Summer vacation consisted of visiting Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic.
Of course I made dinner reservations every night, because I’m a planner. I also find it easier when traveling with a group of 4 or more people that having a dinner reservation alleviates a lot of tension. I usually make a dinner reservation a little later than I would normally eat at home. I find that after a day of sightseeing, one can be wiped out and a little hotel reprieve in the late afternoon is refreshing and mandatory. Also, since it is vacation, a before dinner cocktail at the hotel bar is a good way to start the evening, let alone, to meet all of your group before dinner. That way, if some in your party like to take a little longer to get ready for dinner, no one is sitting around twiddling their thumbs; we can be happy sipping away.
So dinner reservations are not set in stone when we travel. If we are running late or decide we would like to do something else, no problem, I just call and cancel or move the time back. A reservation is my back up. I can’t tell you how many times I have traveled with a group and we didn’t have any dinner reservations, we ended up getting frustrated on where to go, how to get there, let alone can the restaurant accommodate our large party? I know when I get hungry, I get pretty testy. Blood sugar drops and my patience gets less. Not a good mixture.
One tip that seems to work is on the day we travel to our destination, I usually pick a restaurant at the hotel or very near the hotel. That way if our flight is delayed or we are totally exhausted from traveling we can have a quick bite and head to bed. When I do make dinner reservations, I put in a lot of research a month or two before our trip. I first start mapping out what we will be doing during the day. At the end of the day, are we going to be close to our hotel or not? What kind of activities will we be doing during the 
day? Will we be passive or active sightseeing? That way I can gauge how we will be feeling around dinner.
If we are going to have an active day I usually make a reservation at a restaurant that is pretty casual in atmosphere, food and price. The last thing after a long day of sightseeing I want to do is to get dressed up. A quick shower, change of clothes will be in order. Having a relaxed casual restaurant to eat and reflect the day’s activities is the way to go. On the other hand, if the day is pretty tame, it’s nice to get dressed up and really enjoy a long beautiful dinner.
A month or two before our trip, I calendar the activities that we will be doing with the times and locations where we will be. From there, I surmise what kind of dining experience we will want. My next step is to hop on the computer and google “best restaurants” in the city that we will be in. I usually look at several different sites and start computing a list of top restaurants. From there, I go to Yelp and enter the city and go through their list of top-rated restaurants. I compare my lists and see if a restaurant is listed more than once, if it is, then I will read customer reviews on Yelp and Frommers/Fodors and Lonely Planet. If the reviews are up to snuff, then I get on the restaurant’s website and check out their menu and gallery. If I like the menu and prices, I then go back to Yelp and click on photo’s so I can see the dishes. Like I have said before in my previous blogs, if you are spending time and money at a restaurant, why not do some research and make an informed decision on going to a great restaurant?
Once I have decided on what restaurant – on which days, I then will proceed in making reservations via their website. Sometimes they won’t take reservations through their website, if they don’t I will call them direct. If the restaurant is in a country where the language is not English, I will call the concierge of the hotel that I am staying and have them make my reservation. I did just this, when making my dinner plans for Munich, Salzburg and Austria.
What is also nice about making reservations ahead of time is that your chances of eating at a great restaurant are so much higher. You are guaranteed a table and you know how to dress for dinner. This is helpful when packing! Once all my dinner reservations are made, I e-mail them to all my traveling companions so there are no surprises and they too can pack accordingly.
It does take work, research and planning, but I have found that the trip goes so much more smoothly when traveling with a group. And the quality of the food and experience is so worth it!
Site’s To Do Restaurant Research On!
Yelp: http://www.yelp.com
Frommers: http://www.frommers.com/
Fodors: http://www.fodors.com/
Lonelyplanet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
