Kelsy Chauvin

NYC The Official Guide

Head Underground in NYC This Winter

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
When it gets cold outside, visitors head home and locals know exactly how to explore the best of the City’s retail, culture and food. The trick is knowing how to do it without freezing your CityPASS off. NYC is home to many ingenious underground areas that seamlessly connect to the City’s subway system. Even better, this vast transit network lets visitors easily—and warmly—explore neighborhoods all over town that offer excellent shopping, dining and experiences you’ll find only i...

Passport Online

Cannabis Tourism in Bloom

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
There’s a new kind of tourism budding across America, and it’s growing bigger every day. Cannabis is the future, they say. “They” are retailers, farmers, manufacturers, marketers, government officials, and a wide array of entrepreneurs who are cultivating both crops, and the tangential businesses related to marijuana, including hospitality. Consumers too are, of course, enjoying greater access than ever before, but they are restricted to either the 29 states that have legalized medical cannabis...

Passport Online

Travel Profile: Spade & Palacio, Montréal, Canada

(by Kelsy Chauvin) Montréal is a city that seems to have it all. It’s among the world’s top culinary and cultural capitals, it’s home to chic hotels, and last year the city marked its 375th anniversary with yearlong celebrations. For LGBT travelers, the Québec metropolis also is one of the top global destinations. Yet, Montréal was missing something that’s now been made clear: A tour company that even locals can appreciate. Since 2014, Spade & Palacio (www.spadeandpalacio.com) has been introducing visitors...

shermanstravel.com

How to Enjoy Athens, Greece on a Budget

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
Greece is a destination of boundless wonder. Great food and magnificent sights are just the beginning—the very essence of Western culture was born here. Yet on top of all that magic, its capital is remarkably accessible, unvarnished, and affordable. Athens is a terrific city for both a quick layover or an extended stay, and visitors soon learn that it’s a prime destination for budget-savvy travel...
The Acropolis stands high above the city, beckoning travelers to its lofty, windswept plateau. For most, it’s an absolu...

EDGE Media Network

Feeling the Love in Kansas City

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
There's a buzz about Kansas City. For the past few months or even years, I've heard rumblings about this Midwestern metropolis that's considered an "emerging destination" for arts, for food, and LGBT culture...

EDGE Media Network

Beyond the Parade: An Insider's Guide to NYC Pride

This year's NYC Pride promises to be a memorable 10-day event and perhaps a foreshadowing of even greater things to come as the city anticipates Pride 2019, which marks the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising and hosts WorldPride. For 2018, there's a new march route, cultural and culinary events galore, the inaugural Human Rights Conference, and more ways than...

EDGE Media Network

Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City

There's a buzz about Kansas City. For the past few months or even years, I've heard rumblings about this Midwestern metropolis that's considered an "emerging destination" for arts, for food, and LGBT culture. Rodgers and Hammerstein must have been ahead of the curve 50 years ago when they wrote, "Oklahoma!," which includes the lyrics:
I went to Kansas City on a Friday
By Saturday I learned a thing or two
But up 'till then I didn't have an idea
Of what the mod'rn world was comin' to.
In spite ...

Curve Magazine

A Lesbian-Friendly Guide To New Orleans

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
Rolling down St. Charles Avenue in a vintage 1920s streetcar. Sampling fresh beignets at Café du Monde. Dancing to live music at Tipitina’s. Sipping Sazeracs on Royal Street.
One could try to summarize New Orleans through a particular place or dish or sight. But there’s no single experience that can explain the magic of the Crescent City. It’s a collective atmosphere, a blend of food, music, h...

EDGE Media Network

Wine Not? Uncorking Beautiful Bordeaux

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
France is hot right now. Its soccer team just won the World Cup, its president is a proudly progressive world leader, and travelers can enjoy the world's finest food, wine, and culture. But many visitors focus their vacation time on Paris -- missing out on other cities with incredible restaurants, architecture, museums, and, of course, wine. Bordeaux is one of France's most alluring cities for all of those reasons and more. Top among them is the high-speed train, new in 2017...

iglta.org

From the CEO: Creating Greater Understanding of LGBTQ Tourism in Europe

(Ghostwritten for IGLTA CEO John Tanzanella)
When it comes to LGBTQ rights, most of us consider European countries to be among the world’s most progressive. European Union legislation protects against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, same-sex sexual activity is legal in all 28 EU member states, and 22 of those countries support same-sex civil unions or full marriage equality. Naturally these factors appeal to queer travelers...

EDGE Media Network

5 Pride Festivals Worth Traveling For This Spring

Pride season is officially kicking into high gear, and 2018 is a great year to explore queer celebrations further afield. Here's a rundown of the top U.S. and international Pride festivals happening this spring.

Condé Nast Traveler

What NOLA's 'Gay Mardi Gras' Taught Me About My Parents—and Myself

(by Kelsy Chauvin)
We pulled into the hotel driveway just off Bourbon Street and all I saw were rainbows. Rainbows hanging in windows; flapping from the French Quarter’s wrought-iron balconies; billowing on the sidewalk racks of kitschy souvenir shops. As a blanket of queer colors flew by, my gaydar buzzed from the backseat of my parents’ car.
It was the early 2000s and I was in my mid-20s, living in Brooklyn and getting the hang of adult life. And while I’d come out as a lesbian my sophomore year of college...

Fodor's

12 of the World’s Most Enlightening LGBTQ Museums

Check out these illuminating museums, galleries, and archives share the story of LGBTQ struggles and splendor around the world.
Many Americans are familiar with the mid-century backlashes that sparked the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil-rights movement. From those events came Pride marches that now happen all over the world. Those early battles also inspired many LGBTQ advocates to commemorate and honor their communities through enduring institutions.
In America, plans to open t...

CNN

The Hotel That's Shaking up the Riviera Maya

(CNN) — The dappled Caribbean sunshine and white sand seem even more relaxing from the balcony of a duchess.
Well, the former balcony. Today, her peaceful vacation villa is the main house of Hotel Esencia, a refined, tropical hideaway 30 minutes down the coast from Cancun, Mexico.
Occupying 50 acres of pristine beachfront and a swath of coastal forest, Hotel Esencia's secluded paradise befits its royal provenance. The resort honors nature through savvy design and undeniable luxury, evoking the grandeur of its original owner, Italian duchess Rosa de Ferrari.

Fodor's

12 Great American LGBTQ Bars to Visit at Pride—and All Year

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Bars are good for drinks and laughs, and sometimes they even make history.

Let’s face it, communities come together in bars. A great happy hour or well-made cocktail is enticing, but bartenders and fellow patrons are just as important for having a sense of place where, some say, everybody knows your name.

For the LGBTQ community, bars have played vital roles in history. They’ve served as safe places where like-minded people could connect, commiserate, and celebrate. Some bars even pl...