How to Navigate Developing Countries as an LGBT+ Traveler

Oct. 28 2022

by Brand g Vacations

When it comes to international travel, Europe and the Caribbean have long been popular destinations for LGBT+ travelers – with good reason - but eventually travelers yearn for new and more exotic experiences.

Fortunately, LGBT+ tour operators offer vacations to some of globe's most #lifechanging destinations. These countries (many still developing) offer incredible experiences, exposing visitors to truly unique cultures, but navigating them can be challenging at best for many reasons. 

One such reason is that some of these countries are not traditionally known as “welcoming” to LGBT folk, which causes some guests to wonder why anyone should travel there. 

Jeff Gundvaldson, co-owner of Brand g Vacations, the #1 operator of luxury all-LGBT+ vacations, explains it this way: 

“We certainly understand travelers’ feelings about supporting a country that has laws or cultural norms that don’t embrace the LGBT community. But we have found that a large segment of the citizens often doesn’t agree with those laws or norms and that by traveling there and interacting with the locals, we can profoundly impact their understanding and acceptance.”

This, of course, is what makes group travel to these countries so valuable to the LGBT+ guest. Traveling in a gay bubble (and its attendant “strength in numbers”) makes the experience infinitely easier than traveling alone, and you’re met with smiles, warmth, and gratitude because these tour operators have smoothed the way. 

And once you’ve spent time there as part of a group, extending your trip on your own becomes infinitely easier because you’ve gotten the lay of the land. 

Another plus to beginning with a group tour operator like Brand g is that they offer trips that manage every detail, from luxurious hotels and river cruise ships to highly experienced staff there to handle any issue. As they say, “All you have to do is show up.” 

Some examples:

The logistical details of seeing an entire country in one trip can be incredibly daunting. On a recent Brand g tour of Peru, which included an Amazon River cruise and Machu Picchu, one gay couple brought their mothers (who became the mascots for the trip—everyone loved them).

One of the men said to a Brand g host, “We started trying to put this trip together ourselves, and it was completely overwhelming. Way too many details. When we saw the Brand g trip, it was like they had created it just for us. We got to see exactly the places we wanted to see, and have every detail handled by somebody else.”

On a Brand g tour of India, a guest had a sudden medical emergency, and the staff treated him and then airlifted him back to the U.S. without incident. That kind of assistance can be worth its weight in gold.

Here are some destinations that merit serious consideration, along with tips for the best ways to travel there.

EGYPT (AND JORDAN)

Egypt's ruins rival those of Greece and Turkey. Well-preserved, beautifully presented temples, tombs, and more offer some of the most jaw-dropping ancient sites on the planet. 

Some companies, like Brand G, offer an add-on to Jordan, which is a must. The stunning sites of Jerash and particularly Petra (along with the red sand desert of Wadi Rum) will make for a spectacular finish to your journey through these Middle Eastern gems. Jordan is an easier country to travel on your own in than Egypt—it’s more progressive—but as with Egypt, the best sights are quite spread out.

Being heavily Muslim countries, you’ll find it easier to begin your travels with a group, since there can be many hiccups on your own. An example: a gay couple who recently went to Egypt on their own were refused a room – at a large, international American chain hotel – because they were two men traveling together who wanted a king-size bed. (This is far less likely to happen if you use a site like MisterBnB for your accommodations, where the hosts have been vetted.)

As a tour group - particularly with a high-end company like Brand g - you’ll likely never feel even a whiff of unwelcomeness, thanks to copious advance planning by the tour company and the fact that a small security detail travels with the group everywhere they go. When you’re in a bubble like this, you have nothing to worry about and can focus on the amazing sites at hand.

PERU

Peru is a land of extraordinary contrasts, from the jungles of the Amazon to the sophistication of Lima (with one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-star restaurants in the world) to the mysticism of Machu Picchu. 

This country does not suffer from religious strictures the way Egypt does. It’s highly Catholic but tolerant, and the Pope’s recent blessing of same-sex marriages will only strengthen that. What is taxing about seeing Peru is the logistical challenges of trying to see these many parts of the country. Luxury tour operators like Brand g have created trips that fold all these planes, trains and buses into a neat and quite well-paced package that allows you to cruise the Amazon, spend time seeing Lima and Cusco and the Sacred Valley, and tour Machu Picchu – all in 5-star comfort. (The trip includes two intra-Peru flights, a train to Machi Picchu, buses to and from the Amazon cruise point, etc.)

INDIA

India is high on the list of #lifechanging destinations that can be overwhelming. Again, a group tour is a must, and a 5-star version will provide you with the sort of hand-holding necessary in a land of overcrowded cities (albeit ones with profound cultural and religious sites) and poverty. 

It will also provide luxurious respites that restore you after a chaotic day. Luckily, India is inexpensive by American standards, so a 5-star trip here will cost what a 3.5 or 4-star trip would elsewhere. Brand g pairs touring the Golden Triangle cities with a peaceful and culturally enlightening river cruise on the Ganges, all using 5-star amenities (river cruise ship, hotels, and restaurants).

One of the things to look for in an LGBT tour company that offers India trips is experience. Brand G, for one, has done their trip to India a dozen times and knows the country backwards and forwards. (It also helps that they use the finest land operators in the world — companies like Abercrombie & Kent.) 

Since the travel time to India is considerable, those for whom vacation time is less of a concern will often also opt to tour neighboring Nepal and Bhutan, which border India on the north. Bhutan, in particular, offers some of the most hospitable people on earth, along with spectacular sites like the Tiger’s Nest monastery, which clings to the side of a mountaintop.

AFRICA

Perhaps nothing is more #lifechanging than sitting in an open-air jeep twenty feet from a pride of lions. But we’ve all heard the horror stories of low-end tours where a wild animal accosted unsuspecting tourists in a car.

If you can afford a luxury trip, taking a safari is not the place to economize. For starters, low-end tours merely offer drives on paved roads through Kruger National Park’s open areas, where a line of cars are constantly snaking through. This is less of a “game drive” and more of a Disney version of a safari. (We mean no disrespect to those who take less expensive safaris – we’re all of different means and have different priorities when traveling.)

To have a truly memorable experience, you want to be on a private reserve. This term can seem like a misnomer, as though the reserves are fenced in, with animals that are cared for, but that’s not the case. The reserves are not fenced, and animals come and go, and live and die with no intervention from humans except to stop poachers.

Here, you’re driving down dirt paths and through the brush with extraordinarily experienced, top-flight rangers and guides. (On a luxury safari, two travel with each jeep.) You can sit watching lions, leopards, elephants, or giraffes - and any other species - completely alone or perhaps in the company of one other jeep from the same safari camp. It is nothing short of magical.

And you feel safe. As one guide put it on a private reserve game drive, “Here in the reserve, the wildlife look at a jeep and its occupants as one entity, and a non-threatening one at that, since no one in these jeeps has ever tried to hurt them.” So they generally ignore the jeep and just go about their activities, which makes for incredible viewing. 

But it would be a shame to visit Africa without seeing other extraordinary sights on this massive continent - like Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe or sophisticated Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world’s great cities. Brand g’s South Africa trip packages all of these together to create a luxury trip that includes a four-night safari, two nights in Victoria Falls and four nights in Cape Town (plus all the attendant transportation, of course), which makes for a spectacularly varied visit to this below-the-equator continent. 

In South Africa, Cape Town - and the nearby winelands - are places you can extend your stay on your own if you have the time and means. It’s an extremely cosmopolitan city with endless things to see.

LGBT+ tourists are some of the most well-traveled and adventurous tourists on earth. If you’re one of them, it’s time to sample the world’s more exotic destinations!

Loved this? Check out Brand g's feature on why Destinations Like the Galapagos, Antarctica and Gorilla Trekking are So Expensive.