Posted: 4/3/17 | April 3rd, 2017
In this guest post, Dani from Globetrottergirls shares her tips and advice to help you plan the ultimate lesbian friendly travel experience!
When I started planning my first trip to Latin America in 2010, I wondered what it would be like to travel with my girlfriend in strictly Catholic countries, many of them known for their culture of machismo.
Would we be safe?
Would we get the chance to connect with local lesbians or meet other lesbian travelers?
I had traveled extensively around Europe and I’d been to LGBT hot spots in the us but had no idea what to expect in other parts of the world. Back then, there wasn’t much information online, and social media wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is now.
Today, planning a lesbian trip has gotten much easier since then. Still, if you are not traveling to a lesbian or a pride festival, planning an LGBT-friendly trip can be daunting and overwhelming.
Where do you start?
How to go about finding queer-friendly destinations and meeting other gay travelers?
Like me, a lot of lesbians (especially first-time travelers) feel more comfortable traveling in an environment where they feel safe. with that in mind, I’ve compiled this ultimate resource for lesbian travelers, including websites you’ll want to bookmark for trip planning, LGBT-friendly booking sites, travel opportunities for same-sex couples or lesbian solo travelers, and how to meet like-minded people during your trip!
Innholdsfortegnelse
1. Trip-Planning Strategies
2. how to find Lesbian-Friendly travel Companies
3. how to find Lesbian-Owned and -Friendly Accommodation
4. the best Lesbian tours and Cruises
5. how to meet other Lesbians While Traveling
6. how to travel safe as a Lesbian
1. Trip-Planning Strategies
Maybe you’ve already got a destination in mind, or maybe you’re completely open. If this is your first international trip, you might want to play it safe and visit a country with liberal views on same-sex relationships — and not one of the 70 countries that have legal LGBT discrimination.
The us department of state is a good place to start to gather LGBTQ travel Information, including some pointers on staying safe as a queer traveler.
Both the international Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex association (ILGA), a nonprofit human rights group in Geneva, and the international Gay & Lesbian travel association (IGLTA) are excellent resources. The former has a detailed overview of sexual orientation laws around the world, and the latter has good trip-planning tools.
Damron publishes a complete travel guide by and for lesbians every year, including listings in North America, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and major cities in Europe and Asia. It also includes festivals, lesbian tours, and conferences, as well as information for vegetarians and multiracial couples and on wheelchair access, among much more.
Passport magazine is one of the only gay and lesbian travel magazines still in publication in the United States. It covers LGBT travel, culture, adventure, and style. It’s the perfect go-to if you’re looking for some lesbian travel inspiration.
If this is your first trip abroad, and you don’t want to travel too far from the US, I recommend Costa Rica, which is very LGBT friendly. Manuel Antonio has plenty of gay-owned hotels, and Playa Samara, my favorite beach in Costa Rica, even has a lesbian-owned B&B right on the beach.
Mexico is one of the countries that surprised me most in terms of gay-friendliness: Not even in San Francisco did I see as many gay couples openly holding hands and making out in parks as I did in Mexico City!
Moreover, Puerto Vallarta is the “gay capital” of Mexico, and along with the nearby beaches of the Riviera Nayarit, it makes for an easy getaway from the us — where you can be out without worrying about how you may be perceived.
2. how to find Lesbian-Friendly travel Companies
The IGLTA has a comprehensive list of all of its official partners, which include companies like Delta, Hilton, Marriott, and Disney.
Expedia has a separate section for queer travelers, featuring LGBT-welcoming hotels and guides to top gay hotspots.
3. how to find lesbian-Owned and -Friendly Accommodation
The best place to look for lesbian-owned and lesbian-friendly accommodation is Purple Roofs, the world’s largest travel directory of LGBT-friendly accommodation. Over 4,800 bed & breakfasts, hotels, vacation rentals, and other properties are listed. simply type in your destination and all available properties there will be listed. You’ll see right away if it’s lesbian or gay owned, the price per night, and a description of the property.
Another option is to look for tag Approved® hotels, which are those that are not only LGBT friendly but also support the LGBT community in their employment policies and services. (TAG stands for travel Advocacy Group.) There are around 2,000 suchhotels, including several big chains, such as Hilton Hotels, Marriott, Sheraton, and The W. similar to Purple Roofs, you can type in your destination and be shown a listing of all tag Approved® hotels there.
While Purple Roofs focuses on small, independent businesses, tag features mostly bigger hotel corporations. The advantage of tag is that it features many hotels that are members of travel reward programs, so if you are into travel hacking and looking to use points in a lesbian-friendly hotel, the tag website will be more useful for you.
Not every lesbian cares if she is staying in explicitly LGBT-friendly accommodations. So if you’re not sure of the kind of place you’re checking in to, you may well run into this issue: having to decide if you are comfortable requesting a double bed when you are given two single beds. I don’t know how many times my partner and I were shown a room with two beds after explicitly booking a double bed. most receptionists simply assume that two girls traveling together are friends or sisters; rarely do they assume that they are a couple.
I do remember situations in which I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to ask (in Malaysia, for example, where LGBT rights are largely unrecognized).
If you’re confident enough, you can ask for a room with one bed instead, which is what I started doing after I got tired of squeezing into a single bed with my girlfriend. but not everyone is comfortable doing this, so if you want to be 100% sure that you’re welcomed — especially when traveling as a couple — I recommend booking lesbian-friendly accommodation.
4. the best Lesbian tours and Cruises
There are several providers for lesbian tours, the biggest one being Olivia. Olivia offers all-lesbian vacations, ranging from resorts to cruises. Olivia always buys out a whole resort or charters the entire ship to make sure the trip is a safe space for women so that they feel like they can be out without worrying about anything.
In addition to ships or resorts filled with lesbians, Olivia also offer the best lesbian entertainment on their vacations, including artists like Melissa Etheridge, the Indigo Girls, Wanda Sykes, and Lily Tomlin.
Olivia is a great option for couples, but also for solo travelers who can’t find anyone to travel with but aren’t ready to go on a trip by themselves. one of the things that make Olivia special is that women come together on their trips to meet new people and form friendships, and many women travel with Olivia over and over again.
Diva Destinations is a UK-based lesbian tour operator that offers hosted lesbian group holidays around Europe, for example, the Women’s festival in Lesvos, Greece; a golf-themed cruise; and river cruises around Europe. (These are not limited to lesbian travelers from the UK, by the way.)
R family Vacations, founded by Rosie O’Donell, started out as “R family Cruises” but has since grown into other kinds of LGBT family vacations. In addition to its popular family vacations for lesbian parents and their kids, the company has launched an “Adult Vacation” line, which offers kid-free vacations, not strictly for lesbian travelers but both gay men and women. In contrast to R’s family vacation line, the adult holidays aim to connect LGBT travelers without kids.
Another company that offers mixed cruises (for gay men as well as lesbians), is Aquafest Cruises, which specializes in discounted LGBT cruises to destinations such as Alaska, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, and Asia. Aquafest’s cruises are considerably cheaper than other gay and lesbian cruises (including the above mentioned R adult Cruises), and it also offers themed cruises around celebrations like Mardi Gras and Halloween. entertainment on board includes lesbian get-togethers, singles get-togethers, theme dance parties, gay Olympics, stand-up comedy, cabaret, and celebrity singers.
Out Of office is a newer travel start-up that arranges high-end holidays for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender couples as well as gay-friendly flights, hotels, transfers, and excursions. It also offers several itineraries aimed at lesbian travelers (guaranteeing that the tour operators and hotels used in the itineraries are lesbian-friendly), and group trips for LGBT travelers to destinations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, and China.
5. how to meet other Lesbians While Traveling
These days, the easiest way to meet other lesbians while traveling is through dating apps (even if you’re not looking for a hook-up). I’ve met other lesbian solo travelers this way while backpacking through South America, had a girl show me around Milan, and got a great introduction to Tel Aviv’s lesbian scene, all of which I wouldn’t have otherwise. I am still in touch with most of the girls and happy to return the favor when they’re visiting new York.
The dating best apps to connect with other lesbians are HER (the most popular lesbian one) and all-gender dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid or PlentyOfFisk. Hennes har også en liste over lesbiske partier, møter, festivaler, og mer, så du kan sjekke hva som skjer i stedet du besøker.
Et flott alternativ for å møte lesbiske som reiser, er gjennom sofaerurfinggrupper. Du trenger ikke å holde deg på en fremmed sofa hvis du ikke vil – couchsurfing har også tusenvis av grupper for alle slags interesser, inkludert lesbiske og queer-grupper. Her er noen lesbiske grupper jeg er medlem av:
Bare legg inn en kommende tur og se om noen andre lesbiske kommer til å reise i samme område eller leve i stedet du besøker.
Det er en annen bruk for Couchsurfing Groups: Du kan se om det er noen LGBT eller lesbiske grupper i byen du planlegger å besøke. De fleste store byer har queer grupper og de har regelmessige møter. De er en enkel måte å koble til samfunn over hele verden.
MeetUp.com er et lignende alternativ, men med grupper brutt opp i mer spesifikke interesser. New York City har for eksempel grupper for “lesbiske som brunsj,” “svarte lesbiske” og homofile tjuefem, for å nevne noen få. Bare bla gjennom Meetup-gruppene på stedet du reiser til og bli med i et møte som passer til dine interesser.
Facebook blir også en stadig mer populær måte å koble til andre lesbiske, og du kan søke etter lesbiske grupper, så vel som hendelser i byen du reiser til.
Bli med i gruppene du finner interessant og RSVP til hendelser du tror du vil nyte. Hvis du er komfortabel å gå ut av deg selv, sjekk om det er noen lesbiske barer eller fester mens du besøker.
6. Hvordan reise trygt som en lesbisk
Som jeg nevnte ovenfor, bør du gjøre en rettferdig mengde forhåndsundersøkelser om destinasjonen din, spesielt hvis du reiser i utlandet.
Hva er landets stand på samme kjønn relasjoner?
Er det lov som tillater diskriminering mot LGBT-personer?
Har det vært noen hendelser som involverer queers?
Det er et kontroversielt tema hvis homofile og lesbiske reisende bør besøke Anti-LGBT-land, men jeg vet mange lesbiske som er villige til å reise til slike steder. Så hvis drømmen din er å klatre Kilimanjaro, vil du tydeligvis tone ned i PDAene der, med tanke på at Tanzania er et land der seksuelle seksuelle handlinger er forbrytelser som straffes av staten.
Hvis du ikke vil risikere å bli angrepet som en ut-og-stolt lesbisk, så ikke reise til land som er kjent for å være sterkt homofobiske. Velg din destinasjon klokt og bare reise til et sted du er komfortabel å besøke, spesielt når du er på en solotur. Jeg kan for eksempel blokkere katakaene og fløyte som er vanlige i Mellom-Amerika, men jeg kjenner andre lesbiske som ikke kan håndtere den slags machismo.
Hvis du reiser som et par, vil du finne deg selv toning ned PDAer mye, som jeg har nevnt i min forrige artikkel: Lesbisk reise: 4 ting å vite.
Når du reiser alene, ta de samme forholdsregler Andre solo-kvinnelige reisende tar: Vær Street-Smart og Vigilant, Hør alltid på din tarmfølelse, vær oppmerksom på omgivelsene dine, og ikke blink dine verdisaker.
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Som lesbisk, kan du være mer bekymret for din første tur i utlandet enn dine rette venner som ikke trenger å tenke på potensielle diskriminerings- og anti-lgbt-lover, men så lenge du gjør din forskning og planlegger å planlegge reisen din, du trenger ikke å være redd. Tvert imot: Du vil sannsynligvis bli overrasket over å se hvor innbydende de fleste steder er av lesbiske reisende.
Hvis du vil være på den sikre siden, gå med et lesbisk reiseselskap for din første tur, men etter å ha reist over hele verden uavhengig i årevis, kan jeg ærlig si at jeg aldri har følt seg truet hvor som helst, bare fordi jeg tok alt Forholdsregler som er nødvendige for å holde seg trygge som en lesbisk reisende.
Reise har gitt meg så mange uforglemmelige opplevelser, koblet meg med andre lesbiske over hele verden, og vist meg noen av de vakreste stedene på P