Day trip recommendations from Vienna?

Personally I think both Budapest and Prague are too far for day trips and both need more than a few hours to really appreciate. I loved Salzburg but it's also over 3 hours each way so I guess it depends on your day-trip limits. When I was in Vienna I did Melk Abbey and Bratislava as day trips. The all-day trip by train/boat/train to Melk Abbey was spectacular and I found that a few hours in Bratislava was a good introduction to that city and so quick and easy to get to that it could be a 1/2 day trip. I've not been here myself but for a third day trip you might try Gyor Hungary. It's closer than Budapest and would still give you a glimpse of Hungary and I've seen good comments about it here on this forum.

Prague and Budapest are a bit too far for day trips (I went to Budapest for 4 days after Vienna in August and even that was not nearly enough time to enjoy that fabulous city!).

I did a day trip on a Kombi ticket--train from Vienna to Melk, plenty of time to tour the Abbey, explore the charming town and have lunch, then boat on the Danube to Krems, where I would have poked around a bit but was having a very bad blister day, and then train back to Vienna. You can play with the train times, I was out at 9 am and back by 6:30.

Salzburg worked well for a day trip for me--caught the early train and arrived at 10 am, used a HoHo bus to get to outlying areas like Hellbrunn and Mirabell and then spent several hours in the Old Town where I toured Mozart's Gebursthaus, wandered happily, had lunch and looked at an enormous number of craft vendors along the river before catching the 6 pm train back to Vienna.

With 5 full days in Vienna I decided not to take any other day trips, but had considered Bratislava as it's quite close by train. It's my understanding that it's a great day trip kind of town.

As I'm sure you suspect, Salzburg is a great day trip, and we also toured the salt mine at Hallein up the road when we were there (in April, rented bikes at the train station in Salzburg and rode up to the mine).

Melk Abbey is spectacular (the library at the abbey is extremely impressive, too), and we also reached it by bike, renting in Vienna and actually taking a few days to ride upriver to Melk. The town of Melk is charming, too. I understand you can do a bike/boat combination, and maybe use the train too on a combi trip, as Nancy mentions above. Your can rent great bikes at one Austrian train station and turn them back in at a different station, which makes one-way trips very convenient.

Late May is a beautiful time to be in Vienna. My top 2 day trips would be the Wachau Valley/Melk and Salzburg. Bratislava is uninspiring and Prague and Budapest are too far away. If you want to add a third option, you might consider Graz or find out if there will be an asparagus festival happening when you are here. Last year, there was a large one in Deutsch Wagram in late May; there are others. Google Spargelfest (Spargel=Asparagus). Another nice option is the Neusiedler See which is a lovely place to bike, see wineries and stork nests in cute villages such as Rust.

If you go to the Wachau Valley, especially at that time of year, spending time outside will give you the best experience. I would take the train to Melk and then hop on the boat to Weissenkirchen. I wouldn't linger in Melk too long. Once in Weissenkirchen, have lunch at one of the many highly rated restaurants. Then, rent bikes and cycle to Duernstein. Wander this cute village or walk up the hill to the castle ruin. Have an apricot dumpling at the Richard Lionheart Hotel terrace. View = amazing. Take the WL1 bus back to Krems train station and then take the train back to Vienna.

I’m pretty biased but with 8 days in Vienna you really should go see some of the region.

Allowing you some decent sleep there is a train that leaves about 8:30 am to Budapest and arrives in about 3 hours. Other fast trains depart at about 6:00 am and 6:45 am. From there it would be possible to do a great cursory tour of Budapest (beginning with a great lunch upon arrival). The return train (after a stupendous dinner) departs about 9pm and gets you home about midnight. Eat dinner here: http://www.muzeumkavehaz.hu/?page=kezdolap and you will be five minutes from the M4 Metro which takes you directly to the train station. Better yet, spend the night and take an early morning train back to Vienna.

I've made a couple of trips in reverse (Budapest to Vienna for a day trip) and the traveling wasn't bad at all.

There are some do it yourself tours just listed here for Budapest: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/budapest-sightseeing-with-or-without-a-guide

Hi,

If you decide on doing a day trip Vienna-Budapest, it's doable time-wise. The earlier the better for departure and you can be back in Vienna by 2200 or so. I've done this twice and it's worth it, just plan exactly what you want to see in BP and get to it. The ticket office at Keleti is very tourist friendly, easy to figure out and communicate.

There are a number of great day trips out of Vienna; Melk, Gyor, Sopron, Brno, Cesky Krumlov, Bratislava, Wachau Valley and, yes, Budapest. If any of the Hungarian destinations seem interesting let me know and I will try and help.

There's enough in Vienna to take your whole trip.

But Melk and the Wauchau Valley would be great side trips.

It's only 39 miles from Vienna and Bratislava, and you can do that either by bus, train or preferably a hydrofoil seasonally.
Budapest, Prague and Salzburg technically could be visited, however they're cities best visited when you have more time to really see them. They're just too far.