Wandering / accomodation without booking
 

I'm planning some touring whereby I'll have no real idea where I'll end up each night. I'll find a hotel or room if I can, a campsite, or at worst be forced to wild camp, which perhaps would not be ideal since I'll be travelling alone, having said that I won't be in any particularly dangerous countries. Do I worry unnessesarily or is there any advice anyone can offer that will make finding accomodation each night easier and safer (for the lone traveller)
I'd like to be able to ride for as long as I want, and then know that at any point I can find somewhere to stop within 60 minutes.
I previously pre booked my accomodation, but found that each day it was either a mad struggle to make it to the hotel or more often I got to the hotel to early and was frustrated because I wanted to ride on further !

We have only ever pre-booked accommodation in St. Petersburg & Moscow when we wanted an affordable room with secure parking and in the Netherlands when catching up with friends before our ferry the following morning. And we've never really had a problem, even in July & August in Europe... a couple of times there weren't many pitches and in big cities it has taken us an hour to find accommodation that we could afford... but we have never been anywhere near stuck. We always try to find a campsite by tea time at the latest so that we can get set up and chill out for the evening, have a wander around the town etc...

I wouldn't worry about it, but if your going somewhere really famous or at the time of an event or a big city you may want to plan ahead a few days before for these situations to give yourself peace of mind. Have fun! :thumbup1:

I usually pre book in the UK, partly because other options are more difficult than anywhere else in Europe. Also it helps to search for special offers, have often had travelodges for £15 a night including tax.

Never booked for the rest of Europe. but always start looking for a place late afternoon say from 4 pm onwards. Try not to be looking after or close to nightfall. have used wild camping. (this include some odd places like a bus shelter, barn etc. Official campsites, BnB's and hotels. When in a small town or village it often helps to ask a passer by.

If you're camping there are so many on-line listings, books, POI databases etc to help you find somewhere each day. Buy one of the books - Alan Rogers for example, or download a list to your sat nav. Have a look at this site - [url=http://www.go-camping.org/directory-europe.html]Campsites in Europe

We used to do quite extensive tours around Europe but never prebooked anything. We like to stay in town centres and we try to arrive quite early (4-5pm) so we can have a look around and then find somewhere to eat and have a beer or two. We generally go straight to the tourist information and 9 times out of 10 they have a list of rooms available. We also carry a tent so that we can camp when we feel like it (usually to save a few bob).

The downside to travelling solo is that most hotels and B&Bs charge for the room and you can't always get a single room. Prebooking would mean you can get what you want and probably at a cheaper price.