These trips are gay – unapologetically: How adults-only travel fosters a queer connection

USA Today

02-03-2025

These trips are gay – unapologetically: How adults-only travel fosters a queer connection
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Here's some tips for vacationing alone this summer
As travel gets back to pre-pandemic levels, more people are traveling alone. Here's how to do it safely.
Ariana Triggs, USA TODAY
LGBTQ+ travelers may prefer adults-only vacations for a more relaxed and community-oriented experience.
Specialized tour operators offer LGBTQ+ travelers a chance to connect with like-minded individuals and enjoy entertainment tailored to their interests.
Adults-only LGBTQ+ vacations can be found in various styles, from cruises to land-based tours, catering to diverse preferences.
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For many LGBTQ travelers, an adults-only trip just makes more sense.
A large majority of same-sex couples do not have children of their own, and some prefer a less family-friendly experience when they travel. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, just 14% of same-sex couples are parenting children, compared to 40% of opposite-sex couples, according to the Census Bureau, as reported by Forbes.
'It's nice being in an adults-only setting, whether that's gay or straight or mixed because the entertainment can get bawdy and adult-like,' Glenn Troost, a retiree from Palm Springs, told USA TODAY.
A gay-specific trip makes the getaway even more relaxing, according to his partner Brett Gilbert.
Troost and Gilbert said they have taken seven or eight international trips with Brand g, a gay-focused luxury tour operator, and said they have found it to be a great way to unwind and make new friends.
'It's the people and the comfortableness of being with LGBT people and not having to worry about or hide anything like that, and the staff of these boats have always been amazingly good,' Gilbert said.
What happens when you bring your son on an adults-only vacation
Brand g ran 24 trips in 2024, with 25 planned for 2025 and 26 for 2026. In 2024, about 2,000 guests attended across the packages.
'It's a very friendly crowd (that attracts) experienced travelers,' Troost said. 'We like to patronize LGBTbusinesses, particularly as they're going to have a harder and harder time in the coming years, I'm afraid, so it's nice to find one that's really quality and looks after you.'
Why take an adults-only LGBTQ vacation?
LGBTQ vacation packages come in all varieties, from cruises to land-based tours, and for queer travelers, they can be a great way to escape in more ways than one.
For the founders of Brand g, who Troost and Gilbert have traveled with, the key to a great gay vacation is the sense of community.
'A lot of these folks that travel with us are more mature and they came up in the gay community at a different time,' Jeff Gunvalson, co-owner and co-president of Brand g told USA TODAY. 'The gay bar scene is where they first met. I think what they enjoy about coming to Brand g is it brings back that sense of community that they once had that's maybe gone away a little bit.'
Troost and Gilbert said their own vacations are a testament to that mission.
'We inevitably have found friends on those cruises,' Troost said. 'Brand g has a very loyal following, and we keep meeting old friends on new trips. There's that as well. It's sort of a group you know already.'
I ate, drank what I wanted on this cruise without losing my routine or gaining weight
Brand g isn't the only gay tour operator out there. Others include Olivia, which focuses on lesbians and LGBTQ+ women, Detours, which specializes in adventure travel for gay groups, and Venture Out, for small LGBTQ group tours.
And while some gay getaways, like Puerto Vallarta or an Atlantis cruise, skew toward the raunchy, there are options for all kinds of travel preferences.
For Troost, a highlight of a recent trip was a dinner on Britannia, the decommissioned yacht from the British royal family during a tour of Scotland. 'We got to dress up in kilts one night for a farewell dinner. That was a real group experience that you enjoyed together,' he said.
For others, the onboard entertainment is a draw.
'On the India trip, they connected with a local group of mostly trans dancers so we had a performance one night where they came onboard our ship in Calcutta and we talked to them and they performed for us and then we danced on the deck together,' said Michael Amend, who has been on 12 Brand g trips since 2015.
'A lot of our guests might have been hesitant because they associated gay travel with a floating bathhouse and they didn't want to be dragged down by an oversexualized image of what gay travel was,' Brian Van Wey, co-owner and co-president of Brand g, said. 'The collective LGBT travel industry has definitely evolved a lot more from that. Those experiences can be found and they're there, but they're not the only experiences.'
Gay solo travel
A gay-focused getaway can also be great for solo travelers looking for a built-in social group.
Amend said he finds it comforting to see people he knows when he's traveling, especially since he lost his husband in 2020.
'It's nice to have familiar faces if I'm traveling by myself,' he said. 'Quite often it's the only time I get to see those people.'
Amend also appreciates the adults-only component of these trips.
'Not that I dislike kids but it's just nice being in that atmosphere, one where I know at least some people, and even if I don't it's comfortable, you don't have to introduce yourself and let people figure out what the situation is,' he said.
Van Wey said that Brand g attracts a lot of solo travelers, because it has a generous single supplement price on most packages and its slightly older demographic is less inhibited about socializing without a partner. A single supplement is the additional charge assessed on many cruises and other package vacations when a room will only have one occupant.
'People of a certain age they don't have to sit next to their partner, or even want to,' he said. 'People don't just want to sit in a two-top. They're there to meet people and have great conversations.'
Advice for queer travelers
Amend, Troost and Gilbert all said that the best advice for making the most out of an LGBT trip is being social and getting to know the people you're traveling with.
They also said that it can be great to travel in an LGBT group even to parts of the world that aren't necessarily the most LGBT-friendly, so long as the trip is planned responsibly.
Many countries still criminalize same-sex relations, and LGBTQ tourists to some locations are in danger of prison or extra-legal violence. It's important for travelers to do their research about the local climate and assess how safe they feel personally before going to any such destination. Still, travelers say, there are ways to do it safely.
'It's kind of a running joke at least in Brand g. You'll go somewhere and be at some village looking at whatever, somebody making baskets and they'll always ask: where are all your wives?' Amend said. 'Sometimes you'll get a curious look but no hostility I've ever experienced.'
For Van Wey and Gunvalson, queer travel is just as much about what visitors bring with them to other parts of the world as what they take home.
'Travel is a great way to show the rest of the world that gay people are OK, we're not freaks of nature,' Gunvalson said. 'It's a great opportunity not only for us to go out and experience that culture but for us to give them a part of our culture and learn a little bit about us.'
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at [e-mail].