Gay Travel in SpainCategory: Travel & Holidays
Article added by: Amanda diaz
A Gay Travelers’ Guide to Spain
Spain's busy tourist centers and social hubs have long attracted visitors to the country's shores. Not to be outdone, Spain's gay community is very well-established only 30 years after homosexuality was decriminalized in 1978.
The gay community still has a low profile in some more remote towns, despite more than two-thirds of the population rallying in support of the change. But, homosexuality has been embraced across the main cities such as Barcelona, Sitges, Ibiza and the capital Madrid.
Spain is also one of Europe's champions of gay civil rights, including equality of marriage, child adoption and age of consent rights.
Barcelona
This beachside city's established architectural beauty and cultural diversity should be high on any traveler's agenda, but with a burgeoning gay community and social status, it also offers some of the best located hostels in Spain.
But Barcelona hostels aside, the busy boardwalk of Las Ramblas is where all the action happens. Running along the beachfront of the city, its bars, restaurants and clubs provide an ever-exiting start and end point to any Spanish adventure.
It also joins the center of town with the famed Olimpic Village that has become synonymous with the city’s thriving gay community. It also hosts an annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival to boot.
View pictures of Barcelona Hostels
Madrid
Not to be outdone, the Spanish capital is a blend of sophisticated tourism attractions, and a lively gay scene. Although the city's plethora of clubs don't tend to get going until midnight or later, Madrid has more than its fair share of attractions to keep its gay guests entertained.
Not least among these attractions are the couple of gay Madrid hostels the city has. The almost impossibly well located Gay Hostel Puerta Del Sol Madrid and the stylish Gay Pizarro Hostal are tailor-made for the gay traveler in Madrid.
Both come with kitchens and lounge areas where guests can relax and chat after a long day’s sightseeing; both have staff members who are delighted to provide friendly, helpful advice, and both stand out for their lively atmospheres.
The main gay area, Chueca, is in the old quarter of Madrid. Not far away, meanwhile, lies the city's range of outstanding art galleries such as the Museo Reina Sofia, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and the absolutely peerless Museo del Prado.
Posted By: Amanda diaz
Contact: e-mail
| About the Author: |
| Amanda Diaz is a freelance travel writer with more than a touch of the vagabond in her blood. Budget travel’s her specialty, and on a recent backpacking trip to Spain she stayed in a hostel in Barcelona, writing up her experiences as she went along. |
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