Europe - Small Town Europe-direct rail from Airport--Suggestions?

Booking an award ticket that lets us stop for a few days in Europe en route to Asia.

Anyone have any suggestions for a smaller town to spend a few nights in? Ideally one connected via rail to any European airport, 1 to 1.5 hours max from the airport. Trip would be in May.

As this is focused on Europe, I'll move to the Destinations->Europe forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Goodness me, how long is a piece of string?

A few to consider:

Heidelberg (FRA)
Utrecht (AMS)
Lund (CPH)
Lucerne (ZRH)

You could fly to VIE but go to Bratislava, the nice little capital of Slovakia.

Schleswig is a small city about a 1.5 hour train ride from the Hamburg train station. It is a wonderful place to spend a few days.

this is really difficult.
we could throw around many names but that will not help you.

which country do you prefer?
what do you enjoy doing?
budget?
how many days?
any limitations on mobility?
want to just stay in one place and chill or do some side trips from that little town?

Schleswig is a small city about a 1.5 hour train ride from the Hamburg train station. It is a wonderful place to spend a few days.

Agree it's a nice place - but it doesn't meet the OP's requirement of being no more tan 1.5 hours from an airport. Journey time from HAM is just under 2.5 hours

Booking an award ticket that lets us stop for a few days in Europe en route to Asia.

Anyone have any suggestions for a smaller town to spend a few nights in? Ideally one connected via rail to any European airport, 1 to 1.5 hours max from the airport. Trip would be in May.

As other have said, you have asked a REALLY wide question.
To try and narrow things down:

You say you are booking an award ticket that lets you stopover for a few days in Europe.

Question do you really mean 'any European airport'?

- I assume this is just a stopover at the point of connection, and you are not getting interEurope flights included in the redemption?
- Or are you? Are you booking multiple redemptions (1) Into Europe (with conneciton if needed) and (2) Europe to Asia, with connection if needed. Etc.

Do you really mean any european airport - that you could use as your connection point in europe?

Or were you planning to add your own flights to get to another European airport?

If you do actually mean any that you could use as your connection point (rather than any airport at all), what are these airports?
Or, if you are not sure, what is your alliance?
What is your origin and final destination?
etc.

[Hope that makes sense, it is just such a wide question.]

this is really difficult.
we could throw around many names but that will not help you.

which country do you prefer?
what do you enjoy doing?
budget?
how many days?
any limitations on mobility?
want to just stay in one place and chill or do some side trips from that little town?

Going with Mrsmapleg on this trip...would probably spend 2 days at most and just stay in whatever town we pick. I recall reading a trip report a few months ago and wish I had saved it--the poster of the report had a small town, maybe 3-45 minutes from Frankfurt that looked very nice, but I can't remember the name.

No mobility issues at all. Budget-not stratospheric, but it would be nice for it to be at least cheaper than Zurich. :o To be honest, the smaller the place, the better as long as there are at least a few hotels to choose from. It's really just to relax after and catch our breath for a few days before heading over to HK and Japan.

As other have said, you have asked a REALLY wide question.
To try and narrow things down:

You say you are booking an award ticket that lets you stopover for a few days in Europe.

Question do you really mean 'any European airport'?

- I assume this is just a stopover at the point of connection, and you are not getting interEurope flights included in the redemption?
- Or are you? Are you booking multiple redemptions (1) Into Europe (with conneciton if needed) and (2) Europe to Asia, with connection if needed. Etc.

Do you really mean any european airport - that you could use as your connection point in europe?

Or were you planning to add your own flights to get to another European airport?

If you do actually mean any that you could use as your connection point (rather than any airport at all), what are these airports?
Or, if you are not sure, what is your alliance?
What is your origin and final destination?
etc.

[Hope that makes sense, it is just such a wide question.]

You are correct--it is one stop on a multi stop trip with the next 2 destinations being HK and Tokyo. I just mentioned an airport with direct rail connections as I assumed that would be easiest for transiting rather than cabbing or bussing to a central rail station and moving forward from there.

Any airport that I can reach by Star Alliance. Initally we will be flying into Zurich so any city that I can connect to from therer using *A would be fine.

Salzburg is a great town and relatively close to Munich. Perfect for a couple of relaxing days with some very nice hotels in the city center.

Fontainbleau is 1 hours away from Paris; great little town with some nice hotels and a great castle and parks. Nice place to relax; I am not sure I understand your flights.

Is this the city you were looking for?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/germany/1278956-24-hours-fra-mainz-frankfurt.html

Look at this blog report of a nice hotel a couple of hours from Munich; seems like a nice place to just hang out and relax
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2011/11/09/beaches-and-mountains-intercontinental-berchtesgaden/