LGBTQ+ Travel · IGLTA Member
A membership is a starting point, not a guide.
Off The Grid Getaways is an IGLTA member. That gets you an advisor inside the association's supplier network and held to its standards. It does not, by itself, tell you a single true thing about a hotel, a ship or a port — and a logo used as though it does is worth nothing. Here is what is actually behind it.
The honest state of this section
There are five LGBTQ+ pieces on this site. One compares the big full-ship charters on what the fare actually covers. Four are destination writing — Miami, Rio and Cape Town side by side, Bangkok on its own, Barcelona with Sitges, and the three islands of Gran Canaria, Ibiza and Mykonos.
That last one matters more than its length suggests. Barcelona is one of the ten places we feature, and until it published, the LGBTQ+ lens on every one of those ten read zero and said so. One is now covered. Nine are not, and the pages will keep saying which.
Publishing ten thin city guides this week would fix the appearance of that and nothing else. Every large network already has a Barcelona LGBTQ+ page assembled from the same handful of sources, running about a thousand words, structured stay / do / eat / need-to-know. Adding an eleventh with our name on it would be the first page here that was not earned.
What is being written instead. Barcelona first, because it is the destination where we already have real depth on four other axes and the segment gap is the widest. Reported the way the accessible city guides were reported — which is why those run to two thousand words and carry headings like "where Madrid will be harder than you expect" rather than four subheads that could sit on any city in Europe.
Where an advisor changes the outcome
OTGG's ground is adults-only and solo travel for people in their thirties to fifties. Three things in that overlap are worth an advisor and the rest genuinely are not:
- Charter versus mainstream. A themed full-ship week and an adults-only sailing are different products at very different prices, and which one suits you is a real question. We will argue for the cheaper one when it is the better trip.
- What a charter fare actually bundles. VACAYA, Atlantis and Big Gay Cruise each draw the line in a different place, so per-night comparisons mislead. This is written up already.
- Itineraries with a legal problem in them. Some ports change how a couple should travel. That conversation belongs before the deposit, not in the port guide.
What we will not do is tell you a destination is safe. Nobody can promise that, conditions differ by neighbourhood and by night, and an advisor who says otherwise is selling reassurance. What we can do is be specific about what is known, what is contested, and what we have not checked.
All 31 pieces
- Gran Canaria, Ibiza and Mykonos: Three Islands, Three Holidays — Scene, pace, terrain and accessibility compared — and none of the three headline 2027 events has a published date yet.
- Barcelona & Sitges: One Trip, Two Speeds — The first LGBTQ+ writing anchored to one of our ten featured destinations — and the reason the Barcelona lens is no longer empty.
- Bangkok LGBTQ+ Travel Guide: Beyond Nightlife — Silom or Sukhumvit, the entry rule that changed on 15 September, and the medication permit most guides mention only as a deadline.
- LGBTQ+ Travel: Miami, Rio and Cape Town Compared — Three city trips that only look alike. Advisory levels stated rather than implied, Rio Carnival and WorldPride dates checked at the organiser, and the accessibility questions worth asking by phone.
- VACAYA vs Atlantis vs Big Gay Cruise: What’s Included — The three full-ship charters compared on what the fare actually covers — and the Allure charter cancellation, with Royal Caribbean’s real compensation terms.
The same guides, grouped by need (charters, documents and the cities before or after the ship), are on the LGBTQ+ travel guides page.
Adjacent, and more useful than a thin guide would be: the adults-only writing and the solo fare mechanics, both of which most of this segment's travellers are also reading.
Frequently asked
What does IGLTA membership actually mean here?
It means Off The Grid Getaways is a member of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association and works to its standards and supplier network. It is a professional affiliation and a supplier directory, not a certification that any particular hotel, ship or destination is safe or welcoming. Anyone presenting a membership logo as a guarantee about a place is overselling it, and you should discount everything else they tell you accordingly.
Do you have LGBTQ+ destination guides yet?
Five. One on the full-ship charters, and four on destinations — Miami with Rio and Cape Town, Bangkok, Barcelona with Sitges, and Gran Canaria with Ibiza and Mykonos. Barcelona was top of the queue because it is one of our ten featured destinations and its LGBTQ+ lens was empty; it is not any more. The other nine still are.
Why start with the full-ship charters?
Because that is where the money and the misunderstanding both are. A VACAYA or Atlantis week is priced as a charter, not a cruise, and what is bundled into the fare varies enough between the three that a straight per-night comparison is misleading. It is also the part of this segment where an advisor changes the outcome most, so it was written first.
Do you book mainstream sailings as well as charters?
Yes, and for a lot of travellers that is the better trip. The adults-only lines OTGG already works in — Virgin Voyages in particular — carry a passenger mix that most solo and couple travellers find easier than a themed charter, at a fraction of the fare. Which of the two is right depends on what you want from the week, and it is a real question rather than a polite one.
How do you handle destinations where the legal position is difficult?
Directly, and before booking. Some itineraries call at places where local law or enforcement makes a meaningful difference to how a couple should travel, and the honest version of that conversation happens up front — including when the recommendation is a different sailing. We will not sell you an itinerary and let you discover the problem in the port guide.
Tell me the trip, and it shapes what gets written next.
Charter or mainstream, solo or two of you, and where you have already been disappointed. The gaps on this page are a commissioning queue, and the enquiries genuinely reorder it.
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