Author:
scott, January 11th, 2015
It’s hard to name a gay resort destination in North America that has more going for it than Puerto Vallarta, a fast-growing city on the Pacific Coast’s fabled Mexican Riviera. PV’s historic downtown (El Centro) is hemmed in by the verdant slopes of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Just south of El Centro, in Zona Romantica, you’ll find a bustling gay scene comprising trendy cocktail bars, hopping dance clubs, scene-y open-air restaurants and inviting hotels and condos … just steps from the beach.
Despite its growing popularity, the city is still a relative bargain compared with the U.S., the Caribbean and other Mexican resort areas. On nearly any budget, you can eat well and stay in a comfortable room near the beach in this inviting, friendly destination that’s now one of the hottest LGBT resort communities in the world — a favorite place both to vacation and retire to.
With a population of roughly a quarter million, Puerto Vallarta no longer bears much resemblance to the carefree and isolated fishing port that provided the 1963 location for film of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana. In recent years, PV has developed into a world-class gay mecca. Resources for LGBT visitors are many, including GayGuideVallarta.com and GayPV Magazine (GayPV.mx).
By Andrew Collins – Full Story at The Dallas Voice | Puerto Vallarta Gay Travel Resources
Image by Andrew Collins
Categories: Gay Travel, Jalisco, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta Tags: gay travel, jalisco, Mexico, puerto vallarta | 
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Author:
scott, December 24th, 2014
Located on the northeast shore of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, gay Cancun lures international visitors, including many LGBT travelers, with the promise of crystal-blue waters, white-sand beaches, great nightlife, and a growing culinary scene.
The first decision you need to make when planning a trip to Cancn is where to stay, and a great choice for LGBT travelers is the newly renovated Oasis Sens . Owned by the Cancun resort chain Oasis Hotels, the Sens is dubbed the pleasure resort and is an adults-only, LGBT-welcoming retreat. After many years owning and operating several resorts in the Cancn area, we realized a gap in our local marketplace, Director of Special Projects for Oasis Sens Ruben Olmos tells me. There are several resorts in Cancn that advertise as LGBT-friendly, however, it is our experience that many of them fail to follow through on that promise. With this in mind, the Sens offers a growing list of amenities that specifically cater to gay travelers, such as the new Kinky Nightclub that has a burlesque stage, bar, and dance floor that offers guests performances by both women and men in and out of drag, while also hosting several themed parties (most recently a Kinky Pirate Adventure on board a Spanish Galleon recreating the 17th century).
Fellow gay guests staying at the Sens during our visit came from all over the world. Male couples from Manhattan and Rio, a few single twentysomething Canadians on college holiday, a honeymooning lesbian couple from Missouri, and an Italian man on a multi-city solo vacation all stayed for several nights. The hotel, located in the southern area of Cancns Hotel Zone, offers all-inclusive packages for its guests. The standard stay grants guests access to two beachfront pools, seven bars, seven dining venues, nightly theatrical shows (such as aerial ballet performances), and countless on-site activities.
By Andrew Villagomez – Full Story at Passport | Quintana Roo Gay Travel Resources
Image via Apple Maps
Categories: Cancun, Gay Travel, Mexico, Quintana Roo Tags: gay cancun, gay travel, Mexico, quintana roo | No comments
Author:
scott, December 4th, 2014
Come evenings, restaurant and bar La Fundacion Mezcaleria (465 Calle 56. www.facebook.com/iafundacion), in Merida’s historic centro, is a hive of social activity, especially on weekends. It’s Friday night, just past midnight, and a line of mostly 20-30-somethings, quite a few of them queer, eagerly waits to pay the admission fee and gain entry. Having arrived a half-hour ago, I’m already inside, sucking down a fruity and chilled mezcal cocktail from a mason jar.
A cram-packed, mini-labyrinth of indoor spaces with a narrow outdoor courtyard, La Fundacion isn’t a gay club per se, but the crowd is mixed. In fact, Ricardo Gongora, half of the first same-sex couple to be married in Merida, mingles among the throng tonight. He’s pointed out by a local gay friend of a friend, Irak, who’s serving as my blind bar-crawling date for the night in this charming LGBT-friendly mecca. How friendly? Well, June sees a gay pride march and November a White Party (hosted by a US expat couple). Many foreign LGBT people have chosen to settle down or start businesses here, and, despite all the churches and Catholicism, transgender individuals are met with c’est la vie acceptance among neighbors and the community.
After finishing our drinks, and ogling/critiquing the crowd, we walk a block or so over to Casa Pompidou (Calle 58, between 53 & 55. www.facebook.com/casa.pompidou.9). Another mixed venue, which also serves as an art gallery and a live performance space, Pompidou boasts a sizeable dance floor. The all-ages crowd, making merry to a DJ’s techno set, is primarily young hipsters (there are about a dozen universities in the area), young artists, and queer professionals. Irak introduces me to a sassy friend who works on cruise lines, while my attempts to snap photos are met with enthusiastic, grinning photo bombers.
By Lawrence Ferber – Full Story at passport Magazine | Yucatan Gay Travel Resources
Categories: Gay Travel, Mexico, Yucatan Tags: gay travel, Merida, Mexico | No comments
Author:
scott, August 14th, 2014
The enormous 775 mile long Baja California peninsula is split into two large sparsely populated Mexican states: “Baja California” in the north, and “Baja California Sur,” to the south.
The entire narrow peninsula is one of the crown jewels of the planet, bathed by two incredible bodies of water, the mild Pacific Ocean to the west, and the warmer Sea of Cortez to the east, Baja offers hundreds of pristine islands and two thousand miles of scenic coastline.
Baja California is Mexico’s unofficial bilingual zone.
Millions of its residents have lived, and/or worked in Alta California, and continue to enjoy American television and radio broadcasts creating a large community that speaks English as a second language.
I’ve been to many large restaurants in Baja where all the customers, one hundred percent were bilingual Chicanos: Mexican Americans from California and Arizona who cross the border regularly for lunch, dinner and a little shopping, and sight seeing.
The entire reason for existing of seaside Puerto Nuevo is Lobster, fine lobster dining. Thousands of gringos drive to Puerto Nuevo just for the clawed delicacy. You can get to Puerto Nuevo from downtown San Diego in under an hour. More than thirty restaurants serve Lobster, Puerto Nuevo style, which is pan-fried served with the typical Spanish rice, refried brown beans, fresh mashed guacamole salad, and piping hot hand made corn, or flour tortillas.
Any day is a good day to enjoy the world’s favorite crustacean, but if you can be in Puerto Nuevo for the annual Lobster Festival in October, so much the better. The festival is a joyous event centered around Mariachi bands playing on the main street, as well as contests and free samples of popular Mexican brews, including Baja’s own Tecate, the beer you drink with salt sprinkled on the can and a wedge of lemon, or lime squeezed onto the salt.
If you miss the Lobster Festival, the large and modern Tecate Brewery in the city of Tecate right on the international border 25 miles east of Tijuana offers pleasant free tours year-round, including free beer.
The number one tourist attraction in Baja, is “La Bofadora,” one of the largest and most powerful marine geysers, or blow holes in North America, twenty miles south of Ensenada. La Bofadora is more faithful than even Old Faithful, blasting its one hundred foot tall eruption every minute.
Massages in Baja are way cheaper than in the US, and quite different. Rather than a massage table, your treatment takes place on a concrete pedestal. You masseur covers the six-foot long cement bench with clean white bath towels, then soaks the towels with warm water before you lay on the pedestal face down for your massage.
Mexican massage is a combination of deep tissue, and chiropractic techniques.
Admission to a gay bathhouse shouldn’t cost more than ten bucks, and a half hour massage should cost about the same.
You can charge a soft drink, or beer to your locker number. I always buy my masseur, and anyone who strikes up a conversation with me a beer, or soda. It is always a surprise to them, and most welcome.
I always take a good supply of crisp new two-dollar bills to pass out as tips. These unusual bills always cause quite a commotion. While US currency, which they call “plata,” or silver in Spanish circulates virtually everywhere in Baja alongside the Mexican Peso, called “moneda nacional,” national currency in Spanish, the obscure two dollar bill virtually never circulates anywhere outside the US.
Drinking age is 18 years-old in Mexico, so the crowds you will see packing the gay bars, and discos in Tijuana, and the inland state capital of Mexicali will be much younger than at home.
A tidal wave of 18 to 20 year old Americans cross the border to legally club, and party in Baja.
There is an excellent highway running the entire length of the peninsula, from the US border all the way down to Los Cabos.
Take the toll road, “cuota” en espanol, the adjacent free road is much slower because of all the agricultural, and cargo trucks that utilize it.
Tijuana International Airport is a major hub with discount flights throughout Mexico, the US/Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Major cruise ship ports-of-calls in Baja include Ensenada on the Pacific, Loreto and La Paz on the Sea of Cortez, and Los Cabos at the tip of the peninsula where the two bodies of water converge.
A modern overnight passenger and auto ferry runs from quaint Santa Rosalia on the east coast of Baja, across the Sea of Cortez to the popular resort of Guaymas in the Mexican state of Sonora on the Mexican mainland.
Thousands of Americans and Canadians retire in Baja, or vacation there regularly because of the convenience of being so close to the border.
Seaside Playas de Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito, Baja Malibu, Baja Mar, La Salina and Ensenada on the west coast, San Felipe and Rio Hardy on the east coast, in particular are magnets for snowbirds.
Playas de Tijuana sits right on the border, you can see Americans swimming on the other side of the border from the breezy terrace of your restaurant, or hotel.
Many Americans live the good life in Playas de Tijuana, and commute to work in San Diego.
Health Tourism is popular in Baja. As soon as you cross the border you’ll be faced with dozens of dental clinics that perform all the procedures they do back home at half price, or less. They can even fit you for dentures, or a crown and ship the finished product home for you.
Pharmacies are excellent in Mexico, American and European manufactured name brand and generic medications are much cheaper, and many that require a prescription in the US, such as antibiotics, do not need a script in Mexico.
Chinese skyrockets are for sale in dozens of stores. Fire them at midnight on the beach into the pitch-black star-studded sky.
Camp on the white sand beach in the fishing village of San Felipe.
I like a beachfront campground named Pete’s El Paraiso a few miles north of San Felipe. Rent one of dozens of mobile homes, or a beach cabana, not much more than a thatched shelter from the blazing daytime sun. Snuggle up in your sleeping bag at night.
Dig for clams when the tide retreats, scoop up a few crabs and shrimp in a tide pool with your bare hands, fish for silvery glistening flying fish, and cook your catch on the beach in a simple campfire.
The indigenous people have nourished themselves this way for thousands of years along these shores.
Watch the whales, dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans and a profusion of other sea birds that make their home in the Sea of Cortez.
The author, Ernie Alderete is a Los Angeles-based adventure travel writer. His work has appeared in the Bay Area Reporter, the Gay & Lesbian Times, Update Newspaper, Frontiers and Adelante Magazine, among many other LGBT publications across North America. His travels have taken him from the saline depths of the Dead Sea to the frosted heights of the Andes, from the steaming heart of the Amazon to the spectacular wide-open natural grandeur of the Great Barrier Reef. Your comments are always welcome: bologno1952@gmail.com
Baja Sur Gay Travel Resources
Image via Apple Maps
Categories: Baja Sur, Gay Travel, Mexico Tags: baja california, baja sur, gay travel, Mexico | 1 comment
Author:
scott, April 27th, 2014
Travel agent Jeff Land blocked cabins on a Royal Caribbean sailing in December for what he believes is the first trans cruise. “This has been a dream of mine for so long,” Land said, “because it feels safe being with other trans people.”
Land identifies as transgender and prefers female pronouns. “I’m hoping to book 40-50 people,” she said.
The cruise is on the Navigator of the Seas that leaves from Galveston on Dec. 14 for a week. Three ports of call on the trip include Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. “In Belize, people should stay together, but it’s gay-friendly,” Land said. “Honduras and Cozumel are both very gay friendly.”
By David Taffet – Dallas Voice | Other Gay Travel Events
Categories: Belize, Cancun, Cruises, Events, Gay Travel, Honduras, Mexico, Quintana Roo, Texas, Transgender, USA Tags: belize, cancun, cruise, galveston, honduras, Mexico, quintana roo, roatan, texas, transgender | No comments
Author:
scott, April 27th, 2014
Vallarta Pride is a 5-day annual event that pays tribute to the LGBT community with arts and cultural events, concerts, films, beach parties and a lot of fun to show the world the fabulous diversity of our destination.
The first Vallarta Pride was held in late May of 2013 in the famous Puerto Vallarta Romantic Zone. The city turned out in huge numbers to celebrate the lifestyle diversity of all our local, national and international LGBT community.
Puerto Vallarta’s annual LGBT event will take place this year on the weekend of May 22nd to 26th, 2014. Vallarta Pride is now a week-long cultural celebration including music festivals, beach parties, fashion shows, mass commitment ceremony and activities in participating bars and clubs.
via Gay Web Source | Jalisco Gay Travel Resources | Other Gay Travel Events
Categories: Events, Gay Pride, Gay Travel, Jalisco, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta Tags: gay pride, gay travel, jalisco, Mexico, puerto vallarta | No comments
