My fiance and I are heading to Spain July 3-17 for the first time and for our honeymoon. We'll start out in Madrid, and then probably towns in this order: Toledo, Segovia, Leon, Santillana del Mar, Bilbao, San Sebastian, and then Barcelona. My question is the age old one in travelling: do we need to make hotel reservations in advance or can we find our acommodations when we arrive at each destination? I realize that July is the high season, but surely there's got to be some towns where it's not necessary to have reservations. I'd like to have as free of an itinerary as possible (i.e. the fewer reservations to keep the better), but only if that means we won't be stuck out in our rental car b/c all the hotels are booked. Thanks!

You might consider looking for hotels with liberal cancellation policies, allowing you to cancel up to the day of arrival--if these exist! If so, go ahead and make some reservations, then cancel if you make other plans. That always leaves you with back up plans.

You might also want to confirm lodging for your first and last nights, to give you one less thing to worry about with arrival & departure hassles.

JP

Liberal cancelations policies? Making a reservation and not turning up or canceling it in the last minute make hostels loose a lot of money so please don't recommend people to do such a thing.

Everyone! The information posted by j3, and signed as JP is not a post by JP Savage. It's from somebody else. Rest assured I would never suggest what was said.

Whether a Wolf or a Savage, I would always say cancellations of reservations is something that should only be done as a last resort, in an emergency. Anyone kind enough to hold a room for you deserves better than that.

If the practice of last minute cancellations continues, we're going to find that hostels and hotels are going to end up forcing us to accept the guarantee on the rooms for the night we reserve. If that happens, we can only blame it on ourselves, for not treating the owners fairly.

I'd like to add my to Antonio's in support of what he said!

Wolf (JP in another world.)

Whoa, whoa! No, I wouldn't suggest this for a hostel or other housing that help students and is not in the high-profit business. When they were talking honeymoon, I was figuring higher end fancy-schmancy places. Some of these don't give a big one if you cancel the day before arrival, and it doesn't hurt their bottom line, as they can likely rent it to someone else in high season.

In any event, I recommend being above board with anyone when renting a room if I had a plan like this in mind: "What is your cancellation policy?--I want some options while I travel", etc, etc.

And, no, I'm not whoever this other jp is--I've been lurking a while, and registered the other evening.

Looking forward to happier communications--

JP

amchill writes: There are; but not along the route you chose for the time of year you will be travelling. You're just on the edge of the really high season in the first half of July. I would recommend reservations all the way.
You're getting some what I would call unusual responses to your query. First off: If I took my bride to less than a 4-star hotel to spend our honeymoon, I would probably be looking for a new lady before long ...
But I suspect amchill is the Novia (i.e., the one with most sense).
I think you should look into the Paradores 'package deal.' There's one in Toledo and one in Santillana del Mar and last July there was one under construction in Limpias (just south of Laredo and across from the Church that houses el Cristo de Limpias). It's close to Bilbao (or Santander). The Paradores are usually very accomodating (We arrived a day early once - they took care of us). There's also one at Fuente Dé in the Picos de Europa about an hour's drive from Santillana del Mar. You might enjoy the drive thru the Gorge of the rio Deva or the Cable Car ride to the mountain top at Fuente Dé.

j3,

No problem. I agree with you on some of the expensive places. They have waiting lists, and a cancellation doesn't mean beans. Of course they operate on a different basis than the hostels, and usually end up overbooking.

Having traveled quite a bit, I know about the old "must arrive by 6PM" even if you've guaranteed the room, because they will give it to someone else if you don't make it on time, and will bill you for it as well, if you don't show later, and get rejected.

That's happened to me twice, and in both cases I had to get Visa to fight the battle to get my money back. Can you imagine? Forcing a person to guarantee a room, charge them for it in advance, then rent the room to someone else, and when you do show up - late - bill you for it anyway? It happens.

Wolf

Well let me echo all that's been posted here, and also add my little bit of travel lore. This hasn't happened to me in Spain, but in France this is apparently not so uncommon:

>We had reservations for three nights in Paris (our first three) and headed right to the hotel from the airport. When we got there, they said they had given out our triple room, and that they only had a double. I showed them our reservation and also our confirmation number, to which the clerk replied: "I'm sorry, but a reservation does not guarantee you a room." After a few "pleasantries" were exchanged , we were left wondering just what was the purpose of a reservation ...and we made the mistake of re-booking on the tail-end of our trip with the same place ...guess what they told us when we arrived two hours late for check-in? Read the book.

Cali Basco.The pleasures of France........Where else but Paris could a party of 40 schoolchildren go for a holiday and arrive at a hotel who swore blind they only had room for 20 (though they had,of course,banked the money for the full party.