Gay Travel Buddy

Gay Friendly Cities

I and many of our amazing contributors have been all over the US and over the world.  I am adding this page to try and help you determine if a city is friendly enough to visit.  Some places can be down right dangerous, for example its illegal to be gay in Jamaica, I have heard many horror stories.

But Moving on to my current home to start.

Austin - Is a very gay friendly town, a very large selection of Gay Bars, very gay friendly hotels like the W.  The new W is actually just around the block from Oil Can Harry’s.  Great restaurants as well, Santa Rita, Kerbey Lane Café and South Congress Cafe too name a few.  It’s sorta like San Francisco in a strange way, and a big music town.

Denver – Is an amazing, mostly gay friendly city. This city also has its share of religious nut cases who cause some trouble from time to time. From what I know of, there isn’t a specific gay hotel in Denver. However you have many options
downtown, including the Westin and Sheraton, which are both gay friendly. The mile high city also gets more sunny days than any other major city in the US. The Westin actually has this fairly strange indoor-outdoor pool, its rather unique as well as a gym. The famous Palms steak house is attached and is very good. Personally I prefer to patronize gay owned restaurants, so I wind up at Hamburger Marry’s a very large gay bar/restaurant/drag show.  You can find a good selection of Denver’s Gay Bars.

Las Vegas – This one is really on the fence for a full recommendation. If you have other options, I think you should consider them. Even with such a huge service industry, overall Las Vegas is not all that gay friendly. Promoters like J.Son are
trying to change that; he was able to convince the Luxor to host the only weekly gay pool party throughout the summer season. In the 90’s their spa became a little hot spot for gay men, however the Luxor had security in they’re at all hours throwing them out. This is a big change in direction. On the other hand you have hotels like the Encore who have pages promoted online about being gay friendly. They forgot to tell their staff about that. Even the high priced hookers wouldn’t leave me alone; she couldn’t believe I was gay.

Las Vegas has only 1 all gay hotel that is clothing optional called Blue Moon Resort, located just West of the North end of the strip. On the strip there is one gay nightclub called Krave. It is not open every night, there is always a high priced
cover and the drinks though strong are very expensive. It’s on the south side of Planet Hollywood off Harmon. Just east on Harmon a few blocks and a right turn on Paradise will get you into what’s known as the fruit loop. You have multiple
bar options here, 8 ½ and Piranha are connected, and this is a higher end bar/dance club. As well as Gipsy, which is just next-door. Across the street you will find Buffalo, a mixed crowd with pool tables. Just to the right of Buffalo is an adult video and toy store. Across from The Buffalo is Free Zone, make sure you check out their calendar before going, they host many ladies nights as well.  There are quite a few more gay bars, my personal favorite is Charlies which is located West of the strip off Tropicana and on Arville in what looks like an industrial business building.  Starwood has one hotel just east of the strip on Flamingo, its a Westin, has a small casino as well.

San Diego - My home town, most of the gay activity is centralized in one area called Hillcrest.  You will find a nice selection of gay bars, restaurants of all types, gay gyms like 24 hour fitness, and shopping galore.  However, like San Francisco there are few hotel options.  There are tons of gay friendly hotels in down town San Diego near the Gas Lamp District that has great restaurants, shopping and gay bars.  San Diego offers lots of beach options, however I believe all of the beaches are now alcohol free and the police will check coolers.  San Diego does not have a very user friendly public transportation system, so consider renting a car.

San Francisco - Ok yeah, duh San Francisco is a very gay friendly town.  You might be surprised to know that its not the highest population of Gay people, Dallas I believe is number 1 then Los Angeles and then NYC.  San Francisco is very diverse, although the Castro is the heart of anything Gay, you can find gay establishments all over the city.  The city is broken into many districts, The Castro, The Haight, Lower Haight, Nob Hill, Lower Nob Hill, Union Square, Fisherman’s Wharf is a huge tourist trap, avoid at all cost.  The older gayborhood was on Polk St. so you can find a few bars in that area as well.  I can’t think of any major hotel in the city not being friendly, now some of the smaller cheap “weekly” rate type places.  The largest concentration of Gay Bars is in The Castro, then in SOMA there are some of the more leather, daddy type places.  My current favorite bar in The Castro is Blackbird, a laid back gay bar with an awesome staff.  My other favorite is a wine bar called Blush, amazing wine, food and people!  San Francisco also throws and incredible pride event every year, you just missed it this year but if you have the chance you must see it.  The Castro has very few options when it comes to lodging, I would suggest trying Union Square.  Most of the best shopping is in Union Square.  There are also several options for gay gyms in The Castro, 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s Gym to name a few.

Seattle – Other than the lack of warm days, Seattle is extremely gay friendly with the majority of activities, including bars and restaurants are located in Capitol Hill. Very close to down town, it’s a bit of a hike if you choose to walk it. The hills are nowhere as steep as San Francisco but if its cold enough you will regret not taking a cab or driving. Be very mindful of the parking signs, they have some of the strangest parking restrictions I have ever seen in the US. They do not color the curbs either, my first visit I wound up getting a nice fine, nowhere near a fire hydrant.

Like Portland, there is a large hipster community, however not as intrusive. Washington State also has the highest taxes on alcohol so when you walk into a dive bar and get charged $10 for something most other places would be $4-5.  Gay Bars and Night Clubs list.

As any big city, Seattle has tons of hotel options. My personal favorites are Starwood properties. The Westin is one of the largest and is not owned by Starwood, it is a franchise. They are undergoing renovations; their new rooms are very nice if you can get one. Some of their older rooms do show their age, ask if you can get a remodeled room.  We have a short list of gay friendly hotels in Seattle.

This article is a work in progress and not close to being done.

Club Date Montreal

Don’t be fooled by the name of this bar in Le Village. It might not be the smartest move to bring a date here – unless you are planning to woe your date with a sweet rendition of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Club Date specializes in nightly karaoke competition. Like any karaoke bar, you can expect a bunch of drunken shenanigans on stage, but once in a while, you get the divas looking to take the spotlight and become the next Canadian Idol, if just for one night. What differentiates this place from other karaoke bars is that they also have a piano – so you get that piano bar feel complete with showtunes galore.

Love for karaoke tends to transgress gender and sexuality so on any given night you can expect to see a troupe of local drag queens taking the mic or maybe a straight girl bachelorette party, straight couples from out of town, or just your friendly, neighborhood young gays.

Another reason why bringing a date to Club Date might be counter intuitive is because it’s definitely a dive bar, so hold your breath when entering the restroom. Again, not the most romantic of atmospheres but it’s like you expect Rod Stewart to walk in at any point.

1218 Rue Ste-Catherine Est (514) 521-1242

Magnum Lounge South Beach Miami

The elegance and romance I enjoyed at the National Hotel drew me to the Magnum Lounge, a Piano bar on the Upper East side of Miami. The vintage atmosphere was only the beginning of the experienced as I came to know the owners of the bar who immediately treat you like family. Good food and a romantic vibe make the Magnum Lounge the perfect place to take a date. The crab cakes I ordered made me realize this was a restaurant as much as it was a piano lounge, ensuring my return on every trip to Miami.

709 NE 79th St 305.757.3368

A gay piano bar with a strange twist, you would assume that this bar caters to an older successful gay crowd but some nights that’s far from what goes on. Matruni’s has a great bar with a very creative menu of custom drinks that are EXTREMELY strong! Some of which have put me down with just 2, something when I was drinking was very rare.

The most evil drink that you must order is the Cherry Blossom. Ingredients are: Cherry Rum, Simple Syrup and Champagne.

The Piano in the back is home to some very talented Pianist’s, vocalists, some are drag queens others are just as is. The act’s are quite fun and are either musically well composed or are very funny when they want them to be.

Sunday early evenings tend to attract a younger crowd, I am constantly invited to events on Sunday around 6pm. They are fun and even though I am scared of drag queens, yeah don’t ask I can’t tell you why. It’s the same some peoples irrational fear of clowns.

Martuni’s is located at 4 Valencia St, prominently located at Market and Valencia on the boarder of the Castro. Well not really in the boarder of the Castro. 415-241-0205