Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay:
Filled with sunshine and right on the beach, LemonTree Cottages are cleaned once a day and are entirely self-contained. Come enjoy the simple luxury of our tropical decor, relax in a soft Japanese Yukata robe, or sit on your suite’s large private verandah, breathing in the ocean breezes. You can spend the day at the LemonTree’s beach, swimming, snorkeling, beach combing, and unwinding. There’s rarely anyone at the beach, so the LemonTree is peaceful and extremely private.
The LemonTree Oceanfront Cottages have just five suites. All cottages are directly on the beachfront, have fully-equipped kitchens, cooling ceiling fans, beautiful cool terrazzo tile floors, a/c in the bedrooms, art glass lighting to help you feel relaxed, flat-screen televisions with DVD players, book libraries, and wide, private beachfront veranda’s. Wide open and airy, the cottage suites will give you every comfort and privacy.
The Papaya Suite has three bedrooms. Two rooms have a comfortable queen bed; and the master bedroom has a private bathroom. The second and the third bedroom have twin beds, and share a hall bathroom. The tropical decor of the living room and dining area, and the kitchen make for a great common area. The huge flat screen cable television with a DVD player make watching your favorite movie a lot of fun. This cottage will sleep six.
The Mango and Pina’s tropically decorated oceanfront living rooms and intimate dining rooms, with playful ribbon curtains, welcomes you into each of these suites. The bedroom offers a comfortable queen bed, and the living room comes with a futon sleeper couch. These cottages sleep four.
The Coco and Banana studios are romantic, with a charming feel. Both come with intimate tropical dining areas and easy chairs. The Banana studio has a two person Jacuzzi – a wonderful way to de-stress. The room has wonderful tile work, tropical plants and art glass lighting. If you’d like a Caribbean cottage with a hot tub, the Banana is for you.
The LemonTree Oceanfront Cottage owners, Bella Jane and Ted, live on-site and can help you plan your island activities in western Puerto Rico, Porta del Sol. We’ll give you a map of Rincon to help you get oriented. We can also schedule massages, diving and snorkeling trips, surfing lessons, horseback riding, sailing expeditions, parasailing, and fishing trips. Your suite also has an activities and restaurant guide.
Rincon is a relaxed, local beach town where all you need is a t-shirt and shorts. Beaches are all around and the surf beckons you to take a swim, surf, or snorkel. You can also take a charter with Taino Divers out to Desecheo Island, go parasailing, take a sunset cruise with Katarina Sail Charters, or just relax, renew and reawaken your spirit.
We’ll help you relax during your Caribbean holiday, so you’ll return home invigorated, relaxed, revitalized and brimming with happy memories. Come visit us in beautiful Rincon, Puerto Rico.
See the LemonTree Oceanfront Cottages Expanded Listing on Purple Roofs Here
Gay Friendly Bed and Breakfasts, Hotels, and Vacation Rentals in Puerto Rico
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A Gay Cruise in the Caribbean? Oh yes please! I have always dreamed of the beautiful water of the Caribbeans Gulf! As you know, I love to go to swim in the most beautiful seas, and visit the most amazing beaches all over the world… so I am really looking forward to this all new adventure!
I have partnered with Outing And Adventures, specialists in multisport adventure trips worldwide, to enjoy an amazing Gay Cruise on a Windjammer in the Caribbeans Gulf this October (9-15th October). Do you want to join me? Click here and check all the details of the cruise now! If you are interested, get in touch with me and I will definitely help you in the booking process.
I have never been to this beautiful part of the world, so a Gay Caribbean cruise looks so appealing to me: the idea of spending 1 full week on the turquoise water of the Caribbean, with up to 26 gay men, plus a highly experienced crew of 12, is something I am really looking forward to!
Photo Credit: Augusto Mia Battaglia/Flickr[/caption]
Last May I was living the dream — or at least, I was living someone’s dream. I was on a plane bound for Cuba with 11 handsome, muscly men. We had rented a villa in Cuba’s swanky Miramar neighborhood, where we were destined to spend our days sipping Cuba libres poolside, meandering the streets of Old Havana and dancing to that sultry, syncopated Cuban music that can make you forget that the sun rose hours ago.
It was definitely fodder for some type of female fantasy … save for the fact that all 11 men were gay.
To an outsider, Cuba would probably not seem to be a prime location to promote LGBT travel. But what we found was quite the opposite: a widely tolerant community where being gay is more than accepted. In fact, in Havana, it’s a nonissue.
“Forget about the communist side of it: Latin cultures aren’t necessarily accepting of homosexuality,” said David Lee, owner of luxury travel company Cultural Cuba. “Combine that with the communism, which is also not very accepting, and you assume Cuba would be the worst possible place for LGBT travel. But it’s not.”
Photo by Sydney Coatsworth[/caption]
For more than 5 decades, Cuba has been the much lusted after – but unattainable – American vacation. Oh the torture to be so close to those glorious beaches, to a plucky, passionate nation that remains rooted in the 50’s with antique cars and slicked back hairdos. Despite being ruled by a dictator and ostracized by their closest neighbor, they opened their arms to the world and thrived.
Although Americans have been allowed access to Cuba since 2011 through licensed tour operators, the recent lift of the embargo has hearts aflutter. But let’s be honest, it’s going to be a while yet before the average American can jet down for an inexpensive, quickie vacation, though things look good for more open American Cuba travel by the end of 2016. Some travel experts predict it will be 2-4 years before the tourism infrastructure in Cuba matures enough to support American vacationers en mass.
While you’re waiting for Cuba to ready herself for you, take a few moments to look – really look – at Cuba as a vacation destination. Cuba is home to a smorgasbord of unspoiled beaches, warm climate and passionate, hot-blooded culture, remember – but it’s still a very poor country and it’s had no exposure to American tourists for more than 50 years. Be prepared for some old-world practices.
It was breezy, yet sunny Sunday afternoon at Henry Harris County Park in the Upper Florida Keys. Coconut palm trees lined the calm water in which a few dozen people — mostly young children and their Spanish-speaking relatives who were watching them — were swimming. The first landmass that one would reach if he or she were to have sailed directly south from this point of land would be a group of islands near the Cuban city of Sagua la Grande, which is less than 150 miles away on the other side of the Florida Straits.
Life couldn’t be any more different for those who live on this side of the treacherous body of water that has taken the lives of untold numbers of Cubans who sought a better life in the wake of the 1959 revolution.
I met Samuel, a 23-year-old man, at Cabaret Las Vegas, an unofficial gay club in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood, on my first night in his country. I was completely exhausted from lack of sleep, but we immediately hit it off and he gave me his phone number before I walked the block to the house in which I was staying.
Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay:
Tru Bahamian Food Tours offers unique and innovative local culinary experiences to visitors of The Bahamas in a safe, sustainable, and environmentally responsible manner. Our mission is to connect visitors with authentic local food items, the stories and traditions behind these foods, and the Bahamian entrepreneurs that prepare and preserve them.
Travel off the beaten touristic path to explore the intoxicating flavors of Nassau, Bahamas on a guided food tasting and cultural walking tour through this charming island city. Sample 6 delicious specialties (enough for a hearty lunch) as you follow your knowledgeable and friendly local guide from one eatery to the next.
Discover colonial Nassau, traveling away from busy Bay Street in search of authentic Bahamian flavors. Youa[euro](TM)ll eat your way through locally adored Nassau establishments, family-owned restaurants, and speciality boutiques as you stroll through Downtown’s storied neighborhood with your culinary guide.
Mi Cayito, which is Havana’s unofficial gay beach, on Sunday afternoon turned into quite the party. Beachgoers were dancing perreo (an overtly sexual dance to reggaeton music) that leaves very little to the imagination. A group of men were playing volleyball while a lesbian couple cuddled under a makeshift umbrella they set up nearby. A young boy was flying a kite.
It was a relaxing afternoon on my first full day in Cuba, which brought me to this section of Playas del Este that is roughly 15 miles east of Havana. The trip thus far seems a bit less uncertain — and dare I say less complicated — than when I visited the Communist island for the first time in May 2015.
The process through which an American must go in order to travel to Cuba remains unnecessarily complicated, even though the Obama administration has formally restored diplomatic relations with the country. The cost of a 45 minute charter flight from Miami to Havana is simply absurd. The need to check into it four hours before its scheduled departure — which was at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday at Miami International Airport for me — is even worse. With this complaining aside, the little things appear to have been made a bit less complicated on this side of the Florida Straits.
I visited Isla Mujeres in 2010 on a day trip while I was living in Playa del Carmen, and even though it was a (too!) short visit, I was smitten with the tiny Caribbean island immediately. Crystal clear water, powdery sand beaches, palm trees softly swaying in the wind. It was a glorious day. And yet it took me nearly six years to return to Isla Mujeres, the Isle of Women.
I decided to spend my last weekend in Mexico on the island, and I don’t think I could’ve chosen a more perfect place to end my Mexico trip with a bang, but it also made saying goodbye even more bittersweet. I know that I’ll be back in Mexico (hopefully rather sooner than later), but I was definitely not ready for this trip to end, especially after our fabulous road trip.
As the last stop for our road trip, the island was perfect! It is tiny enough to be explored in a golf kart in half a day, so we didn’t feel like we missed out on anything when we spent most of the weekend on the beach, sitting in a swing bar with a cool beer or searching for the best palm tree to spread out our beach towels under.
We all have been reading the buzz around visiting Cuba. The questions we all have are:
My father left Cuba in June of 1962. The revolution was intensifying and as part of “Operation Peter Pan,” a program developed by the Catholic Church of which the church still denies ever existed, my grandparents placed him on the last Lufthansa flight out of Havana one morning. A young boy, my father wouldn’t see his parents for years to come. He has never returned. After decades, I became the first of my family to return to the island nation and left to my desires, I would have stayed. I’ll get to that in a minute.
My father is proud, PROUD, of his homeland in the same way that I am PROUD of being a member of the LGBT community. Pride runs deep with Cubans and with us Verdugos. Over the last several years my father has opened up about the Cuba he once knew more than 50 years ago, and often shares his memories of Camaguey, the town in which he grew up. He spills stories about our cousins, but mostly he speaks of the beauty of this massive island. The crystal waters, the undisturbed beaches, the fishing, the music, and la gente. Our people.
I grew up in Miami (aka Little Havana) surrounded by the vibrant and colorful, musical, passionate, sexy cultura of my people. However, something didn’t click for me. My parents divorced when I was two and so I had very little knowledge of my Cuban heritage at home. While soulfully drawn to it, it felt equally foreign. Something was amiss. There was a disconnect.