Gay Travel Europe

GERMANY: Famous for its arty, alternative and hipsters lifestyle as well as for its history as a divided city, Berlin is an all-year-round destination, worth a weekend or full week trip.

The Boutique Hotel Sleep-Inn Box 5 Nijmegen – is a charming Boutique Hotel right in the city centre of Nijmegen. The helpful and heartwarming gay couple Jos and Stephan are the owners of this almost 100 years old Dutch house. The accommodation is a well-made combination of elegant design furniture as a chic luxurious interior in modern style with comfortable beds. We felt home in this old mansion immediately.

London. It’s time for a spring city trip to the British capital with our tips for off the beaten tourist trails. On the to-do list of our 2015 trip was the musical performance “Book of Mormons” with last-minute tickets bye the ticket lottery, the visit of an exhibition at the V&A Victoria & Albert Museum about the artwork of the fashion genius Alexander McQueen and, right at the beginning , a day on the roller coasters at the theme park Thorpe Park.

Our best of the first gay cruise edition by Open Sea Cruises x Axel Hotels. Finally, it was time for our third European gay cruise gaycation around the Mediterranean Sea. The Spanish cruise operator Open Sea Cruises announced in March 2018 their long-term collaboration with the well-known Axel Hotels, a gay hotel chain featuring hetero-friendly accommodations, with the goal to organize a brand new European gay cruise experience for the entire LGBT community with concerts, parties, onboard activities, offshore tours, and more. Starting from Barcelona, the route brought us to France and Spain covering the Western part of the Mediterranean Sea. But what is special about the Pop Cruise by Open-Sea Cruises?

Our 6 Top Queer Films 2018 for Homochrom Filmfest in the German cities Cologne and Dortmund. The leaves are turning orange and red, and autumn always means it‘s cinema time again in Germany! To give you the best of 2018 queer cinema, we from Couple of Men had an interesting chat with festival director Martin Wolkner about the program of the 8th Filmfest homochrom in Cologne and Dortmund. The queer film festival scene in Germany is second only to the USA (40+ festivals), and homochrom has become the second-largest among the 25 German festivals. But homochrom is also one of the up-and-coming festivals to watch for when they announce their program loaded with insider tips. You will always discover and be surprised by some rare and perfect world cinema which could also have been at the Berlinale or even has been. Yet the biggest surprise of the 8th Filmfest homochrom might be that admission is free to all films in 2018. We would like to give you some suggestions to help you navigate your festival experience. There are many very different queer topics in the 2018 selection, and we give you the 6 best, sexiest, most important or most dramatic movies showcasing bisexual, transgender, intersex, gay, and slightly straight stories.

Our 5 Top Lesbian Films Filmfest Homochrom 2018 in the German cities Cologne and Dortmund. It’s autumn, that means it‘s cinema time again in Germany! “Couple of Men” had a nice talk with festival director Martin Wolkner about the programme of the 8th Filmfest homochrom in Cologne and Dortmund. It has quickly become the second-largest among a very active crowd of two dozens of queer film festivals in Germany. (Then again Cologne is still the homo capital of Germany, isn’t it?) But the Filmfest homochrom has also been one of the up-and-coming festivals to look for rare film discoveries and surprises. The biggest one yet might be that admission to all films is free this year. So grab your friends and head to the cinema. There’s no good reason to not see the whole festival, but if you have a good excuse and need to choose just a couple, you might like our suggestions. So we wanted to know which of the 2018 selection are the best, sexiest or most dramatic movies showcasing love between two women or girls. Which are the unmissable films of 2018?

Our 5 Top Gay Films Homochrom Filmfest 2018 in the German cities Cologne and Dortmund. It’s October, the Oktoberfest in Munich is over, and the trees are turning all orange and red, while it’s getting cooler. It’s cinema time again, not only in Germany! We from Couple of Men had an inspiring talk with festival director Martin Wolkner about the program of the 8th Filmfest homochrom in Cologne and Dortmund in the western part of Germany. The LGBT film festival has quickly become the second-largest among a very active crowd of two dozens of queer film festivals all around Germany. (Then again Cologne is still the gayest city in Germany, isn’t it?) But homochrom has also been one of the up-and-coming festivals to look for rare film discoveries and gay movie surprises. The biggest one yet might be that the admission to all films is free in 2018. We wanted to know from Martin Wolkner which of the 2018 film selection are the best, sexiest or most dramatic movies showcasing love between two (gay) men. Which are the unmissable films of 2018?

SPAIN: We didn’t know what to expect and what the advantages would be until checking in at the Meliá 5-Star Resort build as a traditional Spanish village in the mountains.

FINLANDS: Escape the Ordinary. Under this motto, hotel guests can discover the unique accommodation in a former Finnish prison on Helsinki’s island Katajanokka.

GERMANY: It was time for us to finally travel to Berlin again to spend some days in the biggest city of Germany where we explored the gay neighborhood Berlin Schöneberg, attend the CSD Berlin Gay Pride and tested the 4-star hotel Scandic Berlin Kurfürstendamm.

Our trip to Germany’s capital city for CSD Berlin Gay Pride. It was about time to attend Berlin pride for the first time together. The German capital is considered to be one of the most diverse, queer and alternative cities not only in Europe but worldwide. One reason for sure, why Germany is among the gay-friendliest countries worldwide. It is always a great experience to travel to Berlin in the north-eastern part of Germany, especially but not only for the huge gay pride celebration that is attracting over 500.000 LGBT (travelers) from all over the world!

FINLAND: A visit to Helsinki and Finland wouldn’t be perfect without sweating in a Finnish Sauna, at least once. What about the “design-sauna-experience” LÖYLY at the Baltic Seashore?

SPAIN: It is time for Málaga, the Spanish city in the south of Spain. Known as a holiday destination for sun lovers, we took the chance to make our opinion about Málaga, the second-biggest city of Andalusia.

SOUTH EUROPE: It was time to go onboard the Monarch for our second gay cruise with La Demence, the well-known party organizer from Belgium. This year it should be a different route…

AUSTRIA: The recently named “Destination of the Year 2018” by the Australian LGBTI Awards was already for a while now very high on our gay travel bucket list, especially after traveling to other parts of the Alpine state before. And what could be a better reason, besides pride, to travel to Vienna than the annual AIDS Charity event Life Ball? Exactly! Lucky us, we were invited to attend the 25th edition of Life Ball 2018 and to stay at the 5-star hotel Le Méridien Vienna located in the first district right on the so-called Ringstrasse. We as a gay couple travelers couple of men couldn’t have asked for a better gay-friendly place to stay as the Design Hotel was hosting hotel of the Life Ball event just a stone-throw away from all major sights of Vienna and, of course, close by the Vienna City Hall. Join us on our city trip to Vienna in early summer right before Gay Pride and find out why you should book your stay for EuroPride 2019 in Vienna at the gay-friendly luxury hotel Le Méridien Vienna.

AUSTRIA: It is time for one of the most important annual AIDS charity events in the world. It is time for the 25th edition of Life Ball 2018

NETHERLANDS: A Gay City Weekend Amsterdam without a boat tour around the canals and Grachten of Amsterdam? No way!

NETHERLANDS: The Mainport Hotel by Inntel Hotels welcomes its guests with a stylish lobby, modern interior and a special creative touch.

CZECHIA: Full of history, unique architecture and natural beauty is really hard to find anywhere in the world, but easily in Prague.

AMSTERDAM: The 15 Best Gay Movies 2018 selected for the 11 days LGBTQ+ Film Festival Roze Filmdagen in the Dutch capital Amsterdam together with Werner Borkes, festival director of the so-called Pink Movie Days.

NETHERLANDS: The 10 Best Lesbian Movies 2018 selected by the Dutch LGBTQ+ Film Festival Roze Filmdagen – It is time again to get ready for the biggest Dutch film festival “Pink Film Days”.

The 10 Best Queer LGBTQ Movies 2018 selected by the Dutch Film Festival Roze Filmdagen in Amsterdam – This year for the first time, we selected the best queer movies for the biggest Dutch film festival “Pink Film Days”. Festival director Werner Borkes helped us to find the top feature films about transgender journeys, intersexual identities, and deeply personal stories of individual struggles about sex, love, and faith. Movies like “Jesus is dead” with a very diverse family road trip from the Philippines, the story of a threesome relationship “We Are Thr3e” from Argentina and the queer LGBTQ movie “Saturday Church” about faith, hope and finding yourself are just a view of the best 8 Queer Movies for this year’s 21st edition of the LGBTQ Film Festival in Amsterdam.

ICELAND: Welcome to the nature world of Central Iceland around Lake Mývatn, an environment full of volcanic activity, breathtaking natural spectacles and thousands of midges.

A Gay Couple City Weekend Utrecht – Utrecht is the new Amsterdam. Or is it just the little sister of the Dutch capital? Putting this topic on the table on a bar in Utrecht starts an intense controversy about pros, cons, the local pride and the way of living in both cities of the Netherlands. The gay couple spent a Gay City Weekend Utrecht to show you their favorite places on their gay travel: eat and drink at Gys and The Village Coffee, get the best view over the city on the Dom Toren, where to wandering around for hip shops with the Puha Shopping Route and how to go back in time on track with the Spoorwegmuseum.

Review of the Legendary Trunks Exhibition Amsterdam – The name Louis Vuitton stands for luxury and design and is known as one of the world’s most valuable luxury brands. Nevertheless, everything started with high-quality travel equipment and luggage. Those wooden framed travel trunks were the beginning of the well-known LV – brand dating back to the 1850s. It took a Swedish collector many years to collect a beautiful array of these special handmade massive trunks and now they are on the show.

Sleeping in a Slumber Wine Barrel Taufsteinhütte Central Germany – We have to admit, it was a very special experience to sleep in a wine barrel in the middle of a winter wonderland in the German state Hessen. During our Winter Road Trip from Frankfurt am Main to Nature Park Hoher Vogelsberg we spent a night in the gay-friendly hotel “Slumber Wine Barrel” village at Taufsteinhhütte in the middle of the forest. The view over the Hoherodskopf with its huge with its huge radio tower covered in ice and snow was stunning. Inside the wine barrel, we felt like two hobbits in love sitting in their cozy burrow warmed up by a heater system. The newly built sauna barrel as part of the 10 wine barrel village was perfect for the weather conditions. Just make your reservation for a private session and you will be warmed up after a day in cold nature on the chute with an additional unique view over the forest of the Vogelsberg. A delicious traditional dinner and a substantial breakfast the next morning completed our extraordinary accommodation experience. Enjoy our review about gay-friendly “Slumber Wine Barrel”!

DENMARK: A day in one of the oldest amusement parks in the world should not be missed! The whole city of Copenhagen including Tivoli is changing during “Jul i Tivoli” into an ocean of light! Truly magical, especially as a Christmas present surprise trip.

ICELAND: No-Man’s-Land of Skaftafell National Park: Eternal Glacier Ice, wonderful hikes to unique waterfalls and over thousands of years old icebergs in the glacier lagoon.

ICELAND: Ever heard of the Black Beaches of South Iceland or the small South Icelandic municipality Vík or the national birds of Iceland, the Puffins?

Same-Sex Marriage Austria – For many of you, and even for us, this great news coming from Austria feel like an early Christmas present, especially for the LGBTQ+ community of the European country Austria. The Constitutional Court of Austria decided today that by the beginning of 2019 same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in the alpine country. After Germany this summer, the next European country will get marriage equality, although some time and patience is still needed.

Amsterdam Light Festival Highlights 2015-2014 – Wintertime in Western Europe is quite a difficult time: almost no snow combined with a lot of wind and rain. Additional to shorter days and the lack of light the Dutch capital Amsterdam initiated 4 years ago the annually Amsterdam Light Festival. Artist working on alight project were given the opportunity to dive Amsterdam into light. Do it like the gay couple is doing it and discover the beauty of the city in the dark! Turn the lights on for Amsterdam Light Festival Highlights of 2015 & 2014!

Our Gay Travel Guide Gaudi Architecture Casa Mila La Pedrera – A landmark of pure Modernism. Barcelona is without any doubt the city of Antoni Gaudí, a Spanish Catalan architect of Catalan Modernism. Next to the UNESCO World Heritage Sagrada Familia, one of his most famous creations of Gaudí it the apartment complex Casa Milà. Also known as La Pedrera (the quarry), this civil building was Antonio Gaudi’s last work before dedicating his full energy to built the world famous, Sagrada Familia (estimated finish in 2026). The Casa Milà is one of our favorite buildings in Barcelona and definitely worth the queuing time. Get your ticket and start your discovery with an elevator trip to the roof top of the Gaudí’s building, we enjoyed an amazing view over the city. On our way down we explored fully, originally equipped apartments and learned about the difference of creating this huge piece of architectural art in the middle of Barcelona. Enjoy our photos and the Casa Milà through a couple of men’s eyes.

The 9th edition of the Goldelsen-Cup Berlin Gay Lesbian Volleyball Tournament 2017 – It is time to kick-off our Gay Sports articles on our blog with this year’s Goldelsen Cup in Berlin! The 9th edition of the annual International Gay and Lesbian Volleyball Tournament in Berlin is considered to be one of the biggest European LGBTQ+ Sports Tournaments taking place at the end of November in the German capital. As chance would have it, Karl is a passionate Volleyball player who started his Volleyball career at the age of 12. After he came out of the closet, Karl decided to join the International Gay-Lesbian Volleyball League playing in tournaments all around the world with his Teams from SSL Vorspiel Berlin and SLS “Der Bogenschütze” Dresden e.V..

THE CRUISE: The weather could not have been better when the first high heels entered the dancefloor. Blue sky and warm summer sun were promising making the Lady Party a total success, again!

CRUISE: Right after being back from ashore, we slipped into our golden wrestling outfits, put on our disco wigs and golden sunglasses to join the party crowd on the pool deck to “Boogie Oogie Oogie” into the night.

Where are you from Party The Cruise 2017: As a permanent costume party feature, The Cruise by La Demence organizes the getting-to-know event as one of the first parties of the annual cruise week. There are more than two thousand gay men on board the cruise ship Monarch but we actually have no idea where every single man actually comes from! And there were lot men to take into account! In total 86 different nationalities from all over the world gathered together for one big colorful, peaceful gaycation celebration on board the gay cruise ship!

ICELAND: Lucky us, we had a little extra time during our 21-day Road Trip around Iceland to try a second whale watching tour, this time in Dalvík in North Iceland.

GERMANY: Same-Sex Marriage holds a majority within all parties except the right-wing party AfD (Alternative for Germany) and members of the Christian Democratic Union. We will have Same-Sex Marriage in Germany!

Gay Couple Travel Blogger Benidorm Pride Spain 2017 – Summer is over! No, wait it is not! The Spanish holiday destination Benidorm is inviting the LGBTQ+ community from Europe and the whole world to celebrate one of the last Gay Pride of the Pride season 2017 in the city at the Mediterranean Sea. It will be a whole week full of events, parties, and the rainbow colored gay pride parade in the summer sun of the popular Costa Blanca coast in Spain. For the 7th time, the gay pride will take place in Benidorm expecting more than 15.000 people, especially coming from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. We as gay travel bloggers will arrive September 6th in Alicante traveling further to our final destination Benidorm at the Hotel Meliá Villaitana. Besides the incredible and unique skyline of Benidorm, the Spanish city has a remarkable old town, too. Our plans are to do an E-Bike tour along Benidorm’s coast visiting small coves and beaches and might even go snorkeling! Furthermore, we will make sure to have enough time to test Benidorm’s Mediterranean cuisine, the water park Aqualandia and the theme park Terra Mítica. But our main focus, of course, will be Benidorm Pride 2017 with its three “F”: Fun Friendly Flirty. Join us in Benidorm and on our Blog, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter and experience the Spanish LGBTQ+ Festival in Benidorm through a couple of men‘s eyes!

A stay at ROCKET ROOMS Velden am Wörthersee gay-friendly – Summer time is Pink Lake time! This year for the first time, we attended the 10th edition of the popular Pink Lake Festival in Southern Austria. Therefore, we stayed at the gay-friendly Hotel ROCKET ROOMS right in the city center of Velden am Wörthersee. Our double room with balcony, a rich breakfast, friendly staff and the central location provided us everything we needed for our time in Carinthia. The market town Velden am Wörthersee, well-known for the Renaissance castle Schloss Velden, is located at the Western lake side of Lake Wörth. It is one of the most famous holiday resorts of Austria. Especially in summer time, the warm and turquoise blue water of the lake together with several public and private bathing beaches are creating a wonderfully relaxed holiday atmosphere. When you are looking for a stay in a modern, stylish and hip place in Velden, ROCKET ROOMS Velden are the right choice. Enjoy our hotel review of the LGBTQ+ friendly accommodation in Velden am Wörthersee and see the ROCKET ROOMS through a couple of men‘s eyes.

GERMANY: Election in Germany 2017: Vote and stand up for your freedom! Travesty for Germany Drag Election Posters calling for a Change (in Politics).

Our Photos Videos (Gay) Pride Week Amsterdam 2017 – The team of this year’s Gay Pride Week of the Dutch capital had a difficult task to solve. Why? Well, since 2016 was the year of the Euro Pride in Amsterdam with a whole month full of activities, events, and more than 560.000 guests from all over the world, the expectations to organize an impressive LGBTQ+ Pride Event were set high. You wanna know how we rate the (Gay) Pride Amsterdam 2017 in our home city? We loved it. And we are talking not only about the world famous Amsterdam Canal Parade.