Travel Under the Rainbow - Gay travel agency

Hot Spots

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Charming Puerto Vallarta is a lively small city of red tiled roofs & quaint cobblestone streets, roosters, donkeys and iguanas, friendly locals, expatriates & fun loving tourists. Nestled between the brilliant Banderas Bay & the lush tropical forests of the Sierra Madre mountains on Mexico's west coast, Puerto Vallarta is known for its long sandy beaches, beautiful ocean & mountain views, handsome men & beautiful women & its many fine restaurants. Whether sunbathing at the popular gay beach, sailing on the gay cruise, bike riding along the Cuale River, whale watching on sun drenched Banderas Bay or dancing the night away at your favorite local gay club, there is something for you to adore & fall in love with in Puerto Vallarta. It is considered one of the most gay friendly cities in Mexico.

Old Vallarta: Representing the true charm of old Mexico with its cobble-stoned streets that wander along both sides of the River Cuale. This is where the art & culture of the city thrives, with theater, music, dance, & some of the finest restaurants, shops, & art galleries in the city. This is also where one finds Vallarta's most famous beach known as "Playa de los Muertos", home of the infamous “blue chairs”.

Conchas Chinas: Where jade green mountains of tropical jungle tumble dramatically to the ocean. This is a very prestigious residential area that enjoys stunning views of the entire Bay of Banderas with small intimate hotels and guest house dotted amongst the homes.

Hotel Zone: Expansive beaches extending from the marina to old town with a great variety of excellent hotels & fabulous restaurants, shops, & night clubs. This is where you will find the name brand hotels located.

Marina Vallarta: A modern & sophisticated area of this popular beach destination. Here you will find elegant, luxury hotels, fine restaurants, interesting shops, & beautiful beaches. Very close area to the airport with an approximate driving time of 20 minutes to get into Old Vallarta.

Excursions: Day trips to Playa Mismaloya, Yelapa, Bucerias & El Pitial are easily accessible by local transit. If you want to venture a little further, travel by luxury tourist coaches & take a trip to Guadalajara. The travel time is about 5 hours each way, so stay a night or two & enjoy the history & culture of this inland city.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio & Quepos, located on the Pacific coast, provide the only other concentration of gay life in Costa Rica outside of San Jose. Accommodations near Manuel Antonio National Park are plentiful & surprisingly good, with many new properties constructed during the past 2-3 years. The majority of hotels are built high in the jungle on the road connecting Quepos (the main town near the Manuel Antonio National Park) & the entrance to the park. This 7-km road winds through the jungle several hundred feet above the ocean, affording many spectacular views. Get one if you can. All hotels and businesses are marked with signs, as there are no numbered addresses. The majority of hotels are recommended both in terms of quality &, with a couple of exceptions noted, gay friendliness. In addition to hotels, visitors may wish to investigate the increasing number of private homes & apartments available for short-term & seasonal rentals in the area. The National Park itself is an oceanfront jungle offering easy trails to explore & the chance to see natural rain forest vegetation & an abundance of wildlife (monkeys, parrots, sloths & more). Many Ticos wait at the park entrance to offer guided excursions. These are generally inexpensive & can greatly enrich your visit if you are unfamiliar with the terrain. The main reason visitors flock to Manuel Antonio is to spend time on the beach. And what a beach it is! This small sweep of the Pacific features a jungle behind you, dramatic, jutting rocks to the north & south, & a warm, clear Pacific facing west. There is also a gay, clothing-optional beach, but as of this writing, condo construction was making gay locals nervous about its future. Be sure to inquire when planning your visit. To get to it, simply go to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park (by bus, taxi or foot, depending on where you're staying), turn right on the beach (north), then walk about ten minutes until you face a large rock outcropping. Cross these rocks (sandals or sneakers a must) & there you are: on a glorious, private beach peopled (usually sparsely) by gay men & a few gay women. The rocks & tides make this beach inaccessible immediately before & after high tide (it's a two-hour wait to cross at high tide). Note that nudity is officially not permitted, & the police do occasionally come by, point, frown, & wait for you to put your suit back on. You won't be by yourself here, but the people you meet will, like you, appreciate the beauty & solitude of this special place. Plus, lots of them will be gay.

Excursions: Be sure to visit Rainmaker, an attraction about 45 minutes from Manuel Antonio/Quepos (tour vans leave from M.A./Q area to take you there). It's a 1,350-acre nature reserve where guides lead you on trails through the forest, giving you living botany & biology lessons as you go & pausing while you energize in negative-ion pools fed by waterfalls. But the real attraction is the series of steel suspension bridges strung above the forest canopy, the longest stretching 300 feet. As the cliff sides slope away, you're standing on the wood planks of the bridge over the forest at a height of 180 feet (nearly as high as the Golden Gate Bridge), with only rope netting between you & the forest floor below. It's a marvel of engineering & an amazing adventure (great lunch served on the patio is reward enough for your derring-do). If you're interested in trying an array of water-related activities, including snorkel trips, dolphin-watching cruises & deep-sea fishing, this is the place to do it.

Palm Springs, California
Gay Palm Springs has been referred to by many as a great Gay Mecca. The city boasts a very large & diverse Gay resident population & has become a prime travel destination from the West coast (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle), Midwest, Northeast, Southwest, as well as internationally. More & more Gay visitors from the Pacific Rim, Europe & South America are discovering Palm Springs’ Gay-friendly spirit.

Why is Palm Springs so appealing to the Gay traveler? It’s a huge outdoor playground with consistently brilliant sunshine, great for sunning & all types of outdoor activities with the sweet, clean air of the famed Coachella Valley. The jagged, boulder-covered San Jacinto Mountains are set against a brilliant blue sky which reflects hot, dry heat onto the palm-studded valley desert paradise.

There is something truly special about Gay Palm Springs beyond its beautiful oasis setting in the arid Southern California desert. The Greater Palm Springs area has more Gay & Gay-Friendly restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, retailers & other businesses than any other one gay destination. Here in Palm Springs, more than anywhere else, Gay men & women of all ages & from all backgrounds & places visit & are welcomed by the community.

In fact, Palm Springs during the last five (5) years has experienced an explosion of new Gay residents & new Gay businesses. The resident Gay population is now estimated at 40 percent of the population. Gays are welcomed in Gay-friendly Palm Springs.

Palm Springs has an ongoing flow of exciting Gay / Gay-oriented calendar of events, including the International Film Festival, the Nabisco Classic (formally the Dinah Shore Classic) & of course the infamous White Party on Easter Weekend. The city’s Gay Pride Festival is a sanctioned Palm Springs event with a fabulous parade followed by an all-afternoon & evening festival with live entertainment, food, dancing, concessions & fun games. The Arenas Street Party is another Gay festival, not unlike Gay Pride, which occurs on Arenas Road, Palm Springs’ Castro Street, which now lasts two (2) days. At Halloween, Arenas Street is converted into another Gay festival block party with costume parties at the many bars & a street costume show & formal judging contest.

Every Thursday night Palm Springs’ main street, Palm Canyon Drive, is closed to traffic & opened to an extensive festival including food vendors, arts and crafts exhibits & loads of free entertainment by numerous artists. Strolling, munching, looking & sipping the length of Palm Canyon Drive from one end to the other in the heart of Palm Springs is a great way to ‘people and puppy watch’ for an hour or an entire evening.

Every first Friday evening of each month, North Palm Canyon Drive, the Antiques District of the city, has an open house called the First Friday. This is primarily an Antiques Shop Open House. This is the life in sunny Palm Springs. The climate is the envy of the world with more than 330 days of sunshine each year. The town’s atmosphere is laid back & like a small village full of small shops & specialty stores.

Sitges, Spain

When the Roman’s first visited Spain over two thousand year’s ago they built a town called Subur. Sitges now stands on that very same spot. We all know how the Roman centurions liked to party & that tradition continues to this very day. Welcome to Sitges, a party-town like no other. Travelling to Sitges is easy, accommodation plentiful, the climate benign, the people relaxed, the beaches long & sandy, the food & drink easy to come by & full of regional variety.

Picture Perfect: Unspoiled by the tourist boom of the 1960’s, Sitges has retained that “picture-postcard” look, with narrow cobbled streets, beautiful Spanish architecture & unspoiled scenic views; a world away from the plastic & the concrete of the more traditional Spanish resorts along the Costa Brava & Costa Del Sol. With a microclimate of its own Sitges has over 300 days of sunshine with temperatures ranging from 26 degrees to 33 degrees during the summer months. This is Spain as it was meant to be… but even better!

A Cultural Heritage: Sitges has a long-standing gay appeal, being renowned as a bohemian hang-out & artist’s colony since the early nineteen hundreds. Painters such as Picasso, Dali & Miro adored the town. It was also a favourite of writers, Tennessee Williams & Douglas Fairbanks. The artistic heritage lingers on in several fine galleries & art museums. The town also boasts some stunning Cuban-style colonial architecture (built on the wealth of the sugar trade), & many grand neo-classical Catalan mansions with magnificent carved timber doors, hand-painted ceramic tile murals, & intricate wrought iron balconies, door lanterns & window grilles.

Gayer than Gay: The first gay disco in Spain opened in Sitges 25 years ago. It is still going stronger than ever. Trailer’s foam parties on Sunday night are world renowned. Hands get frisky as the foam level rises. The resort’s population swells from 30,000 locals to 250,000 revellers during peak season (July/Aug/Sep) with most of the tourists either gay or curious! This influx essentially makes the town is one big cruising zone, but to help you on your way there are 2 areas where you are definitely in for a treat.

Size Matters: There is 1 gay beach, 2 nudist beaches, 450 Shops, dozens of outdoor cafes, amazing restaurants, 20 gay bars, 2 amazing nightclubs, 1 very busy sauna & thousands of hot homo hombres to keep you busy. All of this is within a 10 minute walking distance! So in this case, small really is beautiful! The partying starts at 11pm & doesn’t finish until 6am at the earliest.

Any Excuse: There is a fiesta every week in Sitges, or so it seems. The Catalans know how to throw a party & every weekend there is some special event or occasion that deserves the odd fireworks & a cold glass of sparkling Cava. So whether it’s Carnival in February, Corpus Christi in June, the Fiesta Mayor in August or the Film Festival in October, there’s always a party taking place in Sitges.

And Easy: Sitges has to be one of the easiest gay destinations to visit. It is just 20 minutes train journey from Barcelona. The resort area is the perfect base for exploring the other parts of Cataluna. Universal Studios theme park is nearby at Port Aventura, & the ancient monastery of Montserrat is in the mountains to the north.