Gay Travel

FINLAND: Kept as a secret, the citizens of Helsinki are more than proud to live in their wonderful nature connected city.

FINLAND: The biggest Amusement of Finland is named Linnanmäki located right north of the city center of the Finnish capital city Helsinki. And of course, we had to test it our during our Gay City Trip to Helsinki

Gay Couple Baltic Pride 2017 Tallinn Estonia – We are happy to announce that we will attend this year’s Baltic Pride 2017! The LGBTQ+ event that aims to “increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people” joins forces with Tallinn Pride. The rainbow colored Gay Pride Festival will take place from July 6th to July 9th. Therefore, the Estonian capital is planning to organize a long list of events throughout the pride week starting with art exhibitions, LGBTQ+ film screenings to the colorful gay pride parade through the capital of Estonia. Together with supporters from the Baltic States, across Europe and from all over the world, we will celebrate the 9th edition of Baltic Pride, that rotates between the three Baltic capitals Vilnius, Tallinn, and Riga. This year, it is Tallinn’s turn to host the gay pride week. But we will have more to explore in the beautiful city of Tallinn. As one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we cannot wait to spend the first week in July in Estonia. Join us on our gay travels to Estonia and see the Baltic Pride 2017 in Tallinn with this year’s festival theme “United” through a couple of men’s eyes.

The First Utrecht Canal Gay Pride 2017 The Netherlands – It is time. Time for the LGBTQ+ community of Utrecht to celebrate the annually Gay Pride Event with their first own, unique and rainbow colored Canal Pride Parade. “The heart of the Netherlands” will turn pink when for the first ever dressed up Grachten boats will ride the old canals of the fourth biggest city of the Netherlands accompanied by proud gay, lesbian, bi, trans and friends from all over the world. Starting at Ledig Erf, the Utrecht Gay Pride Parade on the canals will end at the Zandbrug, just around the corner of the well-known gay bars “Bodytalk” and “Café Kalff”.

CANADA: Visiting a Dinosaur museum was not the first thing that came to our mind when thinking of traveling the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta. But it was a great unexpected adventure.

CANADA: Thinking about Calgary, a public art scene would not be necessarily the first thing that comes to your mind, especially not in Downtown Calgary with all its huge skyscrapers and financial offices. We have been disabused. A variety of sculptures, gigantic graffitis, outdoor paintings and sunny parks with public art are scattered all around the heart of the Canadian city in the province of Alberta. Additional to the outdoor art installations, a multiplicity of public art in most of the foyers and backyards of the modern buildings showcase art pieces from all over the world. During our stay in Calgary right before our road trip through the Canadian Rocky Mountains of Alberta, we became gay city explorers.

FINLAND: Being one of the most powerful but grounded Gay Pride Parades in Finland, Europe and worldwide we attended so far, we could capture our favorite moments of love, diversity, and beauty.

ICELAND: Asking travel guides, books, blogs, and official websites was not really satisfactory concerning the length of our trip, choice of our rental car, the planning of our gay-friendly accommodations and assembling our camping equipment.

The Telus Spark Calgary Star Trek Academy Experience – There is always time for a Star Trek Day, at least for us Trekkies. And so we made sure to visit the Science Museum Telus Spark in Calgary for its Star Trek The Starfleet Academy Experience and day full of fun with Mister Spock, Captain Kirk, Captain Picard and Kathryn Janeway. Entering a perfectly themed world, we completed a phaser training, improved our Klingon knowledge with language lessons and tried to pass the Kobayashi Maru test. But there was more to see! The museum complex just 5 minutes by car north of Calgary Zoo opened in 2011 and is since then a place for interactive exhibits, multimedia presentations and educational demonstrations in Calgary, Alberta, and Canada. Right before our 2-week Road Trip through the Canadian Rocky Mountains of Alberta, we spend some adventurous days exploring Canada’s third-largest municipality and the surroundings sights. The exhibition around the Federation of Planets at Telus Spark is still open until May 4th. Enjoy our photos and story of our Star Trek experience and see the Canadian Science Museum Telus Spark through a couple of men’s eyes!

CANADA: Exploring the Canadian Rocky Mountains around Banff and Lake Louise: Visit and stay at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, the “Castle in the Rockies” at Banff National Park.

Our stay at the Calgary Airport Marriott Terminal Hotel Gay-friendly – After our wonderful road trip through Alberta and the Canadian Rocky Mountains all the way up to Jasper for Jasper Pride Festival, we returned to Calgary the head full of impressions and pictures of stunning nature. Before we started our trip back from Canada to Europe early in the morning, we stayed in the brand new Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel with a unique view over the International Airport YYC, Downtown Calgary, and the snowy tops of the Canadian Rockies. Luxurious interior, access to the M Club Lounge, and the super short way from the Hotel check-out to the Airport check-in made our gay travel In-Terminal hotel experience a great final adventure in Canada in the year of its 150th anniversary 2017. But why booking an In-Terminal Hotel? And did we sleep well although facing the runway of the airport? Enjoy our gay-friendly hotel review with our best photos, info, and tips for your stay in a gay-friendly hotel in Calgary and see the Calgary Airport Marriott Terminal Hotel through a couple of men’s eyes.

Our Fat Tire Biking Calgary Nomad Gear Rentals adventure during our Gay Couple City Weekend Calgary, even in winter time! How is that possible? With a new trend “winter sports” called fat tire biking with spikes for the ice parts on the street. The city of Calgary as gay- and bike-friendly metropole in Alberta, Canada offers quiet some kilometers of well-prepared and safe bikeways throughout Downtown Calgary but also along relaxing scenic attraction along the Bow and Elbow River. Although the temperature on the thermometer dropped down to minus 20 degrees Celsius, we decided to take the opportunity of clear fresh winter air and sun shine to bike around Calgary.

The historic Fairmont Palliser Hotel Downtown Calgary Canada – With over 100 hundred years of luxurious hospitality tradition in one building right in the center of Calgary in Alberta, the Fairmont Palliser Hotel is an institution to experience the glamor of recent decades of Canadian Railway Hotel businesses. Opened in 1914, the remarkable building was designed by Architect Lawrence Gotch of E. and W.S. Maxwell of Montreal. Fans of Edwardian architecture will love the Fairmont building in Chicago School Look, especially from the outside since it was the highest building in Calgary town, at least until 1958. But also from the inside, the Palliser Hotel did not lose a piece of its majestic presence due to several renovation and investments in the past couple of years. The very central location right next to the Calgary tower and in Downtown Calgary at Palliser Square made our stay very comfortable. The gay-friendly staff, the luxurious pool and spa area in the basement, the comprehensive breakfast, and very well equipped rooms made our long gay couple city weekend Calgary right before our Winter Road Trip through the Rocky Mountains to Jasper extra convenient. Enjoy our review of our gay-friendly hotel stay Calgary with photos, stories, and info about the historic Fairmont Palliser Hotel Calgary and see the legendary Canadian over one hundred years old luxury Calgary City Hotel through a couple of men’s eyes.

The Jasper Ice Pride Maligne Canyon Ice Walk Tour with Sundog Tours. – Spectacular and an experience we would not want to have missed! Hiking the frozen Maligne river through the Maligne Canyon in Jasper National Park Alberta Canada was without any doubts one of our gay travel highlights during our Winter Road Trip from Calgary to Jasper. The Canadian Rocky Mountains with their thousand waters, spectacular snow topped mountain ranges, and the hidden secrets of the pure nordic nature life have been a great adventure, especially with high snow and chilly minus 20 degrees in March! Just 10 minutes by shuttle from Jasper Town, Alberta a icy winter wonderland waits to be discovered. Together with our mountain guide from gay-friendly Sundog Tours we hiked to the bottom of Maligne Canyon, the deepest accessible canyon of Jasper National Park where we explored deeply frozen waterfalls, stunning ice caves, hidden ice crystals, and a great place for ice climbing. The 3.5 kilometers long hike has it all. At the end we were able to enjoy a spectacular view from the mountain top of Maligne Canyon. Ask everything you wanna know about wildlife, the nature reserves, and if you will encounter bears during the tour. The rangers and tour guides know what they are talking about. But now enjoy our Ice Pride Walk during Jasper Pride Festival 2017 through a couple of men’s eyes with all info you need to know for your special ice experience!

The Coco’s Café Jasper Best gay-friendly Food Place – We know it, you know it, finding the best breakfast place in town, especially when you are vegan or vegetarian is not always the easiest task to start your day with. Especially, when you are about to start a day full of nature explorations around Jasper National Park and beautiful Rocky Mountains. But if you are looking for a gay-friendly restaurant of café with locally sourced organic ingredients in Jasper Town, we found the right place for you!

ICELAND: Looking back on the fantastic things we experienced during our 21-day camping road trip, it was just the perfect adventure trip in Northern Europe.

Our Gay Couple Biking Trips Amsterdam Forest brings us this time to the green lounge of the Dutch capital, to the Amsterdamse Bos or the Forest of Amsterdam. Located in the South-West of the city of Amsterdam, the man-made nature preserve is home to hundreds of different bigger and smaller animals, beautiful gardens, waterways and of course, wood. All year around the Forest of Amsterdam offers its visitors space to breath fresh air and relax from busy everyday life in a peaceful green environment just 30 minutes by bike from the city center of Amsterdam.

NETHERLANDS: Scar Tissue, a Dutch gay short movie, written and directed by Nish Gara, produced by Martijn Krediet, shows how a casual hook-up between a Syrian refugee and a Dutch man, can end up being more difficult than you would think.

Our Best Lesbian Movies Roze Filmdagen Amsterdam 2017 – In celebration of its 20th edition in 22 years the LGBTQ Film Festival in Amsterdam is welcoming film and movie enthusiasts from all over the world to see, feel, experience over 120 short movies, documentaries, and motion pictures in Amsterdam. The topics differ from gay, lesbian, transsexual, intersexual, bisexual to all variations in between. But since it is the 20th anniversary of the biggest Film Festival in the Netherlands, the LGBTQ Film Festival will show some great Dutch movies, too. You will be amazed what cultural LGBTQ Life Amsterdam has to offer besides the wonderful Gay Canal Pride Parade every year.

Our best Gay Movies Roze Filmdagen Amsterdam 2017 – This year the LGBTQ Film Festival in Amsterdam is celebrating its 20th edition with more than 120 short movies, documentaries and motion pictures. Additional to the premier of SCAR TISSUE, the gay migration movie with our Daan as one of the main actors, the Amsterdam Queer Film Festival is featuring movies with Gay Men, Lesbian, Transsexual and Intersexual topics from all over the world but of course, with a Dutch focus as it is the 20th edition of the LGBTQ Film Festival in 2017. Thus, for a selection of the Top 10 Lesbian and Mix movies during the Festival, click on our Blog article “Best 10 Lesbian & Mix Movies of the Roze Filmdagen”!

Our Review of the Escape Room Amsterdam Xitroom – Our hometown, the Dutch capital Amsterdam, has numerous Escape Rooms to offer, most of them in English language and therefore an ideal adventure during your gay travels to the Netherlands. The Escape Room “The Professor ” by Xitroom is our this week’s looked-up-in-a-room experience. The team game is located right at the famous Prins Hendrikkade just a 10 minutes walk from Amsterdam Centraal, the main station, the harbor area including Nemo and the Red-Light-District as some of the best-known sights right in the city center of Amsterdam. We could choose between two different rooms beforehand while making the appointment. A cozy waiting area with drinks and snacks and very friendly and helpful staff was waiting for us to lock us up and trying to make it as difficult as possible for us to find our way out. To escape the room “The Professor” on time before the 60 minutes were up, we teamed up with our friend Barbara from Austria. Enjoy our review of the Xitroom Escape Room “The Professor” and see the looked-up world through a couple of gay men’s eyes!

Our Review of the Escape Room Nice France Fox in a Box – During our gay travel for French weekend at the Côte D’Azur visiting the city of Nice, we decided to play the Escape Room by Fox in a Box, a well-known internationally brand. Curious about an Escape Room in France in the English language, we arrived at 29 rue Delille in a beautiful old-town building in Nice. The friendly staff of “Fox in a Box – Nice” made us feel very welcome in their cute decorated waiting/chill area filled with little puzzles to get in the right mood. We decided to play the Bunker, a locked up room experience designed around the story of a nuclear bomb launch. We played the room with just the two of us. The puzzles have been well designed and story driven which made it a lot of fun to do our best. When you find yourself on a rainy day in the French city of Nice make sure you make a quick reservation for the Bunker, Central Bank or Zombie Lab escape room to have an awesome experience during your gay couple city weekend Nice France.

SOUTH EUROPE: Finally, we went on a Gay Cruise – with La Demence 6th edition on the cruise ship SOVEREIGN around the sunny and warm Mediterranean Sea.

A Gay Couple City Weekend Nijmegen – It is time for Nijmegen, the oldest Dutch city is the fifth destination of our Dutch Gay City Tour in a warming late winter sun. We spent a long weekend in the history-charged charming city in Gelderland close to the German border. While wandering and biking around the unique mixture of a traditional Dutch city with a modern touch in architecture, art, hip and cozy places and along the Waal river, we felt home for some days in our gay-friendly hotel Sleep in Box5. An early warm spring sun, a busy shopping crowd in the city center and abounded spots along the river: Nijmegen has it all. Don’t forget to look up the old Dutch houses, check historical Roman archaeological finds at Valkhof Museum, enjoy a beer and dinner at the Honig Factory and discover the world like blind people do. Follow us on our Gay Couple City Weekend Nijmegen on the scout of history in the summer capital of the Netherlands by the Waal river and see Nijmegen through a couple of men’s eyes.

Having Lunch at Surf House Barcelona Food Drinks Beach View. On our way from the narrow old town city streets of the Catalan city of Barcelona to the beach, we got hungry. Sensing the delicious Spanish tapas along the way, we felt it was time for Lunch. Eager to get as quick as possible close to the sand and the Mediterranean Sea, we were looking for a restaurant close to the beach. And there is was right at the corner of Carrer l’Almirall Aixada and Carrer de l’Almirall Cervera, the Surf House Barcelona looked more than inviting. Well, we could even see the sand and hear the Spanish and foreign people enjoying themselves at the beach. How about a fresh bagel, tomato relish sandwiches, ice cold ginger beer and an Oreo-Milkshake?

SPAIN: Teleférico del Puerto Port Cable Car Barcelona is a great way to see the beautiful Catalan city from above from the harbor area all the way up to Mirador del Poble Sec.

A Gay Couple City Weekend The Hague – Big City Vibes of Den Haag. The Hague, Den Haag, Den Hague. The third biggest City of the Netherlands has many names and a very special and very different feeling compared to all the other Dutch cities the gay couple has visited so far. With an urban, metropolitan big city feeling, a weekend break to The Hague is unique, different and seems definite not enough to experience everything on one weekend in Netherland’s Western part. Why? Read now more about our Gay Couple City Weekend The Hague and explore the city through a couple of men’s eyes.

NETHERLANDS: Review of our gay-friendly stay at Loft Westeinde Apartment in the City Center of The Hague during our Dutch City Tour around the Netherlands.

ICELAND: North Iceland is rough, wild, wilder than we thought. But its unique and remarkably beautiful part of Iceland with incredible landscape that made it all worthwhile.

A Gay Couple City Weekend Groningen – Karl & Daan’s Dutch City Tour brought the gay couple to the “capital of the North”, especially for a visit at the Groninger Museum. Groningen with its compact and walkable old town surrounded by Grachten is very well known for its famous Groninger Museum. Currently with the V&A exhibition “David Bowie is”, the popular student life and a creative art scene. We visited the capital of the Dutch province Groningen on our tour around the Netherlands after our weekend in Eindhoven. Join us on and see the Dutch City Groningen through a couple of men’s eyes.

ICELAND: The Hestasport Cottages Varmahlíð North Iceland gay-friendly – or the perfect place to recharge your road trip North Iceland batteries.

ICELAND: What would a trip to Iceland be without a ride on a real Icelandic horseback through unique nature? Right, not a complete 21-days road trip around Iceland.

ICELAND: Thinking of North Iceland and it’s beautiful and impressive Glaciers, we automatically had to think about all the glacier rivers coming from the frozen giants streaming thousands of years old water.

ICELAND: High on our list: the famous Askja Volcano and a swim in its famous caldera, lake Víti. But how do you get there safely through the rough nature of the Icelandic central region?

ICELAND: Our first experience with the Gentle Giants – Whale Watchingin Húsavík with Gentle Giants in North Iceland.

ICELAND: Did you have ever been in an ice cave created by lava underneath a volcano? Have you ever seen naturally grown ice stalagmites and stalactites in 100% darkness and 100% silence?

FRANCE: The Italian Restaurant “Chez Acchiardo” is a perfect place for a late lunch or a dinner in the middle of the city of Nice, France at the Côte d’Azur.

Rotterdam Ro Theater De Gelaarsde Poes – Miauw Miauw! Welcome to the show about the Puss in Boots! Right after the super successful premiere 25th December 2015 with the clever cat, his companion Jaap, some french kissing princesses and the extra handsome James Blond, the theater play of the Rotterdam Ro Theater will start their annual Netherlands-tour from Rotterdam in January 2016. Read here all about this purrrrrfect performance!

FINLAND: Tom of Finland Movie Trailer – Most of us know Tom of Finland from provocative gay art with too big genitals, men in fetish gear, and very manly, handsome and idealistic painted male cartoons.

Wow! 100 Drag Queens United Lipdub Amsterdam Christmas Edition – 100 beautiful Drag Queens from the Netherlands lip synching for her life and your perfect Pre-Christmas mood some of the most famous Christmas songs together. Watch the hilarious 12 minutes music video of Lady Galore’s popular Drag Queens United Lipdub in a special Christmas Edition.

This commercial is simply beautiful. It was the best decision ever to include a cute and handsome gay couple in a family video clip promoting a family ticket for the East German Theme Park Belantis in Leipzig. Who is actually defining a family? We do, everyone of us and this wonderful lovely peace of equality showing Christmas love goes hopefully as viral as possible. Gay Couple Family Commercial Belantis Theme Park

A Gay Couple hiking Svínafellsjökull Glacier – After parking our car, we walked to the small wooden house of Arctic Adventures. After the check in and the try out of our “ice-shoes”, a small bus for approximately 10 people brought us and our tour guide Síf to the foot of the glacier tongue of Svínafellsjökull. Equipped with our camera, crampons and ice-picks the tour started heading towards the thousand of years old ice. The backstory of all the geological particularities was simply impressive!