Salzburg or Vienna

Vienna would be my choice.

Salzburg is one of my favorite old towns. Very easy to navigate on foot also. Plenty to see and do and even more just outside the town.

Both are beautiful cities but I would pick Salzburg! It is smaller and quaint! I only spent a day there in 2015 and wish I could go back! And ... Paul from NYC, you helped me plan my trip to Germany and Salzburg back in 2014 and we followed your advice and had a marvellous time! It was my favorite trip of all!

If you are mostly doing the Alps on your trip, I would switch it up and do Vienna. I just spent 4 days in Vienna 2 weeks ago and love it. I did do a 1 day trip out to Salzburg and it is gorgeous.

I prefer Vienna-great museums there.

Thank you for the compliment Joyce! We’ve visited Salzburg maybe five times. It never gets boring, always charming, esp. in the evening after dinner for strolls.

2 nights (1 full day) or 2 days (3N)? Where do you go from there? Without knowing any details, I'd say whichever is closer to where you're coming from. With 2N, probably Salzburg, you can see it all in one day. Vienna needs more time.

We had to make that choice as well, and we just went through several youtube videos listing the top attractions in each city, and then chose the city that spoke to us.

We found there was more things in salzburg that excited us, and both my wife and I are musicians. If there was an opera during that time in Vienna that were were dying to see, that might have made up our mind the other way

Bill,

I suppose the answer will depend on what type of sights you hope to see in Austria. Both cities are fantastic and have lots of historic and beautiful sights. However, I really like Salzburg and have been back there many times. It's a good "home base" for visiting Berchtesgaden, Hallstatt or other places in the area.

I don't think you can go wrong with either city, but Salzburg has a certain "unique charm" that appeals to me.

Having spent 3 nights in Salzburg long ago ('10) and just had 5N in Vienna last year - with only two nights I'd prob pick Salzburg - it is very walkable and I think if I only had a few days in Vienna I'd prob leave frustrated by all the stuff I would have wanted to see and not had time for. I found our 2.5 days in Salz was fine.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I’m leaning toward Salzburg now but may change my mind.

If you haven't been there yet, then of course Vienna. It's a big city with much more to see.

Another vote for Salzburg! We loved the ambiance; it's smaller and easy to navigate; also took a bike tour which was great.

Salzburg is nice but with limited time you can see much more in Vienna.