Vienna Expats

Hi All,
We are planning next December for these 2 areas. Any suggested day trips by TRAIN would be greatly appreciated. I heard Melk and Halstatt are both great. Since it is for December, please provide advice, length of train ride (if you know it), and highlights of each.

If given the choice, would you pass up Munich to stay in these 2 places longer and do day trips in Austria? Never been to Germ. or Austria.

Presumably you would be travelling from Ukraine. If your train is stopping in Budapest, have you considered a stop there on the way?

Vienna to Salzburg is 2:20 by OeBB from Wien Hauptbahnhof each way. There are some direct services to Hallstatt (takes about 3 hours and 30 minutes each way) otherwise you change at Attnang-Puchheim. Hallstatt is very pretty. Melk is closer to Vienna - good for a daytrip from Vienna, about 70 minutes by train. Munich is an impressive city - probably worth a couple of days. Between Munich and Salzburg there is the Chiemsee, but this is probably better in Summer than Winter.