Different for Girls : Top 5 Lesbian Meccas

What’s a   girl to do once she’s crossed off San Francisco, New   York, West  Hollywood, and Portland, and done the Dinah   to death? It’s time to trot  to these off-radar,   lesbian hot spots.

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By Aefa Mulholland

An Advocate.com exclusive posted July 20, 2009

                    

       

       Gay travel is often "different for girls." Does a listing that states “gay-friendly” also mean “lesbian-friendly” or        “lesbian-popular”? If accommodations are advertised as "gay/lesbian," will visiting  women find themselves lone ladies in a gay male–dominated, clothing-optional compound? Will female travelers make the unfortunate  discovery that accommodations are “lesbian–overly friendly” and find themselves the objects of unwanted interest? Call ahead to potential  accommodations and ask about their percentage of lesbian guests. But  don’t allow such concerns to limit vacations to the same spots that have lured ladies for decades: a slew of off-radar sapphic spots  await.    

       

       If you’re looking for new places to vacation in the company of women, click here for a tour of our top-five offbeat lesbian,  starting with number 5 and counting down to our number 1 absolute  favorite getaway for girls.

            5. Asheville, N.C.        

       Fall colors are at their finest in Asheville, a remarkable artsy Appalachian town of 70,000 where women walk hand-in-hand and art deco,  beaux-arts, and neoclassical architecture create an elegant backdrop. The  best places to leaf peep in and around “Sheville” are along 469-mile Blue   Ridge Parkway between Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky  Mountains or in downtown’s Asheville Botanical Gardens.    

       

                    

       

            Best spot to meet the girls        

       Lively Malaprops  (55 Haywood St; 828-254-6734; Malaprops.com), a friendly, lesbian-owned bookstore and hub of the women's community, has a sidewalk  café. It’s the perfect perch to browse local ladies. Once it’s too dark to admire foliage, a packed evening events schedule is stacked with  bookings from Women on Words Poetry Circle to Bridging Difference book  club nights --   where locals and visitors discuss works such as lesbian writer Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider. 

            4. Key West, Fla.        

       If you’re   in the mood for a wild week, schedule sojourns south for WomenFest (WomenFest.com, September 8-13, 2009), when 3,000 women stream over 126 miles and 42 bridges down  the Florida  Keys to the southernmost point in the continental United States. The  raucous WomenFest schedule brims with hot events from clothing-optional             pool parties to competitive bull riding.    

       

               

       

            Best spot to meet the girls        

       During Womenfest you’ll find women everywhere, but make it even easier by  booking one of 38 rooms at luxurious Pearl’s Rainbow, a women-only inn  converted from a 19th-century cigar factory.

            3. Eugene, Ore.        

       Boasting a  lesbian chorus, lesbian Realtors, a lesbian ballroom dance group, women’s coffee, writing, and hiking groups, and a famed liberal arts university, this college town of 150,000, 100 miles south of  Portland, is your destination if you like your women capable of   invigorating debate. 2009 saw the University of Oregon’s Women's and   Gender Studies department host the first Lecture in Lesbian Studies (this year’s topic was "The Incredibly Shrinking Lesbian World and Other Queer Conundra.")    

       

                    

       

            Best spot to meet the girls        

   

       To meet locals, contact Lavender Womyn. They organize kayaking, book club nights, and potlucks. Alternatively,   grab a   compelling tome, sidle into lesbian-owned Eugene Coffee Company and tuck into a vegan  doughnut while conversing with the local lesbian literati. 

            2. Madison, Wis.        

       Another academic hot spot, but also a city with serious political clout, Wisconsin’s capital is the seat of out lesbian    representative Tammy  Baldwin. The isthmus city (Madison is perched between lakes Mendota and  Monona)  is a dynamic, welcoming, and active college town of 230,000.    

       

                                  

       

            Best spot to meet the girls        

       You’ll find the U.W. girls -- and the women who teach them -- at   the   lesbian lounge the Foxhole, a women’s             space within LGBT venue Club 5, or cruising  shelves at    A   Room  of One’s Own feminist bookstore. 

            1. Northampton, Mass.        

       Home to the women’s liberal arts college Smith (founded 1871) --   and to a  population of academic dykes -- Northampton is a charming college town of   30,000, perfect for those looking for a romantic getaway, wedding, or             honeymoon destination. Downtown is a pleasant stroll from Smith’s elegant  campus. Cute cafés and intimate restaurants abound. Lesbianville, USA, as  the National Enquirer once proclaimed it,  is one of the most lesbian-popular towns in the country and boasts a lesbian  mayor (Clare Higgins), a lesbian-run LGBT paper, and an array of  women-owned businesses. It also has the impressive claim of being where  out lesbian TV icon Rachel Maddow got her media start.   Cartoonist Alison  Bechdel, Gloria Steinem, Sylvia Plath, and Betty Friedan are former residents.    

       

                         
       Smith College class of 1902      

       

            Best spot to meet the girls        

       You’ll meet girls at any café or bar. Or just walking downtown. It’s  Northampton: Women are everywhere. But the top place to meet and mingle  is Divas,  NoHo’s   lesbian-owned LGBT club. A youthful clientele from the five area schools (Smith, U. Mass, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and Hampshire) hit the dance floor and patio Tuesday through     Saturday. 

   

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