Researching And Booking Gay And Lesbian Vacations
Where can I get information about gay and lesbian destinations?
Finding information on where you want to go or travel in our community, the gay and lesbian community, is easier, than for the mainstream community. We tend to be more in line with the community, almost three times as much than the mainstream population. The internet is a huge wealth of information on gaytravel.com, and there are other sites that you can go to. Those are good information sites, and it's good for you to start doing the research. I'm a very big advocate for travel agencies - what we call in our business, brick-and-mortar agency. Find an agent, hopefully local, doesn't need to be local, but find somebody that you start a relationship with, so that they know what your travel needs are and they can filter through so much stuff. You should still go to the internet to do your research, but that's what you go to an agent for. They get to know you as an individual and what you want. The combination is a very powerful one.
Where can I find gay and lesbian destinations online?
The online presence for the gay and lesbian travel space is immense. It's like that little song, that's what Google's for. There are so many sites. Obviously, the easy one, if you type in gay travel you'll get gaytravel.com. But there are a plethora of sites. Use your search engines. Put in those couple of words and you're going to find those sites. There are a lot of them. A lot of the foreign countries, for example, may have a gay specific part of their website. The city of Minneapolis, on their welcome site, has a gay and lesbian section just for LGBT people. Do a tiny little bit of research; and you'll get there.
What services can help me find gay and lesbian destinations?
If you're looking for services that can help you with your travel plans, go to the online travel agents. People miss establishing that relationship with an agent, and you should ask them up front if you're getting to know an agent. People don't need to be gay or lesbian to help you with gay and lesbian travel. They need to know their business. They need to know the industry. And they need to be willing to do that research for you. That's what you're paying them for. It's for that service. Especially now, as people are having children, gays and lesbians, that brings an entirely different perspective. If you have children, there are legal procedures that you need, to be able to take those children outside of the U.S, and it's very complicated. That's why, if you work with an agent, and they get used to you and your family and their travelling needs, they're going to be able to cut through a lot of red tape for you.
How far in advance should I book a gay and lesbian vacation?
As far as advanced booking, it depends upon what you're doing. If you want to go during holidays in late December, you really need to plan as far in advance as possible, because it's peak travel periods. If you have children, you want to travel in July, and you want to go to Disney World for example, or Disneyland. You've got to remember that those are peak travel times, and that you've got to plan ahead. Other than that, the advantage of waiting until last minute, if you're flexible, is where you get your best deals. There's great information out there on hot deals. If you're saying Ok, where should we go today, honey?, and you're going to book for three days out, and you're flexible, you've got that passport in hand or domestic destination, that is where you're going to get your best values. But you have to be flexible.
What restrictions are there when booking a gay and lesbian vacation?
It's going to be specific to the type of vacation you're looking at, whether it be a cruise, whether it be a land vacation. Again, if you're looking at using frequent flyer tickets and you're thinking of Europe, just forget the summer; from May 1st through September. You're not going on frequent flyer points, and if you are, you had better book it 330 days in advance if they actually allow you, and you had better be the first one online to do it. Your number one restrictions are those holiday periods, if you can avoid them. If you're going on a gay and lesbian destination, for example Palm Springs, and there's a big circuit party there, you're probably going to need to avoid that. The other thing is citywide conventions. People don't often realize - Oh, lets go to L.A. for the week or let's go to San Francisco - when you find out there's 75,000 Schriners there which could be kind of fun in itself, but they've got all the hotel rooms. It's about finding out, by going to a city's website, if there are any citywide conventions. It's going to make it more difficult and your hotel to prices are going to be much higher.
Are there any fees associated with booking a gay and lesbian vacation online?
Booking a gay and lesbian vacation online, if there's any fees involved is going to really depend upon again what type of vacation. If you're booking a, for example, a gay lesbian specific vacation, whether it be Atlantis, RSVP, Olivia, there are no fees, but most of those don't have online booking. Fees most often are going to be associated with your online websites, but not booking a gay and lesbian specific vacation, but booking just kind of a mainstream package, or an airline ticket, they normally have some sort of nominal fee related, five, ten dollars.
What is a vacation 'off-peak season'?
Off-peak season, for a vacation, is going to depend upon the destination, but it is the time when the least amount of people go there. Off-peak season for the Caribbean, which is a great time to go, is going to be June, July, August, where people don't think of Oh, lets go to the Caribbean. You can also get some exceptional hotel and resort values in the Caribbean in those months: June, July, and August. With Europe off-peak season, the best off-season time is right after New Years. Also, if you want to go shopping it's great after the holiday sales. You can get some great hotel deals, so Europe is going to be during January or February. Turkey, Istanbul, is cooler. It's probably about 45 degrees in Istanbul, but it's a great time to go - the city's empty, it's not hot, and you can get in to see some wonderful places pretty much on your own.
Can I save money by booking a gay and lesbian vacation in the off-peak season?
If you book in the off-peak season, you can save money. Again back to Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa, for example. If you can go in January or February the air tickets are going to be almost fifty percent cheaper, and the hotel deals are going to be almost fifty percent off as well. If you can make your travel plans flexible, you should book in the off season, and there are going to be fewer people - fewer people in the restaurants, and fewer people to wait in line at the museum. It is a great time to travel.
What are the drawbacks of a gay and lesbian vacation in the off-peak season?
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, during July it's hot. It's really warm. Rome in January, again, you can get into the Vatican easier, and into some of the museums, but it may very well be 35 degrees and raining. The weather will be a factor. This may not be the best weather time to go. Some of the South American destinations, if you go in what is their winter, which is our summer, it's a great time to go because they don't travel. Destinations are a little emptier, but the weather will be a factor. It won't be that peak, wonderful weather that you're looking for.