Andrew's Gay & Lesbian Travel Blog

I recently spent a day in one of America's most idyllic college towns, Bloomington, Indiana, which also happens to be one of the most gay-friendly communities in the country. In addition to being the home of the vaunted Kinsey Institute (which is open to the public for touring), this small verdant city that's home to Indiana University abounds with progressive indie bookstores, cool cafes and restaurants, and impressive cultural venues, from great theaters to first-rate art museums. It's so often the case that towns and cities with prominent colleges and universities tend to offer a particularly rich dose of culture, and are also quite welcoming to gay visitors. They make especially lively destinations in the fall, when students return (as they're beginning to this week).

I'll soon be writing articles or producing photo galleries on the site on some of the most appealing college towns I've had to pleasure to visit recently, including Bloomington. Some others on this site that I've already covered include Madison (University of Wisconsin), Providence (Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design), Austin (University of Texas), Columbus (Ohio State University), Walla Walla (Whitman College), Portland (Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, Reed College), and Boston and Cambridge (the mother of all great college cities, with numerous fine institutions of learning, from Harvard to Boston University to MIT). If there's another gay-friendly collegiate destination you'd like to advice about visiting, post a comment here or in my gay travel forum, and I'll do my best to help you with your travel planning.

For years, Montreal celebrated Gay Pride as part of its still outstanding Divers/Cite Festival, which takes place in late July and early August (this year it ran through August 3). In 2007, however, the nonprofit organization Celebrations LGBTA Montreal began hosting a distinct Montreal Gay and Lesbian Communiy Day & Parade, which is quickly becoming quite popular. The event takes place this weekend (August 15 through August 17) and consists of a Community Day on Saturday and a Gay Pride Parade on Sunday. Here's a quick preview of Montreal Gay Pride 2008.

This weekend (August 8 through August 10) marks the sixth annual Fire Island Black Out Party. The barrier island of the coast of Long Island - about 50 miles east-southeast of New York City - is home to a string of beach communities, two of them with almost exclusively gay followings: Cherry Grove (site of the Black Out Party) and The Pines. Some 2,000 participants attend this party each year, which raises money for an excellent cause: to fund the Ali Forney Center, a nonprofit that houses homeless LGBT teens and helps them to develop skills to become self-sufficient as adults. Events during the festive weekend include a Saturday-night dance party (tickets cost just $20, and again, a portion of proceeds go toward this very good cause) and a brunch the following morning.

I've just begun creating a gay Fire Island photo gallery, with scenes of Cherry Grove and The Pines. Here's a look at the first few slides in the gallery, with more to follow in the coming week.

Coldplay, appropriately, headlined the coldest (and wettest) concert I've ever attended - it took place at Denver's dramatic Red Rocks Amphitheater. I and my boyfriend at the time drove up from Santa Fe in late June, clad in shorts and T-shirts, and took our seats in the packed open-air venue, which is stunning but also completely unsheltered from the elements. The clouds rolled in. It soon poured rain. The temperature plunged to 35 degrees. We huddled, drank Coors (ugh), and made the most of it. I still had an amazing time, as I always seem to during every one of my visits to Colorado's largest city (I try to go at least twice a year). And typically, despite my one Coldplay freeze-y experience, I'm greeted with sunny weather and relatively mild weather (more recently, we saw Bjork at Red Rocks, and the weather cooperated). Progressive, with a politically and socially active gay and lesbian community, and quite scenic, Denver is a haven for fans of the outdoors (Colorado has the lowest obesity rate of any state in the country), culture aficionados, and travelers in search of creative, healthful food. The city has a nice range of gay bars, plenty of hip hotels with strong GLBT followings, and a huge Gay Pride celebration each June.

In short, there's plenty of keep you busy in the Mile High City, from a first-rate art museum to a wealth of cool neighborhoods rife with chef-driven restaurants and hip cafes. Here's my photo gallery of gay-popular Denver businesses and attractions - I'll be adding to the gallery over the coming weeks, so keep checking back.

Situated along a spectacularly jagged and picturesque stretch of the Northern California coastline, tiny Mendocino is a land of big experiences: bold local wines, fresh organic food, soaring redwoods, crashing waves. At the same time, it's a small, low-keyed town with a progressive bent and a growing gay following. Years ago it stood in as the film setting for TV's lovable "Murder She Wrote" series (it has the same unmistakable allure of coastal Maine, where the show was supposed to take place). Nowadays the adjacent Anderson Valley has become one of the state's hottest winemaking regions, and little Mendocino abounds with sophisticated cafes and bistros serving creative, locally driven cuisine, along with swish yet unfussy inns and small resorts set amid formidable redwood trees and fragrant gardens.

Since California legalized gay marriage in May of this year, Mendocino's elegant, gay-owned Stevenswood Spa Resort has been offering excellent deals on same-sex wedding and honeymoon vacations, and on October 29, the luxurious 10-suite hideaway surrounded by rugged Van Damme State Park will host a group wedding ceremony in a show of solidarity, just days before California residents vote on whether to allow or overturn the state supreme court's ruling. Stevenswood's owners Michael Webster and Seth Kelman have made a point of inviting both gay and straight couples to participate in the ceremony, and quite a few have already signed on.

This should be a terrific event, but anytime of year, Stevenswood Spa Resort makes a wonderfully relaxing and romantic vacation. Awarded Four Diamonds by AAA and with a restaurant that Zagat readers have named the most romantic in Mendocino County, the mini-resort has its own botanical garden as well as the first-rate Indigo Eco-Spa, which provides such sybaritic treatments as the Pacific Sea Detox and the Grapeseed Oil Scalp Massage. Rates begin at $229 per night, depending on the season.

Here's my story about Great Weekend Getaways from San Francisco, which, of course, includes Mendocino.

If you haven't yet checked out the forum, please do so now. And post anything that comes to mind. If you have questions about upcoming trips or are seeking advice, here's your chance to tap into the expertise of your fellow travelers. And I'll also chime in when I have answers and suggestions. Thanks for your input!

Tourism officials in South Carolina are red-faced over their apparently inadvertent - or at least ill-considered - participation in a London ad campaign that promoted the Palmetto State as "so gay" and urged travelers to "explore an America most never see...from plantations to The Civil War to gay beaches. Hilton Head, Charleston, Myrtle Beach. There's nowhere quite like South Carolina." Whoops!

As do I. In fact, I've created sections on this site for every state in the Union, from South Carolina to North Dakota to arguably the most conversative state in the country, Utah. I try to encourage gay travelers to explore the whole world, while of course exercising discretion in places where homosexuality is regarded with hostility (i.e., you and your boyfriend shouldn't wear matching ass-less chaps while attending the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Wyoming). The problem with this ad campaign is that South Carolina simply isn't so gay. Trying to sell South Carolina as "so gay" is like promoting a Hummer H1 as "so green."

Amro's efforts to promote gay tourism in South Carolina were no doubt well-intended, and in fairness, the city of Charleston has become increasingly gay-welcoming over the years. I've written about its handful of gay bars, and also reviewed the swanky and quite gay-friendly Market Pavilion Hotel. But it's also important to provide travelers with a realistic sense of a destination's relative gay tolerance and visibility. The Market Pavilion Hotel, for instance, is a mainstream, luxury property with a predominantly heterosexual clientele. If I were to describe it as a "gay hotel," I'd be misleading my readers.

On the whole, especially outside of Charleston, the state is not particularly welcoming toward GLBT travelers. The other coastal cities mentioned in the ad - Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach - have extremely limited gay scenes, and as you venture farther into the state's interior, you're not going to see too many rainbow flags (on the other hand, if it's Confederate flags you're looking for...). And trust me - there are no "gay beaches" in this part of the world (unless you count the patio at Patrick's Pub, a gay bar in Charleston). Clearly, the rousing rebuke from local political and religious leaders confirms that the Palmetto State isn't quite ready to roll out the rainbow carpet to GLBT travelers.

So what to make of the fact that South Carolina has effectively extended a big, fat middle finger to gay travelers in the manner in which it responded to this rather silly controversy? I say keep going to South Carolina. The state does have beautiful beaches, superb restaurants (shrimp-and-grits...mmmm), a fascinating if controversial history, and much to see and do. To boycott or avoid the state, you're simply going to punish the growing numbers of businesses and communities (such as Charleston) that have taken significant steps toward welcoming GLBT visitors, and you'll be doing exactly what Gov. Mark Sanford and others who rejected the ad campaign want you to do: keep South Carolina homophobic. The best way to change the state's shoddy attitude toward gays and lesbians is to show up, be visible, and be counted.

The secluded, bohemian village at the tip of Cape Cod made famous in literary and artistic circles by the likes of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Edward Hopper, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Truman Capote, and John Dos Passos, tiny Provincetown has blossomed over the years into one of the world's favorite gay summer playgrounds. In fact, the whole of Cape Cod lures plenty of lesbian and gay vacationers these days, as do the off-shore islands of Nantucket and, especially among same-sex couples seeking romance, Martha's Vineyard.

For advice and information to help plan an adventure on Cape Cod, check out the following resources:

The Gay Guide to Provincetown

The Gay Photo Gallery on Provincetown

The Gay Guide to Martha's Vineyard

The Gay Guide to Cape Cod

It's been almost a year since I moved from New Mexico to Portland, Oregon, and it occurs to me that I sometimes forget to blog on here about my new hometown, partly because I'm already covering it fairly often for several other publications, and partly because, well, it's home - I occasionally take its considerable charms for granted. This week, however, as the sun has been out nearly every day, and I've had the chance to hike up near Mt. St. Helens, jog along downtown Portland's bustling riverfront, and gain back all the lost calories (and then some) by eating at some of my favorite restaurants (Andina and Beast are both very high on my list at the moment), I'm reminded that summer is definitely the best time to experience this city in its most favorable light.

With that in mind, I've been adding bit by bit to my photo gallery on gay Portland, which includes snapshots and descriptions of all sorts of cool things to see and do around town, from happily offbeat neighborhoods like Old Town and Hawthorne to alluring shops and cafes, such as the gay-owned UnderU4Men underwear boutique (which has fun runway-model events each week), and the kooky all-night snack shack, Voodoo Doughnuts. Keep checking back, as I'll be adding more material to this gallery throughout the summer.

I used to date a guy in Columbus and spent many happy weeks there throughout the late '90s. In terms of food, arts and culture, the gay scene, and progressive-minded locals, I always considered Columbus to be one of the nation's great little secrets - it's not a bona fide tourist destination the way Chicago or Boston are, but as an engaging weekend getaway, it's great fun. I spent a recent weekend here and came away every bit as impressed as I was during my regular visits a decade ago.

I stayed at The Lofts, a swanky, intimate boutique hotel within walking distance of the many galleries, restaurants, and gay hangouts in the vibrant Short North Arts District. Large rooms, exposed-brick walls, high-ceilings, and handy amenities (free Wi-Fi, Aveda products) make this a great little urban nest. I had dinner in the Short North at a fairly new place called Rosendale's, whose amiable chef has done turns at some of the nation's best restaurants - indeed, my molecular gastronomy-inspired meal here would have stood up to the best in any big city (although I think the smaller plates here shine above the main dishes). I had drinks at the exceedingly lovely Union gay bar, and ate out-of-this-world artisanal Thai chilli and banana-goat cheese ice cream at Jeni's, which has earned kudos from Gourmet magazine and the Food Network. One afternoon I drove an hour southeast to the verdant Hocking Hills region, with its bucolic state parks, many opportunities for hiking and canoeing, and increasing bounty of gay-friendly accommodations - if you go, don't miss the romantic Inn at Cedar Falls, which has lately become popular for commitment ceremonies. If none of this compels you to book a trip to central Ohio, fair enough...Provincetown or San Francisco it is not (nor does it strive to be). But Columbus is quite impressive and welcoming in its own right - check out my gay guide to Columbus for more on the region.