Deal of the Week: “Sparkling Queer Flight”

Gay Planet Holidays is organizing, in cooperation with Cityjet and the City of Antwerp, a first “Sparkling Queer Flight” from both Manchester and London to Antwerp from June 23 to 26, 2011 for Antwerp Pride Weekend.

A fully chartered gay-only flight will take the participants to Antwerp where they will stay in Hotel Les Nuits which has been turned into an exclusively gay hotel especially for this occasion. During this weekend all guests are also culinary pampered in Restaurants Preud’Homme and Flamant Dining, and – the cherry on the cake – even Michelin Star Chef Roger Van Damme will cater for them in his lunch lounge “Het Gebaar.”

Price: £ 850,00 per person; for more information e-mail philip@gayplanetholidays.com

Originally published in GPS.OutTraveler.com.

Yuletide in Europe’s Cool Capitals

Vienna, above, lights up for Christmas and New Years

Originally published in GPS.OutTraveler.com

From canal parades in Amsterdam to beautiful outdoor lightning installations in Vienna, Europe’s gay-friendly coolcaptial cities (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Valencia, Vienna, and Zurich) offer a tantalizing array of Christmas activities right through the new year.

Amsterdam

• Christmas Canal Parade (December 9, 2010-January 1, 2011)

A series of four major Christmas activities take place in and around Amsterdam canals and several important plazas throughout December. The highlight takes place on December 23, as a specatular, lit-up parade of boats sails from the Prinsengracht to the River Amstel. Information: WinterMagicAmsterdam.com.

Antwerp

• Skating on the Scheldt (December 11)

Belgium is a very Catholic country. Though no longer very religious, they really love Christmas. This year Antwerp’s ice-skating rink will be located in Steenplein, overlooking the river Scheldt. Alongside the rink, visitors will find a Christmas market and food and beverage stands. The city counts no fewer than 107 nativity scenes. Information: Antwerpen.be.

Valencia

• Innocents Day and New Year’s Mascleta (December)

This artsy, design-oriented Spanish city has become a popular destination for LGBT travelers in recent years. Christmas season is a fun time to visit. On December 28 Innocents Saints Day, Valencia’s version of April Fool’s Days sees all sorts of pranks and hijinks such as fake/inventive newspaper headlines. The biggest New Years Masletá (an eplosive fireworks display) takes place in the Paseo de la Alameda. Information: TurisValencia.es.

Vienna

• Designer Lighting Design (Through December 23)

“Light-UP,” Vienna’s contemporary holiday light installations, feature designs ranging from perched clouds in the Volksoper district to an open-air ball room on Graben. Eco-conscious readers note: 70% of the designs use energy-saving LED technology. Information: CoolCapitals.com/Vienna.

Zurich

• Christmas Lighting at the Bahnhofstrasse (Through January 2, 2011)

Zurich also has a Christmas holliday light installation, known as “Lucy,” stretching along the world-famous Bahnhofstrasse. Lucy is turned on at 6pm every night through New Years. Information: Zuerich.com.

For more information about coolcapitals click here.

Pretty in White, Antwerp Rocks Pride

Handsome dancers at Antwerp's White Party, held during Pride

Antwerp, Belgium recently began to court the LGBT travelers. A couple of years ago, the city hosted a familiarization tour with the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. This past week, they hosted the IGLTA’s annual conference. In conjunction, they invited 50 LGBT journalists from Europe and the U.S. (including yours truly) to show the world their gay-friendly destination. Antwerp, indeed Belgium, is typically not on the top of gay Americans must-visit list. That’s too bad.

This country, with its Dutch-speaking, Germanic-yet-Catholic Flemish region and its French-parlant section Wallonia, offer all sorts of attractions, from the culinary (yummy beer and chocolate, waffles, delicious seafood) to the cultural and historical, and gay and lesbians are equal to their straight countryman in the eyes of the law. Gay marriage is the law of the land.

Art Nouveau detail.

Antwerp or Anvers en français, is a compact metropolis of 500,000 souls, which is entirely walkable but also  offers a system of trams and buses. It boasts a range of architectural styles though late-19th century styles, including marvelous examples of Art Nouveau, predominate. The detail of a building in the photo to the right (“summer”) is an example of Art Nouveau, which as the name implies was a brand-new, exciting architectural form that celebrated modern life at the turn of the last century with its use of new materials, curvilinear lines, and a celebration of nature.

Antwerp is justifiably known for its beer (try Duvel, named for the devil, with its higher degree of alcohol than American beers) and chocolate (the best I tried was Chocolate Line with its incredibly diverse and surprising selections like tequila or wasabi chocolates), but it’s also a world-class capital of fashion, with beautiful, interesting fashion for both men and women. Window displays are a refined art form here.

Plan a trip to Antwerp next year for Pride or August 3-11, 2013 for the Antwerp 3rd World Out Games. Stay at this fab hotel I checked out called Leopold Hotel. It’s comfortable, clean, very boutique-y and within walking distance to everything. It offers free WiFi, and it’s also across from a lovey park that’s kind of cruise at night.

It is so easy to get here. Brussels is a major center of Europe and it’s only 45 minutes by train to Antwerp from there. Brussels itself is an hour away from Paris by the high-speed Thalys train service with its 8 daily trains and speeds reaching 190 miles per hour.