Could you hurry up and leave

I almost got stuck in Dusseldorf.

The problem was that in theory I could go anywhere and I had a few days
to myself. However, any whimsical fantasies I had about spending a few
days in the south of France, or getting lost in the Alps, were rapidly
being shattered by the reality that I hadn't made any bookings, it was
already 5pm and the start of the Easter long weekend.

So I was under the gun. The last train to either Brussels or Amsterdam
was leaving in less than an hour and I couldn't commit to anything.

Booking travel at the last minute is, frankly, a pain the arse. All those
web sites for last minute travel are designed to (hopefully) optimise the
cheapest flight to the cheapest hotel. Unfortunately, they are usually
only bound to one or the other or worse, to some fly by night package
operator who wants to send you to some forsaken town, that looks nothing
like the photos in the brochure, where their brother owns the local
taverna.

So what do you do if can only work one of these at a time or have a
particular destination in mind. Do you book your hotel first, then find
transport, or do you do it the other way around ?

You obviously don't want to get to your city to find that it there is no
room at the inn. Well, I don't anyway. But you also don't want to lose
the flight booking it took you thirty minutes to track down and risk
paying last minute rates just to get into dodge.

Location is also important. Just because you can get a hotel room, there
is no guarantee it is actually some where useful.

Be wary of anything that is 'close to the airport'. It may be convenient
for your flight but there will be nothing for miles, and the only 'good'
restaurants are in the local mall with the rest of the homeless. (I have
a first account of someone who was pointed to the local soup kitchen). If
you are lucky the airport will be close to the city like Alexandria and
Washington-Reagan or London city airport. But you still have to find the
room.

If you go down the path of getting transport you have to process the
matrix of airline flight offering, multiple airports per city, and then
factor in peripherals like 'do you need a rental car?', 'can you get a
train from the airport?' or will you have to resort to the local mule and
hitchhiking?

Then you have the commitment factor. If you are lucky to find a flight to
the right location, there is the fundamental problem that airlines are
bastards and can count in five dimensions. Cancellation fees, change
fees, and the fact that the price changes hourly make 'shopping around'
something from mythology. (hint: travel agents have magical powers of
cancellation that us mere mortals can only dream of)

So what should you do ?

Well here's a tip:

Hotels let you cancel at the last minute. So go crazy, book rooms
everywhere. Hell, order some room service, since you'll be getting in
late, and while you're at it, get them to put a bottle of champagne on ice
and turn down the bed. To them this is all just on paper. If you show
they make money, if you don't they can probably re-sell the room.

Then, try and wrangle some transport.

I went to Brussels. They had hotels.