I thought I'd seek some community guidance. I'm currently planning next summer's tour: a trip down the west coast of France, a sharp right turn, and a short way along the north coast of Spain.  I'll be credit card touring, and the days will be fairly long, so I don't want to struggle finding rooms. 

It looks as though there are plenty of options for reasonably priced accommodation booked in advance (around 50-60€), but on the other hand, it would also be nice to have the flexibility to go as far as I fancy each day. I know lots of people on here tend to sort accommodation at the last minute, whilst on tour, and am interested in how easy/ expensive this has been. If there are local options that I might not find on the main booking platforms, and if they're not a premium option, I could be tempted.

So the question, in short: how easy have you found last minute accommodation bookings in this part of the world, and do you have any tips, or thoughts on pros and cons? It may of course be that I end up advance booking regardless, which I hope wouldn't offend anyone when journal time comes along. But at this point, I could be swayed. 😊

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

I have cycled parts of that coast, south/east bound in July 2016 and again in June 2024 from St-Jean-de-Luz to Bilbao and squiggling between Bordeaux and Dinan in May/June 2019.  All three journals are here on CycleBlaze.

On the earlier trips I generally did not prebook since I was, after all, travelling solo, carrying a tent, and planning to use it.  In 2019 I booked accommodation in La Rochelle because I wanted to spend a few days there and I'd heard somewhere that budget accommodation wasn't easily available there.  I prebooked everything for the spring 2024 trip because we weren't carrying camping gear and we hate spending valuable vacation time looking for accommodation.  We're pretty good at following our plans; riding through bad weather is easier if you know there's somewhere warm (cool?) and dry waiting for you.  I put everything in a spreadsheet, though, with cancellation dates.  And if I'm not prebooking, I put links to places that look good in the spreadsheet so I don't have to research on the road, on my phone.

For a trip like you are planning, I'd research accommodation options at the places I'd expect to stay and put the preferred options in my spreadsheet.  Always good to know if there isn't any (it happens).  Then you can decide to make your day shorter or longer or go in a different direction, before arriving somewhere in the rain with nowhere to stay.

I forgot to add:  when I prebook, I also edit my routes to start from or finish at my accommodation. This is especially helpful in bigger towns. If I haven’t done this, I stop on the outskirts and create a route from current location to the accommodation.

Thanks Jacquie, that's helpful advice. Spreadsheet is a good idea. I think I'm erring towards having the security of prebooking with cancellation options, but when I read journals from others who just hit the road and see what happens, I do feel a twinge of envy. 

I'll definitely be programming any final destinations into the satnav as you suggest... the thought of trying to guess a way through the traffic of Bordeaux or Bilbao isn't an attractive one!

I do exactly as Jacquie - right down to the spreadsheet and doing the routing exactly to the lodging. We don't carry a tent/sleeping bags, so having lodging lined up is a must. 

We do choose lodging that is cancelable unless there is no other option.

I've talked to/read of bicycle tourists who make lodging choices as they go. Some book the next week's lodging on their day off. You would need to be willing to stop short/go long, or even change your route in case of a festival, etc. taking up all lodging in town. Other riders tour in less popular areas, and feel reasonably confident of always finding lodging. Traveling in the shoulder season also helps with lodging availability. 

I would love to have the personality that can wing it. I don't. Plus, we frequently travel in popular areas, during tourist season. 

We used booking.com for our 2023 Spain/Portugal trip. Our bookings were made in English, and shown in American dollars, so we understood exactly what we were getting. The only snafu was of my own making. I reserved two towns for the same night.  

So, not exactly the answer you are looking for. I think if you have the physical and mental strength to deal with a long day, or a reroute because of no availability, then give it a try. You don't know until you try!

Back in our camping days, we planned a trip from Portland back home to Colorado. We started out down the Pacific Coast. Weather was not friendly. We were using hiker/biker camping sites along the way. We stopped early almost every days because of the weather. Soon we were seriously behind our intended schedule. That is one thing about having a reservation - it's a firm requirement to get to the planned town!

Thanks Kelly. My thinking is pretty much aligned with yours, as things stand. As a grand old veteran of one big tour (!) I've 'always' taken the approach you've recommended. 

I guess I'm wondering, for those who've travelled through the particular area I'm targeting, whether an alternative strategy was workable too. I don't think France is overly sparse and I will be going outside the busy period - I've seen a few people mention frequently finding rooms above bars etc on their tours. I do like the idea of that, but only if it's fairly hassle free. Having already researched booking.com, I can average about £65 per night for options which permit last minute cancellation. 

I think I do want to avoid booking in the knowledge that I'm likely to cancel last minute, because I'm conscious that business isn't easy for many at the moment.

Hi Mark - we are in the “wing it” camp.    We book 1 or 2 nights at our starting destination and 1 or 2 nights at the end of our trip.     It gives us great flexibility if we decide to change our tentative route which we invariably do once we are underway.    I feel I would be spending too much time pre booking our accommodation which would likely not pan out due t due to weather, sickness or the decision to take an alternate route.  On the road we usually  book the night before or even the day of.    In all our tours I can think of only a couple times where thought we might have to look for a comfy bridge to sleep under.   It adds to the adventure.   Not for everyone but works for us. 

Hi Mark,

We are very much like the Classens, ‘winging it’ the majority of the time. In our experience, the only time this becomes a bit of a problem is during school / national holiday periods in popular tourist spots, particularly in France for some reason.

We’ve had a few ‘interesting’ nights in these situations but have never come up empty handed. On our last tour in the spring of 2023 we prebooked a few places before we started the trip that we thought could be a problem (Cadaques and St Ciirq Lapopie for example) with cancelation dates noted in our calendars, but the rest of the time we managed with ‘day of’ to maybe 3-4 days booking ahead . That worked out really well for us giving us schedule flexibility and very little domino effect if we did change course / plans. We also use (mainly) booking.com.

Have a great tour!

Thanks Lyle, good to hear about your experiences. Booking.com looks like the favourite plan for just about everybody, apparently! Currently doing some research on options and veryuch looking forward to longer days and the next tour... 😊