Travel

Cruises, tours and holidays

Gay travel and holidays - how we make it easy

Gay hotels in Europe

From swanky city-centre hotels in London, Paris and Berlin, to rustic guesthouses in the south of France and the Greek islands, the range of gay-only and gay-friendly accommodation that exists across Europe is huge. Our travel market has truly arrived - in the form of our very own hotels.

Most of Europe's cities and resorts will have a good range of exclusively-queer hotels, B Bs and guesthouses catering to those who really want to 'let their hair down' when they travel and be with like-minded holiday makers. But increasingly, with this travel market on the rise, mainstream hotels, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses in Europe are making their non-straight guests feel more comfortable. Hotels are less likely than they were to give same-sex couples two single beds. Concierges are more likely to know where the nearest bars are. And the attitudes of straight guests is also more positive, as gay travel becomes more accepted.

That said, homo-only accommodation still remains quite popular. A lot of travellers seem to like to spend at least one of their holidays a year in the company of other like-minded men or women. Most of these exclusively-gay hotels are small. Except for the Hotel Axel chain (Barcelona and Berlin), most comprises of either guesthouses or B Bs. And most are located along the Mediterranean - summer properties with pools dotted along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts, the Canary, Balearic and Greek islands, and along the southern coast of France.

Finding LGBT-only hotels, guesthouses or B Bs in city-centres can be more tricky. Thanks to the growth of LGBT travel in recent years, most of the hotels in the bigger cities are very accepting, and offer more facilities than a small property. And in cities, location can be more important to Travellers who are probably not be hiring a car. You'll find good hotels close to all of the 'queer quarters' in Europe's big city centres (all of which are marked with rainbow-coloured pins on our property search map).