My husband and I have 5 nights to split between Vienna and Salzburg for an upcoming trip in October. We are traveling from Prague to Vienna via train and will be in Vienna in the early afternoon on Sunday. My original plan was to stay 3 nights in Vienna and then go to Salzburg for 2 nights (wed/thurs). We have to leave Salzburg in the a.m. on Friday because we are going on an Eagle's Nest tour and then onto Munich. I am thinking of adding one more night to Vienna and staying in Salzburg only one night instead of two, as it seems that Salzburg does not have a huge amount of sites to visit in town. If we did that, we would leave Vienna early in the a.m. on Thursday to get to Salzburg by 10ish so that we could spend the whole day and night. Another option would be to leave Vienna late on Wed, arrive in Salzburg at dinner time and then already be there in the a.m. to start our day.
Either way it will be a lovely few days, but any comments would be appreciated. Thanks

Yes add a day to Vienna and take away from Salzburg - you could spend days in the Salzburg area with day trips to the Lake District, etc but the city itself is compact and like you say sights are clustered together - Vienna is much larger and has many more varied sights.

Personally, I think a whole LOT depends on what interests you. Vienna has, IMO, a lot more to see and do than does Salzburg. I would give Salzburg two days BUT, again, that depends on your interests.

But Salzburg can easily be seen in a day - no so with Vienna IME.

Depends what you are seeing in each place.
Museums take up a lot of time ad does seeing Palaces.

Thanks. Usually one or two museums per city is enough for us. I would definitely like to see the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

Salzburg is fairly compact and you can see the main sights in a day. I would add the extra day to Vienna, as it is larger and has more to see and do. The trains run frequently and takes between 2 and half hours and 3 hours depending on the train, after you drop your luggage at your hotel you will have time to see Salzburg's main sites.

In addition to the Hofburg, if you want to visit the Schonbrunn palace, you can easily get there by U-Bahn (subway) from Vienna, its walking distance from the subway to the palace, and you can take an audio guide tour. If you do this, go early to avoid crowds.

I would travel from Vienna to Salzburg on Thursday morning. We enjoyed Salzburg and recommend that you go there, but we did all we needed to do in Salzburg in one day. There is much more to see and do in Vienna. I would spend as much time as possible there.

Thanks to everyone for your great advice.

macksix, to help with planning, the Hofburg Palace is comprised of the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Silver Collection. Assuming you tour at a leisurely-but-not-totally engrossed-in-every-detail pace, plan to spend at least the entire morning there. If you can purchase and print your ticket online in advance you'll save time (the tickets are not set for a specific date). If you want to see the Imperial Treasury that will add another hour or so.