Greetings
We ( dear spouse and self) are in the early stages of planning a trip to Austira (first visit) and Italy (second round!). 3 weeks total. We will arrive in Salzberg leave from Pisa. The trip is in mid May of 2010.
Our plan is to use only public transport to minimize the hassle of rental and to get a better feel for the culture etc.
Here are the first of most likey many questions.
How long does it take to get to Hallstatt from Salzberg via train/ferry?
How long is it via train from Hallstatt to Vienna?
Would Lucca be a good base for exploring (via train or ??) Tuscany?
The early plan is to:
Day 1 spend the night in Salzberg,
Day 3-4 train/ferry to Hallstatt for 3-4 nights.
Day 5 Train Hallstatt to Vienna stay 4-5 nights

Next train to Pisa and on to Elba or directly to Lucca

Does this sound reasonable? Any thoughts / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Janellebc

Well I can't answer all, but ...

Lucca is in the far northwest corner of Tuscany and the most scenic parts are in the south -- I don't think it would be all that convenient by train. Florence is the obvious location, or maybe Siena.

The little Tuscan towns don't have great train access anyway. There is fairly good regional bus service (Florence is a hub), or you could rent a car for a few days for that part of your trip.

capxxx
We loved Lucca on our first visit and wanted to try and spend more time there to explore. So much to see so little time! Perhaps we will have to break down and rent a car.
Thank you for your suggestions

For train times and schedules in Austria, go to http://www.oebb.at/

I agree with capxxx that Siena is a good base for exploring Tuscany. We also visited Florence from there. Much less hassle.

Unless you want to hike, I would not spend 3-4 days in Hallstatt, but rather spend more time in Salzburg. If you visit the oebb website, you can see that you can make Hallstatt a one day trip from Salzburg. This will give you more flexibility. If the weather doesn't cooperate, H. is sort of at the end of the world. From Salzburg, for example, you can take a day trip to the Herrenchiemsee palace of King Ludwig; the train ride to Prien is about 45 minutes. You can use the Bayernkarte (Bavarian ticket) for EUR28 for the two of you. Although Salzburg is not in Bavaria, the ticket is good all day, for all Bavaria and Salzburg.

Having just visited Hallstatt and Vienna a couple of months ago, I think 2-3 nights is enough for Hallstatt (stay at the Hotel Grunerbaum and say "Hi" to Gary (the waiter, bartender, etc.) at their restaurant. He is unlike any other Austrian you will ever meet (in a good way!)

5 nights might be one night too many in Vienna (depending on what you have planned to do there).

I take it you have been to Salzburg before (based on the fact that you are only staying there 1 night). If not, I would allocate at least another night in Salzburg (great place!)

You can click on my name above for trip report which talks about Hallstatt and Vienna. (some great dining in Vienna!!!)

Good luck!

I like Treplow's idea of using Salzberg as a base and taking day trips from there. I absolutely love Hallstatt -- have been half a dozen times. But a couple of days would be plenty and there are so many other great places to visit in that area.

We just returned from our 2nd visit to St. Gilgen on Wolfgangsee. Unfortunately, there isn't train service to St. Gilgen but there is a bus that takes about 45 minutes from Salzburg. Once in St. Gilgen, you can take a boat across the lake to St. Wolfgang and then the steam train up to Schafberg Mtn.

If you base yourself in Salzberg, you can use the train to visit Hallstatt and Berchtesgaden and the bus to visit Wolfgangsee.

OMG, I can't believe I misspelled SalzbUrg. I definitely know better!

Agree about Florence being a good base for Tuscany travel. Many many tours from there also.

Thanks all!
We would like to do a fair amount of hiking/exploring in the smaller towns - that was why we thougth Hallstatt looked like a good base. We prefer the smaller villages to get a feel for the culture/food, etc. The next step to Vienna was for the city blast, site seeing, Spanish riding school good meals.
The other option was to check out Elba island for a few days.
Thought being to stay put somewhere and really explore vs travel between and get only a glimpse.
Any additional ideas would be great.
Thanks again everyone for the great suggestions
Janellebc