Newspaper Page Text
Southern Voice/April 11, 1991
25
TRAVEL
Gay Vacation Spots are Everywhere, Just Look...
Roller skate dancers in Philadelphia
On your own, or with that special friend, gay travel tends to fall into certain types.
Urban adventure is for those who want to drop in when the party's at its height,
the champagne at its bubbliest, the discos most packed with hot sweaty bodies.
by Jim Marks
Writer Darrell Yates Rist kicked off the
Advocate's new Travel America guide (L.P.
Inc., 6922 Hollywood Blvd, Tenth Floor, Los
Angeles, CA 90028; 213-871-1225) arguing
that anyplace can be a gay travel destination.
Well, yes, we are everywhere. And no doubt
a few days spent patiently ferreting out the
local gay folks in an out of the way spot does
have its rewards.
But let's face it. We're not all pioneers.
When we go out gay vacationing, we want to
take a break from straight society. We want a
place where we can be reasonably sure we're
not going to have to spend all our time look
ing for other gay folks; we want to spend our
time enjoying being with our own kind.
Fortunately, for those of us who want this
kind of vacation, the possibilities are nearly
as endless as Mr. Rist suggests. Gay travel is
a burgeoning field (witness the Advocate's
recent entry), with gay guides (Damron's is
the staple; PO Box 11270, San Francisco, CA
94101), a monthly gay travel magazine
named Our World (1104 North Nova Road,
Suite 251-A, Daytona Beach, FL 32117),
cruises and even package tours. A couple of
years ago, a group of gay Atlantans went to
New York for a week of theater. On Monday
night, when the theaters are dark, their agent
had thoughtfully booked them into Madison
Square Garden for WWF wrestling. As one
of my Emory drama professors used to say
about Live Atlanta Wrestling, it's the best
show in town.
On your own, or with that special friend,
gay travel tends to fall into certain types.
Urban adventure is for those who want to
drop in when the party's at its height, the
champagne at its bubbliest, the discos most
packed with hot sweaty bodies. When city
life seems like too much work, but solitude
ain't the answer, a beach and a blanket is just
the ticket for recharging the batteries for
bright, ever-ready nights. And when you
want to get away from it all, there's always
that hidden country retreat.
The epitome of the urban adventure has to
be New Orleans at Mardi Gras. Here's a
whole city in drag, and out to party like it's
1999. In planning your trip, first count back
40 days from Easter (Mardi Gras usually
comes in February). Then make your reserva
tions, early. There are more than a few gay
guest houses, among them the Bon Maison
(835 Bourbon St., [504] 561-8498) and the
Lafitte Guest House (1003 Bourbon St.,
[504] 581-2678). For dining, I enjoyed the
raffish elegance of Cafe Sbisa (1011 Decatur
St., [504] 561-8354) with its enormous
George Dureau triptych over the bar. (George
tells an amusing story about why he didn't
paint the oyster shucker offering him a shell
fish.) Memories still linger of Sbisa's crayfish
in puff pastry. For gay bars, near by there is
the Mint (504 Esplande Ave., [504] 525
2000), with the old stand bys being Lafitte's
In Exile (901 Bourbon St., [504] 522-8397)
and The Bourbon Pub (801 Bourbon St.,
[504] 529-2107). Of course, during Mardi
Gras, the whole town's a bar, and the wait at
any good restaurant is endless.
Other urban adventure destinations
include New York, San Francisco and Los
Angeles, always festive in late June as they
gear up for gay pride day (Gay Freedom Day
on the West Coast). (Info on gay life in New
York and Los Angeles from the two cities'
gay community centers: New York's -
[212]620-7310; in Los Angeles - [213] 464
7400.) Atlanta's Hotlanta Raft Race equally
shares in the contest for the most manic fun
and beautiful bodies packed into one place,
with a special merit for turning the dog days
of August into a festive occasion.
If you can get away from the city in
August—or from the snowy north in
Winter—the destination of choice is apt to be
a bit of sun and a stretch of sand. Long years
experience with gay folks have given the
locals a more than tolerant attitude. I remem
ber well my first day in Provincetown. I'd
travelled all night on a bus with a gay and
lesbian band. Early in the morning, we tum
bled out into the mild summer air, and sat
blinking on a bench in the town square. The
constant parade of beauties proved too much
for one traveller, who gave utterance to an
expression of awe at the abundance of male
pulchritude, despite a few grandmotherly
looking natives sitting next to him. "Why do
you think they call this the meat rack,
honey?" one grey haired lady cracked, enjoy
ing our surprise. (For information about
Provincetown, contact the gay Provincetown
Business Guild, PO Box 421, Provincetown,
MA 02657; 800-637-8696.)
For gay beach life in the winter, it's Key
West you're aiming for on the East Coast
(You can get a gay Key West info packet
from The Key West Business Guild, PO Box
1208-A, Key West, FL 33040). On the West
Coast, while not quite a beach, Palm Springs
is hot, sunny and gay oriented during the
winter months. A couple of accommodations
include Desert Palms Inn, (67-580 E. Palm
Canyon Dr., [619] 323-5100) and the Harlow
Club Hotel, (175 E. Alameda, [619] 323
3977). Dining suggestions include Cattails
(680369 Highway 111, [619] 324-8263) or El
Gallito, (68-820 Grove St.), both in the adja
cent town of Cathedral City, the real heart of
gay Palm Springs. The disco is CC
Construction Company, (68-449 Perez Rd,
Cathedral City, [619] 324-4241).
In the summer, in addition to P-Town,
there's also New York's fabled Fire Island. At
the more upmarket Pines, hotels include The
Blue Whale Bar ([516] 597-6131) and The
Hotel, ([516-] 597-6500); Cherry Grove
offers the Belvedere Hotel ([516] 597-6448)
and Cherry Grove Beach Hotel ([516] 586
6600), home of the Ice Palace Disco. Other
dance spots include the Monster on Ocean
Walk ([516] 597-6888) and Top of the Bay
on Dock Walk ([516] 597-6699). Somewhere
between a gay beach and a get away is the
Delaware resort town of Rehoboth Beach,
which attracts enough visitors from D.C.,
Baltimore and Philadelphia to support two
big discos plus a thriving set of boutiques
restaurants and bars. (Rehoboth discos: The
Renegade, US Rt.l, at the entrance to the
city; [302] 227-1222 and The Strand, (13
Rehoboth Ave., [302] 226-0888).
Accommodations include the woman owned
Paper Nautilus (42 1/2 Baltimore St. [302]
227-1603) and the Ram's Head Inn outside of
town on Old Landing Road ([302] 226
9171). The happy hour spot is Blue Moon,
(35 Baltimore Ave., [302] 227-6515).
And then there are the times you want to
get away from civilization. To do it in a
crowd, travel about 70 miles north of San
Jim Marks
Dupont Circle Fountain
in Washington, D.C.
Francisco for the Russian River town of
Guemeville, thick with red woods and some
fifteen gay resort spots, including Fifes
(16467 River Rd., [707] 869-0656), The
Woods Resort (16881 Armstrong Woods Rd.,
PO Box 1690, [707] 869-0111). Aspen
Colorado has become so hospitable to gay
travellers they've even started a gay ski week
(call the Aspen Gay Community Center [303]
925-9249). More off the beaten track is the
gay male Timberfell Lodge, a somewhat
pricey but unquestionably comfortable gay
retreat on 250 acres north of Knoxville near
Greeneville, Tennessee (Rt. 11, Box 9a4-A,
Greeneville, TN 37743; [615] 234-0833).
When they say "clothes optional" that
includes the host, who's been known to serve
dinner in the altogether. Two women, Judith
Hall and Grace Newman, have 100 acres of
gay country near Bethlehem, New Hampshire
(PO Box 118AD, Bethlehem, NH 03574;
[603] 869-3978). I spent a lovely Easter
Weekend at Folly Beach outside of
Charleston, SC, at the Charleston Beach Bed
and Breakfast, an unpretentious beach house
where the owners, having recently lived in
Los Angeles, enliven things with a movie set
designer's ability to suggest an exotic place
(PO Box 41, Folly Beach, SC 29439; [803]
588-9443).
What have we left out? How about
Chicago, Texas, Hawaii? New York's
OutWeek magazine has recently identified
Miami Beach as a major gay mecca, while
cow poke enthusiasts flock to the West's gay
rodeos. Maybe Mr. Rist is right, practically
everywhere can be a gay vacation spot.
Crowded or secluded, frantic or laid back, the
options for gay travellers abound. You have
but to choose.
Next Issue: Women's Travel
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