Visiting Lake Geneva for Gay Families – 2TravelDads

Visiting Lake Geneva for Gay Families - 2TravelDads

Visiting Lake Geneva for Gay Families

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a popular destination for people who grew up or live in the Midwest, but if you’re not from the area, it may be totally unfamiliar. We really enjoyed our visit and found some of the best things to do with kids at Lake Geneva and Wisconsin farm country. Near Madison, WI and Milwaukee, it’s a great destination for getting away from city life, and is the perfect stop on a Wisconsin road trip. It’s even an easy weekend getaway from Chicago.

Being a historic summer town, a lot of the fun things to do in Lake Geneva are available primarily from May to October. As fall sets in, the lake goes quiet and those who visit shift into ski-season mode. For summer visitors though, it’s a Midwest paradise that’s perfect for families. June is the best time to visit, before it’s too hot. You can pair a trip to Lake Geneva with visiting Madison, WI for Pride. Perfect plan!

Here are some great activities to show you the best of southern Wisconsin while visiting Lake Geneva for gay families. If you have anything to add or have any questions, please leave a comment or send us a note. We’re happy to share more.

By Chris and Rob – Full Story at the 2TravelDads

Wisconsin Gay Travel Resources

Best Yellowstone Picnic Spots – 2TravelDads

Best Yellowstone Picnic Spots - 2TravelDads

Where Are the Best Yellowstone Picnic Spots?

In real life we picnic, so why wouldn’t we when we’re on vacation? Yellowstone is a picnicker’s paradise. As the late, great Yogi Bear would say as he walked through Jellystone Park: “A tisket a tasket, I smell a pin-a-nic basket.” And it’s true, that’s what Yellowstone is all about. The Park provides tons of great picnic areas for families and individuals to enjoy. Picnicking helps you get outside and really appreciate the nature that’s all around you. Having said that, go have fun and eat lunch in the sunshine!

Note: there are many more of what folks think are the best Yellowstone picnic spots than what we’re going to share, but our list is all about being family friendly and based 100% on our own experiences, which is why we’re confident that these spots are awesome.

Quick note before we dive in: always pack out what you pack in, including food scraps. Even an apple core isn’t something to chuck into the woods. Think about the animals first and don’t teach them to want human scented food.

By Chris and Rob – Full Story at the 2TravelDads

Gay Disneyland for LGBTQ+ Families – 2TravelDads

Gay Disneyland for LGBTQ+ Families - 2TravelDads

Disneyland. We’ve been so many times through the years. I used to work at the park and have friends that still do. It’s one of the most special places we go back to.

In this podcast episode we go land by land through gay Disneyland discussing our favorite attractions, details of the park, and what we feel are the ride most worth waiting for. We hope you enjoy our discussion, and be sure to come back for our episode all about Disney’s California Adventure!

Gay Disneyland: Everything Worth Waiting For (And More)

In this episode we go attraction by attraction picking and choosing our favorites. We know that some Disneyland attractions are worth waiting 45 minutes or an hour, but not all… even if the wait time shows a long line. Between the best rides and shows to mix up the magic, this podcast episode should give you a good idea of planning and what to use your valuable time on when you visit the Happiest Place on Earth!

By Chris and Rob – Full Story at the 2TravelDads

Greater L.A. Area Gay Travel Resources

Casa Alebrijes Hotel – Gay Owned Bed & Breakfast in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Casa Alebrijes Hotel - Gay Owned Bed & Breakfast in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

CENTRAL NEAR GUADALAJARA GAY NIGHTLIFE

Welcome to Casa Alebrijes – the best hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico for gay men and lesbians and their friends.

Guadalajara is often called the San Francisco of Mexico, and our boutique Guadalajara hotel is just two blocks from gay nightlife in town – twenty-five gay bars and discotheques, all within an easy walk from our front door.

Our Guadalajara hotel has two floors with two suites for 1-4 persons, and seven guest rooms that can each accommodate 1 or 2. The first floor also has a beautiful garden patio with a lovely fountain. The second floor has a wide balcony that overlooks the garden.

Casa Alebrijes is in a late 19th century home that has been carefully and lovingly restored in a traditional style. We’ve added all the modern conveniences, while respecting the beauty of the original architecture.

See the Casa Alebrijes Hotel Expanded Listing on Purple Roofs Here

Guadalajara Gay Friendly Bed and Breakfasts, Hotels, and Vacation Rentals

Travel, Hope, and the Virus

globe - deposit photos

As fear spreads around the globe faster than the Corona virus itself, we are all being forced to re-evaluate almost everything about our daily lives. How often do we go out? What do we avoid? How do we change our routines to keep ourselves healthy?

We must not give into fear. Fear disables us and blinds us, when we need to be clear-eyed and level-headed. But at the same time, we must also be realistic about the challenge we now face.

At Purple Roofs, we are all about travel and connection between different kinds of people. The LGBTQ+ travel community has often served as ambassadors to many parts of the world where being gay (or lesbian or trans or bi or gender fluid etc) is still stigmatized, or even illegal.

We live in every country, we follow every way of life, and none of us are untouched by what’s happening in the world today.

That’s why we’ve decided to take the unusual step of addressing this issue directly here on the blog and in our newsletter and social media accounts. After all, we regularly post articles about wonderful places to visit and things to see, and that’s felt increasingly out of step as the world locks itself down and quarantines many of us in order to to slow the advance of the virus.

The next few months are going to be a test for all of us, including the queer travel community. A test of our societies as we struggle with new restrictions. A test for our economies as we wait this thing out. And a test for each of us individually, as we deal with our own lives and reach out to support one-another in whatever ways we can.

There’s an old war quote:

“There are no atheists in foxholes.”

I’d update that for today:

There is no us and them during a crisis..

I know that this too shall pass. We will get though this and come out the other side, and then things will start to return to normal. I am hopeful that new seeds will sprout in the aftermath of this crisis, and that this experience will bring us closer together.

That change will begin to blow across the world.

In the meantime, Purple Roofs is still about travel. Travel is a fundamentally hopeful exercise – we fling ourselves off to far-away destinations in metal canisters that we trust to reach those places. We take a leap of faith and engage with other cultures, in the hope that we can learn something valuable about ourselves in the process. And we knit the world together into a global community, one trip at a time.

We must not lose that hope.

And so we’re going to continue to post travel articles during this crisis. While many of you may not be traveling now by choice or by necessity, it won’t always be so. Our travel businesses are going to need us all, through this time and beyond.

When you travel, take all the recommended precautions to keep yourself and your hosts safe. And when you can’t, send messages of support to the rest of our community.

In the meantime we can all work to keep the dream alive. Gay or straight, black or white, Canadian, Latino, Chinese or Italian, we all belong to the same species, to the same planet. We’ll all get though this, together,

St. Augustine for Gay Families – 2TravelDads

St. Augustine for Gay Families - 2TravelDads

We have visited St Augustine quite a few times and each time we’ve stayed someplace different. There are many hotels in Saint Augustine for gay families as well as other options, such as camping, and we’re covering them all! After you read this article you should be able to make a solid choice in choosing a hotel in St Augustine and the surrounding area.

We work with Best Western Hotels & Resorts and have lots of experience with the brand, so we do recommend them for sure, and they sponsored our most recent trip to Saint Augustine. We encourage you to check them out for booking a hotel in the St Augustine area, particularly because they have so many options! We’ve got additional recommendations for St Augustine and all the way up to Jax Beach for hotels and other accommodations, so let us know if you have any questions.

St. Augustine for Gay Families

A city like St Augustine is great for any type of traveler because there is such a diversity of accommodations. Whether you want to find a budget hotel or want to book a beautiful, historic suite, there are lots of options!

By Chris and Rob – Full Story at the 2TravelDads

St. Augustine Gay Travel Resources

The Santa Monica Pier on a Perfect Afternoon – 2TravelDads

The Santa Monica Pier on a Perfect Afternoon - 2TravelDads

Can you think of anything that is more Southern California than visiting the Santa Monica Pier? I don’t think we could name a single thing. Well, maybe a day in San Diego on the Beach surfing… But no, the Pier. Even though a day at the Santa Monica Pier seems like the most touristy and convoluted Los Angeles travel plan you can ever think of it’s actually well worth your time and a visit to LA isn’t complete without some beach time.

Yes, there are so many wonderful free things to do in the Los Angeles area and if you’re going to venture to the beach for the purpose of swimming and pretending to be from SoCal you might pick a different beach, like Manhattan Beach, but the Santa Monica Pier end beach are an ideal, easy to access destination and are just downright iconic.

Finding the Santa Monica Pier

When you ponder life in the West and the history of North America there are few things that pop out: the California Gold Rush, old west towns and cowboys, and then Route 66 and all of the struggles and stories in vintage history that are a part of it. The Santa Monica Pier is the very end of Route 66 (check out the Planet D for their Route 66 trip). As you walk out onto the pier you see the sign that calls it out.

The Santa Monica Pier is also directly next to the Pacific Coast Highway, also known as the PCH. The Pacific Coast Highway is a fantastic California road trip route.

By Chris and Rob – Full Story at the 2TravelDads

Greater L.A. Gay Travel Resources

Winter in Paris – Washington Blade

Winter in Paris - Bill Malcolm

Winter in Paris is the perfect time to visit.. The crowds are gone. The weather is not as cold as many U.S. cities. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time in museums, it doesn’t matter anyway. Plus, Paris has a great gay scene and a gayborhood — The Marais.

Getting There

I snagged a great low fare on Delta Airlines. The service was exceptional and everything was free. Free hot dinner and breakfast, free headsets, free blankets and pillows, free eyeshades and more. Once in Paris, hop on the commuter rail to town, the RER-B then take the Metro to get to your hotel from the Gare du Nord Station.

Where to Stay

I stayed at The Moxy, a new Marriott brand geared for millennials. The rate was very reasonable (it varied by day with one day at just 93 Euros or around $110). It’s located near the Marais in the Bastille District and near no less than three Metro stations. You can walk to many of the major attractions or hop on the subway. Two nearby stores (Franprix) have everything you need including salad bars, hot sandwiches and great selections of wine.

Full Story at the Washington Blade

Paris Gay Travel Resources

Japan Looks to the LGBTQ+ Tourism Market

Japan - Pixabay

Japan’s tourism industry is looking for ways to attract LGBT visitors from overseas and take advantage of their tendency to spend more than average tourists.

Tourism-related businesses all over the world are “scrambling” to attract LGBT travelers, who have “considerable purchasing and spending power,” said Shintaro Koizumi, chief executive of Out Japan Co., a Tokyo-based marketing firm conducting seminars and other programs to support corporate clients seeking to learn how to handle issues involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

With data showing that LGBT tourists spend about twice as much as average travelers, hotels and other accommodation facilities in Japan are stepping up efforts to appeal to them. The move is in line with a government target of attracting 40 million foreign tourists in 2020, up from 28.69 million in 2017, estimating total spending of ¥8 trillion during their stays, up from ¥4.42 trillion.

When American tourists visit Japan for 10 days, an average travel agency arranges tours that cost them $3,500 to $4,000 each, excluding airfare, according to industry officials. In contrast, trip arrangements made by a travel agency catering to LGBT clients generally cost more than $7,000.

By Jiji – Full Story at the Japan Times