VP.

So I have a trip coming up at the end of August where I'm going to be visiting several different cities over several days; Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam.

Right now, the only booking I've made is for the first two nights when I'm in Stockholm. My theory was that I would avoid booking for the rest of the days so that I would be free to depart each city whenever I felt like it (I have a Eurail pass, so the travel days are completely flexible). I have an idea how long I'd like to spend in each place, but I don't want to be forced to leave if I'm having a good time just to make it to my next hostel booking.

However, now I'm starting to get worried I won't be able to get a place to stay. Especially worrying is Amsterdam, which is obviously a very popular place and I am planning to spend about 7 days there. I really don't want to come into Amsterdam Sunday night and have no place to stay, that would suck.

I guess another option would be just to book the END of the week in Amsterdam, like the last 4 days. Then I could be flexible on when I needed to arrive in Amsterdam, and then just call a day ahead and try to squeeze in someplace for a couple nights. I read on some places, like Bob's youth hostel, that they save most of their beds for walkins...any idea how early i need to arrive to set that up?

So, any advice? Should I sacrifice flexibility on travel dates in exchange for the security of knowing I have a place to sleep arranged?

Here is my tentative schedule for reference:

Nights of Tue. Aug. 22 & Wed. Aug. 23 in Stockholm
Nights of Thur. Aug. 24 - Sat. Aug. 26 in Copenhagen
Nights of Sun. Aug. 27 - Sat. Sep. 2 in Amsterdam