How do you travel? Chose a base city and do day trips or stay in each place 2-3 days

Hi Sue,

For us, we avoid staying in cities. We try to stay 3 nights minimum in one place. For you, I'd stay outside of Salzburg, say St. Gilgen, for your visits to Salzburg and Hallstatt.

We've done both. Depends on what we want to see/do. With the cities you want to visit, spending a few days in each seems to be the way to go. Fly into one city, out of one at the end of your itinerary.
We just did a trip in France for 2 weeks. We flew into Nice on a Monday and out of Paris 2 weeks later on a Sunday. 2 nights Antibes to start. Hotel booked ahead. From there we had no specific plans, worked out well since our tentative plan was to stay on the Med coast a few more days but checked the weather and decided to head inland early since rain inland seemed better than rain at the beach. That was days before the massive flooding and mudslides that hit the Nice area. Once inland we stayed 1 night in Roussillon, 1 in Fontaine de Vaucluse, 1 in Arles, 1 in Saint Maries de la Mer-those were all by chance, where we ended up in the afternoon. Then headed straight over to La Rochelle to visit our daughter. Since we were visiting her, we had planned 3-4 days for that stop. We arrived there on Monday evening, 1-2 days before our tentative plan, stayed 4 nights then last minute(morning of actually) booked our final 2 nights (that were supposed to be in La Rochelle), in Paris. Since it was a Friday, I'm glad we didn't just show up in Paris.
Depending on the time of year, winging it could get stressful if hotel rooms are scarce. We traveled with my parents so we needed 2 rooms in each place we stayed. Not usually a big issue in early Oct. Though, 2 of our stops, St Tropez and La Rochelle it took some searching to find 2 rooms.
A few years back, when our daughter was living in Lyon, we stayed there for the whole 8 day trip doing a few day trips from a homebase in Lyon. We've done an 8 day trip to Paris to visit her when she was studying there.

I love cities, so I make them my bases as often as possible. Sometimes it's a relatively small city, for example, in 2013 I based in Nimes, France for five days and visited several places in the region from Nimes.

Sometimes I will stay for a couple of nights in a city that is very popular with tourists (Siena, Assisi) so that I can have it to myself early in the morning and late in the afternoon/evening/night.

A city that is new to me may begin as a daytrip, but I might revisit it later and stay a couple of nights.

It's depended on the situation, and we've done both of those (and also some "dreaded" one-night stands, checking into a place one afternoon or evening, and checking out and moving onward the very next day).

Especially when we've had an apartment somewhere that rented by the week, we could use that as a "hub" and do "spoke" trips from there to various destinations for a day.

Sometimes that can be influenced by whether you have a rental car for making daytrips (or if you have a rental car that you don't want to be paying for while it sits in a parking place), or if a particular location has good public transportation, affordable taxi or hired driver service, or a suitable service that does tours by bus or van.

I've done both, depending on the situation, including both types in one trip.

In 2004, I was in Germany for almost two weeks in only two locations. I spent one week based in a spa town in the Black Forest, making trips by bus and train to neighboring towns, then moved to Boppard, on the Rhine for five nights, again taking advantage of the great public transportation there to visit Bacharach, St. Goar, Braubach, and Koblenz, in addition to Boppard.

Three years later I made a 13 night trip on the Romantic Road and to some other Bavarian towns, moving almost every day (staying in 10 towns, 7 for only one night). I think taking a trip like this requires some previous experience to develop a system of packing that permits you to unpack and repack quickly every night.

On my latest trip, I spent a week in the Oberallgäu (western end of the Bavarian Alps), visiting nearby towns with trains and buses, then traveled, mostly on the Alpenstraße (Alpine Road), for three one-night stays to get to Berchtesgaden. We ended that trip with four nights in Munich.

In 2008, I spent 12 nights in only 3 places; the next year I came back and spent 14 nights in 9 places (max 2 nights).

I'd say that mostly I prefer to stay two, three nights in a single location.

My husband and I were just in Austria for 11 days (September 28 to October 9). We spent 4 nights in Vienna, 3 in Salzburg, and 3 in Hallstatt. We traveled by train from city to city. I think these places are much too far apart to pick one and go back and forth. That's how we decide--time and distance. We like to get to know a place and make it our own. We can only do that if we stay a few nights.

Like so many others, we do both. Here's a couple of things to keep in mind. Driving for 2 hours; i.e., 4 hours rt, is quite different from riding that amount of time on a train or bus. 1.5 hours driving one way is at my limit for a day trip. When planning, I first scope out what I want to do in an area; then, I decide on what can be done as a day trip. That gives me an idea of how many days to plan for a single lodging location. Viamichelin.com is very helpful for figuring out driving times. Just remember to add around 25% to their estimates.

For your trip, specifically, I know Salzburg is too far from Vienna for day tripping. Also from Vienna to Budapest takes about 2.5 hours on a train. Not, in my opinion, a day trip. Haven't been to the other destinations, so can't help with them.

I haven't yet stayed in a city and made day trips, for several reasons.

First, cities are typically the most expensive lodging and dining (and parking) choices. If I'm not specifically seeing a city, I'm not staying there.

Second, I avoid backtracking like the plague. I envision a day trip as out to see a sight and back to your lodging, in essence part of each day is lost to backtracking.

Third, people in cities are the least warm and welcoming (true of big cities anywhere in the world). I much prefer staying and dining in smaller towns where they seem happier to have you as a guest.

I tend to create itineraries that are progressions. Start at one airport and moving in a general direction until it's time to fly home at the far end. I'd much rather stay longer in each place; I try to keep any one night stays to an absolute minimum, but I often have two night stays in smaller towns.

I will include a lot of small towns as day stops, see a sight and get a meal, then move on toward the next overnight destination. In a sense it's a day trip but after the stop I move forward rather than back to last night's lodging.

Hi Sue,

I'll share our last itinerary since you're going a similar route that we just completed in Sept. My goal is that we have a balance of 2 nights (smaller towns) & longer stays (cities) - at least two that are longer than 2 days. We travel by train; I aim for train rides no longer than 3 hours between locations unless it's taking train(s) to sleep the first night at Location #1. The Melk one-night stop was to be able to take the boat down a portion of the Danube in the morning.

We don't do day-trips, other than a trip out to the beach when we stayed at Grosseto, Italy or if you count taking the metro/train to Ostia Antica at Rome. Otherwise, we're located right where we plan to be - biking and hiking in the case of Mittenwald & St. Wolfgang and for Munich, Salzburg & Vienna - enjoying the city. (By the way, you might want to check out the Salzburg Card. We found most of what we wanted to do was free after the card purchase.)

I have an engineering background, so during our planning, I'm keeping a spreadsheet of locations, hotels, etc. but also number of days at locations and hours to reach the next location, including any day-trip transportation hours. It helps to see how long to stay someplace & if the trip is covering too much space, i.e. too many hours of transportation. Sometimes distance doesn't equal travel time in the case of being able to take a faster train between major locations. That was the long explanation.... The short summary is that I'm optimizing the plan to maximize "feet on the ground" time.

I understand the desire to go to each place you have listed, except Innsbruck. Staying in the city there or plans outside of Innsbruck?

Fly into Munich - 2 nights
Mittenwald, Germany - 2 nights
Salzburg, Austria - 4 nights
St. Wolfgang - 2 nights
Melk - 1 night
Vienna - 5 nights

Jean - the reason I listed Innsbruck is because we plan on taking the train (Arlsberg Pass) from Zurich to Innsbruck. We have stayed two nights in Innsbruck in the past, but don't necessarily want to stay there again. Mittenwald is on my list to check out. Have not read about St. Wolfgank or Melk. Will definitely take a look.

For me these are the factors that come in to play ...
1) What are the travel times on my planned day trips ?
Once your return journey gets over 1.5 hours then you may as well use that time to move on a little farther.
Consider also the cost of returning 'home' at the end of the day with the cost of moving on.
2) Are you travelling point to point, or in a loop ?
If you are travelling in a loop, you can leave large luggage at your starting point hotel and travel light.
3) What is the time of year ?
In summer you will most probably be travelling lighter, and so moving around is easier.
4) Am I travelling by car or train ?
A road trip certainly makes it easier to move around also.
5) Am I a morning person, and am I a messy person ?
Some people just don't get up and get ready to get going.
6) Do I love a new hotel room every other day ?
Yes please (for me).

For you I would be stopping off ... Innsbruck >> Salzburg >> Vienna >> Budapest.
Austrian Railjet makes these hops quick and easy for you.
Hallstatt can be done from Salzburg.

HI Sue, we enjoyed Mittenwald. If you go, stop in at Ristorante-Pizzeria Mamma Lucia for good Italian food - seemed it was the busiest restaurant in town! The violin museum has lots of interesting history about violins, the town & impact to the local economy. There's small lakes in the area for good hikes.

St. Wolfgang was very special for us. Loved both days hiking above the town and a quaint town to wander through at the end of the day. If the weather is nice, take the boat from St. Gilgen to approach the town from the water. There's several waterfront hotels; we had a balcony overlooking the water. If we stayed longer, we would have rented a small boat,

We have gone to Europe for 13 of the last 14 years and while there take a RS tour. We either stay somewhere else before the tour or after the tour, or both, but only for about a week total. What our hope is, after all of this moving around, after my wife retires in a year or two, to be able to go to Europe for a month or two and stay in one place for a week and do day trips from there. We would probably not be staying in a small town for a week but would visit it from a larger city.

Hi,

"Do you typically choose a base city and stay there for several days, or do you stay somewhere 2-3 days, then move on to your next destination?"

That depends. As you say, if it's a big city like Paris, Berlin, or Vienna , then I could and have stayed for several days, say a week to two weeks, always in a small hotel or Pension. Other than that, no,

I don't base myself out of a certain place for several days. In terms of travel style, I would say that I stay in a place 2-4 days and then move on. Sometimes staying only one night but that's rare. Packing/ unpacking is no problem, depends on the extent. I can be at that train station (early summer travel) anytime as early as 0645 to 0945 at the latest.

@ Susan NH...yes, La Rochelle, famous and nice.

It depends on the destination. I dislike short stays (1-2 nights), especially when they are strung together. For me, it's tiring to keep packing/unpacking and getting used to new lodgings, even on an organized tour, I find 1-nighters use up a lot of energy. With a car, I'd rather spend an extra hour driving back and forth on country roads or highways to changing locations.

But the places you want to see are not close to each other. For a trip like that, I would try to plan a route that had a mix of 1-2 night stays with 3-4 night stays (or longer). I might drop or add from my "preferred" itinerary to make it a more enjoyable trip. I prefer to travel by train unless there is a clear advantage to having a car (like rural France, Sicily). Innsbruck > Salzburg > Vienna > Budapest is easy by train and there's enough in Salzburg for 3 days (1 day trip) and much more in Vienna and Budapest. And they aren't close enough to each other to make day-tripping a reasonable alternative from any one to another. Hallstatt is a possible day trip by car from Salzburg, but it can be slow and it's better as an overnight. If it's a must-see for you, Either rent a car or travel by train. You will have a long walk (and possibly a climb) to get to your lodgings. so leave your luggage in Salzburg and take an overnight bag to Hallstatt (1 or 2 nights). Alternatively, you could keep the car and spend another night or two along the way to Vienna (Melk comes to mind, though it's also an easy day trip from Vienna).

Both, depending. The main factor is obviously how far apart the cities are. If it takes 3 hours each way to get to the "side trip", that doesn't leave much time to actually see the place. I had a friend who did Amsterdam as a side trip from Paris. This doesn't make sense to me. Also, in many European cities, night times are wonderful - quieter, better light at sunset for pictures, more atmosphere, fewer crowds. Staying the night lets you enjoy this. Another factor is how much there is to do in the city in question. A day trip is fine for a place where you want to wander around, see a few things, and head on. Not so great for a place you want to delve into.

I like to stay 3 nights as a general rule. I try for 5 in big cities when possible, but I rarely stay anywhere less than 3 nights unless it's a road trip and I just need to stop for the evening.

I am not too familiar with your specific cities, but I think they are kind of far apart. Check transit times - I am thinking that some will require more time on the train or bus than would be ideal. Also, check the times the train/bus leaves. If the earliest you could arrive is...say 11AM, and the last bus leaves at 6, is that enough time?

Hope I'm still on topic here, and have a question rather than an answer. I also am looking for a base city for about 30 days from which I'd take some weekend side trips. We work from home so can go anywhere with good internet. Brussels? Berlin? We have been to London and Paris, and wondering of a new city would be better. Or any other favorite places with easy train or air transport? Many thanks!

Heyjude: you should post your question separately, as it is actually quite different from Sue's original question.

I've done both, including: a month long British countryside ramble by train where we averaged two nights per town, and always stopped to see something on the way between towns (It was a fantastic trip, but I don't think I could keep up that pace now); and a two week honeymoon spent entirely in Florence and Rome (with day trips of course). I really like spending enough time to feel at home in a neighborhood but also love rural places. So far I've only traveled Europe by train and bus. But I'd like to do rural base with a car someday. Ideally, I'd like week long stays punctuated by two day stops on the way between them. I'd use a car between two cities with two week long rural stops on the way.

We are going again this summer. Amsterdam (7 nights), night train and day trip to Berchtesgaden, Salzburg (3 nights), Vienna (6 nights), Prague (7 nights), night train and day trip to Cologne, Paris (5 nights), London (4 nights).
We are staying the longest in Amsterdam and Prague because of the number of day trips available, and the least in Paris and London because we've been there more recently. Salzburg is the anomaly that doesn't exactly count as a hub, but that we really want to see.

Heyjude,

I'd suggest Amsterdam or Rome.

I have a hard time deciding but for my last trip I decided to base myself in certain cities and branch out from there. In Italy I based in Rome. In Holland in Amsterdam. In a place with good train connections it should be easy enough. I don't know about Austria and Budapest though just saying what I do. The best for smaller cities anywhere is if a bus goes there or if I can get a ride.

Hi Sue,

I have done it both ways. When I travel with my wife, we do the stay in one place and then day trips. I called that slow travel. When I travel a alone, when my wife is teaching college, I hit a city and spend 2-3 days (more 3 days) there and move on. I call that intensified travel.
3-Days is nice time to spend in a city. I can find out from the "feel" if I want to come back alone or with my wife. I usually get into a city around 2-3 pm or so, check in, get a map, have a coffee and begia walking around to get my bearings for the next two days. The following days, I sightsee and head out an evening into the night. The next day I travel to another city.
I find when I am alone the going from place to place creates an excitement, good anxiety and helps deal with the being alone feeling. I do not over plan and with the Internet, buying chapters in Lonely Planet guidebooks, and RS website helps me plan on the go.
I have found that staying only 2 days or doing too many 2 days stays can be over tiring. However, my age (59) might be a factor on that point. So plan according and "Never travel like you are not going back." What you see is what you see, what you don't you will get next time :)

Might as well climb on the pile - I've also done both. Much depends on your energy level - I am quite happy traveling 2.5 hrs, seeing the sights, and traveling back making a long day of it. To me, its all part of the adventure, but I know not everyone enjoys traveling that relentlessly.

As to how you decide - it depends on how much time in total you have. If its more than a week, you could conceivably have more than one base. If you dont, and you move place to place, it depends on your tolerance for packing and unpacking.