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New guide: Gay San Juan Puerto Rico

Posted: April 22, 2008

San Juan Puerto Rico at NightThe locals are friendly, the beaches are beautiful and the nightlife is hot.

San Juan is very gay friendly, with bars, clubs and restaurants scattered throughout. The food that San Juan’s restaurants have to offer is incredible. And don’t forget: it is a U.S. territory so the dollar is the currency and the locals are English tolerant.

Check out our Puerto Rico guide and start reviewing!

Our newest guide: Gay Puerto Vallarta

Posted: March 19, 2008

Our newest guide has just launched! Our Gay Guide to Puerto Vallarta is now live. W’d like to give a special thanks to our member Dan. Dan has been a member of GayCities for a long time and has reviewed places in lots of places he’s traveled. After a recent trip to Puerto Vallarta he wrote to us asking why we didn’t have a guide for Mexico’s gayest town. So we asked him to help and voila!

So many times when it comes to vacation, gay boys are so busy being fabulous or going somewhere fabulous that they don’t get a chance to relax. That’s where Puerto Vallarta , Mexico comes in. It is simply that perfect mix of sunshine, cute boys, great food, tasty cocktails, nightlife and relaxation.
Continue reading “Our newest guide: Gay Puerto Vallarta” »

Montreal’s Gay Village to become pedestrian mall

Posted: March 11, 2008

92277533_2dd6cb4a73.jpgThis summer, a strip of Montreal’s Gay Village (”Le Village”) will be closed to traffic. From June to September, Sainte Catherine between Berri and Papineau will become a pedestrian mall where people can walk and enjoy the stores and bars along the way.

The hope is to attract more tourists and make the Village a more enjoyable place during the summer. The city will also install more bike racks. While there’s concern about disruption in traffic and difficulty in parking, the mayor and merchants expect that it will improve the area more than hurt it. Visitors to the area will be encouraged to take public transportation or park at Bibliothèque Nationale at Berri and Ontario.

See our full Montreal Guide to Bars, Hotels, Restaurants.
Picture by Caribb on Flickr

Pink flight takes off…

Posted: February 27, 2008

Well it’s time for Sydney’s Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and Air New Zealand’s Pink Flight departed last night from San Francisco.

If you hadn’t heard, the Pink Flight is targeted at gay travelers heading to this year’s Mardi Gras. Drag queens, pink boas, gay-themed movies and Kathy Griffin as your host. What more could you ask?

Take a look at this news report for some of the action at the gate. (it’s not the best quality)…

MILK: Sean Penn & Emile Hirsch

Posted: January 30, 2008

While we know we are a gay travel blog, we continue to be amazed at the transformation of San Francisco’s Castro District for the filming of Gus Vant Sant’s MILK. The crew has now taken over two whole blocks of the Castro and fills the streets with over 50 period cars.

We caught a glimpse of filming today in a scene with Sean Penn (as Milk) and Emile Hirsch (as gay activist Cleve Jones). The street was filled with costumed extras and huge crowds trying to get a peek at the action.


Sean Penn & Emile Hirsch
Sean Penn (his back) & Emile Hirsch rehearse their scene

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Emile Hirsch (with the curly hair) & Extras filming a scene with Sean Penn’s Milk

Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant sizes up a shot

MILK: Harvey's Camera Shop
Gus Van Sant & Crew member sit in front of Harvey’s Camera Shop

MILK Film Crew
Film crew sets up

More MILK Pictures

Posted: January 24, 2008

The transformation of the Castro District in San Francisco is coming to a head as filming begins tomorrow for Gus Van Sant’s MILK.

Most of the store fronts near Harvey’s Camera Shop have gotten new signage. And another has closed for the filming turning itself into the liquor store it was years ago.


Inside Harvey's Camera Shop
Harvey’s Camera Shop. Notice the large photo of how it used to look on the counter, and behind it the dutiful recreation of everything down to the film boxes.

From credit crunch to a new groove
From mortgages to a new groove

Thai becomes Chinese
Chinese Food, then Thai, now Chinese again?

New Exterior for Swirl
Swirl, our local wine bar gets a massive renovation,

Interior:  Swirl on Castro
Interior at Swirl gets a massive makeover

  • Our friend Ray at Castro Shopper has more great photos, including the boarding up of the eyeglass store to make it look like a garage.
  • More pictures on our flickr stream
  • Castro makeover for MILK begins

    Posted: January 17, 2008

    This week, constructions crews are painting and removing signs and awnings and two Castro businesses closed making way for the new Gus Van Sant film “MILK”. (Read more about the film at towleroad and the Bay Area Reporter)

    Here at GayCities, we call San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood home. As we walk in the neighborhood everyone is talking about the changes the film crew is bringing. People who lived here in the 70s are telling the story of “the way things were” and even our local homeless people are commenting about the changes.

    Over the next few weeks we’ll be posting updates and photos. Here’s the first batch:


    Harvey Milk Film Crew
    Parking on part of Castro St. is limited to the film crew

    First American Title closed shop late last year and now is serving as the office for the film crew and the home furnishing store “given” has closed until Spring. “given” occupied the space that was Harvey Milk’s camera shop and where he held his neighborhood political meetings.
    Continue reading “Castro makeover for MILK begins” »

    iPhone: Thousands of gay bars in your pocket

    Posted: January 16, 2008

    Today we are unveiling GayCities for your iPhone and with it you can carry around the most up-to-date and comprehensive gay guide wherever you travel. It’s like having listings for thousands of gay bars, restaurants and hotels in your pocket.

    Just in time for this week’s Macworld conference, we built a tailored version our gay city guides for Apple’s iPhone. Each city guide is optimized for the iPhone, making it easy to read and find places to go and things to do. Each bar, hotel, beach and restaurant listing displays all the things you’ve come to love like our visitor reviews, detailed information about the type of place (food, crowd, amenities) and now you can click one button to find it on your iPhone maps or click to call them and find out what’s happening tonight.

    g-iphone_gc_cities.jpg gc_iphone_boston.jpg gc_iphone_sfbars.jpg gc_iphone_clubcafe.jpg
    Click picture for a larger view

    Whether you are looking for a nearby gay bar or that new hot restaurant you heard about, GayCities makes it easy to know where to go, when you are on the go. It’s time to throw away that old paper guidebook!

    So get going… point your iPhone to http://iphone.gaycities.com/

    Diana Ross opens newest Las Vegas Hotel

    Posted: January 7, 2008
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    Photo by Betizuka

    Las Vegas’s newest luxury hotel opens later this month with an “extravaganza” (their word, not ours) featuring Diana Ross on January 19th.

    Like it’s sister The Venetian, The Palazzo is an all suites hotel; each suite features a sunken living room, egyptian cotton bedding and remote-control curtains and shades.

    They’ve gone over the top with new restaurants from celeb chefs with new spots from Mario Batali, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Charlie Trotter. For all you clotheshounds out there, Barney’s New York will open their first store in the Shoppes at The Palazzo along with 60 other stores (20 of which are new to Las Vegas - think Michael Kors). Combine all that with a Lamborghini Showroom, a Canyon Ranch spa, a (straight) nightclub by Jay-Z and a theatre for the Jersey Boys and you’ve got the biggest new Vegas hotel launch in over 3 years.

    Let us know what you think.

    More at: http://www.palazzolasvegas.com/

    New Hampshire’s Inns want to host your civil union

    Posted: January 4, 2008
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    Photo by: chrisirmo

    On January 1, 2008 New Hampshire became the fourth state to legalize some form of civil unions (along with Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey, Massachusetts has marriage and other states offer domestic partnership).

    The Associated Press looks at the decision and talks to the Chamber of Commerce and Inn Keepers (both gay and straight) about the expected increase in visitors.

    “Weddings are big for us. Whether it’s regular couples or gay couples,” [innkeeper Lesley Marquis] said. “I think there are going to be a lot of people trying to do it, so I think that having it on the state site will benefit us.”

    Read the full AP Story





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