Our Editor-in-Chief Ed Salvato explores Thessaloniki, an incredible Greek port city oft overlooked by tourists who opt instead to visit the more popular Greek Isles. But Thessaloniki is vibrant, bustling, and teeming with hot gay guys.
A Fabulous Trip to New York Doesn’t Just Happen
According to our Global Correspondent Jeff Guaracino it is very easy to make expensive travel mistakes. So don’t do it. This post is dedicated to helping gay travelers travel better, smarter and fabulously, especially when visiting New York. Here are Jeff’s insider trips that will make you the next NYC trip expert travel planner. For more travel tips to the Big Apple, download our New York City Travel Guide.
Global Eats
The biggest mistake in travel planning is picking a restaurant last-minute. As important as where your rest your head and in which class of airline cabin that you fly in is the restaurant that you choose! The restaurant is your time to show your power as the ultimate “in-the-know” travel planner. Looking for ideas? To really impress check out my two favorite recommendations.Brunch at The Garden at the elegant, Art Deco Four Seasons NYC is not just a meal, it is a decadent, accessible New York experience. The seasonal, locally sourced menu takes visitors on a culinary tour of the best of New York. From Harlem’s authentic fried chicken and waffles to Brooklyn’s Warm Pastrami Tartine that you would swear your Bubbe would have made and the Four Season’s signature Pigs In a Blanket—a lemon ricotta pancake with chicken sausage. In honor of this week’s Miss America pageant, it was fitting to try the Ms. Congeniality cocktail with Four Seasons in-fused hibiscus vodka, limoncello and fresh watermelon. Check it out at http://www.fourseasons.com/newyork.
Think the Four Seasons is a budget buster? Not really. Yes, it is not inexpensive but when you consider exceptional service in an over-the-top beautiful room filled with aroma of fresh flowers and the occasion celebrity sightings, brunch at the Four Seasons is worth every penny.
Looking for a new find for dinner? The Wayfarer located at 57thStreet and 6th Avenue is just steps from romantic Central Park. The two-story new restaurant located adjacent to the Quinn Hotel is perfect for a date for two in a casually elegant space reminiscent of a Parisian brasserie boosts 19th Century New York atmosphere and modern artwork to stimulate your dinner conversation. The menu is diverse from fresh Oysters and Maine Diver Sea Scallops. Reserve at thewayfarernyc.com.
A NYC Hotel Find
The Muse Hotel by Kimpton is my new “find” in Times Square Manhattan. It is tucked away in the middle of everything but you could almost miss this shouldn’t be missed hotel. New York City once known as unfriendly seems to have made a decidedly friendlier turn. My travel companions each remarked on the friendliness of the airport and car rental staff and at check-in at the Muse was downright perfection. Guest check in was like meeting two friends who were beaming that you made it over to their home for the weekend. (Two free drink coupons at the hotel bar and a Raid the Mini-bar $15 credit was cool! We all need friends like them!)The problem with most hotels in NYC especially around Times Square is the noise. Unless you are on a high floor (typically more expensive) you risk not sleeping in the city that never sleeps. The Muse is special because of incredible location just steps from Times Square and Broadway and that surprisingly comfortable rooms face interior courtyards that give ample light and serenity at night. Most 6th floor hotel rooms in NYC could be very noisy, not in this retreat.
Choosing your hotel should not be on price alone. Add up Kimpton’s 100% rating on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index and free Wi-Fi for Kimpton Karma Loyalty Rewards member plus, a hosted Wine Hour each night, The Muse is a value.
If you’re planning on being in New York anytime for the Gay High Holy Day of Halloween, book the “Spook and Shiver” package. It includes two tickets Blackout, the ultra-creepy, walk-through haunted house experience; a Spooky Lych-eye cocktail and holiday appetizer at the hotel’s NIOS lounge; and trick-or-treat candy turndown service.
Outward Bound columns can be found at www.epgn.com and are always worth a reread.
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Jeff Guaracino is the author of Gay and Lesbian Tourism: The Essential Guide for Marketing.
ManAboutWorld Launches (Free!) West Hollywood Travel Guide
Here’s the besuited ManAboutWorld team (Ed, Kenny, and Billy) at the Andaz West Hollywood at the beginning of the launch party for our new guide to WeHo.
If you’re currently a subscriber just tap on issues in the app and voila! You can download and read the guide for free. If you are not a subscriber, simply download the ManAboutWorld from iTunes or Google Play. Then you’ll find the West Hollywood guide. Please download and read it. If you like it, may we kindly suggest you subscribe? Here’s the link to get your subscription.
The CheckOut: Hotel Sans Souci Wien in Vienna
Top/Bottom Line:
Relatively new on the scene, the Hotel Sans Souci Wien combines modern sophistication with a refreshing touch of whimsy, from the yoo Studio-designed furnishings in shades of cream and purple to the clever, oversized Vienna-set selfies by Austrian skier-turned-art photographer Hubertus von Hohenlohe that adorn the lobby and many rooms. This 63-room boutique hotel serves up some serious swank without taking itself too seriously.Continue reading “The CheckOut: Hotel Sans Souci Wien in Vienna”
What Happens When You Mix Tiramisu and Grindr…
ManAboutWorld Global Correspondent Dennis Hensley experienced a classic Rome dessert spot and a classic American hook-up app in the same day. Take it away, Dennis…Continue reading “What Happens When You Mix Tiramisu and Grindr…”
Biking In Budapest … with a Twist
Our correspondent Dennis Hensley let us in on this amazing little bike tour in Budapest:
Want to get to know Budapest and burn off last night’s goulash at the same time? Then check out the 4.5-hour Wheels & Meals Bike Tour from Budapest Bike Breeze tours. As Euro capitals go, Budapest is very bike-friendly and the route on this tour is just challenging enough to keep you on your toes, without feeling like you’re in a video game trying not to get killed. There’s one major hill to climb but when you get to the top, you’re rewarded with spectacular views and a phallic-shaped fountain to quench your thirst. Along the way, you’ll learn lots of fun facts about the city, like why Hungarian students rub a horse’s balls every spring and what is the significance of the shoes left along the Danube. A tasty outdoor Hungarian lunch is also included in the 22 Euro fee but what really made our tour special was the guide, a beautiful brown-eyed spitfire named Suzie. Her pride in her city, coupled with a wicked sense of humor made every tale she spun sound like an episode of Scandal. We were on the edge of our bicycle seats.
We recently covered Budapest in May 2014. Click here to subscribe and receive ALL of our coverage, past and present, full of insider tips for the best destinations on Earth!
Chicago’s Gay Film Festival Opens Today
The Chicago-based Reeling Film Festival – the second oldest LGBT film festival in the world – opens on Thursday, September 18th at the wonderful Music Box Theatre with the screening of ‘Boy Meets Girl’. Director Eric Schaeffer along with transgender actress Michelle Hendley will be in attendance. On Saturday, September 20th, the festival will take over Landmark Century Centre Cinema with screenings of Love Squared, Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year On The Gay Rodeo, Anatomy of a Love Seen, Club King and The 10 Year Pla
Tickets are available in here.
We covered Chicago last month and let all of our secrets spill in an in-depth article full of hidden gems and gay ways to explore a great American city. Click here to subscribe.
Editor’s Choice: A Gay-Owned Munich Hotel For Oktoberfest
Come September 20, Munich will be abuzz with its epic, world-renowned Oktoberfest, and attendees would be wise to heed our advice and book a room at the Deutsche Eich, a Münchner staple since 1864 and a 2014 ManAboutWorld Editor’s Choice award recipient, this is the city’s sole gay-owned hotel. Forward-thinking film director Rainer Fassbinder was a regular here during the 1970s, as was Queen’s Freddie Mercury. Partners Dietmar Holzapfel and Sepp Sattler purchased the property in 1993 and have since refurbished it to its modern, convivial, reasonably priced state. Juxtaposed to the fact that Germany’s largest bathhouse is located in the rear of the grounds, straight couples and families are welcome. This is also one of the only hotels in Munich that boasts a rooftop terrace, and the proximity to both the Altstadt (Old Town) and Glockenbachviertel means you can have your schnitzel and eat it too.
The event itself runs for 16-days, concluding on October 5. We covered Munich in our 2013 July/August summer issue that you can download here.
Getting Lost In Venice
Our correspondent Louis Boshoff got lost in Venice. He highly recommends it.
Getting lost in Venice is not only an inevitability, it is obligatory. With it’s many small alleys and and twisting canals, it is easy to see why one can spend hours finding your hotel, restaurant or even your way back. Urban travelling in this city falls strictly into two categories: cheap and expensive, nothing in-between. The public Vaporetto and on foot is probably the most cost effective but for that bond like classy commuting experience you may like to put yourself out for a worthwhile bit more. In this famously time-warped city the Consorzio Motoscafi Venezia has now embraced the modern age and offer 24-hour and online booking service for transfers or excursions with the all the elegant luxury in which one would expect to be dropped off at your palazzo on the Grand Canal. The only downside to this celebrity style transport? Not getting lost of course…
ManAboutWorld 2.0 Is Live For Download
ManAboutWorld 2.0 comes at you with a new look and a new attitude, rededicating ourselves to our mantra of inspiration and information! Inside, you’ll find our Editor’s Choice awards, awarding revolutionary, industry-leading hotels, restaurants, airlines, events, and more in more the 100 cities worldwide1 You’ll find our insider tips on Chicago; new sections such as NEXT, our forward thinking trip-planning thoughts on cities with fabulous events coming up in the next few months; Personify, a new section that singles out one trailblazing local in one of our favorite cities.
Not a subscriber? You can change that in a few easy clicks here to get all our newest issue and all of our back issue full of insider tips from the world’s gay travel experts.
The LGBTQ Travel Expert. Educator. Speaker. Author. 