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If you're bored with P-town, Key West, and San Francisco, consider adding another couple of items to your list of gay-friendly travel destinations.
Got a pencil? Good. Then write these down:
Nepal. Tibet. South Africa.
Yep, you read them right.
There's a hot new buzz in vacations for alternative lifestyles. If you're open-minded and curious, you might want to consider adventure travel.
Toronto-based company Footprints is a self-proclaimed expert in once-in-a-lifetime holidays for queer travelers.They currently offer 10 spectacular active vacations to the most majestic, exotic, and historic corners of the world.
From Nepal, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in the Far East to the crossroads of history in Turkey and the jewel of the African continent in South Africa, the trips give gay and lesbian travelers a friendly introduction to the best-kept secrets in adventure travel.
This is a tour operator that designs adventure trips for those who want more than a conventional sightseeing holiday. By limiting its travel groups to small numbers of gays, lesbians and their friends, Footprints ensures a high degree of inclusiveness, friendliness, and comfort. And all groups are led by fully qualified, congenial gay, lesbian, and gay/lesbian positive guides and leaders.
Tov Mason, the tour company's president, believes they offers gay travelers something different in "the most unusual, high quality, and professional adventure trips of any tour operator in North America. Comfort is an important byword in travel, and we assure this in both transportation and accommodation - all in remote and exotic locales with exceptional opportunities to appreciate nature and culture at its finest."
You don't have to be in extraordinary shape, or even really buff; no athletic prowess is necessary for these vacations. Although the demands of each tailor-made trip vary, travelers usually need only be capable of walking over uneven ground at an easy pace in tropical conditions.
Once-in-a-lifetime experiences await in Nepal, whether swathed in ancient palaces and sacred Hindu temples, or astride elephants lumbering through bamboo forest in search of tiger, one-horned rhinoceros and water buffalo...always surrounded by Himalayan majesty.
The most physically demanding segment of this journey follows the four-day "Royal" trekking route to Pokhara on the shores of Lake Phewa. Accompanied by a full complement of Sherpa porters, tours pass the days hiking beautiful mountain trails, and spend nights camped beneath brilliant stars. This trip concludes with a breath-taking mountain flight around Mount Everest.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the globe...
Green barley and golden canola paint plateau fields. Cobalt lakes reflect cascading snow-peaks. Valley winds snap orange prayer flags. Monastic fortresses reverberate mystic chants. These are the mesmerizing sights and sounds of fabled Tibet encountered on an overland journey from Khatmandu, Nepal to regal Lhasa, home of the 1,000-room Potala, once the winter palace of the Dalai Lama.
This adventure concludes with a fabulous Himalayan mountain flight above the world's mightiest peaks, landing back in delightful Kathmandu, for a day in relative luxury prior to homeward departures.
If either Tibet or Nepal sound like your cup of tea, there are October departures for each. For more information about the trips or this particular brand of adventure tourism, check out the Footprints Travel Web site at www.footprintstravel.com.
