Planning a trip to Vienna, need to include a city outside Austria to appease my sister, my travel companion . Thinking money wise and time wise where would one su ggest? We are coming from DC for 8 days (including travel days). Where would you suggest
going? I notice our connecting flights are through Munich, Paris, London. As we've been to the latter 2 many times we want some place we haven't been. Thanks for any advice

Hi; Budapest is a city to visit. Perhaps three hours east by train. Or Salzburg, three hours west by train. Richard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/budapest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/salzburg

There's always Paris. Never get tired of that city. And, if you want something a little smaller, Munich's an interesting city. Worth a couple days plus excursions to Dachau and possibly Neuschwanstein.

Or did you mean you've been to Munich and Paris and London, all three, too many times?

If so, you could fly into Venice and, a couple days later, train to Vienna; this is a scenic ride. Or fly into Zurich and spend a couple days in Lucerne (easily reached by train from Zurich airport).

What time of year is this trip? 6 days in Vienna isn't a lot, and if you go to a second city, you really will end up wasting another day as an additional "travel day".

My suggestion is to do a daytrip or overnight trip from Vienna. Budapest is a great suggestion. Why does your sister have to go out of Austria? While Austria is a small country, different parts of the country offer very different ambiance. Therefore, you may consider Salzburg as suggested above.

If you're going in Spring/Summer/Fall, I would even recommend just a day trip from Vienna to the Danube Valley and visit the Melk Abbey + boat ride down the Danube. It's very scenic and gives you a "break" from the city.

P.S. Many airlines will charge a LOT more if your layover is more than 24 hours. So even if your flight has to connect via an European city, you may find yourself paying a few hundred $ more for a 1-2 day stopover vs just a few hours' of connection time.

If you decide to fly directly to Vienna, my top choice is to connect in Munich. You really want to avoid connecting in Paris or London if possible.

P.S. I spent 11 days (not including travel days) this past Spring in Vienna & Budapest. We took a day trip to Danube Valley. You can take a look at my trip report for ideas: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...pring-2009.cfm

I've never been to Budapest and would love to go. But I've been to Prague, which was an easy train ride away and absolutely beautiful, and still a bit more affordable than the rest of Europe. The surrounding area is fascinating and gorgeous too.

thanks everyone for trying to help me.Mimar, althogh my sister wouldn't mind going back to Paris london or venice I'm the one who wants to go somewhere new. We would love to cruise the Danube river and take in the Danube valley I think the weather prohibits that. Yk I've read your trip reports and although very informative we are not into that many nights of Opera and day after day of museum hopping (or should i say she isn't).I read in someones trip report that a week was too long thankgoodness he could do day day trips out of Vienna he said. Which would be great if you didn't have to be concerned with the weather. We are saving Prague for another trip when it is warm and can visit for more than 3 days. We both would love to go to Berlin;however its the time factor; I suggested Munich because it is closer and that is a stopover. Thanks again everyone

Baden is a nice low-key little spa town about an hour away by train from the center of Vienna. I'm not sure if Baden's Stadttheatre is in session at this time of year, but presenations of traditional Austrian operettas are highly entertaining.

Bratislava is moderately appealing (well, the old town is -- I gather the rest is pretty grim). It's short enough excursion from Vienna.

I looked for a time that you visit - perhaps I missed it?

Danube - Wachau area Danube Valley is just 1- 1 1/2 hours from Vienna

A visit is best done May - October.
A day trip to Melk Abbey along the danube is fun at anytime .
Surprised that no one mentions Salzburg.

This just 2 1/2 hours by train from Vienna in the direction of Munich.
The location makes for an easy open jaw ticket to save time in to Vienna out of Munich for example.
Venice is nice but shortly most train transfers to be discontinued and replaced by bus serive for at least a portion of this route.

Vienna has so much to see and do- it is not just museums and opera. 5-7 days easily spent and you still do not see everything.

Brtislava in my opinion is worth 1/2 day and not more. The very city center is somewhat intersting but the remainder still suffers from its former era of soviet style concrete mass structures.

Schonbrunn Palace and environs alone can take a day.

Graz is another nice town not too far from Vienna, but I'm another vote for Budapest. Perhaps my TR might help? http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ria-venice.cfm

hi mo,

there is so much to do in and around Vienna that your 8 days will fly by. what will be best will of course be influenced by the season and the weather, but you may be assisted by looking at my trip report of our recent trip in June - just click on my screen name.

in 8 days, you could easily visit most if not all the main sights in the centre, the Schoenbrunn, the Prater, and the Belvedere, the Heuriger villages to the north-east of the city, Melk, and Baden. you could also do a day-trip to Bratislava, where we spent the first night of our trip. [ i agree that it's probably only a 1/2 day, but you'll need the rest of the day to get there and back - and to have lunch of course]

have a great trip,

regards, ann

Thank you once again everyone. I enjoyed your trip report Annhig. I would be content staying the entire time in Vienna with day trips to Melk,Bratislava etc however I stated that the reason I am looking for an add on outside Austria is my sister.She doesn't even want to go Vienna in the first place . If it were her choice she wouldn't be going near Eastern Europe . I think in her mind she thinks she will wear me down and I will give in to a few days in Paris or London. I failed to say the trip is January.

So what does your sister have against Austria?

Tell your sister the truth: you are not going to Eastern Europe, but to Central Europe. That might reassure her a little.

Budapest has some points of similarity with Paris, to the extent that some films and television programmes supposedly set in Paris have been shot there.

thursdaysd, my sis has nothing against Austria in fact she was in the beginning of planning a two week vacation to Prague and Vienna last spring when she shifted her plans and went to Thailand. Although she doesn't mind the cold weather I think its the fact that she doesn't want to have to be a tourist in the cold.

Well, Paris and London aren't likely to be much warmer in January!

she doesn't want to have to be a tourist in the cold>>

lol - anywhere from Edinburgh to Budapest is likely to be cold in Dec/Jan. if she wants warmth, you'd have to go as far as Istanbul, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Israel to ge any promise of not cold weather.

but in fact in our trips to CENTRAL europe in winter, we were very warm - we did what the locals do and wore warm top coats [time to dust off those furs, girls] and lighter clothes underneath, as the streets may be cold, but public buildings, restaurants, cafes, are very well heated; you take your coat off and leave it in the garderobe and then when you go out, you "feel the benefit" as my granny used to say.

other essentials - warm waterproof boots, gloves and a hat.

thursdayds, we've been to paris and london so often that we don't have to do any sightseeing that a first timer has to do. All we would do would be shop and eat. annhig its funny you should mention Istanbul that's where she really wanted to go until we learned that it is cold there as well. So Turkey will have to wait till Spring thru fall.