Winging it in the Alps
 

I'm tempted to travel without reservations in the Alps in late August and September, 2014. I'll confine my travels to the German-speaking areas of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

I will have reservations in Garmisch and Innsbruck, but since I'm not sure where else I want to go, I was thinking of winging it. I'd travel mostly by car, except for those two destinations.

I'll be traveling solo, and I usually pay between $100 and $130 per night for a hotel.

I won't be looking for a hiking destination. I like to walk around town, but not to hike.

In your opinion, how likely will it be that I'll be able to get a room at a hotel, pension or B&B for a reasonable price without reservation?

IMO a great deal depends on exactly what location you decide to visit.

When I was in the Bernese Oberland this past summer (in July) the place was very busy with visitors; perhaps in August it would be better but i somehow doubt that.

Absolutely impossible to answer as long as we don't know where you want to go.

It definitely depends on when and where. FWIW, I found that it took some effort to find rooms for a solo traveler in that price range even looking and booking well in advance, and I wasn't traveling during high season.

Hi,

If you don't mind staying in Pension's, Gasthof's and B&B's, you should have no problem finding places to stay well under your price points, especially in Bavaria and Austria.

For "hiking destinations" traveling by car, there are so many. A few that come to mind are the Zillertal (Mayrhofen, Zell am Ziller, etc.), Zell am See, Berchtesgaden area of Germany (Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden, Konigsee, etc.), The Oetztal (Solden. Oetz, etc.), even the Dolomites in Italy, which are just about a 1:30 from Innsbruck. We've been to all these and the alpine scenery is spectacular.

If interested, we have plenty of photo's (3 pages of them) at:

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

Paul

Week days should be OK, weekends might be a problem even in September.

Emelie: what do you mean with your post? Maximal snow depth of last winter, or what?
Actually, there is of course no (new) snow at all at the 10 places you mention. At Titlis (above Engelberg) for example, there remained just 18 cm of snow from last spring

Switz is very expensive and I would think your budget would be aproblem even with advance reservations.

If you want to try this - go ahed. But I would start looking about 6 months out at some of hte towns you would be interested in to see what theyare charging when you will be there. And I definitely would not go without a list of possible B&Bs/pensions in each town.

Thanks for the responses. I'm still uncertain about details of the (future) trip. I may just have to make decisions ahead of time instead of winging it.

Hi peg,

with your price constraints, i think that you'd be safer staying in Austria and Germany. So long as you aren't thinking about staying in very small places, you should find plenty of affordable "Zimmer frei" at that time of the year.