My Dream Travel Itinerary Around the World Courtesy of GayCities

For their annual Best of GayCities, the travel guide and social network has created an interactive world map where members can select their dream destinations. In essence, it’s a virtual trip around the globe, and a totally new way of presenting the usual end-of-the-year travelers’ choice awards. My “Ultimate Dream Voyage” itinerary includes Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Puerto Vallarta, Cape Town and Toronto (I’ve never been to Canada!)

Choosing a city zooms you to the city map, where you can see at a glance all the gay-friendly hotspots that particular city has to offer. After selecting six of your favorites cities according to the categories, you can share their “Ultimate Dream Voyage” itinerary for your friends to see. Just to show off how big of a jetsetter you dream of being one day. :)

Oh, and GayCities members who participate and create an itinerary get automatically entered to win a free trip to the island paradise of Curaçao, to help quench just a bit of that worldly wanderlust. Go now and create your own dream vacation!

Vote Your Heart Out: Is ‘Hard French’ the Best Party in San Francisco?

GayCities and Coors Light are in the final stages of promoting a three-month voting contest to determine which events, sports teams and personalities deserve to be declared the “coldest…” (brrrrain freeze).

In San Francisco, Hunky Jesus in Dolores Park, DJ Haute Toddy, The Fog rugby team and Cookie Dough have already been voted as the winners. When it came to selecting nominees for the Night Out category, we knew the contest wouldn’t be taken seriously by GayCities members unless we included the perennial powerhouse of a party, Hard French.

The other nominees include Heklina’s Trannyshack, Juanita More’s Beat Pig, Bearracuda and I Love Cochina Tonga’s. The Stanley Frank/Ambrosia Salad/DJ Taco Tuesday bastard newcomer underdog is nominated solely because anyone trying to make the Lookout cool deserves the equivalent of a Nobel Peace Prize. And if it had been entirely up to me (ok, it kind of was…), I would have also nominated Cockfight and Honey Soundsystem.

Voting closes Tuesday at midnight, so go and vote your hearts out. (Don’t live in SF? The contest is also going on in LA, San Diego, Columbus and Dallas, check it out).

I don’t know these people.

Devil worshippers.

GayCities has had a torrid love affair with Hard French ever since we sponsored the party’s first foray in New York City with director John Cameron Mitchell.

[Photos: Shots in the City]

BOY TOYS TALK BACK: What is the most iconic gay party ever?

Show Me Your Amplifier: GLAAD and GayCities Celebrate Gay Advertising

Last week I got to spend some time in New York City! GayCities teamed up with GLAAD to sponsor the silent auction at their annual Amplifier Awards at XL Lounge. I was there to make sure things went according to plan. Above with The Six Pack’s Dave Rubin, GayCities CEO Scott Gatz and Queerty editor Dan Avery. Read the Queerty story for a full list of all them other hoes who were there.

The funnest part of the night is that I got to hang out with my on-the-ground help buddies Alex Goldschmidt, Tom Samph and Jon Cooper. The boys were personally recruited by me to… um, stand there and look pretty.

The GayCities dream boats got to talk to drag queens, Real Housewives and media/advertising homos about why GayCities and Queerty together make a huge impact in our community. Check out the card for the event designed by Kurt Thomas.

Party in the front.

Business in the back.

And then Alex got to go up close and personal with Aviva Drescher! (Whom I had never really heard of until that night, what can I say? I stopped caring post-Bethenny Frankel). Fun fact: If you Google search ANY of the Real Housewives, it auto-suggests “net worth” afterwards, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they’re all anxiously researching each other to see what the wealth hierarchy is going to be in the upcoming season.

Photos: JJ Keyes

BOY TOYS TALK BACK: I’m coming back to New York sooner than you think! And to throw a big event like you wouldn’t believe! Where are some good gay-friendly NY clubs/bars/hotels/venues/event spaces to have a memorable party? Real Housewives appearance fee not included.

How Your iPhone Can Send You on a Free Vacation This Pride Season

GayCities is currently doing two huge, awesome, fun promotions in conjuction with Pride, and I want you guys to participate and get a bunch of cool prizes.

Do you live in San Francisco or plan to visit this June? We’ve selected 49 hotspots all over town that make us proud to live in the gay mecca. Some of my favorites made the list: El Rio, Public Works, Dolores Park, the GLBT History Museum, Good Vibrations, Four Barrel, and SF MOMA.

Check-in to any of these venues to unlock instant prizes like free drinks, dinner certificates, VIP passes to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the De Young, tickets to Frameline film screenings, free cover at Trannyshack and other cool swag. One lucky winner will win a trip back to San Francisco! All you have to do is fire up your smart phone and check-in using the GayCities mobile app or connect your check-ins via Facebook or Foursquare.

For those of you living elsewhere but getting ready to take part in your hometown Pride, you can be our unofficial photographer by submitting your best pictures. Every Pride photo you submit gives you another chance to win a free trip anywhere in the country. Our friends at JetBlue are hooking us up with free airfare and Kimpton is dishing out a free hotel stay and dinner.

So this Pride season, thanks to GayCities, every mobile check-in and every photo taken during Pride can send you on a gay getaway, (almost) all expenses paid!

Take Me to Cher’s Old House

Last night GayCities asked me to represent them in a cocktail contest at the Lookout sponsored in part by the Palm Springs visitors bureau, Alaska Airlines and Stoli vodka. As a judge, I had three bartenders mustering up all their mixology skills trying to impress me with a signature cocktail plus a bonus round of surprise shots. The winning bartender got a free trip to Palm Springs! Also on the panel and sitting on either side of me, funny lady BeBe Sweetbriar and Paul Miller, owner of Truck and Rebel.

Two of the signature drinks were made with a recently reaveled Stoli flavor, jalapeño — so that was a nice change of taste. All the bonus shots just tasted like medicine to me, but by that point I was rather drunk. While waiting for new rounds of drinks, I talked to equally woozy BeBe about her new single which is dropping soon, just in time for Pride. After the scores were tabulated, I was glad to see that James from the Lookout won the big trip. How can you not root for the shirtless guy who requires his signature drink to be shaken vigorously?

The cocktail contest had not one but two Stoli go-go boys helping us serve the drinks and walking around in briefs the size of wristbands. After it was over, I talked to them about their personal fitness routines. I always find it interesting to grill people with obvious good bodies about their regime, how long did it take to get those devil’s horns? Do they diet? Do they have a personal trainer? Turns out one of them, lost a ton of weight and got tight in six months. His secret: cardio.

I also took this opportunity to run an idea by Michael Jortner from Palm Springs tourism bureau. A big gay 80s pool party at Sonny and Cher’s old estate, Villa Carmelita. My friend Tommy and his boyfriend rented it out for Coachella and they seemed to have no complaints.

Towards the end of the night, we met three German boys. That’s where things start getting kind of blurry, but I do remember dancing to Grouplove and Cut Copy thanks to Thursday night DJ’s Six, Candy and Star. Their indie electro dance party Get Lucky! takes place the second Saturday at the Lookout and is not the sort of thing you find in the Castro very often, so I was delighted I found myself there for that.

Anyway, Denys won a white wife beater that’s made to fit infants, and JP stayed until later. Maybe he has more interesting stories.