<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by USAFAN:
I agree 100%. However, just imagen, you arrive in Rome (Paris ...), having no hotel reservation, no clue... It can be a nightmare, especially in larger cities. In small villages it's O.K.
Bottom line: I make a hotel reservation in large cities, at least for the first night.
Next, when you want to have dinner in one of the good restaurants, you have to make a reservation well in advance.</font>
I was talking mostly of prearranged guided-tours, restaurant planning and detailed list of "have to do". Not in hotel seeking. Accomodation in Rome could be a problem: never in off-peak season, quality/price ratios a little bit under the average (well, if you all have made your homebase at Westin or Hilton you do not ever care....).
Restauration is not: Rome can count a few top-restaurants (elite or haute-cuisine) but an innumerable variety of very good and affordable restaurants. I just seldom reserve a place in advance and never mind if the place I was searching for has no place available; I'd go at his neighbour
.
I consider the "advance-planning" mentality consisting also of going where people had gone and told.
No more space to surprise and imagination.
I will open a discussion thread upon the meaning of vacation/holiday for all FTs.
Enjoy Rome as usual.