Salzburg and Vienna
 

I am planning a vacation next year to Austria. How much time would you spend Salzburg and Vienna.
Thanks

On our trip last October, we spent 5 days in each city. I would not hesitate to go back to either place again. Both are wonderful places and very different from each other. Salzburg is charming beyond belief and Vienna is every inch the imperial city. Have a great time. By the way, we stayed at the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg and the Imperial in Vienna.

There is a LOT more to Austria than just Vienna and Salzburg, and if I had ten days to spend in Austria I would not want to restrict myself to those two cities. Some of the mountain scenery in Austria is just stunning; I would spend perhaps two or three days in Vienna and Salzburg and go exploring the countryside for the rest.

I would try to go to Innsbruck, which is very beautiful, too, for a couple of days, too. I spent 3 days in Salzburg a couple of years ago and thought it was sufficient for seeing the city. I'm not a big fan of Vienna, so I'll leave the response on that for those who are, but like one of posters above, I'd advocate a day or two outside those three places if you can.

Salzburg 2 to 3 days
Vienna 3 to 4 days, may be a trip to Wachau Valley

On my trip, we spent 2 days in Salzburg, 5 days in Vienna. Wish we had more for Vienna. While in Salzburg, Munich is a "short" 2 hour train ride away.

Be careful confusing number of nights with number of days in a city. I stayed 8 nights in Vienna but only had 7 full days of sightseeing, which was enough to do at a leisurely pace. Upon arriving in Salzburg by train from Vienna, had originally only planned to stay 3 nights but fell for the place and added one more on, which allowed among other things a quirky tour of the local brewery and attend an evening performance in Mirabelle Palace of pianist doing, what else, Mozart. Still a fond memory of the place. :)

Beyond the main Vienna sights there are some, like the Zentralfriedhof, a huge centuries old cemetary that's the final resting place of scores of noted artists, and the Sigmund Freud Museum I'm glad I got to. The The Giant Ferris Wheel or wienerriesenrad also a sight well worth visiting. So, I'd recommend enough time to see the main sights, like Schonbrunn, St. Stephans, and Hofburg plus a day or two extra to enjoy other temptations, including a Sachertorte. ;)

If I had to do it over again, I would've made more of an effort to visit Bratislava which is a very short distance away.

Enjoy!

The mountain areas are beautiful and worth a visit, but I think you could get a sense of that around Salzburg (if you venture into the environs) without doing the 2 hour trip to Innsbruck, which is *extremely scenic* but having spent the better part of a year there, I don't think it is worth more than a day or so unless you want to hike, which you could still do in the Salzburg environs.

I'd definitely spend more time in Vienna, a city I love. In addition to the nice things mentioned by tcook052, I would also mention that there are some other very fine museums there -- the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history) has a very nice collection and though I never made it inside, I heard some good things about the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History) across from the art history museum. The Albertina collection of graphic art also had a nice collection on display (it rotates) when I was there. Lots of pretty churches to look at - I always found the Votive Church a sight to behold at night. And the performing arts are excellent. And be sure to go out to one of the wine villages in Grinzing or somewhere for a Heurigen dinner -- a new wine, thing, though I think they continue into old wine once the new stuff moves on.

As I recall, Melk made a scenic stop (monastary overlooking river) between Salzburg and Vienna. Graz has also gotten some good marks from people I know, though I never made it there myself.

Have fun!