The nominees for the 2009 TripOut Gay Travel Awards were chosen by an academy of esteemed and seasoned travel writers who cover LGBT travel for gay and mainstream publications alike. Between them, they’ve visited every continent and practically every country, state and gay hotspot on the planet.
Nominees were selected on the criterion of how popular they are among LGBT travelers as well as how welcoming each destination, airline, hotel collection or event is to the queer traveler. The TripOut Gay Travel Awards seek to honor those places we all love to visit (or hope to visit) and also locales who work hard to embrace gay consumers through media outreach, progressive legislation, public acknowledgement and inclusive employment policies. All of these factors were taken into consideration in selecting who you’ll be voting for.
And above all, the academy members chose nominees that will hopefully get your heart racing. Travel is a passionate experience, and we hope you feel enthused about our nominees.
Meet our academy – and visit their links to discover their work!
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Dan Allen contributes to TripOutGayTravel.com, The Advocate, OutTraveler.com, and many other LGBT publications and sites, and is the author of The Out Traveler Guide to New York City. His monthly GayWatch column on Advocate.com focuses on LGBT rights situations in up-and-coming gay destinations around the world. Link: http://advocate.com/authors.asp?author=Dan%20Allen |
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Jesse Archer is a writer, actor, and rabblerouser! He published a travel memoir, You Can Run, has a regular column in Out Magazine, and wrote the screenplay for the forthcoming gay romantic comedy Violet Tendencies starring Mindy Cohn. Link: http://www.jesseonthebrink.com/ |
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Chandler Burr’s novel You or Someone Like You was published this past June; set in the movie industry in Los Angeles, the novel touches on questions of Jewish versus universalist identity and how literature can lead to love. Burr is The New York Times scent critic, and his column is here: http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/scent-notes/. Link: http://www.chandlerburr.com |
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Tanya Churchmuch is the founder and publisher of the lesbian travel information website, www.girlports.com. A longtime television journalist in Montreal, Canada, she created Girlports in 2007. Tanya was recently hired by Tourism Montreal as their Media Relations Manager for the Gay and Lesbian Market. Link: Girlports.com |
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Andrew Collins has been writing about gay travel since the early ’90s, when he conceived of and wrote the first GLBT travel guidebook produced by a mainstream travel publisher (Fodor’s Gay Guide to the USA). He presently produces all content on gay travel for About.com, and contributes regularly to The Advocate, Out, and newspapers and websites around the world. Link: http://www.gaytravel.about.com |
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Clay Doyle is a travel writer, art collector, photographer, and one-time gallery owner and co-owner of The Doyle/Logan Company, a L.A.-based graphic design and communications firm. From 1997 to 2003 he lived in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A frequent traveler, he contributes to online and print publications and maintains his own travel blog, Anywhere But Here. Link: http://travel.doylelogan.com |
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New York-born freelance travel/entertainment journalist Lawrence Ferber has written for dozens of publications and websites including Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, The Advocate, Time Out New York, The Village Voice and Passport Magazine. Also a filmmaker, Ferber is currently working on a gay romantic comedy entitled Bear City. Link: http://www.ewelthorpe.blogspot.com. |
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Darren Frei served as an editor of The Out Traveler and contributing editor at The Advocate from 2003 to 2007. As ShermansTravel.com’s editorial director, Frei orchestrated the launch of 300 destination guides and 8 blogs, and has been instrumental in positioning the website as a leading source of content and advice. Link: http://blogs.shermanstravel.com/new_and_noteworthy/author/dfrei/ |
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Adam H. Graham is a contributing writer for Town & Country, Esquire, Travel + Leisure, The New York Post, Out, The Advocate and New York Magazine, and served as the executive editor for Sherman’s Travel magazine from 2005-2007. He’s lived in Ireland, New Zealand and Maine, L.A., Florida and Vermont, and currently resides in Brooklyn. Link: http://nymag.com/travel/ |
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South Florida-based editor/writer LoAnn Halden is a frequent contributor to OutTraveler.com, where her best moments from the road are recounted in “LoAnn Loves” blogposts. Her work has appeared in The Advocate, The Miami Herald, TravelChannel.com and Fodor’s Guides; in fall 2008, Globe Pequot Press published her restaurant guide, Miami Eat! Link: http://www.gps.outtraveler.com/loann_loves/ |
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Jimmy Im is a freelance writer and DJ based in New York City, as well as one of the stars of Confessions of a Travel Writer on the Travel Channel. He writes for a variety of publications, including Zink, New York Daily News, Travel + Leisure, Destination: Weddings + Honeymoons and more. He’s super-hot and single, baby. Link: http://whycantyoubemoreamerican.blogspot.com/ |
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Raphael Kadushin is Senior Acquisitions Editor at the University of Wisconsin Press, and his award-winning journalism appears in National Geographic Traveler, Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Out, Epicurious.com and Concierge.com. He is the editor of the anthologies Wonderlands: Good Gay Travel Writing and Big Trips and his work appears in Best Food Writing 2008, Men on Men 5, and Through the Lens: National Geographic’s Best Photographs. Link: http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4291.htm |
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Matthew Link is the former Editorial Director of The Out Traveler magazine, and he’s also worked with Arthur Frommer at Budget Travel, did a stint at Men’s Journal and helped launched Sherman’s Travel. Matthew is an award-winning travel writer, filmmaker, and author of the first-ever gay guidebook to Hawaii. He’s contributed to Newsweek, Time, ForbesTraveler, Men’s Health and his writing was featured in the book Best Travel Stories 2008. Link: Facebook |
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Michael Luongo is a freelance travel writer and photographer with experience in all seven continents and over 80 countries, including some crazy ones gay people usually don’t want to go to. He has written several travel books, including Haworth Press’s Gay Travels in the Muslim World and the Frommer’s Buenos Aires. Link: http://www.michaelluongo.com |
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Aefa Mulholland has worked with the BBC, Irish national broadcaster R.T.E., and print and online publications, including The Irish Times and The Miami Herald. She has covered topics from mule racing in Montana to the most eco-friendly hotel companies. Mulholland writes for The Advocate, OutTraveler.com, Out and Curve, and is working on a book on learning how to be Scottish in Scottish-America. Link: http://TheScottishAmbassador.com |
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Originally from Reno, Nevada but globe-trotting since he was but a babe, Justin Ocean has crisscrossed North and South America, lived and worked in Europe, stood on the tip of Africa and lost himself in Asia. A Harvard grad and former editor of The Out Traveler and New York’s Next Magazine, he currently freelances for New York, Out and The Advocate among others. Link: http://www.JustinOcean.com |
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John Polly is the editor of Logo’s travel site, TripOutGayTravel.com. Formerly editor-in-chief of NYC’s Next Magazine and Managing Editor of Genre, he’s also contributed to Travel + Leisure, the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, Instinct, Attitude and a bunch of others! Currently NYC-based, John’s lived in Stockbridge, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Link: http://TripOutGayTravel.com |
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Currently an editor at TripAdvisor.com, Erik Torkells is the former editor-in-chief of Budget Travel magazine, the founder of Girlfriend Getaways magazine, and editor of three travel books: The Smart Traveler’s Passport, Secret Hotels, and A Stingray Bit My Nipple! Link: Linked In |
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Jennifer Vanasco is the editor-in-chief of 365Gay.com, Logo’s daily news and politics site. She is also a travel and culture writer and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Fodor’s Guides and ShermansTravel.com and other publications. Her favorite cities are Amman, Kyoto, Paris and Chicago. She wants to get to India or China next year. Link: http://www.365gay.com/tag/jennifer-vanasco/ |
im looking for that right guy for me. I am 19 years old if u want to meet me just ask. im a nice guy to get to know. every one i meet love me.
Not that I really care who has won the “best bar” category, but for you judges to say that the Abbey in WeHo is better than the “The Week” in Rio it is absolutely false. Perhaps, because most of you that vote are from the U.S. and obviously, for personal reasons, the “cariocas” are not too keen in “metro-sexuals nor afemminated men”, in which the Abbey that is all there is. The Week has an incredible gruop od Dj’s with music that makes you go to the dance floor even if you don’t dance. It fits almost 3 thousand people (beautiful Men) and excellent sound system. Perhaps the smoke maybe a factor, but, we are in Brazil not in the US. I am not the type that hangs out at gay bars/discos, specially in the States, where most gay men either is or want to be a star, metrosexual, diva or starlet….I like men that acts like a men…and at The Week, I have found everything I was looking for. Next time you vote, make sure you select judges that are more impartial. I want to make clear that I have no relation to The Week, I have been there twice last year for the first time and there is no personal gain for writting these lines. I just find an absurd compare The Abby with The Week….Please judges go out more often and do your home work.
How about a Bed and Breakfast category? When our community wants romantic character and personal attention in their travels, they “stay gay” – in a B & B.!
Where the heck would Lesbian travel be without Olivia. You people may know GAY men travel but really need to get out and about when it comes to Lesbian travel. OLIVIA is the best!!!
I really do appreciate and am sincerely humbled by your votes for the recipient of your first ever Gay + Award.
LGBT travel is no longer a niche market but a market in its own right.
BTW, Fort Lauderdale ROCKS and it will for a long time. 
Well, I do not know about the lesbian choices… But i have been living in Amsterdam for quite a while and Montreal is definitely a gayer city then Holland’s capital. Never did I find myself so ”mainstream” as when I kissed my boyfriend in the streets of Montreal… It is so accepted there to be gay or lesbian… Vive Montreal!
Your choices are no surprise – predictable and boring. I would love to see interesting places that I never suspected would be gay friendly.
I find it very suspect that Olivia was left off of your list.
Seems that one biased link to why Sweet is on the list and not Olivia is Aefa Mulholland.
From the article she wrote about them:
“My friend Maggie and I are getting increasingly excited about the prospect of joining 1900 other women on the first ever Sweet cruise….”
Yeah, lets all vote for something that hasn’t even happened yet. Back to the Future!
OK…I did a article search on TripOut
Sweet Travel came in at a screeching “0″
Olivia Cruises came back with 5 different articles
Yet you put Sweet on the list of Best LGBT Tour Operators!?!
How can anyone vote for a company that has not even shown the community it’s product?
And how can any of you say with all good intention that your list was fair? How can somebody “be best” at something they’ve never done??? And I can see Russia from my house!
I’d say someone’s paying someone off. At least be fair and add Olivia to the list and let the community decide. Don’t let a true pioneer in the LGBT community (whether you like them or not) not even have a chance!
You choose to be professional journalists – so please show the rest of the world you don’t operate with this kind of bias. I’m a professional photographer and a member of SPJ (also PPA and ASMP) and this whole thing slaps the LGBT community and professional journalism in the face!
The esteemed and seasoned members of the Academy are a bunch of ignorants when it comes to Lesbian Travel. Do y’all live in Mars? I could maybe understand it from the guys- but the women? C’mon, the #1 Lesbian travel company is OLIVIA. And it did not make your list????!!!! Shame on you. You should not be reporting about something you know nothing about.
I’m a bit surprised that Key West did not get included in any of the categories that would be appropriate.
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Meet the Academy Behind the 2009 TripOut Gay Travel Awards! by John Polly