There are activities and events every week in Key West, from walking tours to theme parties. Here is a recap of the major gay-related events in 2009. Each event has a website for further details.
Pridefest: June 6 - 14, 2009. Pridefestkeywest.com; Tropical Heat: August 20 - 23, 2009, TropicalheatKW.com; WomenFest: September 8 - 13, 2009, Womenfest.com; Fastasyfest: October 23 - November 1, 2009, Fantasyfest.net.
Gay men and women interested in trips that "dive below the surface" should check out Spirit Journeys http://www.spiritjourneys.com. They also offer workshops and retreats that focus on self-awareness, personal growth and spirituality. This company is an example of how gay travel is evolving away from the traditional large-ship cruising toward smaller, customized travel and workshops that cater to special interests. Their trips to Bali and Cambodia and Laos, for example, have a strong focus on Buddhism, yoga and meditation.
Brazil Ecojourneys has several packages http://brazilecojourneys.com/specials.php?noticia=14 for Carnival in Florianopolis, South Brazil, February 21 to 24, 2009.
According to them, "During Carnival, Florianopolis is second only to Rio in the preference of Brazilian and South American gay men. In recent years major label parties and mega clubs moved their parties to Florianopolis helping to make it a big contender to be the biggest and hottest gay Carnival in Brazil.
Praia Mole beach is the hub, both at the sand stretch in front of Bar do Deca and at the daily themed parties of The Week club, packed with gay visitors from all over Brazil.
Downtown you have all the Gay & Lesbian clubs and bars favoured by the locals, as well as the street parties and traditional Carnival events such as Samba Schools Parade, Carnaval do Roma and the Pop Gay festival, a very camp Carnival costumes competition for drag queens."
If you've ever wanted to go to Carnival, this sounds like a lot of fun and apparently it is growing every year, with a lot of Brazilians from Sao Paulo chosing the Florianopolis Carnival over Rio's Carnival.
I was in Budapest in 2003 and again in 2006.
Unlike Prague, which is so filled with tourists that you feel like you're in Disney World, Budapest is a little gritty. In modern times it was always a more significant and influental city than Prague and rivaled Vienna as the capital of the Hapsburg empire for hundreds of years. There are ample remains of it's imperialistic and grandiose past and you are never far removed from this country's communist past.
I've eaten at the gay-friendly Pizzeria Club 93 My partner and I rented an apartment for a week on the Pest side of the city, which is where you'll want to stay. The apartment was huge, nice and very reasonable. Here's a good website to find an apartment and for more information on gay Budapest: http://budapest.gayguide.net/Gay_Guide/. Buda is across the river and is pretty and after a day, you'll have seen all of it. Pest, on the other hand, is the "real" Budapest and where everything is happening. Stay in Pest.
twice and both times, the food was good and most of the patrons were gay. The Amstel River Cafe was fun for drinks. They have a small menu and again, most of the patrons were gay on the afternoon we were there.
Bars come and go, but Action Bar and CoxxClub (formerly Chaos) are still around and seem to be the main focus of the gay bar scene in Budapest.
Do: take a river cruise; walk across the chain bridge and wander up to Buda Castle; check out the views from Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda side; walk around Margaret Island if the weather is nice and go to the public swimming pool and Palatinus Baths on the island; take a tour of Parliment.
Leipzig may not be the first city that comes to mind when planning your next trip to Germany. But as a side trip from Berlin, or coupled with Dresden and Berlin, Leipzig is definitely worth a few days. I was last in Leipzig in 2006 and I was impressed with the tasteful restoration going on. I liked the fact you could go around a corner and still find bits of old communist east Germany, mixed with styles from earlier architectural periods.
Gay friends of mine visited Leipzig earlier this fall and apparently it's only getting better. Leipzig has long been a center of intellect and liberalism and that attitude continues today. As one of the up and coming cities in Germany, you'll find a decent gay scene for a city of its size. The gay travel website www.patroc.com, has the best section on gay Leipzig I've seen. Be sure to read their comparison http://www.patroc.com/leipzig/ between Leipzig and Dresden (also worth a visit, but with a minimal gay scene). I'll cover Dresden in a separate blog.
Almost everyone buys their airline tickets online and we all know that airfares can change at any time. But have you ever wondered if there are certain days that are better than others to shop for tickets?
I had always heard that Tuesdays are the best day to grab tickets and according to a September 4, 2008 posting on FareCompare.com, this is apparently true. According to them:
Airlines typically file airfare sales Monday morning in the 10:00am or 12:30pm EDT. Over the next 3 airfare distribution cycles, i.e., Monday at 8:00pm and Tuesday at 10:00am and 12:30pm, other airlines typically start matching the sale prices. So, Monday through Tuesday would seem to be the best times for lower fares. Sales tend to expire late on Friday. Even worse, airlines typically file airfare hikes late Thursday, so shopping over the weekend is the worst time.
It's the season for German Christmas markets. Beginning this week, markets will begin to open in almost every German city. One of the oldest, and arguably the most famous, is the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg: http://www.christkindlesmarkt.de/english/. At exactly 5:30 p.m. on November 28, trumpets and local choirs usher in the new market season, culminating with the appearance of the Christmas angel on the balcony of the Frauenkirche overlooking the main market square. There is supposed to be a live webcam on the site later this week.
To me, the best thing about Christmas markets is the overall festive mood. The weather's always cold, but no matter, you warm yourself with glasses of hot gluehwein, the spiced red wine that is synonymous with Christmas markets.
There are a lot of vendors, who sell a lot of merchandise made in China. Unfortunately, with the exception of some really nice pewter ornaments or decorations made out of straw, most merchandise is the same you can buy in any Christmas store anywhere. But don't just go to shop. Go to eat and drink and talk with locals, which is something you can't do back home.
Even when they can be a bit too commercialized and even tacky by some standards, there's something special about being part of an event that has been going on for hundreds of years. And, after all, it's Christmas, and there's no better way to get in the spirit than to visit a German Christmas market!
Since the passage of Prop 8 in California, there's been a lot of talk about a boycott of those organizations and businesses that contributed money and helped pass Prop 8, many of which are travel-related. Boycotts to further a political or moral purpose are nothing new, of course. Anita Bryant, spokesperson for Florida orange juice and the Florida Citrus Commission in the 1970s, was the target of perhaps the first product-based boycott for her anti-gay efforts that led to the repeal of gay-rights legislation in Dade County. The boycott was a public relations nightmare for Florida orange juice and it ended Bryant's career.
Recently, the popular blogger John Ardvosis, http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/why-is-sundance-film-festival-taking.html, called for a boycott of the Sundance Film Festival because of its Utah location. Brent Andrus, president of the Huntington Group of Hotels, was a major donor and supporter of Prop 8. He owns several Marriott properties in Southern California and there is apparently some question about whether he is a part owner of the Park City Marriott, which is the headquarters of the Sundance Film Festival.
Clearly, it makes sense as a gay/lesbian person (or supporter) to boycott businesses that helped pass Prop 8. You can check the data base at: http://www.sfgate.com/webdb/prop8/?appSession=88151446617129.
While boycotting the entire State of Utah because a majority of residents are Morman doesn't seem to make much sense to me, I do think targeted boycotting can have an impact. Gay Ski Week, for example, is in Park City each year. Shouldn't it be moved outside Utah? Isn't it logical to assume that many of the businesses profiting from the gay tourist dollars are no doubt associated with the Morman Church? And even if they're not, a boycott can put pressure on local residents to push for change at the state level.
Sundance supports have argued they are a venue for freedom of expression and a boycott would hurt those people most supportive of gay rights in Utah. Maybe. But the real value of a boycott is more often its public relations effect rather than the economic impact. As with Gay Ski Week, because the Morman Church is so dominant in Utah and Park City, and because they have an ownership interest in many businesses, won't we be indirectly supporting the Morman Church and its anti-gay policies by supporting the Sundance Film Festival? At the very minimum, more needs to be done by the Festival to separate itself from businesses it has a relationship with that supported Prop 8.
Earlier this year the controversial mayor of Ft. Lauderdale, Naugle, made a series of outrageous anti-gay statements. It generated national media attention and several organzations threatened to pull their convention business. Local residents raised the same arguments that Sundance and Gay Ski Week have raised. Naugle was voted off the Broward County Tourism Board and now two openly gay candidates and one gay-supportive candidate are running for mayor to replace the term-limited Naugle. Maybe something similar can happen in Utah.
A boycott should go beyond the Morman Church. More work needs to be done to identify those who helped pass Prop 8 and similar measures in Arizona and Florida. But Utah's 6 billion tourism industry seems like a good place to start. A gay boycott won't have much of an economic impact, but maybe its time to be more vocal and selective about where we spend our tourist dollars.
The new Island City Health and Fitness Gym, http://www.islandcityfitness.com/ is slated to open November 21, 2008, in Wilton Manors, Florida, in the location formerly occupied by the Main Street Gym. And, why, you ask, does this merit a mention in a gay travel blog? Well, because greater Fort Lauderdale, where Wilton Manors is located, is one of the top gay tourist destinations in the United States, if not the world. The City of Fort Lauderdale estimates the number of gay tourists who visit Fort Lauderdale annually to be in the range of 800,000.
And, a large number of those 800,000 (because they're gay and that's what we do) will end up working out at a gym during their stay in Fort Lauderdale.
The Main Street Gym, often referred to as the "gay gym," closed abruptly in September. Located in the Shoppes of Wilton Manors, 2270 Wilton Drive, the gym closing not only left a void in the community, it also apparently left an economic void on the other shops in the area, with many of them reporting a significant drop in sales due to the lack of foot traffic that would have been generated by the gym members.
The new owners have spruced up the facilities, but it still look's familiar. So, for those of you planning to come to our fair city on vacation and work out while here, plan to bring your gym shoes again this year! There are a lot of guides to Fort Lauderdale, but here's a link to the gay section of the Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau site: http://www.sunny.org/rainbow, where you can even request a cool gay pamphlet/vacation planner. See you at the gym!
One of my goals with this blog is to provide gay travellers with resources to make their travels unique, more enjoyable and safer. I especially like to find local gay tour operators or tour companies who know the gay scene in their country or city and can provide tourists with a real insider's perspective.
