Which of these 3 Austrian resorts would make a better home base for day trips?

I can't judge the three resorts, but you should check the distances and driving times needed for going to Italy and/or Switzerland from there. Unless you want to stay in the car most of the day, I think these are no reasonable destinations for day trips.

It appears these are timeshares. We spent a week in St. Johann im Pongau and enjoyed the area very much. There was a lot to do in a reasonable distance. Switzerland would be too far for a day trip. We didn't try to go to Italy from there, but I'm guessing it would make for a very long day. There is plenty to see in that part of Austria and it would be easy to go into Bavaria from there. For Switzerland you would need to be much further west. Next year as part of a long trip we will base ourselves in the Innsbruck area (not at a timeshare) and do a day trip to Northern Italy from there. Looking at all of your choices, they all seem too far to make day trips to Italy and Switzerland.

I would say Saalfelden or St Johann are the best located for interesting day trips in the Salzburg area and Bavaria.
Italy is too far, you could just about reach Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomites but that would be a gruelling 7-hour driving day.

Thanks everyone. I’m still plotting. Doing a google map directions it should give me an accurate time between places while driving, right?

I would add a little time to the google map estimate.

Ad time? Ok good to know, thanks.

I don't drive in Europe, but others have said ViaMichelin tends to provide more accurate time estimates than Google. Neither allows for such common tourist activities as stopping, getting lost, looking for parking, etc., so you certainly need to pad their projected driving times.

In addition, I think the times are based on current conditions. If you're doing your research at 8 or 9 PM in the US, it eill be the midgle of the night in Europe, far from a peak traffic period.

From a strictly location standpoint, I would choose Saalfelden. Salzburg and Berchtesgaden is easily reached in 1 hour by car from Saalfelden. The scenery as you approach Berchtesgaden on 305 is some beautiful views.

Going west you could visit the PillerseeTal. Not sure if the lifts will be running in mid/late October but there are some great views of the Alps in Waidring(Steinplatte), Fieberbrunn and St. Jakob(Jakob's Kreuz).

https://www.kitzbueheler-alpen.com/de/pillerseetal/urlaub-skifahren-langlaufen.html

Going further west, you could visit Kitzbuhel, Krimml Falls and Innsbruck.

Austria is beautiful. Enjoy your trip.

We spent a week in St Johann at the Alpenland Sporthotel in 2000. We had a room with a balcony and amazing view. It took us about 2 hours to drive there from Munich. From St. Johann, you can easily get to Berchtesgaden, Hallstatt and Salzburg. The area is gorgeous, and the fortress at Werfen is well worth a visit. There is also an ice cave nearby. And paragliding, too! We returned to Austria last year, but stayed near Hallein. But we would return to St Johann.

St Johann has plenty of restaurants and shops in town. Sometimes timeshares are pretty remote, with limited outside options nearby. I haven’t been to the other towns, but they seem to be farther off the A10. I would do some research about what is available in each of the other areas. Google earth is a fun way to “see” the town.

Thank you ... very much. We are trying to keep the budget on hotels down which is why we are opting for a week at one of these time share resorts - our week’s stay will only be about $250 usd for 7 days. Nevertheless we still want to explore the area. I really appreciate the info.

travel4fun is spot on with the recommendations of things to do in the area. We stayed at the same place. We went to Salzburg two days. The first day we drove and paid €€ for parking. The second day we took the train from St. Johann. I've also had the experience of timeshares being out of the way and inconveniently located. I didn't feel that way at all in St. Johann im Pongau. In addition to the places that travel4fun mentioned (we went to all of them) we did a day trip to Zell am See.