This fall, Europe has once again come up with what you might call another pair of milestones in gay/lesbian visibility in general, and travel in particular: dedicated gay tourist offices in London and Amsterdam (not surprisingly, both in countries headed by queens).

The Dutch came (so to speak) first by a nose, when Amsterdam’s mayor presided over the August 29 opening of the Gay Tourist Information Centre (GAYtic), right downtown near Dam Square at Spuistraat 44. Run by an adjacent shop called Gays & Gadgets, it offers got a “kit” ready for all fags and dykes who wander in, including a gay map; a pair of local queer rags; up-to-date flyers, brochures, and party invites; discount coupon book; and a “surprise gadget.”  Knowing the Dutch, I’m almost afraid to ask about that last one. Anyway, the idea is to order said kit online at their site ahead of time, but if you just show up (Monday-Saturday 11am-8pm, Sunday noon-8pm), I’m sure you’ll be well taken care of.

Meanwhile, London’s Gay Tourist Office opened on October 22, also at a very conveniently central address: 30 Lisle Street, just off Leicester Square and right up the street from Picadilly Circus. Open daily except Sunday from noon till 6, it’s got knowledgeable staff, all sorts of queeraphernalia, ticket booking, WiFi, general tourist info, and even bar service (speaking of bars, conveniently, it’s just upstairs from one of London’s more popular homo watering holes, the two-level Ku Bar). Frankly, at the moment it’s much better for walk-ins than online; web site’s still pretty basic (if you want to try some sodomitic searching before leaving home, you’re better off trying a bunch of others, like DiscoDamaged.com, GayLondon.co.uk, GayLondonTravel.com, LondonGay.co.uk, London.GayCities.com, LondonGayMan.co.uk, QXMagazine, and SeenQueen.com).

Like you or I or anyone needs yet another social network to keep track of, right? But if you’re interested in travel — including gay travel — this one I recently discovered could be worth your while.  One of the main values of belonging to Go-Lo.net’s “Gay/Lesbian Travel” group, as with the rest of its more than 230 destination and topic groups, is that a good number of your fellow members are actually travel writers, editors, tour operators, travel agents, and other experts and insider types. What that means is you have the chance to ask the folks in the front lines of gay travel whatever your little homo heart desires. For example, through the group I recently found out that a joint in Madrid I’d seen touted as one of the world’s top gay hostels was considered by a gay blogger in Spain to be high-priced and low-quality. This kind of inside info can be really helpful in planning a trip, lemme tell you.  Anyway, just to let you know, since I joined Go-Lo, I’m listed as a “member expert” on the Gay/Lesbian Travel group. So if you see me on there, do say hi!

Yours truly,
Dave

Tervist! I just got back from my first visit since just after this tiny Baltic country broke free of that nasty old Soviet Union in the early 1990s. And though its fairytale Old Town was beautiful back then, today it’s also alive, hopping, and yes, even a wee bit gay (putting the “fairy” in “fairytale,” as it were).

First things first. Tallinn’s no longer hard to get to. A two-hour ferry ride across the Baltic Sea from Helsinki, it’s also reachable by air, connecting from the U.S. via Czech Airlines, Finnair, KLM/Air France/Northwest, and Lufthansa, also from Europe on carriers including easyJet and Estonian Air.

Old Town was positively buzzing, with both tourists and locals, day and long into the night. There are lots of fab restaurants these days, from the admittedly touristy, medieval-themed Olde Hansa to nouvelle Estonian and a plethora of world cuisines. Especially gay popular are Klafira Russian restaurant, Public House, and Ribe. This last in particular is a real treat — modern decor, wonderful nouvelle continental cuisine, and every single waiter tasty eye candy (hmm, I wonder what queen is doing the hiring here!). I stayed at a class-A boutique hotel called the Telegraaf; others that actively court queers are the Domina Inn City, the Domina Inn Ilmarine, and the Reval Hotel Olümpia.

Stuff to see includes the Kiek in de Kök (”Peep in the Kitchen,” a round 15th-century tower so named for its views over the Old Town); Peter the Great’s Kadriorg Palace; the Russian-built Alexander Nevsky Cathedral; the evocative ruins of the Pirita convent; and the Estonian Open-Air Museum, with buildings transplanted from villages throughout this country the size of New Jersey plus Massaschusetts. There’s plenty more where that came from, plus lots of concerts and culture (the city’s even been chosen as a “European Capital of Culture” for 2011).

But no doubt you’re wondering, what about the gay scene? While it’s hardly on a par with, say, London or Paris (or even Helsinki), there are by now a handful of centrally located clubs like Angel, G-punkt, and X-baar, which attract plenty of cool people, both guys and gals. Plus there are even several bath houses and sex clubs. The best (so I’ve, er, heard) is Ring Club, but a couple of others also well worth trying at Club Hell and Club 69.

Believe me, you won’t regret giving Tallin a try. If you’re interested in an organized tour with a bent bent, check out Pink Baltics, based in next-door Latvia. But it’s easy to navigate on your own. For general info, check out Tourism Tallinn; for gay info, the sodomitic section of Tallinn-Life.com.

yours truly,
Dave

I’ve gotta say, this burg on Puget Sound does makes for a swell vacation visit, with a spectacular setting and cool spots to visit like Pioneer Square, Underground Seattle, Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and the nearby San Juan islands. Furthermore, in the United States it pretty much doesn’t get any gay-friendlier, with progressives in charge and plenty of queer nightspots to choose from, both around Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

So it’s a just a wee bit odd that it took the tourism folks hereabouts this long to come up with an “official” LGBT visitor’s guide. But hey, better late than never.  Done in partnership with the local fag rag Mo Magazine, and being distributing as of the past several weeks, the full-color 30-page guide has plenty of good info, listings, and maps. Just leafing through it made me realize, I’ve gotta do a post on Seattle real soon!

In the meantime, check out the Seattle CVB’s homo page and request a printed LGBT visitor’s guide at www.VisitSeattle.org/visitors/lgbt, or check the guide out online at http://MoSeattle.com.

yours truly,
Dave

Well, it’s that time of year again — Pride month!  And this time around it’s a bigger deal that usual — especially in New York City, because this is where it all began 40 years ago at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. So the Big Apple’s tourism outfit, NYC & Company, decided to piggyback on Pride this year — starting this coming weekend with a rally on June 20 and ending with the march and Greenwich Village street party the following weekend, on the 28th — by for the first time pouring $1.9 million into an official and international PR/marketing push, trumpeted on its Web site, www.NYCGo.com/gay, and including heavy-hitting partners like Travelocity. It all amounts to an APB for all fags and dykes to come to mama this summer.  Now if the state pols could only get their act together and pass marriage equality — I mean really, The Empire State is gonna let Iowa show it up? Anyway, get the full scoop on the week of NYC Pride events at www.NYCPride.org.

Yours truly,
Dave

Oy, so how schizo is this? Even as rightwingers headed by Likud’s Bibi Netanyahu and the even more hardline (and probably half-meshuge) Avigdor Lieberman take the reins in the Promised Land, the local queens are doing plenty of reigning of their own, from Eilat to Galilee. Gay adoption’s cool; the military’s perfectly happy to accept homos (showing what babies many of our own generals are); same-sex couples have common-law marriage rights; and many Israelis seem to have an admirable “live-and-let-live” ethos.

OK, I said many. It’s not as if the black-hats in Jerusalem — you know, the nutjobs  who go around in all that heavy Polish-shtetl drag in 100-degree heat and that stone cars for driving in their nabes on the Sabbath — have suddenly gone all rainbow-friendly. Jerusalem, Haifa, and the resort town of Eilat have their scenes, and even their own Pride parades (this year, June 25, June 19, and May 15, respectively), but sodomitically speaking, the main event in Israel — actually, make that the entire Middle East — has always been more sophisticated, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv. Here there’s no shortage of gay cafés, nightspots, even a bath house, and the Labor-Party-controlled city hall boasts a “gay affairs” advisor. And this year, as part of its centennial hoo-ha, the Big Orange is officially going out of its way to make the city’s eleventh Pride celebration this June 12 a bigger deal than usual, tucking a few shekels into its budget to upgrade the parade from Gan Meir Park to Gordon Beach and the post-parade party, along with adding events like movie screenings and a book fair.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Tourism (now headed by some Russian dude who’s a member of Lieberman’s rightwing party, no less) has gone so far as to help launch a gay Israel tourism site featuring pics of hunky guys draped all over each other at Tel Aviv’s beach and chock full of info on what to do, where to go out, where to cruise, you name it. The local tourism folks promote the sodo scene, and even the national airline, El Al, has joined the fun, pissing off more than a few rightwing rabbis by this year for the first time putting together air-hotel packages for Pride weekend.

Kind of amazing, ain’t it? I tell you, I’m a little verklempt…

your truly,
Dave

I caught this on April 14 and thought you might be interested in having a peek. Considering all the sodomy and diketry going on down here, when it comes to Pride events, Miami’s always been left in the dust by neighboring Fort Lauderdale and Key West. But this year for the very first time, the local finally pulled itself together enough to pull off a pretty good parade, attracting some 20,000 to Ocean Drive on the afternoon of Sat., April 18. Patti LaBelle was grand marshall and Miami Beach mayor Matti Herrera was joined by a number of local politicians in participating. Enjoy!

yours truly,
Dave

Hey, haole boyz and girlz, just a quick note that might give you an extra reason to head to Hawaii in just over a month if you haven’t made plans and are looking for someplace to go. The upcoming Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival is celebrating its 20th edition this May 21-24, and an affordable and very gay-friendly local hotel chain is marking the occasion by offering a four-night online package at five of its hotels, starting at $130 a night. At Aqua Aloha Surf & Spa, Aqua Bamboo & Spa, Aqua Palms & Spa, Aqua Waikiki Wave and Park Shore Waikiki, the local chain Aqua Hotels & Resorts is throwing in two VIP admissions to all screenings, a pair of tickets to the Gayla Party at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and a couple of mai tais at the iconic local bar Hula’s. A swell reason to hit Waikiki, check out some cool queer flix, and enjoy several nights with a cool hotel chain that’s very much a friend of the family!  For more on the scene, check out my posting from this past September.

Sioux City and Gemorrah?  Field of Queens? Once again, the Hawkeye State has shown that contrary to the insulting stereotype, not all of the “heartland” is irredeemably bigoted and brain dead. By now everyone knows that on April 3 the state’s supreme court opened the door for Iowa to on April 24 become only the third state to provide marriage equality to gays and lesbians — and it’ll be open to non-Iowans as well! What you may not know is that if you’re looking to get hitched or just for an affordable vacation spot this summer that combines outdoorsy charms with some pretty respectable culture and sophisticated fun, Iowa’s well worth a gander.

Most people, if they know anything about the state, inevitably think of cornfields — especially the Field of Dreams baseball diamond in Dyersville (even 20 years later, it still draws a respectable tourist trade). Some might recall that Grant Wood, famous for painting the stick-up-the-butt couple of “American Gothic,” was from here. Throughout this 56,000 square miles there’s also oodles of golf and plenty of outdoorsy, nature-oriented stuff to do. Fall foliage? Check. The five famous covered bridges of Madison County? Check. And one of the “quirkier” attractions here, which appeals to me because of my family background, is Cedar Rapids’ National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, the top spot of its kind in America.

But there’s a cultured, even hip side to the state, too. Capital Des Moines has its cool gentrified nabes filled with shops and dining spots, such as the East Village, not to mention a good art museum (others can be found in Davenport and Cedar Rapids). Davenport has its music festivals, Iowa City an honest-to-goodness serious literary vibe, and if you’re an American history buff and/or Log Cabin type, check out the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. Or not.

Finally, there’s enough of a queer community here that at least nine Iowa cities can support gay clubs. First and foremost, of course, is Des Moines, which even has a little bit of a scene, with four clubs including The Garden and The Blazing Saddle.  Davenport, Cedar Rapids, and Sioux City at last count had a pair each — certainly enough to make your evenings a little more happy and homo.

This is all just scratching the surface of course, so for more info have a look at tourism info sites like TravelIowa.com, IowaTourism.com, IowaBeautiful.com, and VisitIowa.org. It’s funny (well, maybe “funny’s” not quite the right word) — the state’s tourism slogan is “Life Changing.”  As of April 2009, that sucker’s gonna take on a whole new meaning.

Yours truly,
Dave

Now that all the karnaval kraziness is behind us for the year, this time out I thought I’d focus a bit on Brazil’s incomparável city of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding areas. For my money, cosmopolitan Rio’s one of the most spectacularly located big cities in the world hands down — right up there with Hong Kong and Cape Town, its highrises, legendary beaches, and iconic Sugar Loaf hill backing up against leading from quaint, cobblestone-paved neighborhoods like Santa Teresa into the dense, way atmospheric Tijuca Forest.

Beaches first, of course — all 23 of ‘em. Ever heard of Ipanema and Copacabana? No?  Hahaha, well, the world-famous C-span, along Avenida Atlântica in the eponymous Copacabana neighborhood, is of course the centerpiece here. Just south of it, Ipanema’s a close second, a notch above, and of greater relevance to Our Crowd because of a couple of gay-popular sections called Posto 9 and especially Farme (the latter so named because it lies at the end of a street called Rua Farme de Amoedo). After ogling all the barbies (muscleboys) stop by for a pick-me-up — that, who knows, could even turn into a pick-up — at a gay-popular joint on Farme de Amoedo calle Bar Bofetada (a perhaps slightly S&M-ish name, meaning “slap”).

Other highlights: Centro (downtown) with its cathedral, museums, and a variety of archecture dating back to the 17th century; taking the cable car up to Corcovado and Sugar Loaf for the wowsa views; going on an eye-opening organized tour of one of the favelas (hillside slums); watching a samba school practice its moves for the next Carnaval; the samba and bossa nova music clubs; fabulous dining including lots of all-you-can-eat Brazilian-style barbecue joints; hiking in lush Tijuca Forest; wandering the picturesque colonial streets of Santa Teresa; hopping a ferry out to Paquirá island, which is kind of like Santa Teresa surrounded by water. Oh, and mustn’t forget the Carmen Miranda museum! Boom-chicka-boom, baby…

Rio’s gay scene, meanwhile, is one of the kickiest in Latin America — probably the best once you factor in the beach (having said that, I should add that it doesn’t necessarily cater to the more baroque tendencies — leather, fetish, etc.). Apart from the circuit-party extravaganzas, there are dozens of venues from intimate bars (the Copa Café’s a fave) to big-box dance clubs (the long-running Le Boy is still a reliable choice, and has its own bath house in the basement). Speaking of bath houses, there are more than a dozen others; another of the better ones is Gayligola downtown).

By the way, there are lots of neat side-trip options, too — for example to the fetching mountain town of Petrópolis, once the capital of the empire that Brazil was for 67 years more than a century ago (you can still visit the imperial palace). Then of course there’s the string of funky-to-chic beach towns along the coast — especially Búzios, a two-hour drive from Rio (way farther south on the coast is Florianópolis, which has turned into something of a gay-friendly beach hotspot — more on that in an upcoming post).

Finally, don’t forget The Gay Translator and Hot! International/Lesbian — with all the Portuguese you’ll need to pick up that special boy (or girl) from Ipanema. Olha, que coisa mais linda!

For more info, start at the Riotur web site; good sites to start at for gay-specific details include RioGayGuide.com and RioGayLife.com.

Yours truly,
Dave