Little Panama has managed to evolve into a pretty decent gay travel destination along with one of the hemisphere's "it" places in general. Besides the canal, there's eco/adventure tourism, beaches, history -- and a small but reasonably satisfying gay nightlife scene in the high-rise capital.

Keep reading

08.25.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 11:46 am
by Dave

---

Holla Back! The Gay Translator Goes Cruising Online

We’ve had such great response to our seven-language Gay Translator phrasebook since introducing it this past spring that we decided to make the darn thing even better! So for all you frisky fellows who like to line up dates in your destinations ahead of time, our new revised edition adds the world’s first cyber-dictionary that covers most of what you need to know when trying to navegate dating sites sites such as Gay.com, Gaydar, GayRomeo, and Manhunt in countries like Brazil, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Morocco, and lots of others.

Keep reading

08.13.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 5:34 pm
by Dave

---

Sitges, Spain: Tops For Euro-Gay Summer Play

In June I posted enthusiastically about Barcelona, but I can’t let the peak summer vacation season slip by without mentioning its sandy, sexy little neighbor just 45 minutes down the coast of Catalonia. The resort of Sitges (pronouced “SEAT-jess”) is a picturesque former fishing village ...

Keep reading

08.1.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 12:14 pm
by Dave

By now you’ve probably heard the news from la bell’Italia yesterday (here as reported by the Associated Press):

“The Italian government was ordered to pay $160,000 to a gay man who received a driver’s license for the disabled after he volunteered information on his sexual orientation to military authorities, the man and a gay-rights group said Monday.”

(Sigh.) Che stronzata…

Keep reading

07.15.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 8:31 am
by Dave

---

Scandinavian Airlines Is Europe’s First to Go Gay

Keep reading

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, the big day – 08/08/08 – is right around the corner, and if earthquakes, algae blooms, dissident roundups and brutal crackdowns in Tibet don’t faze you, maybe you’ve got a mind to see the Middle Kingdom for the Olympics. You might want to consider waiting, though – not only have hotel rates been massively jacked up, but the Commies in charge are locking down Peking (the actual English name for Beijing, by the way, still used by the British government and others) and both tightening visa requirements and in some cases making them pricier. So welcoming…

Keep reading

What with all the hullaballoo about California this past week, less noticed was the fact that on June 17 an entire country also finally pulled itself into the 21st century when its parliament made this the world’s sixth country to grant equal rights in terms of marriage and adoption – and while they were at it they tossed in the green light for dykes to get the ol’ turkey-baster treatment in medical facilities. Now, don’t get me wrong, Norway’s been pretty progressive for a long time – the head of Oslo’s city council is gay, and the country pioneered by passing gay rights legislation way back in 1981 and allowing civil unions in 1992 – but really, lately all that has seemed so 20th century. With this latest act of parliament, though, they’ve now got the full Monty, and just in time for Skeive Dager (Oslo Pride), June 20-29.

Keep reading

06.22.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 10:35 am
by Dave

---

Well, garçons and filles and combinations thereof, I just got back from a visit to one of France’s more underrated destinations, pretty impressed in every way. The country’s second-biggest city, a two-hour ride from Paris (not to mention a new direct flight from New York City on Delta), is a handsome bit of business straddling two rivers at the lower end of the Rhône Valley and loomed over by basilica-crowned Fourvière hill. Feel free to think of it as a smaller but also kinder, gentler (certainly friendlier) version of Paris, and one with a sweet selection of sights, culture, shopping, and – above all! – spots to chow down, more than 1,500 of ’em.

Keep reading

06.11.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 3:20 pm
by Dave

Now that things are starting to warm up again weatherwise in the more northerly reaches of North America, it’s time to remind y’all that Canada is not only one of the more gay-friendly countries on the planet (despite being ruled at the moment by a mostly gay-unfriendly political party, the Tories, aka the Conservatives) but boasts some of its coolest and queerest cities.

Keep reading

Even as The Gay Translator, Gay Spanish for Love + Hookups, and the other GayBabel phrasebooks continue to rack up sales in North America, we’re also catching on in Europe, where in addition to the books we sell on this side of the pond we’ve also come out with local editions in French (Le Dico Gay), German (Der Schwule Übersetzer), and Spanish (El Traductor Gay), with the Italian Il Traduttore Gay on the way. ...

Keep reading

04.26.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 12:28 pm
by Dave

04.16.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 2:44 pm
by Dave

Ever stayed in a “gay hotel” where the experience for one reason or another turned out to be less than fab? I’ll name no names, but it’s happened to me more than a couple of times. Let’s face it: for a long time, there was less competition, so gay innkeepers didn’t have to be good — it was enough to be gay, and so over the years, fags and dykes have put up with some pretty mediocre (sometimes downright dodgy) service and surroundings just for the privilege of “staying gay.”

That’s been changing, of course, but there’s still a lot of chaff among the wheat out there. Enter Pedro Castro, a tourism-industry pro – from Portugal, now based in Zurich – who has just launched the world’s first gay lodging brand. Starting with 30 small properties in 15 countries, Pedro’s Attitude Hotels’ seal of approval aims to guarantee travelin’ queers an experience that goes beyond merely gay to offer solid quality and value.

Come to think of it, scrap that “Leading Hotels of the World” comparison: Attitude does it better. Rather than handling only fancy-schmancy, stratospherically priced properties, it actually includes three categories, from pricey and upscale to good-quality budget digs, and you can examine and reserve all of them directly from the web site. Check out the list below, and for more details, log on to Attitude Hotels (the picture above, by the way, is of the Masia Casanova, near Spain’s gay-popular resort town of Sitges, just south of Barcelona).

And what’s all that got to do with us? Well, in the interest of helping guests put the beds in their lovely rooms to good use, Attitude and GayBabel have teamed up to publish a special Attitude Hotels edition of our seven-language Gay Translator, which obviously tickled Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit (below) at Berlin’s recent ITB travel show, when Pedro presented the openly gay pol with his very own copy. Is that like cool, or what?

Keep reading

04.5.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 5:25 pm
by Dave

Yo, big day for us here! You may already be familiar with our growing family of foreign-language phrasebooks for hooking up and getting laid, Gay Spanish (and Italian, and French,and German) for Love & Hookups.

But what if you could combine all of those sexy tongues, plus a couple more,  into one convenient book that can be used in more than 76 countries, colonies, and territories in every continent? That’s over a billion people, guys! Half of those are men, 10% are gay, who knows what percent are bi… you do the math! ...

Happy St. Paddy’s Day, begayrah! In observance, here’s a few thoughts and notes re the country that in the 21st century has really put the “gay lick” into Gaelic, with several of its metro areas evolving into fun – even fairly hip – homo havens.

Keep reading

03.17.2008
Posted in BabelBlog at 12:55 pm
by Dave