Online gay travel guides: Which ones are the best?
It’s a fact that travel guidebooks date quickly over the course of their shelf life. That said, some sections of travel guides date more quickly than others. For example, New York City museums may not change much for decades, but Manhattan restaurants and clubs can open and close overnight.
When it comes to gay and lesbian travel, it’s even more important to find the most up-to-date, insider travel information. Still, gay-oriented travel books suffer from the same time-sensitivity issues as mainstream guides. Where should you surf online for the best trip-planning advice?
Deal: The comprehensive online directory Purple Roofs is especially good for booking accommodations. In fact, their listings sometimes have more details (e.g., typical make-up of the clientele, whether or not there is accessibility for those with disabilities) than the hotel or bed-and-breakfast inn’s own website. Best of all, access is free — you don’t even have to sign up. Warning: The content is advertorial, so do your own research too.
The online edition of OutTraveler magazine offers feature stories on global destinations, a worldwide events calendar and archives of past issues, including the popular “Ask the Travel Expert” Q&A column. Although it doesn’t cover as many smaller places as Purple Roofs, it really gets to the heart of the contemporary scene in mega-popular gay travel destinations.
What’s your favorite online gay and lesbian travel guide? Speak out in the Comments section below.
Caveat: By no means is the above list meant to be exhaustive. There are many more helpful travel guides for gay and lesbian travel available online, especially for specific cities (e.g., San Francisco’s Castro Online). Or, try asking the local tourist authority if there’s a gay and lesbian chamber of commerce in your destination city (e.g., Gay Toronto Tourism Guild).
Critique: More conservative gay travelers may find mainstream guidebooks to be just as useful as niche gay travel guides, which may focus only on men and lean heavily toward club-hopping and bathhouses.
Contact: Purple Roofs
OutTraveler, (888) 249-1211
Related links:
Gay & Lesbian: Pink flight to Mardi Gras in Sydney
San Francisco works to lure gay travelers
Despite incidents, gay travelers are feeling less of a chill
— Sara Benson
[Photo courtesy of OutTraveler.com]
13 Comments on “Online gay travel guides: Which ones are the best?”
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October 17th, 2007 at 6:41 am
I like New Gay Travel Guide. It’s not a comprehensive travel guide, but more of a travel magazine online. And does cover the world and also provides a lot of news and entertainment fun stuff!
October 17th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Travelers looking for genuinely gay and lesbian welcoming hotels should check out TAG Approved accommodations. TAG is a unique program. This collection of nearly 1000 properties around the world have gone through a qualification process to participate, using well-respected objective standards such as domestic partner benefits, non-descrimination based on sexual orientation, sensitivity training, etc. The global directory can be accessed by visiting http://www.tagapproved.com. Additionally, participating TAG Approved properties can be booked online at Travelocity: http://www.gaytravelocity.com/.
[Ed.: Tom is the President of Community Marketing, which operates the TAG program.]
October 17th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Reviews and info definitely shouldn’t be static, especially with so many destinations claiming a new gay friendly stance…which ones really put their best foot forward. I work with Pink Choice at http://www.pinkchoice.com; the content is user-generated (but qualified) so it’s a real and reliable look at how establishments match up to expectations…
October 17th, 2007 at 8:03 am
http://www.QGuide.com has just launched and is Australia’s most comprehensive gay travel directory. Blogs, reviews, suggestions coming soon to keep it fresh. Expanding into the Americas by year end!
October 17th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Purple Roofs is very good but some long-standing gay and lesbian B&B’s are not members.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
LGBT travel reporting doesn’t get much worse than this. I’m certain the writer’s intentions were sincere, but it appears that very little effort went into research.
It breaks down like this:
- Travel information gets stale quickly, so make sure to do your homework. Like this should come as a revelation.
- There are only four LGBT travel resources listed, and one of them (Toronto) is seriously dated. All of the major print guides – Damron, Spartacus and Odysseus – have websites too, but did not receive mention. Let alone the dozens of other resources that might have been referenced. The IGLTA is conspicuous by its absence.
Finally, the question posited in the headline doesn’t appear to warrant a genuine response, such that no ranking or measured evaluation of information sources is given. Only Purple Roofs and OutTraveler Magazine get the nod, but without a full slate of candidates it is ridiculous to consider this as other than the acquiescence of someone who’s totally uninformed.
Personally, I expect more from the LA Times.
[Ed.: Rick is a member of IGLTA, owns the consultancy Pride Enterprises Ltd., and holds shares in Out in Canada Magazine and Toronto-based Rainbow High Vacations.]
October 17th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
To Rick: As I noted in my original post, which clearly stated (if you read it all the way through), “Caveat: By no means is the above list meant to be exhaustive,” I was trying to generate an inclusive discussion. In no way did I mean to imply that OutTraveler or Purple Roofs were the best — or certainly not the only — choices. I was aiming to get a discussion started. Blog entries are short, and doing a more comprehensive look at all available resources would be the purview of a feature writer, not a blogger.
In my original post, I wanted to point out just a few possible jumping-off points for LGBT trip planning. I was hoping that more people would chime in with their own favorites sites, which is what most readers did.
– Sara Benson
October 18th, 2007 at 8:27 am
One other point of note is that even though most of these resources are presented as gay and lesbian travel guides, the majority of their information is aimed primarily at gay men. That’s why I launched Girlports (www.girlports.com) last month. To my knowledge, Girlports is the only English-language resource offering up-to-date, worldwide travel information especially for lesbians and bisexual women.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I stand by every word of my critique. To this I would add the following two challenges:
- Read “Gay Travel Guides Guide” at http://www.gfn.com/indexArticle.cfm?channelDesRecordID=509. Yes, he had 1,100 words and you appear to have been restricted to 300 or so. But if you cut out the fluff it would have been easy to squeeze in the same amount of hard information.
- Take all of this material (including the other blog responses) and then compile and analyze a truly comprehensive list, complete with ranking. Either that or ask your editor not to use a headline which appear to promise more than can be delivered.
Gay travel is complex and diverse. If it’s worth doing an entry on gay travel guides, then it’s worth doing well.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Dear Rick:
Thanks for pointing our readers to this link. It is interesting to note that the 1100+-word feature you linked to also mentioned Purple Roofs and Out Traveler, although I had not read this article when I wrote my original post. In fact, they were 2 of only 8 resources mentioned in the entire piece.
As for the headline, it was a question being posed to our blog readers (who were asked, “What’s your favorite online gay and lesbian travel guide? Speak out in the Comments section below.“), again to generate discussion, not to purport that there was only one answer.
– Sara Benson
October 18th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Who would’ve guessed this post would draw such a passionate exchange of “information” huh? I stumbled across it from New Zealand, my search intention being to find the best travel site for my gay friendly clients to list their Tree House accommodation. As an e-marketing consultant I’m quite dissapointed with the majority of sites, either for dated presentation, lack of content or outrageous fees.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:29 am
A brand new portal has been launched by Christian Rozsenich, Cologne, Germany.
EGOTOUR EGOTOUR - travel your way offers online hotel booking of gay friendly hotels (defined by the hotels themselves) and information about gay destinations. The portal provides a very comfortable upload for user reviews including photos!
It focuses on Europe. like Amsterdam, Paris, London, Vienna, Venice mainly.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
One site I like is Gay Sail Away (www.gaysailaway.com). They offer advice on gay cruises and it’s perfect for someone considering their first cruise.
The other site is Gay Naked Travel (www.gaynakedtravel.com). GNT has a directory of clothing optional resorts, nude beaches, and naked events around the world.