Reservation Service and used them for reservations.

http://www4.hrs.de/

Regards, Gary

Much as I personally like to plan ahead, they can always go to the Tourist Information office for a town, and let the TI look for rooms for them. This might not work on a holiday weekend. Or they'll be spending on taxis what they save on rooms.

I find it refreshing to see someone on this site who does not micromanage every moment of their trip.

Well done Spivonious.

It seems you are not too fussy about the style of hotel and are willing to keep the Budget low - so I don't think you'll have any problem finding somewhere. You will not be sleeping on the street.

Having said that - it is easy to find a hotel if you have a car - if one is not available - you just drive to the next. However - it seems that you will be getting the train - so its not the best idea to be trudging around looking for accomodation.

In short - if you want to wing it - hire a car - if you want to take the train - i'd take the precaution of booking in advance.

If you look at hrs.de - you will find many hotels that you can book without even giving a CC number - so you can easily cancel them - that might be a plan.


Any for all you micro managing grumpy grannies with your special walking shoes and rain ponchos - I landed in Barbados - for the second half of my honeymoon - for 10 days - with no hotel, no car, no plan - and it worked out great - and I'm a woman.

Good advice above. You mention cheap rates 10 min. outside of town. If traveling by train, how do you plan on getting there? Life is much easier when traveling by train if you sleep near the train station or somewhere with easy bus or taxi access. Generally speaking, clean, comfortable budget hotels near the center of town or the train station tend to fill up fast for obvious reasons.

Lawchick writes:
"Any for all you micro managing grumpy grannies with your special walking shoes and rain ponchos - I landed in Barbados - for the second half of my honeymoon - for 10 days - with no hotel, no car, no plan - and it worked out great - and I'm a woman."

My response: "Isn't that special?" You've missed the point. Here we have a newly wed couple, one of whom strongly feels the need to have reservations, the other of whom does not for rather unclear reasons. Those of us that have suggested more flexibility on his part have not IMO been grumping grannies, your snippy accusations notwithstanding. So, get off your high horse.

Thanks for the support Lawchick :)

The Eurail passes are already purchased because they already have paid for themselves in the trains we're taking in the beginning of the trip (most notably the train from Paris to Wurzburg). We're both under 26 so we got the Youth Saver passes; $265 a person. We looked at renting a car for the R.R. but we decided the freedom of driving wasn't worth the added cost. Perhaps Germany is different, but in Scotland every little dinky town had at the very least a bus station, if not a commuter train stop.

As far as the 10 minutes outside of town, both of us are in good shape and expect to be walking a lot. We're also packing light and going to try to get everything we need into two small suitcases.

I didn't think I'd been unclear on my reasons for not wanting to book ahead, but let's just say I like adventure and not having everything mapped out.

Thank you all for the responses that didn't contain judgements; they were very helpful.

Some more details: we'll be on the R.R. in the middle of the first full week of May. In my reading of travel books there doesn't seem to be any special festivals going on then.

Yes Lawchick, you have indeed missed the point. One half of this couple is not interested in winging it with respect to accomodations and this is her trip too - and a very significant trip at that. This has nothing to do with anybody being a micro-managing grummpy grannie and everything to do with different travelling styles.

Spivonious - I understand not wanting a traditional honeymoon with lots of time spent in the hotel. My husband and I went to New Orleans for our honeymoon and spent our time wandering around, eating, drinking, taking in the sights. We didn't spend a heck of a lot of time in our hotel room either. We are planning our 5th anniversary trip - back to New Orleans in a few months :) I think wandering around Germany for your honeymoon is a terrific choice.

I do seem to remember though that your fiance originally wanted a more traditional honeymoon at a resort or something - so going to Germany was already a compromise in your direction. Since you've got the destination of your choice, go with her travelling style of choice, which is making reservations ahead of time. If this will make her more comfortable and happy, then do it.

Others have made good points about travelling by train and needing accomodations close to the center of the towns you will be staying in. You could go directly to the tourist office and have them look for rooms for you, but if they can only find rooms outside of town, then you are faced with getting back and forth between town and your hotel. You may use up the money you saved on lodging in additional transportation costs.

J,

You must be confusing me with another poster. Europe incl. Germany has always been part of the honeymoon plans. The rest of the trip is planned out and booked, I just want the R.R. part to be more open-ended.

Gary, many thanks for the hrs.de site. It has actual rates and more hotels than the sites I was looking at before.

I thought of something else to add as well: my fiancee has told me on many occassions that the hotel is a place to sleep. In other words, you don't go on the trip to stay in the hotel.

I'm still incredulous that intimate together time--and guaranteeing the places for it--would not be the top priority when planning a honeymoon!!

Hotels are a lot more than a place to sleep...but the concept behind a honeymoon must have really changed since my day.

For us the honeymoon is an excuse to take a fantastic vacation. Why waste money going to Europe when you can be intimate at home?

Yeah - I did mix you up. Sorry about that.

On the issue of honeymoons in general - I think that for some people, it is still about a lot of intimate time with a new spouse, but not for everybody. Times have changed.

I think that for couples who have not lived together, esspecially if one or both has lived with parents until the wedding, then yes - I can see how intimate time would be high on the priority list since as a married couple, they now have freedom to be together that they didn't have before.

For couples who have lived together or at least lived on their own so that they have been able to have one another stay overnight, the focus is likely less about sequestering ones' selves to a hotel room. It is likely to be more about seeing cool places and sharing experiences.

Some people like traditional honeymoons and some don't.

I kinda sounds like your mind is made up. But if there is still any doubt, I'll add my two cents.

You said you "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."

If you plan to do this by public transportation (and it sounds like you are), your option of going to the next town might not even be available after 15:00. Some towns don't have a train stop, and the buses run infrequently. If you look at the bus schedules ahead of time, that can give you a good idea of where you will be on a given day - not just because you want to be there, but public availability (or lack thereof) of transportation makes it so.

Also, hotels that are booked ahead usually keep your bags for you even if you can't check in until later. Are you taking your bags with you from the train station as you wander through town? Or store them at the train station, double back to get them later, then take them with you as you go hotel hunting? Or find a hotel hunting as soon as you arrive (which wouldn't allow you to leave town after 15:00 like you anticipate, so it's like booking ahead anyway).

Edited to add: when I mentioned the buses, I was talking about the Rom. Road.

It's apparent that Spivonious is really just looking for opinions that support what he wants to do--evidently to use as ammunition against his wife-to-be's preference. So all of us grumpy, stick-in-the mud's should back off.

Okay, here's what to do right now. Go to the website for the Romatic Road
www.romantischestrasse.de
Have you really talked with her about the type of place you'll be getting for 30 to 50 euros? Are you going to want to share a bathroom with other people on your honeymoon???
I'm frugal and I wouldn't even do that. The only time I would share a bthroom, down a hall, is if it's the last room in town.

Get a nice room. If you play your cards right, you'll be spending many happy hours there.