A Couple of Men
Gay Couple Travel Blog

Our Gay USA Travel Guide

Gay Couple Travel Guide USA: The United States of America, still known as the land of boundless opportunities, is a varied destination for outdoor fans exploring the sea, mountains, and diverse cultural attractions in its 50 states on the North American continent. Our first trip to the United States of America brought us via Atlanta to Florida where we spent some wonderful days in Orlando’s Disney Parks and Universal Studios. In the same year, we explored the South Western part of the USA starting with California from San Francisco where we attended the Castro Street Fair, Pacific Highway No 1, Los Angeles, Anaheim followed by Nevada with Las Vegas and its Extraterrestrial Highway, the Grand Canyon North Rim in Arizona and Zion National Park in Utah. Our way back lead us to California’s Yosemite National Park including a visit to the Ghost Town Bodie. But this meant to be just the beginning of our American explorations.

Visiting the USA the gay-friendly way

We have been back to the States already several times since our first trips. We visited New York City on the eve of World Pride last year taking a “weekend off” north of the Big Apple in Dutchess County. Back in California again – it simply is one of our favorite US-States so far – we attended the colorful LA Pride. Of course, Disneyland, Disney’s Island of Adventure and Universal Studios Hollywood have been (and are again) on top of our bucket list. Further north, we visited the green US-State Oregon with its hip capital city Portland. Portland Pride was wonderful to experience though, the Pacific coast and the Crater Lake area should be part of everyone’s US travel plans. Flying east to the city of wind, it was time for us to explore Illinois with its skyscraper city Chicago and the LGBT getaway Galena. And there is much more to come, for sure!

Our Gay USA Travel Guide on a map

Gay Illinois Travel Guide

You cannot imagine how excited we are to finally share the highlights of our first-ever trip to Illinois and, of course, to Chicago with you. The city of wind by the great Lake Michigan was already for so long on our gay travel bucket list. But first things first! We started our Illinois adventure with a road trip visiting Galena, one of TripAdvisor’s top ten “Charming Small Towns” in the US right at the northwest border to the US states of Iowa and Wisconsin. Known and loved for its mid-century architecture, Galena is becoming more and more popular among the LGBTQ+ community of Chicago and beyond. On our way back, we put a one day stop in Rockford on our list. Visiting the Murals in the city enter as well as the Japanese Garden and the Laurent House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright made this stop worthwhile. Before finally arriving in Chicago for Pride, we spent a night in Geneva, another beautiful community just a one hour train ride from Chicago.

Gay Tip to the US American South West

Gay New York Travel Guide

In 2019, the time has finally come for us to travel to New York City, the embodiment of the new world, of the land of opportunity, also known as the Big Apple. After our short layover of 6 hours two years ago, we cannot wait to spend 10 days at the east coast visiting some of the must-sees of New York like the view from the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Though the focus of our trip will be the LGBTQ+ history of New York, and you know why! Exactly, because 2019 was the year of World Pride and Stonewall50! But we also traveled upstate New York to explore the beauty of Dutchess County North of New York City.

Gay Oregon Travel Guide

Beer, Bears, and Bearded men – Known as the hipster metropole of the USA, Portland, and the US-American state of Oregon have been a must-do on our gay travels to the United States of America. ‘The City of Roses’ is one of Portland’s nicknames located in the Northwest of the USA not far from the Pacific coast. Embedded between the Columbia and Willamette River, the biggest city of Oregon is known for its environmental friendliness due to a high percentage of bikers for example. But it is also known for its parks, the close connection to nature, its high amount of microbreweries and cafés. We spent almost a week in Portland attending Portland Pride before we started our road trip south to Crater Lake National Park with its stunning waterfalls and the huge volcano crater lake and further towards the Pacific where we spent our last relaxing days in nature close to the beach.

How gay-friendly is the USA?

Expanding from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south, the “States” rank among the biggest countries in the world. After becoming independent of the United Kingdom in 1776, the American people celebrate their “Independence Day” every year on July 4th. But what is important to know for the LGBTQ+ community on their gay travels to the United States of America? Although the US is considered to be a gay-friendly destination legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015, there still a lot of places where same-sex couples should pay attention to where they walk hand-in-hand. We have not had any negative experiences traveling as an openly gay couple in the US so far and we hope that will stay like that. But under the current circumstances, we hope and strongly advise that the current administration alter its LGBT unfriendly course. Instead of taking back achieved equality laws, the US government should recognize, implement, and strengthen LGBTQ+ rights as what they are, human rights.

Daan proudly marching on LA Pride | Gay USA Travel Guide © Coupleofmen.com

Good to know about before traveling to the USA

Some important tips for the planning of your trip to the United States of America: Check your country’s US visa requirements. European LGBT travelers and all travelers coming from a Visa Waiver Program country don’t need a US visa for vacation purposes but have to apply for your ESTA form instead. We see it as our entry ticket to the USA as it is necessary to show at the immigration check before entering the United States of America. Also, check the validity of your passport because in some cases it needs to be valid for a couple of months beyond your travel period.

If you are planning to do a road trip around the USA, which is an amazing thing to do btw., check the driver’s license requirements and the possible necessity of an international driver’s license (rules differ from state to state). Also: Bring your adapter plug since you need one to connect European/ Asian plugs to the electricity grid. Some hotels might have a few to spare but it is always smarter to bring your own. What about the money? We always bring a couple of hundred US Dollars from Europe, just in case. But you can pay with your credit card basically everywhere. Please be aware that sometimes you’ll need the pin code of your credit card, so make sure you know it.

Road Trip USA – American South West | Gay USA Travel Guide © CoupleofMen.com

Plan your trip to the USA with Couple of Men:

There are so many more places to visit in America. Highest on our list is undoubtedly more of the North-Western part of the country Washington State including Seattle. But you can be sure, that the Disney Parks in Florida, Key West, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and more central and more known LGBT and gay-friendly parts of the USA are super high on our bucket list again and again! As almost every bigger city in the US has its own annual Gay Pride mostly during the Pride month of June. We are super excited when we will be able to attend the next Gay Pride in the United States of America, maybe the Pride of the Americas in Florida?