How Boyfriends Who Travel Started
Boyfriends Who Travel began the way most good things do — not with a grand plan, but with a gut feeling. After more than ten years together, Joe and Alex had accumulated a long list of destinations, a storage unit's worth of travel memories, and a growing frustration with LGBTQ+ travel content that was either vague, outdated, or written for someone else entirely.
Every time they landed somewhere new — Cape Town's De Waterkant, Berlin's Christopher Street Day parade, Mykonos in peak season, the Amazon Rainforest at 2am with a torch and a lot of questions — they found themselves answering the same question from friends back home: “Is it actually safe for us to go there?” The guides they found online rarely gave them the honest, practical, queer-specific answers they needed. So they started writing their own.
What started as a YouTube channel and some blog posts has grown into a full LGBTQ+ travel resource, with guides spanning South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Greece, the USA, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Bermuda, and beyond. Every piece of content on this site comes from direct, personal experience — never from a press release, never from a desk.
Meet Joe
Joe's relationship with travel started early and never really let go. His heart genuinely belongs to South Africa — specifically the Winelands, which he has described as “the most underrated wine region on earth” — and every return trip to Cape Town feels like catching up with an old friend. He is the self-confessed points obsessive of the two, spending an arguably unreasonable amount of time engineering Amex, Avios, and Virgin Flying Club redemptions into Upper Class seats and five-star suite upgrades. His proudest achievement: Upper Class to Cape Town on 115,000 Virgin points plus taxes.
Joe is a certified travel agent, which means the trip recommendations on this site aren't just opinions — they're grounded in genuine product knowledge, supplier relationships, and an understanding of how travel actually works. He writes about flights, loyalty programmes, LGBTQ+ safety, and the kind of city itineraries that balance five-star experiences with honest budget reality.
Meet Alex
Alex is drawn to the wild end of the spectrum. His favourite travel memory — the one he brings up unprompted at dinner — is waking up in a hammock in the Amazon Rainforest at 2am, listening to the jungle breathe around him, needing to find the bathroom with only a head torch and a lot of optimism. He spent four days at Tupana Lodge outside Manaus swimming with pink dolphins, building campfires in the jungle, and eating considerably better than expected.
Alex is also a certified travel agent and the resident expert on luxury hotels and cruise experiences. He reviewed Virgin Voyages' Brilliant Lady extensively — from the Rockstar versus Sea Terrace cabin debate to the dining scene to the late-night parties. He writes with particular attention to how venues and services actually treat LGBTQ+ guests, not just whether they've put a rainbow flag in the window.
AJ — The Dog
AJ is a Cavachon, the third member of the team, and the reason this site takes pet-friendly travel seriously. She has road-tested stays from lakeside countryside retreats to heritage city hotels, and her comfort standards are, frankly, higher than most human reviewers. Any hotel that earns her approval tends to earn everyone else's too.
Where We've Travelled
Every destination below has been visited in person. Our guides are based on real stays, real meals, real conversations with locals, and real experiences navigating queer life as a couple abroad.
- South Africa — Cape Town: De Waterkant, Table Mountain, Boulders Beach penguins, Cape Winelands
- Brazil — Rio de Janeiro (Ipanema, Copacabana, Posto 9 gay beach); Manaus (Amazon Rainforest, Tupana Lodge)
- Germany — Berlin (Christopher Street Day / Berlin Pride, Berghain, Schöneberg gay village); Cologne (multiple hotel reviews)
- Greece — Athens (gay neighbourhoods, couples city guide); Mykonos (beaches, gay scene, hotel reviews)
- Netherlands — Amsterdam (WorldPride 2026, gay bars 2026 guide, canal city)
- Spain — Barcelona (weekend LGBTQ+ itinerary, Eixample gay village)
- United Kingdom — London (Pan Pacific hotel review, city guide); Manchester (Manchester Pride 2025)
- United States — New York City (5-day gay couples itinerary, NYC Pride 2026, Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen)
- Bermuda — Day guide, explored via Virgin Voyages from New York
- Cruises — Virgin Voyages Brilliant Lady (NYC–Bermuda; full cabin, dining and entertainment reviews)
Our Mission: Honest LGBTQ+ Travel
We believe queer travel is about more than ticking off destinations. Safety is still a very real consideration for LGBTQ+ travellers in most parts of the world — and generic travel guides rarely address it with the specificity and honesty it deserves. Every country guide we publish includes a dedicated safety section: legal status, public attitudes, practical advice for couples travelling visibly, and an honest answer to whether we felt comfortable showing affection in public.
We also rate every destination and hotel on inclusivity as a distinct criterion — separate from value, comfort, and service — because we think it matters on its own terms. A hotel can be flawlessly designed and still make you feel invisible. We try to tell you which is which.
How We Review
Every hotel, flight, cruise, and restaurant reviewed on Boyfriends Who Travel reflects a genuine stay or experience unless otherwise stated. When we accept a press trip or hosted stay, we disclose it clearly at the top of the post. Our ratings are not negotiated — a three-star rating is a three-star rating, full stop.
Our hotel reviews are scored across four criteria: Inclusivity (how welcomed we felt as a same-sex couple), Value (honest price-to-quality), Comfort (room quality and amenities), and Service (staff responsiveness and attitude). Every review includes structured Schema markup so Google can surface the rating accurately in search.
Our Travel Credentials
Both Joe and Alex are qualified, certified travel agents. This isn't a detail we mention to sound impressive — it means the booking advice and itinerary recommendations on this site are grounded in real product training and industry knowledge. When we recommend a hotel category, a cabin class, or a routing, we know why we're recommending it.
Joe holds deep expertise in airline loyalty programmes — Avios, Virgin Flying Club, and American Express Membership Rewards — and specialises in upper-cabin travel on a realistic budget. Alex specialises in cruise product knowledge, luxury hotel categories, and the gap between what the brochure promises and what the experience actually delivers.
Ready to travel with us? Follow along — we post regularly on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.