Will be doing a 10 day riverboat cruise starting on Oct 30 in Basel, Switzerland and ending on Nov 9 in Vienna, Austria. I know this is late in the season for cruising but it was the only time we could get away. We will be in Vienna for 4 days, post cruising. Thought we would rent a car for two of those days and do some day trips and I'm open for suggestions. The riverboat will be stopping in Durstein, Melk, etc so this would not be on top of our list unless we didn't get a lot of time in the areas and we double back to include Krems and some of the smaller towns we didn't get to see. Also, thought possibly about driving down to the Burgenland area and although not the season for swimming, we could visit some of the towns around the lake and head over to Eisenstadt before returning to Vienna. Another option I read about was the Vienna woods to include Modling, Baden, and Mayerling. Any thoughts about these options or any other would be much appreciated. I always look to the forum for help in planning our trips. thanks

Curious, why Eisenstadt? I entered it in the search box above, and got ZERO entries.
I know I have posted at least twice mentioning our trip there.

Um just 2 days in Vienna itself is cutting it very short. there is a lot to see/do and you could easily spend 4 days between there and the nearby woods.

Surprised you got no returns for Eisenstadt, it is a tourist magnet, mostly because of Haydn and for the Esterhazy palace, which is open to the public and there are cultural events held there.

Haydn of course was in the Esterhazy's employ, and his tomb is in the "Haydnkirche" Bergkirche (church), there is a Haydn mausoleum, a Haydn House, and in Sep. each year there is a Haydn music festival.

There's more, like a church (St. Martinsdom) dating back to the 13th century.

The environs are spectacular, the region is called the Burgenland ("Land of Fortified Castles"), and it is a famous wine region, with little taverns in picturesque towns dispensing the Heurigen (the new wine).

Spend a few days in that region next time, you'll learn to love it.

It's a hop and a skip from the Hungarian border. Gulash and Bulls' Blood anyone? (Bull's Blood is the name of the hearty red Eger wine, the only wine strong enough to hold its own with paprika and such spices in a real gulash).

Lovingretirement, there is so much to do in Vienna in a few days. If you want to squeeze in one more great imperial city in that short time frame, you might consider a day Viator excursion to Prague, Budapest, or Salzburg. These junkets are about 12 hours but would eliminate renting/ returning your own vehicle. Only a thought...

I agree that you should concentrate on Vienna, because daylight saving will be over and if you spend money on a trip outside of Vienna, you'll spend a lot of that idle time seeing nothing but headlights flitting by while sitting on the bus. It gets dark early.

Plan your outdoors visits in the parks and such places for the daylight hours, and concentrate on indoors targets and cultural evening events, the season is in full swing.

If one-of-a-kind design and architecture interests you, check out www.hundertwasserhaus.com - there's nothing like it, except maybe, in a way, Gaudí in Barcelona.

Thanks all for your responses. Will consider everything you mentioned. DalaiLlama: is it an easy drive down to Eisenstadt and some of those picturesque towns you mentioned? If we left early morning, and the distance/time isn't too much, would we be able to make it back before dark? I think going down to Baden and the "woods" will probably be a definite day trip since it sounds like nice scenery and the second day is still up in the air. Think we will keep with the vehicle idea for those two days instead of organized tour. Traveling with DH and 2 friends and it's actually more economical to rent a vehicle than pay for 4 adults fares on tour. Also, we love scenery and the ability to stop whenever we like so I think the 12 hr tours wouldn't work for this trip. What parks in Vienna do you recommend and do you think there will be things still happening in Nov?

Check on www.viamichelin.com then decide.

4 days is good for vienna specialy if you are a fan of musumes, opera & theaters why donot you include velden too its a charmign place