Now that it’s already March, it’s that time of year when travelers enter those glorious early stages of summer travel planning. For those of you looking to Europe this summer, Lonely Planet recently put together this list of six spots in Eastern Europe where you’ll see sights comparable in spectacle and experience as their more famous western counterparts.

For example, everyone’s familiar with the gastronomic offerings Spain has within its border, but what about saving a few hundred Euros and exploring Hungary’s offerings; food, as LP notes, that is “memorably denoted by spicy paprika and flavoursome sauces, and accompanied by excellent local wine.”

Or, for you wine connoisseurs, instead of exploring the vineyards of France, consider heading to Slovenia and traveling the The Jeruzalem Wine Road in the Ljutomer-Ormož hills in northeast Slovenia for superb wines minus the tourist crowds. (And, by the way, in another life, I think I’d want to be a sommelier, not so much for the fact that your job revolves around wine, but because I have a feeling it would be a very effective conversation piece for cocktail parties.)

Click through for more ideas.

[Budapest - Afternoon Cafe by Gergery Fiel/Flickr]

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Matt Stabile