Debbie's suggestion is a pretty good one. My boyfriend and I traveled in the UK for three weeks a couple of summers ago, and we never made reservations in hostels, dorms, or any other lodging -- whether that was a good idea remains to be seen, but it did guarantee us an adventure in finding all sorts of lodging short of sleeping on the streets! We resorted to dorms in Durham -- great city for dormstays, since there are so many tiny colleges there.

One main suggestion: make sure you get there before the day ends. This is what happened to us. We were late getting into Durham, and therefore late finding a dorm that had space left. We were lucky to get there in time to get the last room, but the cleaning ladies had obviously (when we got to the room, it really was obvious) not gotten around to cleaning it yet, since no one was scheduled to be staying in it. They woke us up quite early the next morning, believing that the room was vacated as their schedule would have shown. They were confused, we were confused, and the room was not cleaned the whole weekend we were there.

Sure, we could have said something to someone, but we weren't sure who that someone was -- so we sucked it up and told ourselves, it could be much worse!

The earlier you get to the dorms (and hostels -- which were always great and rather cheap) the better your chances are for snagging a room or two.

Good luck, Mandy Huffman Clemson, SC