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Articles Tagged ‘LGBT travel’

Lesbian travel company plans first cruise in 2009

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Lesbian_travel
By Lena Katz

New lesbian travel company Sweet is venturing into as-yet-uncharted territory, with a luxury cruise/volun-tourism cruise planned to depart New Orleans in 2009. The company has teamed up with Norwegian Cruise Line as well as Hands On New Orleans, a non-profit dedicated to hurricane relief and rebuilding.

"We look to provide eco-friendly and fun vacations that make the world a better place," explains Sweet’s founder Shannon Wentworth. She says that this large-scale inaugural cruise will offer an "alternative" for lesbians who might not feel comfortable in a classic, conservative hetero cruise environment. She also intends to provide a responsible way to go on a cruise — which many might concur is timely, considering the current cruise industry’s comparatively disconnected tourism practices.

"Lesbians are searching for more meaning. We’re working to preserve the places to which we travel, for future generations," she says.

Thus far, Sweet is focused on building its cruise offerings. However in the long-term, the company will expand into other travel arenas and destinations.  Already it spans the borders of "alternative lifestyles" travel and eco-tourism; Wentworth hopes to move into weddings as soon as same sex marriages are more widely recognized. Her first ideal destination would be the Riviera Maya. Already, she says many couples are planning to board in New Orleans for the inaugural cruise. Along with the appeal of celebrating amongst like-minded souls, there’s the hope of bonding with communities along the journey. Wentworth explains:

"We’re seen as people doing things to help them, so residents come out do these projects with us. Once they meet us, they’re going to realize that we’re just people…It builds bridges of understanding."

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Lena Katz lives on the Left Coast and writes about tropical islands, beach clubs and food, but her heart belongs to NYC.

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Revisiting Hawaii’s hula tradition

Monday, October 6th, 2008

Hawaiivacationgaytravel
By Matthew Link

Hawaii has finally entered the national political discourse as the place where Barack Obama hails from. Spending any time in the islands will show you a lot about how the Aloha State shaped the candidate, from racial tolerance to inclusion of all classes to speaking in mythological terms.

I just republished my gay guidebook to Hawaii, which I first wrote when I was a resident of the Big Island for five years in the late ’90s. I now live in New York City (the antithesis of Hawaii!), but researching the islands all over again brought back all the wonderful aspects of the state’s unique culture I had forgotten.

One of the most famous and most important parts of Hawaii culture is the hula dance. Hula itself has been called the lifeblood of the Hawaiian people, and along with mele (chants), it was the main form of storytelling and handing down of legends and historical events for the ancient Hawaiians, in place of a written language. For years, students would train under a kumu hula, who would scrutinize with an eagle eye to make sure not one movement was off, which might alter the meaning of a dance.

Interestingly, some scholars say men were the only ones allowed to dance hula in the very old days. Muscular males would enact the precise dance clad only in malo (loincloths), and Western missionaries suppressed what they saw as a lewd, suggestive dance. Not surprisingly, many mahu (the Hawaiian word for gay men) kept the dance alive in secret, and continue to be at the forefront of the dance’s revival today.

Nowadays, hula falls into two categories. The kahiko hula (ancient) involved traditional instruments or dress, and is serious in tone. A kumu hula sits on the ground drumming a hollow gourd and chanting an old mele, with the dancers also involved call-and-response chanting. The ‘auana hula (modern) is much freer and more jovial in style, and can depict topics as contemporary as airplane travel, surf tournaments, even basketball games! ‘Auana hula usually includes a band of some sort.

Many Hawaii hotels and resorts have some sort of luau or hula show. Many can be cheesy, but check out of the partially gay-owned Old Lahaina Luau on Maui for a more traditional approach. The rural island of Molokai is famous as the legendary birthplace of hula (not to mention it’s home to a plethora of Polynesian transvestites), and the isle hosts the popular Molokai Ka Hula Piko festival for three days in May. Papohaku Beach Park comes alive with food, music, crafts, and excellent displays by proud local hula groups.

But by far the best hula experience you can ever have is at the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo on the Big Island. The festival is broadcast live across the state starting Easter Sunday and lasting a week. Tickets sell out months in advance — that’s why I’m telling you about it now! Many halau (hula troupes) compete from around the world, and some of the most beautiful men and women in the islands make for great eye candy.

Related Orbitz resources:

Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Posted in Gay Travel, Hawaii Vacation | No Comments »

Trying to find gay luxury in the Caribbean

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Oldsanjuan
By Matthew Link

The Caribbean’s gay offerings are often characterized as dead on arrival. Only two destinations — Curacao and the Cayman Islands — do any kind of large-scale gay tourism marketing (the latter in a bid to reverse their previously anti-gay image). Besides the one-off gay-owned guesthouse or villa (some very basic) in random places like Aruba, St. Martin, St. Kitts, Bonaire, and the Dominican Republic, there is no real concentration of gay properties, nightlife, or attractions in the Caribbean. Sure, Cuba has a burgeoning and increasingly more visible LGBT life, but it’s still mostly underground and difficult for Americans to experience with embargoes against U.S. tourists spending money there. Places like Jamaica are renowned for being down-right gay hostile.

However, there are some glimmers of gay life amid all this heterosexualism. I just got back from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and found it to be perhaps the gayest spot in the region, despite the main city of San Juan having seen gay guesthouses and bars closing their doors over the last decade. San Juan has that rarity in the Caribbean –- an actual bona fide gay beach in the up-and-coming district of Condado (think newly-opened Gucci shops and outdoor cafes), east of the colonial old town. I didn’t see it as packed with Speedo-clad men as, say, South Beach, but as I met many LGBTs I discovered that gay life in San Juan is surprisingly out and tolerated. The hotel behind the city’s main gay beach is called the Atlantic Beach Hotel, and although the property has definitely seen better days, it has a friendly outdoor patio bar overlooking the waves, where men hold hands while drowning rum and Cokes unharrassed. You don’t have to stay right there –- you can easily get to this gay beach via taxi while staying elsewhere. I recommend Old San Juan for its frozen-in-time colonial ambience, complete with blue cobblestone streets and ornate churches. Here, check into the luxurious four-star Hotel El Convento, actually housed in a former convent with sections dating back to 1651! Across the street is the gorgeous San Juan Cathedral, the Western Hemisphere’s oldest. To bask in another era, check into the Art Deco vintage Normandie Hotel, situated between Old San Juan and the Condado, built to look like an oceanline with panoramic views of the Atlantic.

After San Juan, I grabbed a puddle-jumper to meet some friends in the nearby British Virgin Islands. Known for their tiny population and a low-key but ultra Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous patina (Virgin Atlantic maverick Richard Branson actually owns an entire isle here), the last thing on Earth I was expecting was anything remotely gay. So imagine my surprise when I came across one of the most lavish gay-owned properties this well-worn travel writer has ever laid eyes on. It’s just opened, and it’s called Aquamare. Three huge, gorgeous, impeccably-decorated villas front a private beach on the isle of Virgin Gorda. It’s the kind of place reeking with five-star treatment: a private chef serves up island-fresh gourmet meals in an enormous, state-of-the-art kitchen; maids clean up after your every move (even though this is technically a vacation rental and not a hotel); and a professional masseur visits your palatial room to work out any knots you may have brought with you. Infinity pools, on-site snorkeling, kayaking to empty beaches, Fette towels, Bulgari toiletries, cathedral ceilings, designer furniture -– you get the picture. If you get bored, there’s even a $1 million, three-story, rapper-worthy yacht you can ask to take a sunset cruise on. No wonder Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart and Rihanna have all checked in here already, even though Aquamare is less than a year old. After having spent days watching the cracks form in the walls of the Atlantic in San Juan, I was left wondering: Why can’t more gay-owned properties be like this??

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Gay-friendly Palm Springs goes upscale

Friday, June 27th, 2008

Palmspringspalmtrees
By Matthew Link

The first time I went to Palm Springs as an out 19-year-old, my boyfriend and I stayed at the La Quinta Resort, a gorgeous red-tiled property that was — like one of its frequent guests Clark Gable — elegant but very, very straight. My next trip a year later, I stayed at a very gay and somewhat seedy resort that was fun, but with a little too much romp for a relaxing weekend. But I just got back from a recent trip to "P.S." where this traveling Goldilocks found a place that was just right.

It was one of those rare commodities in the gay travel world — a queer resort that was not only upscale and subdued, but offered bona fide professional spa services as well as Italian Frette linens, Gilchrist & Soames bath amenities, large LCD flat-panel TVs, his-and-his vanities, and a mellow, social poolside.

The owner of this East Canyon Hotel and Spa, Richard Weiss, explained why unlike the other 30 or so gay resorts in Palm Springs, his hotel did not allow nudity by the pool. "We want this to be the kind of stylish place gay and lesbians can also take their family, their mom, their straight friends to."

The existence of this gay upscale resort is a sign of how far Palm Springs has come from its trashy hetero spring break days during the 1980s, when cars cruising up and down Palm Canyon choked the entire town with blaring music and bikinis. Cher’s ex Sonny Bono was elected in 1988 and quickly put an end to all that, redeveloped bad areas, and brought a Hollywood sheen to Palm Springs that still sparkles today. And perhaps by being that close to Cher, Sonny was amazingly gay friendly, helping integrate the once-fringe queer community more deeply into the city. Since then, there have been two gay mayors, including the current mayor Steve Pougnet.

Twenty years ago, the naughty gay guesthouses in Palm Springs were the town’s dirty little secret, a place to frolic naked in the sun in complete privacy — never mind the fact they were far from luxurious. Since then, gays have been at the forefront of embracing Palm Springs’ kitschy ’50s past, an era now reverently referred to as "mid-century modernist." Several gay guesthouses have spent a lot of money restoring and revamping their historical properties, including Santiago, Century Palm Springs, and the Triangle Inn, among others. And Robert Imber, a local gay resident and architecture expert, runs PS Modern Tours, where he guides you through the area’s historic neighborhoods and dishes local gossip.

So although I like to get an all-over sunburn just as much as the next gay guy, I will gladly trade it in for Italian Frette linens and sophisticated queer company. After all, who says gay travel needs to be unrefined?

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Tolerant Vancouver a top gay travel destination

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Vancouver
By Matthew
Link

During my first Vancouver vacation, I was sick with food poisoning
(from a breakfast burrito ingested at the Portland airport, don’t ask). Then I
joined the festivities for the gay ski week at nearby Whistler, only to throw my
back out snowboarding down a mountain and was laid up for a couple weeks
afterwards. Let’s just say during my most recent travel to this gorgeous Northwest
city, I left with much better memories!

This trip, I was escorted by my
good friend Aefa, a lesbian travel writer who has called Vancouver home for
several years, and she showed me a much more fun time! The city is going through an
economic boom (unlike most of the U.S.), real estate prices are climbing, the
adjoining province of Alberta is flush with oil revenues, and the influx of
wealthy immigrants, especially from Asia, has added a sophisticated flair to
this metropolis of two million plus.

Vancouver is blessed with moderate weather
(well, moderate compared to the rest of Canada!), and tolerant West Coast
attitudes towards diversity. In fact, it is home to Canada’s largest LGBT
population west of Toronto. Of course, gays and lesbians have been allowed to
marry in Canada since 2005 (the fourth country in the world to grant full
marriage rights)! It was a welcome
relief from the conservative trends in the lower 48.

I stayed right on
Davie Street, the gay heart of the city where rainbow banners adorn the
lampposts and straights just adore frequenting the gay-popular bars,
restaurants and shops. Vancouver’s signature glass tower apartment buildings
rose up all around, overlooking the panorama of harbor and snow-capped
mountains. No wonder the film industry uses Vancouver (aka Hollywood North) to
film tons of movies and TV shows, including The L Word. There’s an
electricity in the air as the city prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and
major spending on infrastructure and general sprucing up going
on.

Vancouver’s populace is friendly and mellow, far from the rush rush
of the East Coast. (Bette Midler once quipped "I’ve never seen so much coffee in
all my life. And still nothing gets done any faster!")  Vancouverites also
embrace the outdoors, and even in early spring I saw joggers, kayakers, and
soccer players enjoying the city’s lush green spaces — namely scenic Stanley
Park, one of the world’s largest urban parks at 1,000 acres.

We also spent time
at Granville Island, another must-see filled with eclectic eateries and a
thriving theater scene. The weather wasn’t quite warm enough for me to drop trou
at Wreck Beach, one of the most famous nude beaches in the world, but I intend to do just that on my
next Vancouver vacation!

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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End in sight for ban on HIV-positive travelers?

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Statueofliberty_2
By Matthew Link

The year was 1987, at the height of the AIDS scare in the United States. On a bill to fund availability of the AIDS drug AZT, Sen. Jesse Helms from North Carolina added on an amendment that barred HIV-positive travelers from entering the United States, making America the most unfriendly nation in the world for HIV travelers.

In fact, in April 1989, Dutch AIDS educator Hans Verhoef was jailed for several days in St. Paul, Minnesota, when he tried to enter the U.S. to attend an AIDS conference, leading to international outrage and a boycott of HIV conferences by activists. No international conference on HIV/AIDS has been held in the United States since then. (There have been waivers for Gay Games participants in 2006, as well as for HIV-positive participants in the 2006 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.)

Well, the times they are finally changing. In 2007, Rep. Barbara Lee of California and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts sponsored the HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act, which will reverse Helms’ policy. The bill is currently being reviewed in committee, and many say will pass this year.

"It’s incredible that the federal government still tolerates a ban that not only restricts AIDS experts with the disease, but also refugees who are seeking asylum in our country," Kerry said. "My legislation will end this draconian law."

Personally, it still strikes me as incredible that the U.S., with its history of accepting the tired, the poor, and the wretched refuse of other shores allowed this law to stay on the books for so long. Maybe now America will finally deliver on its promises to indeed the most outcast people in the world.

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Gay travel in the national parks

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Grandcanyon
By Matthew Link

Many U.S. national parks may lie deep within the conservative confines of red states, but that doesn’t mean they are off-limits for gay travel. My boyfriend and I used to plan our road trips around visits to national parks — Death Valley in California, Crater Lake in Oregon, Yellowstone in Wyoming, Zion in Utah.

We’d pack up camping supplies, food, maps, hiking gear, and of course our dog, into the back of our four-wheeler and feel connected once again to this incredible country we live in. We never had any issues with the plethora of straight families we’d meet who dominate the parks, and we’d frequently meet other earthy gays trudging through the gorgeous scenery just like us.

And believe me, there are plenty of national park-loving gays out there. The under-the-radar popularity of gays and national parks was underscored when last year the parks’ main lodging concessionaire started marketing a bunch of vacation packages focused on gay travel that were successful beyond all expectations.

What’s more, if you pick the right national park, you can have a very lavender vacation experience indeed: Joshua Tree is less than an hour’s drive from over 30 gay and clothing-optional guest houses in Palm Springs. The Everglades is less than an hour’s drive from the gay Speedo scene on Miami’s South Beach. The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located on The Big Island, a place that over a dozen gay and lesbian B&Bs call home, as well as a couple of gay beaches. Zion has hosted gay mountain biking trips, and the Grand Canyon even has gay river rafting trips that frequently float through it!

So just don’t think that your gay vacation has to take place in a liberal metropolis to the exclusion of Mother Nature. After all, we are everywhere!

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Hit the slopes for gay ski week

Friday, February 15th, 2008

By Jeff Marsh

Jeff_snowmass2005
Because I live in Chicago, I have the annual dilemma of whether to use a week of my all-too-scarce time off to take a ski vacation or a beach vacation. With temps plunging below zero recently and piles of snow all around, you would think my choice would be a no-brainer. But while Mexico and Florida are frequently on my mind in wintertime, I inevitably head to a ski resort.

The majority of my ski vacations have been with my family, but this year I am headed to gay ski week in Telluride with friends. I still have many fond memories of my first gay ski week experience at Whistler several years ago. In the past, many gay ski weeks had the reputation of being nine-tenths circuit party and one-tenth sport, but times have changed. While the dance and pool parties are still on the schedule at ski weeks including Telluride, most of these events promote "unpretentious fun" with "zero attitude," which is just the way I like it.

One of my favorite things about a gay ski week vacation is the camaraderie. Every morning skiers with similar abilities gather in groups to attack the slopes. While I aspire to join the black diamond group someday, there are plenty of skiers — myself included — who stay on the blue intermediate runs. It is nearly impossible not to make new friends from all over whether it be on the slopes, at the lodge, or at the numerous après ski activities. And who wouldn’t enjoy drag queen downhill races with a champagne bar at the finish line?

Telluride may be Colorado’s "Best Kept Secret," but from February 23 through March 1 the secret will be OUT!  See you on the slopes!

Upcoming gay ski weeks:

Telluride — Feb. 23-Mar. 1, 2008
Lake Tahoe Winterfest — Mar. 2-9, 2008
Elevation at Mammoth Mountain — Mar. 12-16, 2008

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Jeff Marsh takes great pride in having created the first-ever TV ad with gay puppets and airing it on Bravo before the Runway was even built.

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Finding a gay-friendly hotel

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Gayblog
By Matthew Link

Once on a Jerusalem vacation, my boyfriend and I checked into a small mainstream hotel. When I made the reservation, I had asked for one queen-size bed (pardon the pun). I hadn’t mentioned we were two men traveling together, so when we showed up at the front desk the lady looked flustered. "Oh, this reservation is wrong!" she exclaimed. "You men need two beds."

We got to our room, and tried to move the two single beds together to form one bed — a trick we had barely succeeded at before, since someone always ends up falling through the crack in the middle of the night. We soon realized the small room couldn’t be rearranged, so we gave up and spent a night sleeping as "singles" on what should have otherwise been a romantic journey.

In my years of traveling, I have learned this two-bed calamity is horribly common in the gay travel world. Sometimes in traditional places like Jerusalem, there’s simply no way to get around the cultural issues of two men sharing a bed. But there are strategies that help.

The first is that I look for hotels that make themselves known as specifically gay-owned or gay-managed, versus simply "gay friendly." At least then I know there will be "family" on the premises who will understand. Another thing I do is stay in gay parts of town, where even the most mainstream hotels will have a concierge who doesn’t blink when asked about the local gay scene.

I also keep my eyes out for hotels that make a concerted effort to
support gays and lesbians by advertising
in gay media or by supporting gay events and charities, and ones that
do gay sensitivity training for their staff and offer domestic
partnership benefits to their employees. Organizations like the Human
Rights Campaign regularly rate companies on their gay-friendliness — a
good place to start. A little homework like this has helped me avoid
waking up sandwiched in the chasm between two mattresses — and made my gay travel experiences much better!

Related Orbitz resources:


Matthew Link (not pictured, incidentally, in the stock image above) is the Editor At Large for The Out Traveler magazine, as
well as a contributor to Newsweek. Having been to over 60 countries and
all 7 continents doesn’t keep him from getting on the next plane away
from his home in New York City.

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Gay travel in the Caribbean: Curacao

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

Curaco_beachBy Jeff Marsh 

My passport expired this past summer. It wasn’t my first passport since I initially went abroad in high school on one of those "If it’s Tuesday, this must be Brussels" whirlwind tours of Europe. However, my last passport recorded some of the most amazing trips in my adult life, including adventures in Australia, South America and Africa. Noticeably absent, however, were stamps from countries in the Caribbean.

I, like most gay and lesbian travelers, am well aware of the homophobic reputation of many of the islands in the Caribbean. While I don’t think it’s fair to proclaim any destination as "homophobic" based on a small but vocal group of people, the fact remains that as a gay man I am not welcome at several traditionally conservative Caribbean nations. The good news is that there are a handful of gay-friendly oases in the Caribbean, and I am glad that the first stamp in my new passport is from Curacao.

(more…)

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