St.Gallen day trips

The first thing I'd do is stop at the St. Gallen tourist office and ask for suggestions. Tell them your sightseeing interests (cute towns, museums, mountain scenery, lake scenery, etc.) They'll know right off the tops of their heads which places are quick to reach either by car or by train.

There are some lovely towns along the shore of the Bodensee (Lake Constance). Others here can give you specific suggestions. My mother and I enjoyed Mainau Island, which has a large botanical garden. Google Maps suggests driving from St. Gallen would take between 1 and 1-1/2 hours. You might enjoy a ride on a lake boat there, or you could head over to Lake Zurich (not all the way to Zurich itself) for other lake scenery.

Winterthur shouldn't be more than an hour away. I remember thinking it had a nice historic center when I stopped there briefly many years ago, and I see that it has an art museum (which I haven't visited). https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/destinations/winterthur/

The fact is that you have to work hard to find an unattractive Swiss city or town, and the countryside is generally gorgeous, so you can hardly go wrong if you're in the market for picturesque destinations.

Renata,
There is great hiking near Appenzell in the Alpstein. You could drive from St. Gallen to Wasserauen, park in the large lot across the road from the cable car. Take the cable car up to Ebenalp and hike the area. Aescher is a great berggasthaus to stop for a snack. If you are very ambitious, you could hike berggasthaus to berggasthaus for several days. There are quite a few in the Alpstein. The accommodations range from dorm style to private rooms. Each family run berggasthaus is unique.
Google Berggasthaus Schaefler as well as Aescher for the scenery of the area.

You can hike up and back down without taking the cable car. (It is expensive) The hike down seems to be endless and hard on knees.

Maps are readily available in Appenzell but difficult to source outside of the area. All the trails are very well marked and include estimated hiking times.

Jay

One of the things I'd do if I were in St. Gallen with a car would be to go to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, if you haven't already been.

Thank you so much for all the great suggestions. We will study it more. What a great knowledge and help in this forum.

I have been planning a trip starting in Zürich, then going to Lindau, Germany, for a few days, then through the Tirol to Innsbruck, and I thought maybe, since I was would be going from Lindau to Feldkirch, Austria to start the trip through the Tirol, and Feldkirch is just a hop, skip, and jump from Liechtenstein, I should use the trip as a way to add Liechtenstein to my checklist. So I posted here asking what was worth seeing in Liechtenstein. Most people responded to my request with, "nothing". Maybe this posting will challenge some people to come forth with ideas, but as a result of my past query, I wouldn't bother with Liechtenstein.

I have spent some time on that end of Bodensee, however, so I do have a few suggestions. My suggestions are easily doable with public trainsportation, and in one case, not doable by car. I would suggest doing both with public transportation.

1. Go by direct train, or car, from St Gallen to Romanshorn, Switzerland, and take the ferry across Bodensee to Friedrichshafen, to the Zeppelin Museum there. You can take your car on the ferry, but unless there is something else you want to see on the German side, the Zeppelin Museum in a very short distance from the ferry terminal; you won't need a car. I had a very nice lunch of Maultaschen with bacon and fried onion in the restaurant at the Stadtbahnhof in Friedrichshafen, but Bahn stations seem to be going to fast food. It's probably been replaced by a Burger King.

2. For the other trip, you definitely don't need or want a car. Take the train up to Rorschach, on Bodensee, and take the boat across Bodensee to Lindau. Lindau is a pretty island town, walled in middle ages, with a cute harbor. After Lindau, take the train around the end of the lake to Bregenz, Austria. From there you can walk up a few blocks to the Pfänderbahn, a cable car that take you up to a mountain top from which you can see all the way up Bodensee to Konstanz. Then take the train back to St Gallen.

It's been 33 years since I was on the other end of the lake, in Konstanz, and I never went to Mainau, but I think that would also be an interesting side trip.

If you do decide to drive to Vaduz I'd be glad if you would return with your impressions.

It didn't do much for me but it may have changed.