Mixing Business With Pleasure In Las Vegas and Chicago

The fabulous Cosmopolitan Hotel

By ManAboutWorld Global Correspondent Jeff Guaracino

Great trip ideas can come from travel columns like this one, from your favorite travel magazine or recommendations from friends and family. Business travel — if planned correctly — can be a perfect time to research your next pleasure trip. Yes, I know we are always in a rush to get to that next meeting, answer that pesky text or resolve the work emergency, but hey it’s travel. Don’t forget to stop and smell the fun!

Viva Las Vegas—midweek

I was invited to speak at the Las Vegas International Tourism Safety and Security Conference. I hadn’t been to Las Vegas since 2007, so I was excited to see what had changed along the famed Las Vegas Strip. A midweek trip proved to be an exceptional option to avoid the crowds but still enjoy all of the amenities that Vegas has to offer.

Blackstone Hotel, Chicago: An Unexpected Oasis

Perched alongside Chicago’s most famous parks (at South Michigan Ave and Balbo Street), the Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel has a long, rich history and a desirable set of assets and amenities that make it a worthy choice for gay travelers.

It’s steps from Millennium and Grant Parks, home to art museums, fountains, lush lawns, outdoor performance spaces and, of course, the famous reflective “Cloud Gate” sculpture, informally known as the Bean. It’s near the financial and theater district, the Loop (and the “El,” what we know of as the subway in New York). Downtown is where most major hotels are located in Chicago. Boystown is a good $20 cab ride away but you can hop on the Red Line which goes right to the heart of Boystown in about 20 minutes for a lot less. (Take the El at Harrison and get off at Belmont.) There’s shopping and a Starbucks on the Concourse level below the lobby.

Photo credit: www.flickr.comphotos22746515@N024865734246.jpg

Provincetown: Upcoming Events

Things are looking up in Ptown.

Provincetown has announced its upcoming schedule of events. ManAboutWorld’s Provincetown article is scheduled for the June issue. Stay tuned for that. Meantime, start thinking about when you might want to go to coincide with some of these fun activities.

May

Run to the Top! Take a walk or run to the top of the 252-foot Pilgrim Monument to raise money for the Cape Cod Firefighter/EMS Cancer Relief Fund. This afternoon event on May 4 lets everyone take a journey up the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.

Cape Cod Women’s Music Festival. This event on May 11, in its second year, celebrates and honors women in music. Funds raised will be used to fight ovarian cancer. Performers include Nicole Nelson, who appeared on NBC’s “The Voice.”

Sisters in the Name of Love. For 20 years, this show has raised funds for AIDS Support Group and Helping Our Women. This year’s event takes place May 11.

Outer Cape Choral. Boasting 140 singers, this group will perform May 17-19, featuring the works of Eric Whitacre, Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo and others.

Monumental Yard Sale. This popular event takes place May 17-19 throughout the town, and will feature a production of “Let’s Make a Diva!” The show is a tribute to TV, with “Drag Queens on one channel, great dancers and amazing live singers on the other stations.”

Quick (New) Hotel Getaways in PA and MD

He tried (and loved) the 4 Seasons spa, but this is not our writer.

By ManAboutWorld Global Correspondent Jeff Guaracino

Do you need to getaway quick? Does room service and a maid sound just fabulous?  Travel doesn’t always have to be far away from home (just far enough!). Could it be as easy as checking into a local luxury hotel that is part treat and part escape. When you travel as much as I do, sometimes a hotel can be just another hotel. There are two close-by hotels that surprised me both by their incredible views, luxurious but affordable prices, and staff who make everyone feel VIP. And guess what? They are both in two cities that are worth spending more time in — Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Sin City Hosts These Hotties And More for Matinée Las Vegas Memorial Day Weekend

They’re hot plus they can wash your clothes on their abs!

Vegas will get just a tad hotter this Memorial Day weekend with the return ofMatinée Las Vegas Festival.

Our friends at Matinée are asking fans to

feel the revolution this Memorial Day – the party revolution, that is.  The festival that has become world famous for re-imagining the elaborate party experience with blazing pyrotechnics and production by Cirque du Soleil and Matinée Ibiza, returns to Las Vegas with the biggest dance festival of the summer. Taking place Friday, May 24th thru Monday, May 27^th, MATINÉE LAS VEGAS FESTIVAL will play host to over 8,000 clubbers dancing to twenty of the world’s leading DJs at eight high-energy party events.

Provincetown: Summer’s Must-Do Events

OMG, Miss Richfield 1981

This just in highlights from the Provincetown Business Guild 2013 Calendar. For great trip-planning information, check out our Provincetown Long Weekend article in our September issue. (Download the magazine here.)

• June 26-30: Provincetown International Film Festival. The 15th annual Provincetown International Film Festival is dedicated to showing new achievements in independent film and honoring the work of acclaimed and emerging directors, actors and producers.
• July 1-7: Independence Week 2013. World-class DJs and parties make this the most popular July 4th destination on the circuit.
• July 23-27: Girl Splash. The destination summer event for lesbians. Pool party, clam bakes, dune tours, and white hot dances. Come play at the beach!
• August 3-10: Family Pride Week. A chance for children to meet other children with LGBT parents and for parents to meet other parents and share experiences. A parade and plenty of activities for all ages.
• August 18-24: Carnival Week celebrates its 35th birthday! A week-long celebration of the 2013 theme “Viva Las Vegas” that transforms Provincetown into one big party. Boat cruise, inn stroll, music, special events, and of course, the famous carnival parade on the 22nd that attracts over 65,000 viewers and marches the length of Commercial Street.

Winter Party: All Kinds of Beautiful

Typo?

Winter Party 20, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force‘s celebration of 20 years of partying with a purpose, climaxed with Winter Party Beach Party on Sunday, March 10. And what an explosion of male (and female) pulchritude. What’s arguably the hottest collection of gay men on the planet at that time, Muscle Beach coaxes hot fellows from the entire world but mostly North and South America with the promise of the company of other hot fellows. Though it mostly skews to younger age range (20s-40s), there’s pretty much someone for every taste.

Though the party is over, for those in the Northeast this is a great time to go to Miami with reliably warm and sunny days and pleasantly cooler evenings. ManAboutWorld recently visited Miami. Check out ourJanuary/February issue for our reportage. We also checked out the fantastic hidden-in-plain-sight Betsy Hotel and the Grand Beach Hotel. Stay tuned for write ups about these two properties and other discoveries.

Traveling Gay Dads: Sin-Free Las Vegas

These two dads are about to smooch!

¡Viva el Romance, Viva la familia, y Viva Las Vegas!

“It’s good luck for sweethearts, lovers, or spouses to kiss under this bridge. Go ahead and Happy Anniversary!” our lovely, Greek gondolier at Las Vegas’ Venetian Hotel encouraged. Sean and I were seated across from each other and we blushed, smiled and leaned across for a husband-husband smooch.  When we kissed, Carter and Ammon didn’t blink an eye, and the gondolier sighed. “How lovely, and what lovely children you two have!”

It was Labor Day week of 2012, and it was my 8^th Wedding Anniversary Vacation.  Sean, Carter, Ammon, and I were all together, and it has been my favorite anniversary to date. In Las Vegas (just like any city), we lived, loved, and enjoyed ourselves as family.

Winter Party Festival 20 Launches March 6

And this is just a fraction of the crowd.

For those needing a reason beyond weather for visiting Miami, our favorite event is Winter Party Festival, celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2013 from March 6-11, when those sad saps stuck in winter climates are at their wits’ end and ready to party under the hot Florida sun.

This year, the Shelborne Hotel will serve as the pool party host, though all of South Beach is convenient to the large roster of parties and events. All Winter Party proceeds benefit the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and local Miami nonprofit organizations serving the LGBT community. Our favorites: the “Under One Sun Pool Party” on Saturday and the actual Winter Party on the beach on Sunday, both outdoor daytime events so you get to drink and dance in the daylight, surrounded by some of the world’s most beautiful men, wearing the least amount of clothing.

(Excerpted from ManAboutWorld’s January/February issue, including Miami. To download the entire issue for free, click here.)

See ManAboutWorld At NY Times Travel Show

Have budget and PTO but don’t know where to spend them? Looking for the right gay-friendly getaway? Your wife wants a spa weekend but you want a camping trip?

Help is on the way!

Please come by the New York Times Travel Show’s annual LGBT travel panel on Saturday, January 19 3pm-3:50pm and hear from a knowledgeable group of avid, savvy travelers: Merryn Johns, Michael Luongo, Jerry Portwood, Joseph Pedro and myself. Free tickets to the consumer days are available, first-come, first-serve, with the code IGLTA13! http://ow.ly/gGcZT.

Before or after the show be sure to visit the IGLTA booth 342 to pick up the latest magazines by these and other media partners as well as information about gay-friendly hotels, destinations, attractions and events around the world.

Also be sure to come with your gay/lesbian travel questions. The panel can help you spend those dollars, discover the gay (and lesbian-)-friendlest destinations around the globe, and hopefully maintain vacation and same-sex marriage bliss with a perfect luxury/wilderness combo at what promises to be a lively session.