The LGBTQ Travel Expert. Educator. Speaker. Author.
Proven expertise in the LGBTQ segment + LGBTQ Pavilion at the New York Travel & Adventure Show 2022
I visited Toronto, and all I got was these lousy podcasts! Actually, I got a lot more out of my incredibly fun trip than my stupid t-shirt souvenir allusion might indicate.
You can hear some of my impressions by clicking on the following two links, which are my radio appearance on LGBT-oriented Proud FM Toronto on the Mike Chalut Show with Acey Rowe. Just click on the two parts below and enjoy!
Photo above: Toronto pictured from the roof-top pool area of the Thompson Hotel.
Story and photo by Ed Salvato. Above: Philadelphia’s Fright Factory during Halloween.
What better destination to put on your travel to-do list than Philadelphia, whose motto, “The City of Brotherly Love,” appears tailor-made to gay visitors? Bursting with history, charming architecture, a sizzling food scene, and red-hot nightlife, Philly offers loads to see and do to LGBT visitors. Plan a visit to Philadelphia only, or pair it with a trip to other east coast faves like New York or Washington, DC.
While you’ve just missed “There’s No Place Like Home,” the city’s official two-week celebration of the 40th anniversary of Philly’s vibrant “Gayborhood,” you may wish to make your temporary home at the 24-room Independent Hotel Philadelphia, located in a lovingly-restored Greek Revival building (on the National Register of Historic Places) in the pink heart of this centrally-located and eminently walkable area. This friendly, cozy boutique hotel offers oodles of charm and luxurious touches (think feather-soft pillow-top mattresses, hardwood floors, and French windows). Some rooms have fireplaces.
The Alexander Inn, also located in the Gayborhood, is a boutique property with 48 rooms. This long-time gay favorite charms guests with super-attentive and genuinely friendly service, décor inspired by the great cruise ships of the 1930s, and reasonable rates year round. Included in the rate is a range of amenities some other properties charge for like WiFi, breakfast, 24-hour snacks, and eight premium movie channels.
Now, it’s time to toast this milestone in one of its hot bars or clubs. You only turn 40 once. (Well, most people!) For a casual start to your evening hit Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar in the northern section of the Gayborhood, where you’ll find a super-friendly, relaxed atmosphere, locally brewed beers and decent bar food. If sports aren’t your thing, head upstairs to the casual lounge, where there’s often a themed event.
You’re almost guaranteed to meet gay and lesbian softball players at the recently remodeled Westbury, which practices Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection with a friendly welcome; great, cheap inexpensive food and drinks; and the sponsorship of softball teams of all stripes.
Woody’s Bar and Nightlife Complex is a reliably fun option for gay men or women for a drink or for a night of debauched fun (and everything in between). If you can’t quite get enough nightlife at the bars, see and be seen at Voyeur Nightclub [http://www.voyeurnightclub.com/], located within stumbling distance of Woody’s. This multi-level sophisticated hotspot never fails to deliver on great music and attractive guys.
Ladies, Philly’s got you covered, too. Sisters Nightclub, also located near Woody’s, is one of the biggest and most energetic venues for lesbians (and their gay pals) in the Northeast. For more nightlife and wide range of other gay trip-planning information, check, out VisitPhilly.com/gay.
A longer version of this article appears in the recent edition of Frontiers IN LA.
Visiting Toronto this week. Just arrived and will have more tales to tell, but enjoy these pictures for now. One is the CN Tower, which for 30 years was the tallest building in the world. Below that, a hot Torontonian. Shirt’s off because the temps are so high (around 85 degrees).
And check out this hottie.
I recently attended the 3rd annual gay and lesbian tourism conference in Buenos Aires.
It was sponsored in part by Delta Airlines. The office there did a terrific job. They were highly visible throughout the conference. They even flew a number of participants and journalists (including yours truly) who otherwise might not have been able to attend. Delta’s gay microsite is Delta.com/gaytravel.
I wanted to be certain the highest levels of management at Delta were aware of how much we conference participants appreciated their support so I sent their CEO, Richard H. Anderson, a letter. He replied, reaffirming Delta’s support for gays and lesbians and for diversity. Here’s his reply and my letter to him below that.
Dear Mr. Salvato:
So good to hear from you and to know how well Delta’s support of Gay and Lesbian Tourism was received. We are proud of our global support of Gay and Lesbian tourism. Diversity is important to our company and we value your patronage and appreciate your kind comments. I will certainly see that Traci receives your kind comments regarding her assistance with a customer service issue you had.
Thanks so much for writing.
Sincerely,
Richard
From: Ed Salvato
*****
Dear Mr. Anderson,
Delta did a terrific job this week and I wanted to share it with you.
First of all, Delta was a sponsor of the third annual GNetwork360 Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism (http://www.gnetwork360.com/buenosaires2010/conferencias.php) in Buenos Aires July 22-24. Delta showed incredible support and were proudly visible throughout the conference. The BA office, lead by Marcelo Costa, did an amazing job executing the Delta sponsorship.
It was great seeing Delta — an airline I’ve had great respect for over the years — at an event supporting the industry I work for. I was a speaker at two panels — the role of LGBT media and how to know if you are “gay friendly” — and I’m the editor of the world’s premier gay and lesbian travel blog, GPS.OutTraveler.
Delta supported the travel for us panelists, which made it possible for me to attend. It was during this trip that I experienced topnotch customer service for which I wanted to express my gratitude. In particular, I wanted to acknowledge one of your gate agents. Her name was Traci (unfortunately I don’t know her last name) but she said she was the only Traci at the international departure area for Delta. She was the gate agent at the Buenos Aries Flight 101 leaving Atlanta Sunday July 18.
Traci assisted me with a difficult customer service issue I had. She handled my concern with grace, humor, and efficiency. She really made my travel experience all that much better. The service aboard that night (business class) was terrific, too: Efficient, seasoned, and entertaining.
I wanted to share this with you since I’m sure all too often you hear the bad news.
Sincerely,
Ed Salvato
Editor GPS.OutTraveler.com
New York, NY
Question from a reader about finding a cheap, but nice and gay-friendly London hotel.
Question
I am planning a trip to London in the next few months and am having a difficult time finding information on reasonable yet clean and modern lodging. While I realize that London is one of the most expensive cities to visit I can’t help thinking that there must be a hidden secret that you may be aware of. I am a man in my 50’s and would like a small quiet “home base” for the many side trips and adventures I plan on having. Jerry via the Internet
Answer
The first property that comes to mind is the Hotel Indigo Paddington. The prices are a steal and has modern decor. The location is steps away from Paddington station which is great. The Bermondsey Square Hotel is another good option. Reasonable, contemporary and in a really up-and-coming neighborhood. There’s Base2Stay and B+B Belgravia. Both are fantastic and affordable.
I was on Sirius OutQ on Tuesday night, August 3. I’ll post the entire show later but here’s a four-minute teaser about Buenos Aires, the “Paris of South America” and the first Latin-American country to legalize same-sex marriage.
To listen click on this link.
I was in Buenos Aires last week for a gay travel conference during with the president of Argentina signed into law Argentina’s same-sex marriage bill. This is the first country in Latin America to provide equal marriage rights to same-sex partners.
I will be posting an article about Buenos Aires soon — there were so many incredible discoveries to share — but I wanted to share this bit of exciting news. It’s not every day that you get to see a president provide the LGBT community a fundamental right. She had to battle the Catholic Church, which was (unsurprisingly) dead set against this law. Her speech was inspirational. This is what I call true leadership. I was there. I still get tingly thinking about it!
Antwerp, Belgium recently began to court the LGBT travelers. A couple of years ago, the city hosted a familiarization tour with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. This past week, they hosted the IGLTA’s annual conference. In conjunction, they invited 50 LGBT journalists from Europe and the U.S. (including yours truly) to show the world their gay-friendly destination. Antwerp, indeed Belgium, is typically not on the top of gay Americans must-visit list. That’s too bad.
This country, with its Dutch-speaking, Germanic-yet-Catholic Flemish region and its French-parlant section Wallonia, offer all sorts of attractions, from the culinary (yummy beer and chocolate, waffles, delicious seafood) to the cultural and historical, and gay and lesbians are equal to their straight countryman in the eyes of the law. Gay marriage is the law of the land.
Antwerp or Anvers en français, is a compact metropolis of 500,000 souls, which is entirely walkable but also offers a system of trams and buses. It boasts a range of architectural styles though late-19th century styles, including marvelous examples of Art Nouveau, predominate. The detail of a building in the photo to the right (“summer”) is an example of Art Nouveau, which as the name implies was a brand-new, exciting architectural form that celebrated modern life at the turn of the last century with its use of new materials, curvilinear lines, and a celebration of nature.
Antwerp is justifiably known for its beer (try Duvel, named for the devil, with its higher degree of alcohol than American beers) and chocolate (the best I tried was Chocolate Line with its incredibly diverse and surprising selections like tequila or wasabi chocolates), but it’s also a world-class capital of fashion, with beautiful, interesting fashion for both men and women. Window displays are a refined art form here.
Plan a trip to Antwerp next year for Pride or August 3-11, 2013 for the Antwerp 3rd World Out Games. Stay at this fab hotel I checked out called Leopold Hotel. It’s comfortable, clean, very boutique-y and within walking distance to everything. It offers free WiFi, and it’s also across from a lovey park that’s kind of cruise at night.
It is so easy to get here. Brussels is a major center of Europe and it’s only 45 minutes by train to Antwerp from there. Brussels itself is an hour away from Paris by the high-speed Thalys train service with its 8 daily trains and speeds reaching 190 miles per hour.
Financial crisis, financial schmisis! London remains a vibrant world capital rivaled only by New York in the Western world for sheer fabulousness. Sure, the United Kingdom’s new coalition government is braying about belt-tightening fiscal austerity measures, but you’d never know it in the hustle-bustle of Europe’s still-reigning financial capital. For anyone who visited during the grim Thatcher years, the transformation of this gritty, nearly collapsed city to the pulsating capital it is today is nothing short of miraculous.
London’s an exciting city that just gets better with each passing year, and it’s a great time for Americans to visit. While it is still one of the most expensive cities on the planet, the exchange rate has not been this favorable for some time, recently hitting a low of about $1.44 — still pricey but 20% less than the summer of 2009.
There are many ways to experience London. On a recent trip, I was inspired by “The Young Victoria,” a charming movie depicting the early years of young Queen Victoria’s rise to the throne as well as her courtship with and marriage to her cousin Prince Albert from Germany. A modern-seeming marriage — she had to propose to him due to protocol — Victoria took care of state affairs, and he was head of the family, a role he truly owned and excelled at. He also headed up numerous commissions, including organizing the very important Great Exhibition of 1851.They had a great love affair and, though Albert died of typhoid at 42, they managed to produce nine children — all of whom were married off to the most important royal families of the era. Victoria lived in a state of mourning till she died nearly 40 years later at the age of 81.
Your first stop is the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum, whose dedication was Victoria’s final official act, does not contain many artifacts from their life, but it is well worth a visit. The museum also hosts the marvelous Grace Kelly exhibit through September 26, 2010. Get tickets in advance.
To understand their life together, check out the Queen’s Gallery, a small museum next to Buckingham Palace. You can see “Victoria and Albert: Art & Love” through October 31, 2010. It shows how important art was to the young couple. The pieces were either commissioned by Victoria or Albert; gifts to each other; or objects gifted to them, including a fabulous pre-fabricated (for easy shipping) carved-ivory throne from India, like a very early Ikea chair.
Be sure to check out the Albert Memorial, a gorgeous monument in Hyde Park across from The Royal Albert Hall. This lovingly designed monument (overseen by the grieving Victoria) celebrates Albert’s support of and passion for the arts, sciences, and learning.
The final stop of the Victoria tour is the Kensington Palace, home to seven princesses including Victoria, as well as Princess Diana, and other important, often tragic royal British women. The current exhibit, “Enchanted Palace,” is an out-of-the-ordinary interactive experience, part poetic fairy tale, part whodunit where visitors at each of the allegory-laden displays must interpret hints, fragments of poetry, and other visual and audio cues to suss out the princesses who resided here over the past 300 years.
The fantastic (and free) Natural History Musuem, which is located next door to the Victoria and Albert Museum is well worth a visit. Come for the dinosaurs and vast number of curiosities but marvel at the splendid Victorian museum building itself and the creative, scientific, we-can-do-anything spirit of the age Victoria helped create.
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Birthday bonfire on the beach in Provincetown.
Below, a Provincetown’s Harbor as seen from the far East End.
Pictures by Ed Salvato
The LGBTQ Travel Expert. Educator. Speaker. Author.