Rooms without Reservations??
 

We will be driving all the way through Switzerland toward the Loire Valley on the 25th of May. We were thinking of stopping for the night in the vicinity of Beaune, France, but if we don't spend much time in Switzerland we might be able to drive farther. Will it be hard to find a room without a reservation in one of the towns along the way? There don't seem to be many towns of any size. By what time do you think we should stop for the evening?

We've wandered over much of Europe, usually in early June, and we almost never make reservations. Once in a while we have to try more than one hotel to find an available room, but not often enough to make us change the way we do things.
SO....I'd just go for it. Mid May is not heavy tourist time.
EK

You'll find a spectrum of opinions on "winging it" here...

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34738551

...including my take on the matter.

Best wishes,

Rex

You've described one of the perfect reasons for "winging it" (for just a night anyway). Don't let anyone intimidate you that you must have every stop planned. You'll be fine.

As long as you have your own transport and are flexible - in terms of location, amenities and price it's unlikely you will not be able to find somewhere to stay. But you really should start looking no later than 3 or 4 in the aftrnoon.

Just be sure that you don;t run into some local festival that books up an entire town.

Another vote for "winging it", especially as you are not travelling during the high season. There is nothing better than seeing a lovely little place and say lets stop here. I virtually always wing it and have rarely had trouble finding accommodation, and have stumbled across some absolute gems I didn't know existed.