UPDATE SATURDAY, JAN 28.

Click here to download the information to be presented at today’s travel show:

• Travel Show presentation PDF
• Lesbian Travel Resources

If you are anywhere near the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown L.A., please stop in. You can find more information about the travel show by clicking here. You can obtain a 20% discount off the $10 entrance price by purchasing your ticket here and using the code EARLYBIRD.

We’ll talk about hot new destinations, events, and cruises to make your gay/lesbian travel planning just a tad easier. Come with questions. I’ll be moderating a panel that includes:

• Shannon Wentworth, founder and CEO of Sweet, cruises and tours for lesbians and their friends;
• Duane Wells, contributor to MoxieQ, which promises a “gay for every girl” and numerous LGBT travel publications; and
• Andy Bender, blogger for Forbes.com and contributor to numerous mainstream and LGBT publications.

The panel is brought to you in part by the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, which is active in over 80 countries. Discover more about this nearly 30-year-old organization by clicking here: LGBT.Travel.

The four-night, five-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Sky, is organized by Source Events with prices starting at $329 per person double occupancy plus taxes and fees.

According to the cruise organizers, “The event also represents an opportunity to “cruise for a cause” as a portion of all tickets sold through Source Events will be donated back to Miami Beach Gay Pride.”

Regarding Pride, In addition to the parade moving to Sunday, the expanded line-up of Pride activities will include a Thursday night kick-off party, Friday night block party along Lincoln Road, a Saturday pool party at the Surfcomber Hotel, a Saturday Voters’ Rally on the beach, a Saturday evening movie on the beach, a Saturday night VIP fundraising event and a Sunday night closing party after the parade and festival.

For more information about the cruise, click here.

For more information about Miami Beach Pride, click here.

If you are anywhere near the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown L.A., please stop in. You can find more information about the travel show by clicking here. You can obtain a 20% discount off the $10 entrance price by purchasing your ticket here and using the code EARLYBIRD.

We’ll talk about hot new destinations, events, and cruises to make your gay/lesbian travel planning just a tad easier. Come with questions. I’ll be moderating a panel that includes:

• Shannon Wentworth, founder and CEO of Sweet, cruises and tours for lesbians and their friends;
• Duane Wells, contributor to MoxieQ, which promises a “gay for every girl” and numerous LGBT travel publications; and
• Andy Bender, blogger for Forbes.com and contributor to numerous mainstream and LGBT publications.

The panel is brought to you in part by the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, which is active in over 80 countries. Discover more about this nearly 30-year-old organization by clicking here: LGBT.Travel.

That's not Mike, but it could've been

The fabulous folks at Proud FM Toronto with Mike Chalut invited me on to talk about Key West following Mike Chalut’s recent trip there where he frolicked and luxuriated at the Island House Key West for a long weekend.

Click here to listen to the short (just over 4-minute) recording from Proud FM’s most recent “Travel Tuesday.”

 

Add in WorldPride (combined with EuroPride), June 23-July 8, 2012, and the calendar gets even more full. Now factor in Queen Elizabeth II’s Jubilee in early June celebratig 60 years on the throne and it feels like London will just burst with great travel-worthy activities.

Here’s information from the folks at VisitEngland to help you  plan your visit…

Sixty Photographs for Sixty Years – The Drawings Gallery, Windsor Castle
Opening on February 4, an exhibition of 60 photographs of The Queen, including the work of leading press photographers of the past six decades, will go on display at Windsor Castle. The exhibition presents a portrait of The Queen’s reign as captured in fleeting moments on both official occasions and at relaxed family gatherings. The exhibition includes pictures of Queen Elizabeth II on regional and international official visits, leading the nation on Remembrance Day, in the Garter Day procession at Windsor, hosting Heads of State and inspecting the graduating officer cadets at Sandhurst. It also records important personal and family milestones and her lifelong love of equestrianism and of her corgis. The exhibition will run until January 2013.www.royalcollection.org.uk

The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned at Hampton Court Palace
Running April 5 –September 30, 2012, this royal-themed exhibition tells a story about the fascination of love, glamour, celebrity, lust and power and involves some of the key characters that lived, loved and died at Hampton Court Palace – Charles II, James II, William III & Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. Beauty was a good thing: it was a reflection of divine perfection, an indication of virtue. This temporary exhibition will contain magnificent artworks to reveal the stories and scandals, and will include items from the Royal Collection and other public and private collections, many of which are not currently on display. http://www.hrp.org.uk

The World Comes to Windsor Castle
Held in the private grounds of Windsor Castle on the evenings of May 10, 11 and 13, the Diamond Jubilee Pageant will pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II’s 60-year reign in a performance that brings together over 500 horses and 800 international performers. Dance, music, military and equestrian displays from around the world will feature in this major show: Around the World in 60 Years and 90 minutes. Visitors will be taken on a journey around the world, reflective of the Queen’s State and Commonwealth visits during her rain: starting out from London and visiting the Americas, Australasia, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and finally Great Britain. The seven acts draw from their respective continent, ensuring a colourful cultural display. Tickets available at www.diamond-jubilee-pageant.com.

Bright, Shiny Diamond Jubilee Beacons – Various Locations
England has a centuries-long history of beacon lighting to mark national events and the beacon is widely recognised as a symbol of united celebration. On June 4, 2012 beacons will be lit across the whole of the United Kingdom, as they were for the Queen’s Silver and Golden Jubilees. Locations already confirmed include the highest school in England, Flash Church of England school in Staffordshire (which has just 10 pupils); three of His Grace the Duke of Westminster’s estates in Sutherland, Cheshire and Lancashire; and 60 beacons along the length of Hadrian’s Wall – one for every year of the Queen’s reign. www.diamondjubileebeacons.co.uk

Go Down to the (Diamond) Woods – Various Locations
To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, the Woodland Trust is helping millions of people to come together with their communities to plant 6 million trees. The Jubilee Woods Project, fronted by Patron HRH The Princess Royal, aims to create hundreds of Jubilee Woods across the country, and 60 special Diamond Woods, of at least 60 acres – to transform England’s landscape in a generation and provide a lasting legacy for many years to come. This includes the Trust’s new Flagship Diamond Wood in the heart of The National Forest in Leicestershire, a haven for wildlife and a monument to Her Majesty. To find out more or get involved, visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk.

Partake in a Big Jubilee Lunch – Countrywide
Building on the established Big Lunch initiative, the Big Jubilee Lunch will encourage friends and neighbours to share lunch in their local neighbourhoods on Sunday, June 3. Based on the premise that a connected community is a safe and happy community, the Big Lunch Initiative was founded by the Eden Project in Cornwall in 2009 and provides the tools and support needed for members of the public to organise and encourage shared neighbour lunches once a year, and as a result to build lasting and valuable connections. The initiative hopes to double participation numbers in 2012, and to create an annual Thanksgiving Day of sorts, for England’s residents. To find out more about joining a Big Lunch, visit www.thebiglunch.com.

A Capital Celebration – London’s Exhibitions
In addition to the river pageant, London will be host to several exhibitions on the Royal Family and the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Showing at the V&A from February 8 – April 22, Cecil Beacon’s Royal Portraits will include 60 photographs depicting the Royal Family at home and on official occasions. A new permanent exhibition opening at Kensington Palace on March 26,Victoria Revealed, will look at the life and reign of Queen Victoria – England’s longest-reigning monarch – while Tower Bridge will be re-presenting the Crown Jewels exhibition for the Jubilee year, with new displays showing the jewels like never before.

VisitLondon offers a listing of gay-friendly hotels here.

All rights reserved by http://www.flickr.com/photos/codependentlesbianspacealienseekssame/

Baltimore is an oft-overlooked and worthy destination for LGBT visitors. The town’s nickname is Charm City and it hosts an eponymous annual gay movie extravaganza, Charm City LGBT Film Festival, unspooling this weekend January 20-21.

Show organizers Creative Alliance will offer films representing a variety of cutting-edge work from around the world including the well-reviewed “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same” (above) and more.

If you got the budget, check out the brand-spanking new Four Seasons Baltimore.

Lots more fun Bal’more events here: http://baltimore.org/events.

The event, hosted by Out in the Vineyards, is scheduled for March 31, 2012 from 6:30-9:30pm. You’ll enjoy terrific cuisine from chef Kelly MacDonald paired with wines from all gay vintners in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.

Diners board the train at 1275 McKinstry St, Napa at 6:00pm. Tickets are $160 Gourmet Express Car and $175 VIP Vista Dome Car. Reservations can be made at winetrain.com or by phone 800-427-4124.

Below are a few pictures from last year, including the actual train used.

You'd never know this was a gay train, right?

Oh my, did she run out of candy?

Wear a warm costume. Carnival in Berlin takes place February 12, 2012.

Then again, you may warm up from friction as you rub up against spectators and participants. Organizers are expecting more than 1 million spectators and participants at the 11th annual Berlin Carnival Costume Parade. (Break out your German dictionary for this site.)

According to Berlin Tourism:

With an expected 3,000 participants in 100 groups, 60 floats, and numerous marching bands, the frolicsome parade will start at 11:11 am, and move through the Western center of the German capital. More than 600,000 spectators, most of them in colorful costumes, line the streets every year to watch the parade and collect sweets.

Yep, that’s right. Spectators yearn to receive candy from strangers wearing very odd, sometimes disturbing costumes. It’s just little hard-candy sweets but, like those plastic beads in New Orleans, somehow they’re worth much more when received from wild revelers marching along the street.

Photo from London Pride 2011

WorldPride, an LGBT event incorporating parades, festivals, cultural activities and, oh yeah, parties held every five years, is organized by InterPride. The first WorldPride was held in Rome in 2000, followed by Jerusalem in 2006.

This year it is to be held in London from June 23 through July 8, 2012.

According to InterPride

WorldPride Parade, rallies, and street parties will be all over central London on July 7th. Festival listings will include events from the world of art, film, music, nightlife, literature, theatre, and politics and the finalized schedule will be announced over the coming months. … The parade day events and times will be added to the website soon. Visit InterPride onFacebook and Twitter and our website for announcements on everything happening at WorldPride 2012. 

Actual guests on an Atlantis cruise

After a welcome but almost scarily mild (global warming?!) December, rigid weather gripped the Northeast just after New Years.

Of course, that propelled our thoughts to warm-weather getaways, including gay and lesbian cruise vacations. This season’s aqueous getaways range from the offbeat (scuba diving in the Republic of Palau with Undersea Expeditions) to the romantic (Danube riverboat excursion with RSVP Vacations) to the humungous and fun (the Caribbean with Atlantis Events).

Check out the websites of these companies and the following for this year’s line up of water-based fun including all-gay or all-lesbian charters and gay or lesbian groups on mainstream cruises:

• Alyson Adventures
• AquaFest
• Coda
• Concierge Travel
• Hanns Ebensten
• Olivia
• Pied Piper
• R Family Vacations
• Source Events
• Sweet