Budapest , Salzburg and Vienna..

Gayatri ji,
It Seems as you are looking for a direct flight to Vienna from India. good thing. One option could be buying an Austrian rail pass and add to it tickets for Budapest and a bayern ticket which is of use in traveling on trains in and around Munich. but In your itinerary i don't see any stay at Munich then i presume that you are looking for a day trip to Munich from Salzburg, but Still a bayern ticket will give you much more options in Bavaria. point to point tickets are cheaper only when booked in advance but you you will have to stick to the dates whereas a pass will help you with more liberty and i guess We Indians can have problems with driving a car in Austria and Germany where signboards are in German. hope you Get some help out of it.

Going between Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg on the Railjet is the fastest way by train. It's the train I take. If you take the Railjet from Munich to Budapest, you can get off at stops in between, such as Vienna, Györ, Salzburg. On the Railjet the Munich-Vienna connection is 4+ hrs. The tickets can be bought at the stations.

Fred is absolutely correct, but .......................... odd thing about trains in Hungary. Those Railjets that fly across Austria come to a creep in Hungary. Always found that odd and just assumed that the Hungarian tracks were not suitable for faster trains. The fastest train from Budapest to Vienna is 2:43 and its an EN. The fastest Railjet is 3:02 Go figure. Some of the EC's and P's are only minutes longer than the RJ.

I had better pay more attention to the time it takes from Wien Westbahnhof to BP. True, the train dep from Keleti ca 19:00 back to Wien Westbahnhof was an EN. Five minutes or so on the return is not a big deal. I would rather save five minutes getting into Keleti.

First, please don't buy any type of rail pass. You can easily buy these tickets much more cheaply without a pass.

To get from Vienna to Salzburg, you have two choices - Westbahn or Oebb trains. Westbahn is a private rail carrier and the train service is excellent with free wifi. Speeds match the railjet train. You buy Westbahn tickets on the train; there is no need to buy in advance as it is the same price. The cost will be 24.90 Euro.

From Salzburg to Budapest, use the OeBB link above and buy your tickets online, in advance.

To get from Budapest back to Vienna, follow these instructions.

Thank you all for the help!

I am going to look up all the links.

However i am also a bit stuck with the itinerary..

What do you'll think of...
Land in Vienna on the 17th morning and take a train immediately to go to Budapest. Stay about 3 nights and take a train to Salzburg. stay in Salzburg for 4 nights as i also want to go to the lake district. 4th day take the train to Vienna and stay 3 nights till i board the flight to come back thats on the 27th.

Day 1 - 17th March - Vienna to Budapest
Day 2 - 18th March - Budapest
Day 3 - 19th March - Budapest
Day 4 - 20th March - Budapest to Salzburg
Day 5 - 21st March - Salzburg
Day 6 - 22nd March - Salzburg
Day 7 - 23rd March - Salzburg
Day 8 - 24th March - Salzburg to Vienna
Day 9 - 25th March - Vienna
Day 10 - 26th March - Vienna
Day 11 - 27th March - Vienna to Mumbai

I want to spend the last few days in Vienna because its closer to Easter and i have read lots about the Easter markets and would love to visit one and also get to the airport on time ;)

You didn't say where you were arriving into Vienna from. If its the states then that day is going to be a killer.

I haven’t been to Salzburg, but a lot of what I have heard is that it’s okay as an overnight to 2 night trip unless you have some special interest. Check into it. I bring this up because you are short on Vienna and / or Budapest. If you are into museums or classical concerts or want to see Melk, then I would consider moving a day from Salzburg to Vienna; otherwise I would really consider moving a day from Salzburg to Budapest.

I m arriving from Mumbai too... Landing in Vienna at 8:40am. I thought of going directly to Budapest because the journey will be shorter. And I guess 2 days to see the city should be enough. Have extra days in Salzburg so that I have about a day and a half for the city and about the same for excursions to the lakes given that I may not have a lot of daylight (am I right?)
I would also prefer to arrive everywhere before it gets too dark..

Gayatri,
There's Nothing wrong with that you are looking to move from Vienna to Budapest on the day of arrival, a direct flight will take a bit more than 7hrs. And yes I think we Indians are not much into lots of museums but Still adding one extra day to Vienna or preferably to Budapest will be a good thing to do if you can. i know you are flying from Mumbai. if you're Not going too much here and there by a train then ofcourse Emily is right in saying that a pass is not required. hope you Enjoy a lot and give us reviews which can help us.