Manuel Antonio Gay Beaches – The Globetrotter Guys

Manuel Antonio Gay Beaches - The Globetrotter Guys

Manuel Antonio is one of the most popular LGBTQ+ destinations in Costa Rica so it should come as no surprise that there are a fair number of Manuel Antonio gay beaches.

In fact, this stretch of the Pacific coast has been said to have some of the best beaches in the world boasting clear warm waters and long stretches of sand.

In this mini guide we will share 3 gay beaches in the area, including (of course) a nude beach. So grab you best speedos and let’s take a look!

Best Manuel Antonio Gay Beaches

The main and most popular beach is Playa Espadilla. The south end of the beach meets the edge of the most visited national park in Costa Rica, the beautiful national park. At this end of the beach, you with find plenty of shops, restaurants and many other tourists.

Full Story at The Globetrotter Guys

Manuel Antonio Gay Travel Resources

Checking Out Rome Gay Bars – The Globetrotter Guys

Rome Gay Bars - Apple Maps

Searching for Rome gay bars? There are a few small bars in Rome along Via di S Gionvanni in Laterano (next to the Colosseum). If you are looking for larger venues, then it’s more often the case that you will find a gay club night hosted at a club (rather than that club being an official gay club).

Rome Gay Bars: Coming Out Bar

We visited Coming Out bar during Roma Pride and found that it was a great option to hang out during the day for drinks and food. The food menu stood out with Paninis categorised into ‘Jock’, ‘Wolf’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Twink’ and so on. This put a smile on our face. Of course, there are plenty of pasta and pizza options on offer as well. For drinks, this place is incredibly reasonable for Rome (this city is expensive!).

Drinks range from €5 for an Aperol Spritz, a must have, to €6 for standard cocktails and €8 for something a bit more fancy. In comparison, head into the posh tourist bars and you are looking at €10-20 for an Aperol Spritz.

By Sion & Ben – Full Story at the Globetrotter Guys

Rome Gay Travel Resources

Stockholm Gay Bars – The Globetrotter Guys

Stockholm Gay Bar - The Globetrotter Guys

Stockholm is an incredible destination for gay travellers with so much to offer – it is a very liberal and welcoming city. As a result, the bars (and scene) here are quite unique.

Given Stockholm is such a progressive city, you will find yourself welcome as a traveller in bars all across the city. However, whilst this is great to see, we were very keen to check out as many ‘actual’ Stockholm gay bars as possible during our visit.

Best Stockholm Gay Bars: Club Backdoor

Club Backdoor markets itself as ‘the best gay club north of Ibiza’. Backdoor is open till 5am Friday/Saturday and naturally becomes the final stop for everyone on a night out in town. On Fridays it plays hits, hip hop, RnB and 90s, Saturdays plays dark house and techno (check Facebook for updates). This club can tend to attract more of the circuit crowd and can be found just outside the city centre.

By Sion & Ben – Full Story at the Globetrotter Guys

Best of Gay Spain – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Spain - The Globetrotter Guys

As a gay couple, Spain is our number one country in the world to travel to. We have visited and lived in gay Spain and the level of comfort as a same-sex couple has consistently been incredible. We have never felt discriminated against, never felt uncomfortable and never had to second guess ourselves no matter where we have travelled to – for us, this is a priceless feeling.

In 2018 we lived in Madrid, Barcelona was one of our very first holidays together 10 years ago, Sitges is one of the best prides we have been to and we have been to Gran Canaria more than 7 times – this country has a special place in our hearts. There is an inherent feeling of safety, acceptance and normality when it comes to being gay here.

In our ‘Best of Gay Spain Guide’ we want to celebrate all the amazing destinations we have travelled to and share our best recommendations with you. First, let’s take a quick look at gay rights for some context:

Gay Spain: Rights and Culture

When it comes to LGBTQ rights in Spain, these are all very positive. Same-sex intercourse has been legal here since 1979, unsurprisingly this happened the year after democracy came to this country and they said good riddance to their dictator Franco. It was also the third country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in 2005 and discrimination protections run nationwide.

Full Story at The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Spain Travel Resources

Gay New York City – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay New York City - The Globetrotter Guys

When it comes to LGBTQ+ friendly cities, New York is one of the greatest to visit with its thriving queer scene, a deep-rooted history and some of the most iconic sights and buildings in the world. Each of our visits to gay New York City has been a truly magical experience.

We have always been wowed by its grandeur and palpable buzz, kept incredibly busy and each time left wanting more – it really is the city that never sleeps. NYC should be on everyone’s travel bucket list without a doubt.

In our ‘Gay New York City Travel Guide’ we will cover everything from where to find the queer areas here, to the best gay bars, hotels, the top things to do and many other helpful travel tips.

Why is New York so Gay Friendly?

We found the city to be very gay friendly and it should come as no surprise.

The Big Apple is considered to have one of the most well established, largest, out and proud LGBTQ communities in the world and home to one of the biggest pride celebrations.

This is likely to stem from the fact that New York is well known for being the birthplace of the gay rights movement – aka the Stonewall Riots.

Full Story at The Globetrotter Guys

Gay New York City Travel Resources

Gay Spain – The Best Things to See and Do – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Spain - The Globetrotter Guys

As a gay couple, Spain is our number one country in the world to travel to. We have visited and lived in Gay Spain and the level of comfort has consistently been incredible. We have never felt discriminated against, never felt uncomfortable and never had to second guess ourselves no matter where we have travelled to – for us, this is a priceless feeling.

In 2018 we lived in Madrid, Barcelona was one of our very first holidays together 10 years ago, Sitges is one of the best prides we have been to and we have been to Gran Canaria more than 7 times – this place has a special place in our hearts. There is an inherent feeling of safety, acceptance and normality when it comes to being yourself in this friendly country.

In our ‘Best of Gay Spain Guide’ we want to celebrate all the amazing destinations we have travelled to and share our best recommendations with you. First, let’s take a quick look at gay rights in Spain for some context:

Gay Spain: Rights and Culture

When it comes to gay rights, these are all very positive. Same-sex intercourse has been legal since 1979, unsurprisingly this happened the year after democracy came to Spain and they said good riddance to their dictator Franco.

Spain was also the third country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage in 2005 and discrimination protections run nationwide. The laws here are also reflected in the culture of the people. In most destinations we felt that no one even noticed we were a gay couple – it was simply by the by.

Full Story at The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Spain Travel Resources

Gay Split, Croatia – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Split, Croatia - The Globetrotter Guys

We spent 4 nights in the beautiful city of Split in Croatia and loved every minute.

Split is Croatia’s second largest city in the Dalmatia region after Dubrovnik and home to 250k people.

The historical walled old town lays on the water’s edge and is a maze of pretty cobbled streets, beautiful buildings (including the famed Diocletian’s Palace), monuments and is also a great point from which to travel to the other islands along the coast.

In our guide to gay Split we will cover how we found the city as a gay couple, if a gay scene exists, share our experience of the gay beach, cover the best activities to do in (and from) Split, where to stay and practical tips – we highly recommend that you visit!

Is Split Gay Friendly?

As a country, Croatia is not particularly well known for being progressive and gay friendly compared to other countries in Europe such as Spain.

However when visiting the tourist hot spots, like the case in many countries, we felt very safe and had no trouble at all. We have been to Croatia twice with no issue.

In fact, our trip to Croatia was for a gay sailing trip which finished in Split (the trip goes each year) and we had a huge pride flag flying for the whole journey and never had an issue!

By Sion & Ben – Full Story at the Globetrotter Guys

Gay Split Travel Resources

Berlin Gay Hotels – The Globetrotter Guys

Berlin Gay Hotels - The Globetrotter Guys

Berlin’s inherent gay friendly nature means that no matter what hotel you stay at, you should be welcomed as a gay traveller.

However, like many cities around Europe there are also a few outright Berlin gay hotels on offer.

For further travel planning, check out our full Gay Guide to Berlin.

Here are our top choices:

Axel Hotel Berlin – Adults Only

This is probably one of the best known gay hotels in Berlin. We stayed at the Axel Hotel Berlin, which is in the heart of the gay area of Berlin making it perfect for a night out and while it may advertise itself as hetero-friendly, is just mainly full of gay men. We loved the sauna area, hot tub and roof top terrace are – perfect to hang out and meet other guests.

By Sion & Ben – Full Story at the Globetrotter Guys

Germany Gay Travel Resources

Gay Ios – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Ios - The Globetrotter Guys

We first visited Ios as part of our gay sailing trip around the Greek Islands in 2019 and immediately fell in love with this beautiful island.

Ios is part of the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea and can be found between Naxos and Santorini. It is a relatively small island at only 18 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide.

The island is known for its lazy days, beautiful beaches and party fuelled nights.

As places like Santorini become increasingly popular with huge numbers of tourists, places like Ios give you the opportunity to explore an equally beautiful island without so many crowds, especially since it has no airport so you can only arrive by sea!

Like Santorini, Ios is covered with white washed, blue domed buildings which look stunning and are iconic of these islands.

When it comes to gay Ios, it does not have a well established gay scene like you would find in Mykonos (see our Gay Travel Guide to Mykonos). However like many places we visited around Greece, we felt welcome as a gay couple and did manage to find it’s one gay bar during our explorations!

Check out our Gay Greece Guide for a shortlist of our top gay destinations in Greece.

In our mini ‘Gay Ios Travel Guide’ we share the best things to do in Ios as well as where to stay, and some great recommendations for a sunset drink!

By Sion & Ben – Full Story at the Globetrotter Guys

Greece Gay Travel Resources

Gay Crete – The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Crete - The Globetrotter Guys

Crete was one of our first vacations as a gay couple and although there isn’t a huge gay scene in Crete we felt very welcome on this beautiful island and have returned since! Crete is the largest island in Greece offering everything from beautiful soft sand beaches, to rich historical sights, a thriving nightlife scene and mountains inland to explore by car.

During our trips we had no issues being gay in Crete and felt particularly comfortable around the touristy areas.

Gay Crete has thousands of visitors from all over the world every year and gay travel around Greece in general is very popular with the likes of Mykonos and Athens for example. In our Gay Crete Travel Guide we have put together the shortlist of the places we have stayed and visited, investigated what the gay scene is like and put together some unmissable trips for your visit!

Where to Stay in Gay Crete

We have been to Crete twice and being the largest island in Greece there are a lot of places to stay.

The first time we stayed in Hersonissos and the second time we split our time between Stalis and Malia. In both cases we made sure to explore as much of the island as possible.

Full Story at The Globetrotter Guys

Gay Greece Travel Resources