I've heard a few people on here say it's worth it to reserve hostels. Two questions about that:

1) I'll be in Europe in May/June, as will the World Cup, but I never know where I'll be. Is it possible with some persistence to find a place to sleep without reservations?

2) How far in advance do you need to reserve? For instance, if I knew I was leaving for Rome tonight, could I go online in a hostel or cafe and book a bunk for tomorrow night?

well it depends if youll be in germany at the time or some other country coz the world cup is just in germany if youll be in germany id makes reservations ....
ill be in europe from feb 28- oct 18 and i aint makin any reservations despite the consquences... ill worry bout that when it happens

dunno how long you have to do the bookin advance...

I'm fortunate enough to have a close friend who lives in Germany and promised me a place to stay, so no fighting for hostels there. You think the rest of the continent will be ok this summer?

im not to sure, i think that it is possible to find one but you might be only able to stay an night because of other ppl that have reserved..so then ya move on to the next hostel then the next one and so on and if ya really struglin buy a cheap tent go to he local pub get pissed and shout a local some beers and ask if ya can camp in there yard if they have one...sounds good in theory :blink2: ... maby some1 whos backpacked europe in summer could enlighten

Well, you don't have to plan every bit of your itinerary beforehand, but you could plan some major points of it.

For example, if you are traveling for two months and you want to knock out 8 countries in that time, you can start planning your travel route and where you want to be 2 weeks into it, or 4 weeks into it, etc...Book the first night in each main stop off point to plan out the rest of your route until the next major stop.

If you are going to be in the exact same city at the same time that the World Cup is going on, I'd get on the ball now and book something. That's like going to Vegas during the same weekend of Comdex. Either hotels are booked solid or you will pay a hefty premium for even the crappiest of rooms. Better safe than sorry.

Depends on the popularity of the hostel, city, and timing. Summer is the busy time, of course, and June is when the fun begins.

You can start tracking availability now in each city you plan on traveling to by doing searches on the hostel search engine. See whats available now, a couple of weeks from now, 2 weeks after that, and so on. Eventually you'll start to see what and when is popular.

Good luck :cheers: