Quaint small towns in Germany:
Obernai
Hamlin

Larger but pleasant town:
Hannover

It is slightly touristy I guess, but the town of Berchtesgaden in southern Germany is nice, and there is an endless amount of outdoors options in the area. It is like halfway between Munich and Salzburg by train. (Actually it is really close to Salzburg, but it is surrounded by mountains that the trains have to go around).

I had two brilliant day trips while based in Budapest.

Eger is a lovely town not much more than 2 hours bus trip to the east of Budapest. It’s centre is quaint, there are thermal baths, and the real highlight is the wine cellars. Valley of the Beautiful Women is a magical place with from memory about 40 different wine cellars selling glasses that are absolutely dirt cheap. When we went there was live music and it was a fantastic day out.

Travelling up the Danube Bend is also nice. I stopped at Szentendre, about 20km north of Budapest, great if you like cobblestone streets, art galleries and have a sweet tooth. The marzipan museum there has all types of sweets and chocolate – if you don’t take the tour – still purchase some goodies!
Another 25km north of there is Visegrad, which has some great scenery either side of the Danube, didn’t venture much in to town but had a great lunch and drink looking over at the hills.
There’s further to go and another town named Esztergom which I didn’t have time to check out – but there’s a couple of suggestions I have for Hungary.
Have a great trip.

Castles Krivoklat and Kokorin in vicinity of Prague.
The last 15 kilometres of river Sazava before its confluence with Vltava under Prague (on train line Prague-Tynec nad Sazavou, wonderful atmosphere of old cozy villages in a river valley, with numerous pubs serving meals and beer to the numerous kayakers in summer, a genuinely Czech spirit of everything).
Nature reserves within Prague, like Divoka Sarka, Prokopske udoli, Dalejske udoli, Barrandovske skaly etc.
The small volcanic hill called Rip, some 30 km from Prague near a motorway to Berlin. The “national hill” of Czechs. Has a nice 1100-year-old chapel at the top.

If you are not into these sort of things, then try going around Prague with your eyes open. Many things have double or hidden meanings. E.g., millions of tourists take the picture at the Old Town end of the Charles bridge with the statue of King Charles IV, but they take a frontal picture of the statue. If they looked from the King’s left side and slightly from the rear, as seen from where the small door to St. Salvator’s church is, directly against the setting sun, they would have seen the King performing something very non-royal. And that’s how it goes with many things. 400-years-old Antisemitic writing on a statue, which cannot be removed, since it’s so old. A statue from the same era, depicting a monk having his balls bitten off by a dog. Too bad they returned the last Habsburg’s riding statue into its pedestal. That pedestal stood empty from 1918 to cca 2005 and was a perfect monument to nobody. Enjoy Kafka’s city