Probably not.

1. What does the travel planner recommend about a railpass? That’s based on “railsaver” and it’s the best general recommendation you’re going to get.
2. Your trips within Austria will be the most expensive. Try to pre-book special fares on the Austrian national rail company website http://www.oebb.at/e… I would also look for specials on the Italian website, http://www.ferrovied… although I’m not sure anyone has successfully used an American credit card on that site in several years. If you can’t buy tickets from the site, compare standard fares to any specials you find on Italia Rail, the banner down the right side of this page to decide whether to try to book in advance from them or just buy the tickets at the station.

I’m not absolutely certain that bus is the best way to/from Cesky Krumlov. Prague to Cesky Krumlov looks like a pretty reasonable train ride. Cesky Krumlov to Salzburg is more complicated but I would think comparable time-wise to the bus. What are the lengths of the bus rides and where did you find the information that bus was better?

Thanks, oldlady. I will check out those websites. About Prague and Cesky Krumlov, I have been doing research online, and lots of people said that there is no direct train from Prague to Cesky Krumlov. I also checked it out on raileuro.com and it proved that the source is correct However,according to the online source, they have a lot of student agents for the bus service in Czech Republic. The bus ride is about 3 hours from Prague to Cesky Krumlov and 4 hours from Cesky Krumlov to Salzburg (1100 czk pick you up from your hostel in Cesky Krumlov to next hostel in Salzburg). They also said that it is better to make a reservation in advanced for assigned seats. I don’t know if it is easy to find the student agents at the train station when we get to Prague. Please let me know if you have some info about that. Thanks for your help I appreciate it!!!!

Looks like bus is better than train for your trips to/from Cesky Krumlov. Train is slightly slower and has more connections. It’s usually worth checking actual schedules as many guidebooks are decades out of date when describing the rail system in Eastern Europe.