Europe - Long weekend with day trips elsewhere

[atalost]

Where can I stay in Europe that allows me day trips to other locations ? I have from
Thurs - Monday but fancy not being stuck in one location ie time with a day trip to Capri/Pompeii.

Just back from 4 days in Amsterdam. Beautiful city & easy to visit other Dutch cities by train from central station.
Or Düsseldorf, you can take a mini Rhine cruise to Cologne.

Amsterdam? Lots to do in the centre but trains are pretty cheap and easy and there are plenty of potential day trips to The Hague, the coast, Zaanse Schans for the windmills, Utrecht etc.

Paris

We stayed in Brussels but also caught the train to Bruges and Antwerp.

Lisbon- day trip to Sintra.

Reykjavik with day trip to Golden Circle

Vienna with a day trip to Bratislava

Belgium, I went this summer stayed and visted Ghent, did day trips to Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp rail network is so good. Ghent was cheaper to stay in and less hectic until you get to the main tourist spot.
Also agree with Amsterdam, stay in Zandaam for cheaper accommodation and great rail network. Its beautiful at this time of year

I went to Bologna last year, with trips on the train to Modena, Ravenna and Ferrara. It was easy and worked well.

Málaga, with train to seville/Granada/Cordova?

Brussels/Bruges/Ghent/Antwerp/Luxembourg?

Verona/Padua/Sirmione/Venice?

Madrid/Toledo/Segovia/Ávila?

Carcasonne/Toulouse/Narbonne?h

Or Lille? Easy train journeys to Ghent, Brussels, Bruges, Arras which are all worth a visit. You could even go to Paris for a day.

Montpelier/beziers/perpignan

Verona is pretty well connected! Well worth a visit itself, but a train will have you in either Milan or Venice in under 1hr 30. And then there's Lake Garda to explore (Sirmione is wonderful).

We stayed in Bologna recently and had two day trips to Florence by train. There were other day trips we could have done -Modena or Verona. Italian trains are very good.

I was going to flip round the Amsterdam suggestion and say stay in Utrecht with a day out in Amsterdam and maybe Eindhoven..Utrect is the best ciry break we have done recently..its like all of the nice bits of Amsterdam and cheaper! Also Malaga is nice as a city you can do Granda and the hill villages like Frigliana or Nerja and the caves as day trips.

Nice is good for train travel along the coast in both directions.

Munich with a day trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Have done a day trip to Dresden from Prague, which was lovely.
Or Ljubljana from Zagreb, which was a really pretty train trip,

Yes, I was going to say similar. Other Dutch cities are so much cheaper than Amsterdam too. Stay out and visit Amsterdam.
Public transport is so efficient.

We loved Den Hague. Museums, outdoor squares of restaurants, a flea market, great shopping etc etc.
I do love the canals of Amsterdam though.

Geneva/chamonix/montreau.

Copenhagen with trips out to the Danish coast or across to Sweden

We also did Rovinj, Pula and a ferry ride to Venice. (flew into Pula and stayed in Rovinj)

I’m currently looking at booking Nice for next year - with trips via the train to Menton, Monaco, Antibes and ventimilgia. Another option I looked at was bilbao and San Sebastián and Biarritz.

why not fly in and out of different airports so you can make a "journey" rather than having to travel back.

We did Hamburg - Lubek - Sweden (via the over night ferry which was the same price as any other hotel room) where we got the train to Malmo, then to Copenhagen, and we flew home from Copenhagen)

Some of my favourite holiday memories are the day trips from the base place! The ones I recall:

-Madrid, Spain- Toledo via train. The basilica was amazing and the natural marizpan (I generally hate that synthetic almond flavour, but this had no flavourings and was delicious) 😋
-Madrid to Zaragoza via train. We stayed in Zaragoza longer than 1 day though. Lovely basilica, museums, the river, easy to walk around etc.
-Brussels, Belgium- Bruges via train
-Malaga, Spain- Rhona via train. The famous bridge and had one of the best meals I've ever had there.
-Naples, Italy- Pompeii and Herculaeum via train
-Rethymon, Crete- Heraklion via coach to see the archaeological museum and Knossos
-Palma, Majorca- Port de Soller via small gauge train via the hills. A beautiful post with restaurants, shops and little market on the day we went. I really wished we'd stayed there and not in Palma because it was so lovely. We caught a local bus back to Palma because the train was lovely, but quite slow.
-Prague, Czech Republic- The Sedlec ossuary via train. After our trip, friends raved about going to Cesky Krumlov from Prague but we regrettably didn't go.
-Reykjavik- Blue lagoon via coach and another day the Golden Circle tour via coach. It was Dec, with heavy snow and the coaches were so well organised and much easier than hiring a car
-Catania, Sicily- Syracuse via bus
-Palermo, Sicily- Agrigento via train. We stayed overnight to see the archaeological museum and to see the temples which look like the ones in Athens. Its a 2hr train trip, so could be doable in 1 day.

We recently flew into Pisa for 1 night and then went to Florence for 3 nights. Love the ideas here, great post OP!

Lublijana with trips to Lake Bled, Lake Bohinj, Trieste in Italy, Austria. Going next month.

We went to Lisbon this year and loved it! You could do two days in Lisbon and one in cascais and the other in Sintra. I found it very good value for money and the people are so friendly.

Munich then a day trip to Salzburg on a train. You can also get a train into the mountains.