Hi everyone, I'm travelling to the US in June this year. One week on a dude ranch - should be fun. Q: I want to leave the rest of holiday flexible, but not sure about hotel availability at this time of year. Can I take my chances and arrive in a city and hope to get a reasonable room, or should I book ahead. Planning to travel to Charleston (SC), Savannah, maybe Orlando?

Most of the time I've been able to get a hotel room without reservations, as long as there isn't a big event going on in the city. If you don't mind staying on the outskirts of Savannah and Charleston you should be okay. Orlando always has rooms available.

One option is to book some rooms with a courtesy hold or 6 pm day of arrival cancellation policies. Chains to try that allow 6 pm holds include La Quinta and some Holiday Inns. You might want to try Best Westerns as well. You could book online for tenative dates and then cancel as necessary.

If you want to stay in the historic districts of Charleston or Savannah, book ahead of time for sure.

Anytime after June 15th will be peak family vacation time in the US all over the country.

You travel without reservations and you risk sleeping in your car.

Charleston has Spoleto in mid June and the entire city sells out. Dont plan on visiting Charleston until after mid June.

I have traveled every month of the year in the SE for 20 years and have never had any difficulty finding a hotel room - EXCEPT Columbus, GA of all places.

I can't imagine you having difficulty finding a hotel room in Savannah or Orlando in June unless you want to be in a particular location of each city.

Many US hotels have computers in their lobbies for guests to use (Hampton Inns almost always have one), so you can research and book ahead as you go.

I don't agree with the poster who said the US is on the move after June 15th--I live in Florida. Our high season is Thanksgiving-April 1st or so. No one wants to come here in July and August (with good reason! It's hot and rainy), but I have heard that the summer is the high season for the panhandle area of Florida. Personally I have never had a problem finding a place to stay, whether traveling in the US or Europe...but then again, I don't care if I end up at a Motel 6 because usually I am just sleeping there anyway, so it really depends on how much plush you need in your room. Have a great trip!

If you are driving, as you enter a state, stop at the welcome center. They have 'touristy' brochures including lodging and can make good recommendations about many aspects of the state including lodging. I have even had them call and make reservations for me.

i used to make reservations religeously then one day just stopped. it worked for me in alsaka, washington state, utah,cape cod, colorado... any other number of places, this way i got to see where i was staying, you take a small risk of having to stay a little outside of the town you want to be in, but if you have transportation, no biggie. as mentioned above go to the chains that have the 6pm cancellation policy, you'll have no pressure to get to the next place on your list, it's vacation after all!

"I live in Florida. Our high season is Thanksgiving-April 1st or so. No one wants to come here in July and August"
Feb/March is high season in Fl, no doubt, but June/July are a close second. In my neck of the woods, just north of you, the trend this year seems to be planning ahead for summer. I've had many requests for June and July beginning about a month ago. I only have one week left available in our rental for those two months.
I would find it difficult to be comfortable not to have a reservation at our summer destination. I'd hate to spend all my time driving around searching for a desirable place to stay that had availability.

Hibsiscus, I hope AussieGal listened to your advice and my advice.

Orlando tourism is set to skyrocket this summer. I still get all the industry publications and hotels are bracing for record occupancy.

Depends on your risk tolerance. Mine is fairly low, so I like to have reservations. Savannah Historic District could be filled, but there are a number of incredibly cheap hotels a few miles outside of this area that seem never to fill up and cost about a third of what rooms do in Historic District. Most are across from strip malls, not as nice, etc - but are a place to sleep if needed.

The other advantage to making reservations is it saves time - you can be seeing things rather than driving to or calling up hotels looking for a room.

If you are looking at chain hotels, you can take the middle ground. When you leave one city, the hotel in which you are staying will gladly book you a room in their hotel chain in your next city - a compromise between planning every aspect of your trip months in advance.

As long as you are traveling by rental car, and are not particular about exactly what part of town you end up staying in, I can't imagine a problem.

If you are flying in, I would probably make a reservation ahead, only because these are large cities and would be a hassle going from an airport by taxi, to downtown, and walking around with your suitcase looking for a place to stay. Or that's what I'm picturing.

For years I had summers off and traveled the US without hotel or campground reservations. The only time I had difficulty was twice at the Grand Canyon. The first time snow fell during my spring break, tourists poured out of the park and we ended up with a room on the rim! The second time we covered more ground than expected and we DID choose to sleep in the SUV but we found a room for the next night by hanging out in the lobby of the hotel of our choice at 4 pm and grabbing one of the first cancellations for the day.

I've already written down in my calendar to test our theories and call on June 20th to see how long it takes to find a room in the three cities AussieGal mentions.

If she follows the good advice on this board and makes reservations with 6pm hold on the days she's concerned about, she will be more than fine.

We traveled, without reservations, through the Midwest on one trip a few years ago and it was a nightmare. Every town (big and small) had some kind of celebration going on and we had to travel long distances to find a hotel/motel and many we finally did find were not great. I said never again - and we now have hotels lined up in advancet place that day. Works lots better for us.

One of my best trips ever was to Ireland, England and Scotland with reservations in to Shannon and out of Gatwick...and no other reservations for the trip.

Stopped at the Tourist Bureau in the Shannon airport and picked up (more) maps and B&B guidebook and Farm & Breakfast guidebook. They made reservations for us that night at a F&B on the burns as well as a castle banquet.

Spent the rest of the trip following our noses. Our "itinerary" changed on a daily basis due to some wonderful experiences and serendipity. We would get a recommendation during breakfast at the B&B for that night and the innkeeper would call ahead and make the reservation for us. We stayed at some of the best B&B's in Ireland that way.

Admittedly, we were disappointed with the hotel we reserved for London right before we left Ireland. We didn't realize how expensive hotels rooms were and the hotel in our budget was not a pleasant place. Decided to change our plans and not spend several days in London taking day trips and headed out to the airport to pick up a rental car.

Spent the rest of the time in England and Scotland in non-descript chain hotels right on the motorways - used their directory to choose one for that night each day.

It was a delightful trip and we were so glad we were able to travel spontaneously.

Keep in mind that "no advance reservations" does not mean no planning. Hours and hours of research and lists of things to see and do. But flexiblitiy available to go with the flow = fabulous trip!

Thanks to everyone for the great tips, I'll put them to good use and play it a little safe and make a few bookings and for the rest - just "wing it". Appreciate all the great advice.

AussieGal, I live between Charleston and Savannah and travel to both frequently. I'm telling you, MAKE RESERVATIONS!

With the weak dollar against the Euro, the southeast US is gearing up for a record breaking summer.

Immediately following and the couple of years following September 11th, hotels could be had at the drop of a hat. Not so any longer.

Whatever someone tells you they did a couple of years ago has nothing to do with what is happening this summer.

I'm like you, I don't like to book a hotel in advance but I would try to book a hotel with a 24 hour cancelation policy. I am a Florida native (Sarasota area) and I tried to book a hotel ANYWHERE in Florida a couple of weekends ago for a weekend break. It was terrible! I love to travel last minute and the closest place I could find a room was St. Augustine, which is 4 hours away from me. Finding that room took me 2 days. The hurricanes have left a lot of hotels with a limited number of rooms and the pricing is more expensive than it normally would be. June isn't part of our tourist season, but I wouldn't chance it.