Ed Salvato is an LGBTQ travel expert, published author, occasional instructor at NYT Tisch School and Temple and chief content officer of ManAboutWorld gay travel magazine and HospitableMe (strategy, content marketing & LGBTQ training). Read his bio. Post a comment below or send an email. SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST POSTS, STORIES & PIX.
Beauty, the romantic town of Naples and the soaring height of Etna are just some of the treats in store for LGBT travelers making their way to this country — a gay-friendly jewel in the world. Here, we take a look at my 5 top Italy hot spots.
One of the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is an autonomous region of Italy Places that also includes several smaller isles. Home to every great Mediterranean civilization, Sicily is rich in art and history; from Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples to Palermo’s Baroque churches.
The Romans were first to see the potential of the Italy lakes as a holiday destination. They built their sumptuous villas in some of the prime positions around Como and Garda, where the southern foothills of the Alps sweep down towards the Mediterranean and the fertile plains of northern Italy.
VeniceVenice never loses its capacity to enchant in Italy. There’s a reason why it’s popular: the sheer loveliness of an exquisite city that seems miraculously built on water. It’s important to remember Venice’s churches and museums offer antique glories aplenty, but there is also a vibrant art scene, even away from the Art Biennale.
Italy’s most famous region, Tuscany conjures images of beautiful rolling hills, olive groves, vineyards and cypress trees. The many pleasures of Tuscany include tasting wine in Chianti, simply relaxing in hill towns such as San Gimignano or exploring Renaissance art in Florence.
Naples, Italy birthplace of pizza has drawn many hungry visitors, including those hungry for culture: its historic center is the largest in Europe, covering over 4,000 acres and 27 centuries. Piazza Bellini, by day a quiet square with cafes to relax from the hustle and bustle in the nearby Via dei Tribunali, at night a popular hangout of young Neapolitans.\
Giuseppe Giulio, IGLTA member, is a Travel Design and Digital PR Specialist, who serves several tour operators, online magazines and startups reaching the LGBTA community using SEO, Web 2.0, Social Network marketing and Strategic Online Media Placement.
Shanghai literally means the city by the sea, and it is the gateway to China. There are endless things to do and see, like shopping in high-end venues for designer items, or stroll through the backstreets for photo opportunities… or to hunt for interesting trinkets and traditional Chinese handicrafts.
Read Barry’s Journey to Asia, Part 1: Discover Hong Kong.
Read Barry’s Journey to Asia, Part 2: Kuala Lumpur here.
Jing An Shangri-La – Located on the Puxi side of the Huangpu River in the Jing An Business District – one of Shanghai’s most prestigious and fashionable business and commercial districts. The hotel boosts spectacular 360-degree panoramic views of the city.
Peace Hotel – This has been a Shanghai landmark for over eight decades, enjoying a premier location on the Bund. The hotel faces the Pudong area over the Huangpu River, where you will find all the impressive high-rise buildings and towers.
Here are a few suggestions:
GAY NIGHTLIFEThere are not many gay bars in Shanghai, but here are a few top picks of places to go for a drink and to meet locals:
Did you know that most visitors require a visa to enter China? Want more information about this and the Transit Visa Exemptions? Visit asianmapleaf.comto read more about our adventures in Shanghai. Also, stay tuned for more of our ultimate must-see travel stops around the Globe.
Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia and a place where you will find a variety of cultures from the region, all living together in one city. There is Chinatown, Little India, Malay village and many more neighbourhoods. In this city, it is not uncommon to find a Muslim mosque, a Hindu shrine, a Christian church, and a Buddhist temple – all in the same area! Story and photos by ManAboutWorld correspondent Barry Hoy.
Click here to read Barry’s Journey to Asia Part 1: Discover Hong Kong.
And here is Journey to Asia, Part 3: Adventures in Shanghai.
Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur – Set in the heart of the city’s business and shopping district, and near major landmarks such as the Petronas Twin Towers and the Kuala Lumpur City Center. Despite it being right in the city centre, the hotel is still set amidst plenty of lush greenery, and has a good size outdoor pool and lounge area.
There are a lot of food options to try in Kuala Lumpur. Here are a few to wet your appetite!
THINGS TO DOMake sure you also visit the beaches and little towns outside of the city of Kuala Lumpur. The city itself offers some great food and sights, but it’s not a place where you would want to spend more than a weekend.
Gay sex is still technically illegal in Malaysia and punishable under a colonial-era sodomy law. Foreigners are generally safe from this, but caution is still recommended.
Want more information? Visit asianmapleaf.com and read more about our adventures in Kuala Lumpur. Also, stay tuned for more of our ultimate must-see travel stops around the globe.
Click here to read Barry’s Journey to Asia Part 1: Discover Hong Kong.
And here is Journey to Asia, Part 3: Adventures in Shanghai.
I didn’t get any photos of myself talking but my friends at Proud Experiences did, and they even quoted me! “You can’t provide personalized service to LGBTQ people if you don’t understand us.
For more information about the services we provide at HospitableMe please review the information on our website, highlighted below.
Strategy
Diverse travelers are shaping the future of travel in profound ways. LGBTQ travelers have been a highly profitable niche for many years — today they are even more important, as the way they are represented, welcomed and treated can brand a destination as modern, progressive and desirable to a much broader population of future customers.
As advocates for suppliers and consumers, our work starts with strategy to bridge where your business is today, to where it needs to be to welcome diverse travelers of all kinds in the future. With a keen understanding of the financial, political and community implications for tourism businesses, our recommendations are smart, creative, and actionable.
Marketing
With LGBTQ travel related spending reaching US $211 billion annually, there’s great value in target marketing to segments of the community. And there’s even more value in leveraging LGBTQ marketing and communications to reach allies and younger travelers. Many of our clients have strategic goals that go beyond increasing visitation by LGBTQ travelers. We help create communications programs that share a broader message about diversity and inclusion to position destinations and brands as modern, progressive and welcoming. We develop content marketing that leverages LGBTQ voices to elevate and align discussion around new and lesser known products, services and attributes. And we deliver LGBTQ consumers through programs on our own media (ManAboutWorld), third-party platforms including facebook and LGBTQ media, and your own platforms.
Training
We empower customer-facing professionals to engage with LGBTQ customers in authentic, intuitive and personalized ways. Our destination, company, and role-specific training provides knowledge and tools that enable
Our consumer travel-focused background is a unique advantage in understanding how diversity issues play out in real-world scenarios and building practical, meaningful competency among staff. Our onsite trainings are customized to your specific service paradigms and delivered to small groups of up to 25 employees per session. Friendly, interactive, and emotionally resonant, our sessions explore how ingrained notions of gender, sexual orientation and relationship status have shaped service paradigms, and how stripping away preconceptions and bias allows more engaged and authentic hospitality for all guests. By helping employees understand LGBTQ guests, they become more inclined to engage rather than retreat from interaction with them.
The brand-new, stylistically-striking Hotel X Toronto in Toronto, Canada is anything but yet another cookie-cutter urban luxury hotel crammed into a downtown lot. Hotel X Toronto is a very short taxi/Uber/Lyft ride from everything that Toronto has to offer; making it an ideal headquarters for enjoying Pride Toronto or any other event in Canada’s largest city. Story by ManAboutWorld correspondent, James Careless.
Worth noting: The 404-room, 30-storey Hotel X Toronto is likely correct in claiming that it offers “a wealth of amenities unrivalled by any downtown hotel, including four indoor tennis courts, a full-service spa, two year-round heated swimming pools and TEN X TORONTO—a 90,000 square foot athletic centre with its own children’s area.” In addition to its restaurants (with options for vegetarian, gluten free, and vegan diets), Hotel X Toronto has an art gallery, beer garden, stadium-style movie theaters, event spaces, historical exhibits, and the three-storey rooftop SkyBar with – again – unparalleled views of downtown Toronto and the lake. The multi-story ‘living wall’ at the Front Desk – literally a vertical surface of plants rising high above one’s head – is impressive in its own right.
Hotel X Toronto is currently in what is known as a ‘soft opening’ until the end of July 2018, when it will officially open. This means that the hotel is still in the process of getting everything running – and giving guests price breaks as a result of it. (Note: Everything I experienced while there gave me the feeling that the hotel was fully operational.)
The good news: “During the soft opening period of Hotel X Toronto, you will find rates reduced as much as 30%,” said Celso Thompson, the hotel’s director of Sales and Marketing. “At any time, the hotel offers a prepaid, non-refundable option which clearly is the best deal if you are certain about your travel plans. Rates start at $350 for the entry level rooms.”
The bad news: You’ll have to go through Hotel X Toronto’s booking sites to get actual prices. Still, 30% is 30% off – and that is on top of the US dollar being worth about $1.20-$1.25 Canadian.
Located at spacious Exhibition Place (home of the Canadian National Exhibition – CNE — every summer, and various Class A events and conventions year-round), Hotel X Toronto is right on the shore of Lake Ontario. It is far enough from the downtown core to have a clear, unobstructed view of the lake, the nearby Toronto Island with its parks and airport, and Toronto’s major buildings; plus the lakeshore’s Ontario Place and the 1840s-era stone Stanley Barracks at Fort York.
Having grown in Toronto and spent many summers at the CNE in all its gaudy midway glory, I could never have imagined a true luxury hotel being located on the fair grounds. But much has changed at Exhibition Place. New convention/display buildings have been added (like the Enercare Centre) and older spaces renovated, while the rundown Exhibition Place grandstand has been replaced by the modern BMO Field (home of the Toronto FC pro soccer team). The historic Stanley Barracks next door has been restored and softened with the addition of gardens.
Add the fact that Hotel X Toronto is right on Lake Ontario, yet so close to the downtown hub (transit is available, in addition to taxis and walking), and this hotel combines the best of open waterfront breeziness with downtown urban access. It is a welcome alternative to the very best downtown cor hotels that are crammed together, through no fault of their own. (Runners will particularly like the quick access to the lakeshore and its open spaces, rather than being confined to car-packed downtown sidewalks.)
I was fortunate to stay in a corner suite, on the 18th floor of Hotel X Toronto. I walked into an entrance hallway that angled left to the spacious modern bathroom (including a glass-walled shower with space for more than one), then turned right into a truly roomy bedroom with floor-to-ceiling full glass windows on two side.
The view alone from this suite justifies the price of admission. It is one of the best that I have seen in Toronto’s many downtown hotels. But the quality of Hotel X Toronto’s modern furniture and appointments is also worth mentioning: The wood, metal, leather and fabric far are above the usual hotel fare. They and the room’s fabric walls make you feel like you are staying in someone’s elegantly-decorated high-end condo; rather than yet another unsuccessfully pretentious hotel.
I was also struck by the bathroom’s elegant fittings, and the little details that were tended to; such as having two bathrobes and slippers available rather than just one. The room service was also a treat: What a luxury to have smoked salmon Eggs Benedict delivered to one’s room for breakfast!
If ‘Gay Factor’ translates into superb modern design with no false flash, elegance and quality in all things, and the sense that staying here somehow raises one’s game and sense of self, Hotel X Toronto has tremendous Gay Factor. That said, what I have just said applies to anyone, regardless of gender or orientation – as long as they have class, style, and a sense of how to comport themselves in public.
Meanwhile, Hotel X Toronto is a quick taxi/transit ride to everything in downtown Toronto; be it the city’s famous Gay Village, the Rogers Centre (home of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club), the Theatre District, the business core, shopping, or the Toronto Island (accessible by an underground tunnel at the nearby Island Airport, or a short ferry ride across the harbor; well worth it).
ManAboutWorld highlights properties we have recently and personally stayed at, and is editorial, not advertorial. Like virtually all travel publications, we sometimes accept discounted and sponsored travel, but ManAboutWorld is beholden to no one but you. Our recommendations are based solely on the experience and opinions of our editorial team and trusted network, putting our readers’ interests above all. If you ever have an issue with anything we recommend, please let us know. We always have your back, and your travel satisfaction in mind. Read our full disclosure here.
Whether you are visiting for the first time, or re-exploring if you have been before, Hong Kong is an exciting, energetic and vibrant city that really lives up to the term – “East meets West”. To get you started on your journey, here is a mini guide to one of Asia’s greatest cities, including top accommodations, top places to eat, and the best experiences. Story and photos by ManAboutWorld correspondent Barry Hoy.
The Murray – Hong Kong, A Niccolo Hotel – This newest luxury iconic landmark hotel has stunning natural fabrics and stones, leathers, and plush textiles, creating a contemporary chic sanctuary, and an ambience of understated sophistication.
The Kerry Hotel – Hong Kong – Bringing a dynamic approach to hospitality to the shores of Victoria Harbour, it’s the city’s first urban resort offering an unparalleled array of dining options, leisure activities, business and meeting services, and wellness programs.
Hong Kong is renowned for its food scene. From Chinese to western food, and everything in between, it is a foodie’s paradise with options from street side snacks to high-end five star restaurants. Here are a few suggestions:
Gay NightlifeThere are endless things to see and do in Hong Kong. Here are a few top picks for where to go out for a drink and meet some locals:
Want more information? Visit asianmapleaf.com and read about our adventures in Hong Kong. Also, stay tuned for more of our ultimate must-see travel stops around the Globe.
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