Euro Pass

The standard advice here is to price out these trips, using the national web sites not Rail Europe, and decide for yourself.

There aren't any shortcuts, but lots of people say that a rail pass is almost never a good deal in Italy.

I think it depends a lot on what is important to you.

Ok thanks.I looked at the time that the trains will take between cities using this website (example: Frankfurt hbf to Stuttgart hbf)

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml
When I try to purchase a ticket, I see the following options
a) Ticket with Seat reservations
b) Ticket with no Seat reservations
c) Seat reservation without ticket

I just want to go in second class. I understand what a) means. With respect to b), Does it mean I have a guaranteed ticket to travel but since i am not reserving a seat, I would end up sitting anywhere ? Can I go to the station few mins before the train coming to that location and reserve a seat if I want to
c) What does option c) means ?

Thanks

You haven't told us: are you alone or traveling with someone, are you under 26? That might make a difference. Also note that 15 day Select passes are only sold for 5 countries, and only the Youth (under 26 years) is for 2nd class.

Are you landing one day and going directly to Stuttgart, or are you spending at least one day in Frankfurt before going on?

A ticket w/o reservation means that you can get on the train but you are not guaranteed a seat. A reservation w/o ticket is a seat reservation for someone with a railpass. The only reservable train I was ever on that was SRO had plenty of unreserved seats. I could have easily had a reserved seat just before train time.

Taking the single adult pass price, 3 countries for up to 10 days,
the first 5 days will cost you €71/day,
days 6-10, €36-37 per day,

If you get a 15 day, 5 country pass, it's €52/day

With purchase ahead 2nd class tickets,
Frankfurt-Stuttgart, as low as €19
Stuttgart-Munich, as low as €19
Munich-Vienna, as low as €29
Vienna-Salzburg, as low as €29 (get a ticket to Munich via Salzburg and get off early

Lee,

I am flying from US to Frankfurt. Will be landing in the morning. I will be spending the entire day in Frankfurt ( might be using the subway trains to go around).
Train Travel Day #1 : Frankfurt to Stuttgart.
Spend the entire day and Night in Stuttgart.
Train Travel Day #2 : Stuttgart to Munich.
Spend the entire day and Night in Munich.
Train Travel Day #3 : Munich to Vienna.

I am traveling with one more adult and we both are over 26.

I found the savings fare for these 3 days (Just used the website : http://www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml

One-Way Ticket, 2 adults, 2nd class, Frankfurt(Main) - Stuttgart - 49 Euros

One-Way Ticket, 2 adults, 2nd class, Stuttgart - München - 29 Euros

One-Way Ticket, 2 travelers , 2nd class, München - Wien Westbahnhof - 118 Euros

Is this a good deal than buying a Pass ?

The cost per day for the first 5 days with a select saver railpass, assuming you use all five days, is $83.60/day, per person.

Additional days up to 10, the incremental cost is:
Day 6, $46.00/day
Days 7-8, $43.00/day
Days 9-10, $40.50/day
Days 11-15, $58.50/day (last 3 intervals assume you use all days of the interval).

At today's exchange rate, you three days of travel, PER PERSON are:
Frankfurt-Stuttgart, $34.30
Stuttgart-Munich, $20.30
Munich-Vienna, $86.20

It certainly looks like the first two days, Frankfurt-Stuttgart-Munich, are not worth buying two extra days of the pass. Of course, if it's the difference between a 10 day and a 15 day pass, and days 11-13 are really expensive, it might not be worth leaving off Frankfurt to Munich. But I suspect you will have other "light" days in there too.

The only way you can be sure is to consider all days. You can get Austrian prices from www.oebb.at and Italian prices at www.trenitalia.it. What other countries are you going to? Remember that travel by Italian Eurostar with a railpass carries a BIG supplement; your railpass only covers part of the cost.

When you get a cost for each leg, order them from highest to lowest and compare the cost for the day to the incremental cost of an extra day of the railpass. I'm sure you will find the last, least expensive days to be far less than the incremental cost of the railpass. Keep whittling away days until you find the number of days, if any, for which the railpass pays.

Another general question

Can I use any of the Euro rail passes in Subway trains or they are strictly only between Cities ?

S-Bahns in Germany are run by the parent company, German Rail, and Eurail passes can be used on them. I think that, at one time, a few S-Bahn in Berlin were not covered, but they are now. See here. All other S-Bahn in Germany are covered. Other transportation, run by the cities, U-Bahn, trams, buses, are not covered by the Eurail pass.

There are a few other tricks to keep the price of P2P tickets down. For instance, compare the best price of Salzburg to Venice to Munich to Venice. It might be worth your while to come back all the way to Munich and go from there to Venice rather than going Vienna to Salzburg to Venice. Depending on the amount of time you want to spend in Salzburg, you could either schedule an overnight stop in Salzburg on the Europa-Spezial Österreich fare (at no extra cost), or use a €28 (total, 2 P) Bayern-Ticket from Salzburg to Munich.