A year ago I did two surveys of gay bath houses in various western European cities. Now you’ll be thrilled to learn that in the less than two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain, many of our bent brethren in Central and Eastern Europe have been busily building their sodomitic scenes with a respectable smattering of sex palaces. Nothing that I know of yet in countries like Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, and Lithuania, and Bulgaria — but Czech out the 11 below!

Bratislava, Slovakia  For years the Slovaks were lagging in the sex club department, but since fall 2006 the small but spiffy Club Sauna Expert has been steaming away in their capital city, just over the Danube from Vienna. Tuesdays and Thursday “partner days” especially worth trying, since more boys pop in to take advantage of the discount for two dudes entering together. (By the way, the Czech phrases in The Gay Translator should work just dandy here, ano? Slovak’s very similar.)

Budapest, Hungary  One of Eastern/Central Europe’s homo hotspots, it probably has the most must-see bath houses of all, because apart from a couple of what you and I think of as “gay saunas,” what blows you away here are the amazing traditional old bath houses that can get pretty cruisy (and even a spot o’ “action,”  if you’re discreet). The Gellért is an Art Nouveau classic, while Turkish baths like Király and Rudas (see pic above) are even more amazingly atmospheric, like something out of the Arabian nights (get pics and info in English at SpasBudapest.com). As for out-and-out sex baths, two-year-old Magnum is big and busy, while Sauna 69 is pretty roomy, too, and a fave with younger guys. You’re sure to find Attila the honey here…

Cracow, Poland  The most lovely and historic city in Poland (also spelled Krakow) may also be one of its most conservative (it spawned Pope John Paul II and the country’s Catholic Church is based here). But even so, you can get your rocks off at the three-floor Spartakus, right smack across from the famous Wawel Castle. It’s actually been around since way back in 1990, and has held up pretty well. You can even sun your buns on a deck with a fetching Old City view!  

Lubljiana, Slovenia  In this picturesque little alpine capital, once part of Yugoslavia, it’s time to hit the Gymnasium. Though on three floors, it isn’t huge (just 40 lockers, for example), but it is cute, clean, and the only game in town!  Keep in mind it also closes on the early side – 10 or 11 pm.

Moscow, Russia  Beefcake Vlad Putin and his thugs may be pretty anti-goluboi, but you can’t exactly say Moscow does not believe in queers; the scene’s booming, including a handful of banyi, several of them pretty elaborate Tops (so to speak) are Mayakovka and Voda (with a pool and everything); for a change of pace, the smaller but fetching Samovolka might also be worth a stop.  

Prague, Czech Republic  Magical Praha was considered teplá (gay) – relatively speaking, of course — even back during Communist times, but these days it’s positively flaming, with more than a dozen spots to exercise your equipment.  Some of those are sex shops, of course, but let’s start with the trio of baths. Biggest , best and most central, with a decade under its, er, towel, is Babylonia (above), tucked down a side street right downtown conveniently near Wenceslas Square and Old Town Square. There are also a couple of small ones a little more off the beaten path, Sauna Marco and Club David (the latter a cozy little two-story spot that used to be a bar of the same name when I lived here). There seem to be as many sex clubs hereabouts; they include the granddaddy of the scene, Drake’s, as well as Alcatraz (under a gay bar, a little fetishy) and several others.

Riga, Latvia  A tiny country it may be, but it’s got an increasingly hip, fun capital with a small but reasonably diverse gay scene including two bath houses: Varaviksne (Alfreda Kalnina iela 4. First gay sauna, connected with XXL club and Hotel Centrum. www.gayhotel.lv) and XDREAM Vlub  Artilerijas iela 34. Spacious complex consisting of hotel upstairs, sauna downstairs, bar.

St. Petersburg, Russia  The banya is a major part of traditional Russian culture, so in this elegant city of the czars regular baths like Yamskiye, Baltiskiye, and Nyevskiye can be cruisy, but it’s kind of AYOR. The best and most surefire option is three-year old 158-B, a bit off the beaten path away from the city center. Some really cool touches here, too, like a pool area tarted up to look like a cave, and a bar area with a log-dacha (cabin) kinda vibe.  

Tallinn, Estonia  Another tiny Baltic bombshell, Estonia’s got a cool capital with a fairytale Old Town and lots – albeit fairly low-key — of places for fairies to hang out, especially considering its size. The main bath house here, in business since ’ 01, is Club 69, not enormous (it holds around 40) but popular with locals and tourists alike (lots of Scandinavians, naturally — this town is practically in Finland’s back yard). You might also give the Ring Club, a bar/sex club just outside city center, a whirl.  

Warsaw, Poland  If you’re looking for some Poles (ahem) galore in this country’s capital, you’ve got a threesome to choose from. Probably the biggest and most elaborate (which ain’t saying too much) is Fantom, in business since ’ 94. You might also consider trying the also small Galla and Favola.

Zagreb, Croatia  Though not as tourist-popular as Dubrovnik and Split, I can tell you from experience that the country’s capital is a pretty nice city to visit, and certainly with more to do gaywise. That includes two smallish but clean and fetching saunas, Bumerang and David-Aquateam.  

The only country in the world to, in another nightmarish lifetime, systematically murder homosexuals on a mass scale has in the last several generations become one of the gay friendliest. These days in Germany, even a relatively stuffy, conservative area like Bavaria can be home to a city like Munich, which as I noted here last year has a gay city council member and a boatload of cool queer stuff to do – even a gay hotel with bath house attached, fer cryin’ out loud. And let’s not even talk about Berlin, with its faggot mayor and anything-goes nightlife… (Well, OK, I’ll be doing that in ’09).

And now the Volk at the German National Tourist Office have been busy beavering away on all sorts of online promotions. This fall on Britain’s www.GayGermany.co.uk, the GNTO ran a first-of-its-kind interactive promotion with a bunch of videos of fags ’n’ dykes talking about Germany. Now the GNTO’s U.S. site, ComeToGermany.com, has just put the finishing touches on a swell mini-portal with lots of awesome info on Deutschland’s homo capitals: Berlin and Munich, of course, as well as Cologne (site of the Gay Games in 2010), Frankfurt, and Hamburg. Granted, the portal’s prominent shot (right) of two Teutonic twinks is a little fruity for my taste, but take my word for it – there are some smokin’ dudes and babes over there, along with some of Europe’s loveliest non-human architecture and scenery. I promise, you’ll be able to put your Gay German for Love & Hookups or The Gay Translator to sehr gut use. 

In fact, heck — thinking about it, I’m hitting the Lufthansa web site to check the fares for January, cold or no cold…Yours truly,
Dave

Salut, dudes! As I pointed out in my May 4th post, Montreal is horny for gay business – but I didn’t realize quite how horny until I heard about the 45-second video ad recently launched online by Tourisme Montréal. A scruffy, longhaired, and totally cute dude – presumably the “Dave” of the title, and yes, I am at least as cute as he is — is standing on a distinguished street in front of a horsedrawn tourist buggy.  

There he is, droning on fetchingly on about how there’s so much more to the city than the fabulous gay scene. Meanwhile, behind him, the buggy starts shaking, rattling and rolling, until finally two other hot dudes emerge from under the canopy, straightening their clothes in that unmistakable way, just as narrator boy concludes, “Montreal has this anything-goes reputation, but if you ask me, I think it’s a little exaggerated.” (Click on the image above to check it out).

Last I heard, the tourism folks claim they only got a single complaint. Canada’s far from perfect, but could you imagine even New York or San Francisco getting away with this?

Let me say again: if you haven’t been, put it on your list for next spring or summer. And don’t forget to take along Gay French for Love & Hookups!

Yours truly,

The Other Dave

Whew, what a relief – the United States (and the world) has been saved from a more or less continuation of the catastrophe of the last eight years; gained a historic milestone with its first black President-elect; made Congress less anti-gay; and chosen the less anti-gay presidential ticket, one that for the most part will not actively obstruct equal rights for all (though let’s not forget, Barack may have given us a shout-out in Grant Park, but both he and Biden still give the backs of their hands to equal marriage rights).

But at the same time, it’s painfully apparent that homophobia is still alive and vibrantly stupid, mean-spirited, and scared in this country. The latest slap in the face was the ardent desire of a majority of the electorates of Florida, Arizona, and – especially sad and surprising – California. And despite the fact that Florida and California were key in helping put Obama-Biden over the top, they also screwed the GL community in the bottom – by a fairly narrow margin in California but by large margins in Florida (nearly 2/3 of the electorate) and Arizona (more than half). That means a lot of Obama voters think that fags and dykes need and deserve to stay at the back of the bus.

Speaking as a member of the travel media, it’s not easy for me to propose this, but our community needs to send a message to a pair of states that have profited handsomely from not just from the considerable contributions and taxes of its gay and lesbian citizens but from lesbian and gay tourism from the rest of the United States and the world. That message can only come in the form of a travel boycott to register our shock, dismay, and anger over the nasty desperation of a majority of Californians and Floridians to enshrine discrimination in their state constitutions. We here at GayBabel and I in my other writing will for the foreseeable future not be covering or promoting travel to Florida, California, or Arizona, and we will be seeking to move our base of operations out of Florida as soon as is feasible.

Yes, unfortunately the statewide boycott is a blunt instrument – it’s certainly not fair to penalize places like Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Miami Beach, Palm Springs, Sedona, and San Francisco for the bigotry of their states’ majorities, but this kind of politics works at the state level, and we have to address it at the state level. And I don’t expect much support from the gay media; friends and acquaintances I’ve spoken to about it are understandably reluctant because they draw a lot of advertising from gay tourism businesses in these states. Never mind that such a boycott could be a wakeup call to help light a fire under local gay communities that they are enabling discrimination against themselves unless they really mobilize and make their fellow citizens realize that bigotry has a real cost. It will cost advertising, and pocketbook trumps principle.

But as for you, dear reader, there are plenty of other marvelous places that welcome you and your relationships openly and proudly. I recommend you give them your business instead, spending your money and expanding your horizons in visiting places where you are not hated and feared. Life is too short.

Yours truly,
Dave

Even as lots of folks are cutting back on travel during these tougher economic times, there’s one group that has done so notably less: fags ’n’ dykes — for whatever reason, whether it’s because they’ve got more of the travel bug or just fewer family responsibilities. And increasingly, “mainstream” travel sellers are not only taking notice but jumping into the gay tourism market with downright gusto, finally graduating from token offerings to some real substance.

Just over a week ago, a venerable travel wholesaler called Happy Vacations became the first to roll out an elaborate, comprehensive line of trips n tours designed just for us – and they even put it front and center on their Web site home page, unlike other travel vendors who discreetly tuck their gay/lesbian sections away so as to not scare the horses. Then lo and behold, this week another longtime mainstream outfit called Certified Vacations announced that it’s teaming up with the Damron Guides to launch its own GLBT brand.

Happy’s brand, called Life Journeys Vacations, seems to be concentrating for now on the Pacific and Latin America, with programs to Australia, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Mexico, New Zealand, and Tahiti. Nifty extras include a honeymoon (homomoon?) registry and donating part of your booking fee to a foundation they’ve set up to help queer causes. Meanwhile, the starting lineup at Damron Vacations includes select spots in Europe (Barcelona, London, Paris), Mexico (Cancun, Puerto Vallarta), the Pacific (Hawaii), and the U.S./Canada (Fort Lauderdale, Key West, Las Vegas, Miami, Montreal, New York, San Francisco – what, no Branson??).

Who knows, if this trend continues, the second decade of the 21st century could turn into a Golden Age of Gay Travel…or would it be a Lavender Age…?

Yours truly,
Dave

Earlier this year I reported from the rollicking Carnaval in Barranquilla, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The country’s capital is another kettle of fish altogether – and as it turns out, a blast (er, hoot) to visit any time of year, not just at Carnaval time.  Almost 9,000 feet up in the Andes mountains, this sprawling city of 7 million is cool both temperature-wise and in most other ways — from sightseeing to partying – and these days it’s as or more safe to visit as most other big cities in Latin America. Furthermore, I’d have to say Bogotá is even one of the better gay travel destinations south of the border. Heck, these days local fags and dykes have even managed to win more legal rights than in most U.S. states. If you’re interested in checking it out (and there are more flights being added from North America every month, even in this day and age), there are two main words to remember: Candelaria and Chapinero. La Candelaria is the 16th-century, 2¼-square-mile Old Town, which even though it’s so atmospheric but still far more local-feeling than touristy. The sloping streets (some but not all cobblestone) are lined with all sorts of great shops (emeralds are a local specialty), eateries, elaborate churches, and museums (my faves are the ones showcasing colonial history; artist Fernando Botero, and especially pre-Columbian gold artifacts); just above it, you’ll want to hop the cable car up nearby Monserrate hill for some panoramic city views. You can stay cheap at several hostels or more upscale at a pair of boutique properties — Hotel de la Ópera and Hotel Casa de la Botica — both in gorgeously restored old buildings.  An easy cab ride away, the other nabe, Chapinero, is where you’ll find a bodacious batch of queer nightspots. And practically half of them, it seems, are contained in one building, a mammoth former theater now called Theatron. This baby’s got seven very different spaces to hang out in, from the huge main disco to an outdoor terrace to a leather-and-beer bar. If you want throngs of cute Latin boys, you practically don’t need to go anywhere else. And yet, there are plenty of other smaller venues worth a gander, too, like Dash, Blues Bar, and Roxy Gogo; I’d also recommend a trip downtown to a mixed club called Cha Cha, 46 floors up in a skyscraper (hot crowd and of course va-va-voom views). And don’t forget, too, that for getting naked and cutting right to the chase there’s also a handful of steamy saunas like Babylon Baths. You can bunk in this area, too, in places like the Rosales Plaza and Hoteles America – and as of this past spring there’s even a gay property called High Park Hotel. So yeah, especially if you build in some time for day trips into nearby coffee country or colonial towns – and/or pair Bogotá with several days in the spectacular colonial city of Cartagena up on the Caribbean – I’d say Colombia’s capital would be worth your hard-earned vacation dollar, especially if you’ve already been to places like Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. I know I’ll be back soon.Get more info, BTW, at BogotaTourism.travel, VisitBogota.turismo, VisitColombia.com, and of course ColombiaGay.com.  And of course don’t forget to tote along Gay Spanish for Love + Hookups or The Gay Translator!Yours truly,Dave

Golly, I know the Tories in power up there now tend to be right-wingers, eh — but really…

OK, actually this is about extreme sports, not extreme politics, and also shows the degree to which the gay travel industry is diversifying. Remember when it was enough for gay tour operators  to offer just a boys’ week in Rio or Provence, or a queer cruise of the Caribbean? Then in more recent years, the adventure travel market started going gay, and gay ski weeks became popular.

So OK, you poofter powderhounds, get ready for the next level. Normally I wouldn’t be inclined to do an entire post on a single tour-operator product, but this coming April 11th to 18th an outfit called Canadian Mountain Holidays will be kicking it all up a notch by offering the first-ever Gay Heli-Ski Week. You know heli-skiing, where they chopper you way the hell out in the middle of some mountain range and drop you onto a virgin slope. In this case it’s the Selkirks range in southeastern British Columbia. For the occasion, CMH has rented out a cozy resort called the Gothics Lodge, is getting together a group of 34 fags and dykes, and is promising 100,000-foot verticals and après-ski friskiness like a “longjohns-and-lingerie” party.

One thing, though: it’s not exactly what you’d call cheap — $5,500 Canadian (at the moment that’s US$5,060), though that does include round-trip transfers from Calgary airport, all meals, and non-alcoholic bevvies.  But if you’re a hardcore schusser who likes to travel gay, this sounds like it could be a real keeper. Get more details at CMHSki.com/gayheliski or 800.661.0252. Then go ahead and get yer poles polished and ready…

Yours truly,
Dave

Bonjour, everybody! Before this month draws to a close I just wanted to mention the latest nice little mention of our books in the gay media. This time it was in A. Sebastian Fortino’s excellent multi-part look in Edge Boston at the surprisingly sodomy-friendly city of Avignon (more drag queens per capita than Paris, apparently!), in Provence, France. In his nightlife segment, which ran Sept. 15, after several detailed reviews of local queer clubs with names like L’Esclave (“The Slave”), he nicely adds:

“However, if you should meet someone special and don’t exactly speak the same language make sure you have a copy of [Dave] Acton’s Gay French for Love and Hookups, available for $9.95 from www.GayBabel.net where you can also find the book available in other languages. This handy, attractive and petite guide is a reliable source from which you can comfortably and easily learn phrases such as Tu est très mignon (You are very cute) or Je ne t’oublierai jamais (I’ll never forget you).”

Well, he left out all the really juicy stuff of course, but you get the idea. I also got a note from the dude telling me how much the book livened up his trip. Well, naturellement!

Yours truly,

Dave

Aloha from my long, somewhat grueling flight home from Honolulu. But it’s been well worth even enduring Continental’s tender mercies, because I had an awesome time and learned a lot I hadn’t really fully realized about the United States’ most exotic state, way out in the middle of the Pacific. Living on the East Coast all my life, I’d never had a burning desire to make the long slog to Hawaii, because for island paradises, well, the Caribbean’s practically next door — and besides, I so wasn’t into the hokey lei-and-luau thing. But at long last I got out to Oahu and Maui this past week — people, I was blown away, and boy will I be back very soon. Sure enough, there’s a bit of the hokey lei-and-luau thang goin’ on, but there’s so much more to this six-island chain. Obviously gorgeous beaches and landscapes, for starters. The Caribbean boasts those, too, but these islands are also much cleaner, less poverty-stricken, and more orderly (great roads, not strewn with trash). Not to mention friendlier and safer, at least than much of the English-speaking Caribbean. I spent much of my time roaming the fetching isle of Maui — the most popular vaycay destination, it’s got touism/resort enclaves like Wailea and Ka’anapali on the west coast and small but bustling towns like touristy but historic Lahaina, mallish but fun Kihei, and crunchy/boho Paia. But there’s also plenty of farmland, rainforest, nature reserves, and sleepy spots like Hana on the northeast coast, home to lots of native Hawaiians and unspoiled nature, at the end of a famously twisty coast road called the Hana Highway. I capped it off with several days on Oahu, site of big city Honolulu and its legendary Waikiki tourist district, but also fab beaches and surfing all around the coasts, especially up north. Here you’ll also find lots of pan-Asian (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.) flavor — sometimes it can almost feel like Japan. And BTW, for a very quick rundown of the other islands, the “Big Island” of Hawaii is where all the volcanoes are, and less developed/more “local” Hawaiian-flavored than Oahu and Maui. Kauai is even more unspoiled, while still having a bit of a tourism infrastructure (including a gay B&B, the clothing-optional Kalanikai). Molokai and Lanai are the most unspoiled of all — very Hawaiian and rural.

OK, now to the faggotry angle. Old Hawaiian culture was pretty much bisexual and made no big deal over upi laho (gay sex), but as usual the Christian missionaries fucked that up but good. Nonetheless, today Hawaii’s a tremendous gay travel destination — still more tolerant than most places in America, a mix of on the surface (in Honolulu) and underneath (practically everywhere else). That includes the governor’s office; folks in the tourism industry told me that twice-divorced “moderate” Republican Linda Lingle is a closeted dyke, which makes her kissing up to John McCain and Sarah Palin (especially all that gushing over Moose Mommy at last month’s GOP convention) particularly repulsive. Great, yet another enabling hypocrite à la Charlie Crist, Larry Craig, and Mark Foley. Oh, well, maybe she’s just got a crush on Alaska’s bonkers but babelicious biyatch).

Politics aside, there’s a pretty considerable gay presence here (though not always immediately obvious outside Honolulu), and the local tourism industry is in the midst of a bit of a push to attract more GL visitors. [Note: just a week after I posted this, the Honolulu Advertiser ran a piece called “Waikiki Warms to Gay, Lesbian Tourists to Tap Sector’s Growth”] Anyway, you can find guys all over the islands at the usual online sites (do give my regards to HapaDude08). On Maui, I found the Maui Sunseeker, a sweet little rainbow-flagged inn right on the beach outside Kihei; there are special events and gay nights at some local bars; and one section of Big Beach/Little Makena Beach, south of Wailea/Kihei, is homo-popular and clothing optional (plus, for more ogling of hot hapas (native Hawaiians) as well as a great show, I highly recommend the excellent and gay-owned Old Lahaina Luau).But you’ll also want at least a couple of nights in Honolulu, especially if you really need a “scene.” Try for a weekend, when the locals come out. For gay-friendliness and proximity to said scene, I’ve got four main bunking recommendations, all at the east end of Waikiki a coconut’s throw from the gay nightlife and the gay-popular Queen’s Surf Beach (in front of Paniolo Beach Bar and the zoo): the nine-story Waikiki Grand, with the shop 80% Straight and Hula’s, one of the city’s oldest and still best gay bars, right on premises; the boutique Hotel Renew, a new 72-roomer with a Zen-minimalist vibe and especially attractive staff; the 226-room Park Shore next door; and the Cabana at Waikiki, a more modest 15-room place but the only one catering specifically to queers. Another convenient and very gay-friendly chain to keep in mind is Aqua Resorts, an IGLTA member which besides the Park Shore has the Aqua Waikiki Beachside, the Aloha Surf and Spa, the Aqua Bamboo & Spa, the Aqua Palms & Spa, the Aqua Waikiki Wave, and the Equus; most recently, the group even announced a GL “honeymoon special.” Nightlife-wise, apart from Hula’s you can head to central Waikiki for a cluster of clubs including Angles, Fusion, Tapa’s, and In Between. And to get right to the aloha spear-it, Max’s Gym in Eaton Square just west of Waikiki makes for a nice little bath house. And check out Hula’s web site re its gay catamaran cruises on weekends!

You can get the latest from several local freebie rags like Odyssey, DaKine, and Expression!. Before coming, for general info check out GoHawaii.com and VisitMaui.com; for travel deals HawaiiGayTravel.com; and for the local sodomitic skinny, GayHawaii.com, MauiPride.com, and MauiGayInfo.com.

yours truly,

Dave

Central America (and Latin America in general) has long been a hotbed of homophobia, and in too many places that still hasn’t changed nearly enough. But little by little, tolerance advances and life gets a little better. The most recent example came in Panama just over a week ago, when the government of Martín Torrijos Espino decreed the deep-sixing of a 1949 law making gay sex punishable with a fine or jail – way to go, Marty! One of my best friends is Panamanian living in the States, and he remembers a mostly unhappy and closeted existence as late as the early 90’s; the country’s gay association wasn’t founded till 1996. Things are of course somewhat better today, and little Panama has even managed to evolve into a pretty decent gay travel destination along with one of the hemisphere’s “it” places in general. The beaches and eco/adventure tourism are exceptional; highlights besides the Panama City and the famous canal include jungle lodges (the most upscale of which is the Gamboa Rainforest Resort); the funky beach town of Bocas del Toro; and the San Blas peninsula, run by the diminutive Kuna tribe (I’m not kidding, they’re really small) – an administrative arrangement possibly unique in Latin America. Panama City is of course the Big Mango hereabouts, with a a proudly thrusting skyline and a real estate and tourism boom still going reasonably strong; for casinos, shopping, dining, and nightlife, these days it’s pretty respectable by world standards. But my favorite part of town is over a causeway from the modern part – it’s the 100-acre Casco Viejo (Old Town), a gorgeous agglomeration of Spanish colonial architecture dating back to the 17th century – and now being turned from a slum into a hotspot, with lots of cool shops, restaurants, and places to stay. This last category’s still a little skimpy, but a B&B called Casa Mar Alta is sweet, as are the apartments rented out by the guys at Los Cuatro Tulipanes (for more, check out an informative blog listing called Gay Friendly Casco Viejo). If you’d rather stay back in a more modern area like El Cangrejo, closer to the gay action, there’s, for example, high-end digs including a Marriott and an Inter-Continental, along with a bunch of good midrange properties like Las Vegas Hotel Suites and Cristal. Oh, yeah, about that gay action — a smallish but decent selection. No bath house at the moment (those looking to get right to the point rely on a small handful of sex shops and porn theaters), but several good clubs like big-box-style Oxen (Via Tumba Muerta), inexplicably named after cattle; the cozier BLG (Calle 49/Calle Uruguay); and the upscale-feeling Lips (Avenida Manuel Batista). There are also plenty of dudes online at the usual international hookup sites.

Get more info at VisitPanama.com and ElCascoAntiguo.com; for homo happenings, check out DRumbas.com and FarraUrbana.com.

Yours truly,
Dave