Europe is magic is summer time- outdoor café’s in Paris, crowded beaches in Barcelona, colourful street performances in Italy. Not to mention the almost weekly gay and lesbian pride celebrations in at least one major city.
In 2006 I did endless research on where and when the various Pride celebrations were held and which would be the best to see, the best ways to get there and queer-friendly hotels in which to stay. I set off on my queer European adventure alone and while it was the most amazing experience of my life, the only times I felt as if I wished I had someone to share the experience with, was at the gay pride festivals.
So what if you had someone else to do all the leg-work and organise your trip, and a group of queer mates to share it with? That is exactly the idea behind ‘European gay Getaway’, a 17 day tour through some of Europe’s gayest hotspots organised by Travelworld Inglewood.
Travelworld Inglewood opened its doors a little more than six months ago with owner and director Greg Mant looking to do some really innovative and cool things over the coming year.
‘Other, bigger companies are bound by constraints that we don’t have,’ said Greg. ‘We can pretty much do our own thing.’
In addition to the European Gay Getaway tour, which will include between 30 and 45 people, Travelworld will also be looking at doing some gay themed tours through Asia and other smaller trips with groups of around 20.
Travelworld Inglewood will be running the European Gay Getaway tour in conjunction with Trafalgar Tours, which means travellers will have access to their comfortable transport and friendly staff. The tour will be staying in first-class hotels and includes breakfasts and some other meals.
Probably the best thing about this particular tour is that it is not the usual blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, whirlwind of monuments seen from a bus window.
‘On a lot of tours you arrive on one day and leave the next, which doesn’t really leave a lot of time to explore a place,’ says Greg. ‘We’ve tried to make it so we have at least three days in each place and that people have quite a lot of free time to do the things they really want to do.’
‘We’ve also tried to structure the tour so that we don’t depart any day before 9am.’ Which will probably be a good idea, considering the tour takes in two of the biggest and most outrageous European summer events- The Love Parade and Amsterdam Pride.
The itinerary includes Dusseldorf, Essen/Bochum (location of The Love Parade), Munich, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Paris and of course, Amsterdam.
Greg says the European Gay Getaway tour offers fantastic value for money because it includes lots of added extras not usually found on normal first class Trafalgar tours.
‘(The tour) includes two huge events and plenty of activities that usually cost more on a tour like this, but Trafalgar have kept it at a great price for us,’ he said.
Of course there are optional extras available, like a day trip to the palace of Versailles, just outside Paris or a visit to the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall in Munich. Tour guides are also a well of information when planning things to do and see during your free time.
Greg says an information night to discuss all the details will be held in the near future. For more information, contact Travelworld Inglewood on 9271 2500.
Note: Travelworld Inglewood are advertisers with OUTinPerth.
