1. I’m not sure. You only take 5 trains? Or do you plan 5 full travel days (with multiple trains)? Then it might be better to just take ordinary tickets, bought in advance rather than an Interrail/Eurail pass. How will your trip look like: which destinations and which dates you want to travel?
2. Depends on the day. Fridays and weekends are a bit busier on long distance trains. Weekdays are generally very okay. Seat reservations needed: mostly not. But if you’re travelling close around Christmas and New Year, definetly get seat reservations.
3. No. You’re taking trains, not planes.
4. Depends: on trains with mandatory reservations, quite easy to do so when something goes wrong (strike, defect,...) on trains with optional reservations (Germany, Austria) not really, but seat reservations are very cheap (3 EUR per train, per seat. Free in 1st class, so never really worth the hassle).

Other important information: you’re a bit early to book and plan. There is a big timetable change around December 10, every year. You won’t be able to plan anything later than that date. From medio October the new schedules will gradually become available (and bookable).

If you want to get an indication on which services to expect, just check for a similar day somewhere next week. The schedule only changes with a couple of minutes for most of the trains.

Passes are set by days not trips, any amount of use in a day counts for one day o a pass so you should calculate it by the number of days you plan on travelling on.

Reservations are not required in Austra and Germany. You can book long distance IC EC and RJ trains, the best place for seat reservations is at www.oebb.at/

Reservations cannot be changed so only book when you are sure you will travel, there is no need to book far in advance trains do not generally book out that often and certainly not weeks out.

You should also see if buying ordinary tickets from the above site is chaaper than a eurail pass, it will depend on what journeys you are taking.

You can bring as much luggage as you want but you will have to carry it yourself including on and off trains without level boarding.

Thank you much for your reply.

We are leaving Vienna on Dec 17 to Linz, then after 2 days to Salzburg, next Innsbruck, and Munich, finally Berlin. We will stay 2 days at each city. We like to reserve just to make sure we have a seat and make it to our next destination.  I read that buying a 5 trip pass is the most cost-effective way of traveling. All trips will be in December.

Thanks again for your help.

Relatively short train rides.

WHen you are early to book/plan: Wien-Linz, can be booked for 9,9 EUR. Linz Salzburg idem, Salzburg Innsbruck, the same. Buying your tickets in advance will be (much) cheaper.

Innsbruck Munich for 12 EUR, Munich Berlin for 37,9 EUR.

So you’ll pay like 80 EUR per person for all your travels if you book in advance vs. +/- 300 EUR  per person for a global pass.

Global pass is only interesting if you do more than 3 countries and take relatively long train rides often (or are quite late with booking, than its sometimes cheaper than buying ordinary tickets).

Buy your tickets for Austria on https://www.oebb.at/en/ and Münich-Berlin on www.bahn.com (but not available yet, as the schedules are not known yet)

Brendan, thank you so much for helping us understand what is the best way to travel.