insert app here Is Slaying It For The Gay Traveler

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Brian Marchetti

1. You can ask a local for recommendations
This helps you avoid those tourist trap bars or keeps you from getting desperate and heading towards a McDonalds or Hard Rock Cafe.

2. You can meet other solo travelers who need a buddy for an adventure
It’s safe to say that most people traveling solo still want to have some kind of human interaction at some point.

3. Your adventure buddy could turn into a date or life-long friend
You never know where you could meet your soul mate. Wouldn’t it be a fun story to say you met while backpacking in Italy? You can leave out the Grindr part.

4. The ad points in the right direction
You may hate pop-up ads, but those apps will always have an ad or two for a party or event that is happening within a few days. Can’t hurt to check it out.

5. If all else fails, you can at least test out the hotel bed with that torso staying a few floors away.
You know you’ve always wanted to check out the view from the penthouse.

How Travel Insurance Saved Me – And It’s Not How You Think

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Brian Marchetti

Let me start by saying that I never thought I would support travel insurance. I always figured it was some scam looking for a few extra bucks. I also never took any particularly dangerous trips where I could get hurt and any flight delays or cancelations that I have experienced were never so catastrophic that it caused me to have to cancel an entire trip.

Well, that all changed back in June. I had booked a 2-week vacation to Spain and England with my best friend. Four days before we were scheduled to depart, I was feeling sick, but thought nothing of it. That night, I took a turn for the worse and headed straight to the hospital. Still delusional, I thought I would be out in time for my vacation. When the morning of my departure arrived, and no sign of being checked out anytime soon, I called American Airlines to cancel.

Placed on an IV drip

One on the phone with American, I was informed I would receive a voucher to use on future travel, less a $300 cancelation fee! Ouch. On top of that, because I was canceling the first hotel within less than 24 hours, I was responsible for paying the first night. Luckily the other hotels were refundable. Plus the flight from Barcelona to London was non-refundable. In total, I was out almost $800! After that experience, I went through and re-evaluated all my upcoming travel to see if I thought any trips were worthy of purchasing travel insurance. One of the trips I had purchased an insurance plan for was an upcoming trip to Marrakesh over Thanksgiving.

The Incident
Now, here is where you’re thinking I got sick, or there was some catastrophic event that occurred. Well, some may consider what happened next a catastrophic event.

I came home one afternoon and opened my mailbox. As I sifted through the endless junk, a hint of blue caught my eye. In big bold letters, it read “IMPORTANT: Jury Summons Enclosed”.

LGBT travel insurance jury summons gay travel

The dreaded letter

I opened the letter in a panic and read the date I am called to serve – November 24^th at 9 am. The very same day I was scheduled to leave for Morocco. And this wasn’t any typical jury summons. This was Grand Jury summons, which if you don’t know – it sucks. Typical jury duty, you are called and questioned by lawyers from each side and they choose who will serve on a jury. You can be excused within a day or two. Grand jurors are selected by a random lottery process and are required to sit for a 2-6 week period, Monday through Friday! Postpone for a later date, you say. Well, I had done that so many times already, that I was running out of postponements.

I immediately checked my insurance policy. I know I had seen somewhere that jury duty qualifies as a covered reason but did my plan include it? Sure enough, being called to serve on a jury is a covered reason under my plan. I could breathe a sigh of relief, for now. I started canceling the refundable things, such as my hotels and anything else I had booked. Turns out all I would need to be covered for is the $300 change fee on American Airlines. So for a plan that cost me $51, I’d say it was worth it.

I’ve only just begun the claims process with the insurance company, so I can’t report on the ease (or lack thereof) of the process, but stay tuned for any updates.

Let me know if you’ve ever had an experience where travel insurance helped you out.

Best Ramen In Tokyo

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Brian Marchetti

As a kid, my parents hired Joy, a Chinese woman who babysat my sister and me when we’d come home from school. I have vivid memories of Joy making me lunch when I would get home and often I would request these weird noodles she would make. These were my first experiences with ramen and yes she would only make the freeze-dried, packaged noodles that came with packets of seasoning in flavors such as “oriental”. Later, while in college in NYC, I experienced my first true ramen and have been addicted ever since. When I booked my trip to Japan, I knew I had to experience as many ramen places as possible to find the best ramen in Tokyo.

What defined the best ramen for me? I don’t really know. I knew I would know it when I tasted it. I don’t have a culinary background; I just know I like food. I researched for weeks leading up to my trip and made lists of all the places I wanted to try.

The Quest

I actually discovered the first (and the winner for best) place on accident, which happened to be near my hotel in the Ebisu neighborhood. Afuri was the name and when searching for some food nearby, I came across it and read nothing but rave reviews. I decided to head over and test Afuri out on this humid, rainy afternoon. I showed up and noticed a line snaking out the door. This had to be a positive sign. I waited in line and inched my way closer and closer to the vending machine where I could place my order before taking a seat. Thankfully, the vending machine had English translations as I ordered a bowl of their yuzu shio ramen with extra pork (tip: Always order extra pork) and a beer. My tickets printed out where I was then lead to a seat and presented with a second menu in which I was to choose which broth I wanted. I pointed to one and hoped for the best.

I sipped my first spoonful and I was hit with a burst of a rich, briny stock that was cut by a burst of citrus from the yuzu. I was in love. I couldn’t eat my bowl fast enough. There was such a well-balanced mix of flavors that it left my taste buds tingling with excitement. After I finished, I walked back to the hotel and fell asleep with a full stomach and visions of soft-boiled eggs and noodles dancing in my head.

The next morning, I did some sightseeing and ended up in central Tokyo, right near Tokyo Station. I had read about a place called Ramen Alley, located within Tokyo Station. Six ramen places lined up next to each other. After about 15 minutes of searching, I found it. The Japanese love their complex mazes of indoor malls and they are way more expansive than you can even imagine. I went up to my first vending machine and ordered. It was good, but nothing amazing. I ventured to a second place and ordered another. OK, the first one was better. But still not blown away. After two bowls, I was definitely stuffed, but in the name of searching for the best, I went to my third location. Now, it was much better than the other two but still didn’t match the flavors I had tasted at Afuri.

At this point, I felt I needed to vomit as I had just eaten three bowls of ramen. I also felt I needed someone to roll me out of the train station. Day two searching for ramen was complete and Afuri was still the winner. I am sure they would have all been wonderful substitutes had I not already enjoyed the most flavorful broth first.

On day three of my search I headed towards Shinjuku station to Ichiran, which is famous for their Tonkotsu ramen, which is a more traditional pork bone broth ramen. Ichiran is a chain of ramen restaurants with locations worldwide and only one option on the menu. The fact that it was such a huge chain left me slightly skeptical, but everything I read seemed to disagree. When I entered Ichiran, I walked right to a staircase heading down to a basement where the restaurant was located. There was a line halfway up the staircase. Due to the small nature of ramen restaurants, well, really all restaurants and even bars in Japan, lines mean lots of people know the wait is worth it.

As I stood in the non-air conditioned stairwell, fanning myself with a free fan I had received from some advertising happening outside, my stomach began to grumble as the smells wafted towards me. The endless line of satisfied faces leaving the restaurant told me everything I needed to know. Slowly inching down, stair-by-stair, I got closer and closer to the elusive vending machine.

Jen Gallardo via Flickr used under Creative Commons License

It was my turn and I chose the standard tonkotsu ramen with extra pork (remember what I said earlier) and this time I had the option of a noodle refill, or Kaedama. Brilliance! I always felt that I had a giant bowl of broth left to drink after I slurped all the noodles up. After paying at the vending machine, I walked around the corner where the line continued. Now we were simply waiting for a seat as a man walked by every person who ordered and handed us a form in which we could customize our ramen. Level of spiciness, amount of garlic, oiliness of broth; the options seemed endless, but they also conveniently show you which options are “recommended” in case you have no clue.

Order tickets and customized sheet in hand, I was lead into one of the rooms. Each side is flanked with a row of stools with each seat featuring dividers on both sides and a bamboo screen Fortunately, the dividers can be moved if you are with someone else. Otherwise, the dividers stay in place. When you sit down, the bamboo screen is rolled up into the kitchen where you hand a pair of anonymous hands your tickets. The divider is rolled up and down between them handing you your items. I received my beer first followed by my extra pork and a small dish that was used to indicate when I wanted my second serving of noodles. The bamboo screen briskly rolled up and the anonymous hands handed me my grail; A steaming bowl of tonkotsu ramen. The broth had a rich, almost milk-y color. I began slurping and was impressed by the wonderfully rich and full flavor. This is what I imagined ramen was supposed to taste like.

I slurped the noodles in, slurping, after all, is considered normal and expected when eating ramen. I quickly pressed the button for my noodle refill and dumped them into my bowl of broth and continued slurping, tossing in my slices of extra pork as I felt necessary. For the first time, I felt I had enough noodle-to-broth ratio. Ichiran was definitely a hit.

Roundup

During my twelve days in Japan, I think I ate ramen close to 10 times. Granted, I had to go back to Afuri, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke and it in fact was the winning ramen.

Clogged arteries abound, I would highly recommend Afuri if you want a unique and, in my opinion, flawless, approach to the classic dish, but seek out Ichiran if you want a traditional approach.

AFURI
1-1-7 Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo 150-0013, Japan
+81 3-5795-0750

Ichiran
3 Chome-34-11 Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0022, Japan
+81 3-3225-5518

Paris in 24 Hours With Only €150

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Brian Marchetti

I am no stranger to Paris. I studied abroad there while in college and have seen and done the typical tourist activities. I happened to find an incredibly cheap deal to Paris during one of British Airways’ business class sales, stacked with my $400 off through AARP, I decided to make a 24-hour mileage run to Paris.

When my original accommodations fell through a day before departure, I decided to make this a true adventure and give myself a budget of €150 to get me through 24 hours in Paris, including a place to sleep!

Challenge accepted.

My plan started in the British Airways Galleries Lounge in Philadelphia. Since my Airbnb fell through at the last minute, I was left scrambling with what to do. I hopped on to the Hotel Tonight app and began searching. I had a $25 credit from signing up using a friend’s promotional code. I began searching through the listings for the next day and found the Hotel Odyssey for $100 for the night, with my credit it dropped to $75 (€67.51) for the night. I couldn’t resist! With the hotel booked, I could rest a little easier on the plane knowing I at least had a place to stay.

The flight landed shortly after 9 am and breezed through customs at Charles De Gaulle Airport, headed straight to the RER B train platform and purchased my
ticket into the city (€10). I got into the city center about an hour later and decided to try my luck and see if my room happened to be available any earlier. I was out of luck, but the lovely girl at the desk gave me a map and pointed out a few things to check out nearby. While not my first time in Paris, it was much appreciated.

The hotel was very central, so I wandered over to Rue Montorgueil, famous for their open-air market on weekends. I stopped by a little café, Le Compas for a little pick-me-up. I ordered a coffee (€2.40) and an orange juice (€5.50!) and left a €1 tip for a total of €8.90 for breakfast. Not too bad and still well on my way to staying on budget.

I had a few hours to kill, so I walked along the Seine, towards the Île de la Cité, the small island in the Seine where Notre Dame is located. I walked by Notre Dame every day when I studied in Paris, but I still love going and seeing it when I am in Paris. I continued back across towards the Hôtel de Ville, another one of my favorite buildings towards the Marais, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Paris and which happens to be the gayborhood. It was a bit chillier than I expected for mid-August, so I was on the lookout for a scarf when I saw BHV (which is sort of like the French equivalent of Macy’s) advertising a huge 3 day, end-of-summer sale. I decided to take a look. I saw a huge sale rack of scarves where I saw a selection of scarves at 75% off. Sold.

Side note: BHV also offers a 10% off coupon if you show your passport from any country outside the EU, as well as 12% VAT tax refund if you spend over €175 on the same day.

But at already 75% off, the scarf came out to only €5.99!

Needing another jolt of caffeine, I continued on to Open Café right up the street, a staple for gay Paris boy watching in the Marias, the traditionally gay district. Much to my dismay, they were unable to make any hot drinks, so I ordered a coke (€3) to get a bit of caffeine before walking to one of the best and most famous pastry shops in Paris.

Macarons are hot right now. You can find them almost everywhere. Everyone will say to visit Ladurée, but anyone who really knows Paris knows to go to Pierre Hermé.

via Pierre Herme

There just so happens to be a location right in the Marais so I popped in to see what piqued my interest today. I settled on the Mogador (an insanely balanced chocolate-passion fruit) and the Jasmine (one of the most delicately flavored macarons I’ve ever tasted). Two macarons set me back €4.20, but I could have easily blown my entire budget in Pierre Hermé.

It was nearing check-in time, so I began the leisurely stroll back to the hotel. I arrived and the room was ready. I went upstairs and despite my coffee,
coke and sugar, I needed a power nap! After a 90-minute snooze, I was ready to get back on my feet.

Feeling ready for lunch, I headed back towards Rue Montorgueil to see some of the food vendors. The street was much more crowded and all the food vendors were out in full-force. The scent of rotisserie chickens filled the air. But, I wanted a galette, a buckwheat flour, savory crepe. I walked up to a stand and ordered the ham and cheese galette (€4.50). Now, it took me a few hours to realize, but the counter girl had mistakenly thought I handed her €20 when I had only given her €10, which, I must say, worked out pretty nicely for a budget conscious day! Feeling satiated and with €10 extra in my pocket, I treated myself to a pain au chocolat, or chocolate croissant (€1.50) before exploring a little bit more.

Note: I wanted to grab a sandwich from a fantastic and famous falafel place, L’as du Falafel, but they were closed when I arrived. Possibly because I was there on a national holiday, but definitely check them out if you are a falafel fan. And order it with everything.

For dinner, I figured I’d go stereotypical and have steak-frites. Plus I could always go for steak and fries. Years ago, I had read a recommendation from one of my favorite writers, David Lebovitz. He recommended Aux Tonneaux des Halles, which was very close to my hotel. Last time I tried to check them out, they were closed, so I was determined to get my steak-frites this time. I ordered my steak-frites with a glass of red wine, which was, by far, my most expensive item of the day at €27. But it was absolutely worth it as it came with a perfectly cooked steak with a salad, delightfully crisp frites, and even some beef bone marrow.

Because I knew I was nearing my budget, I decided to only accept drinks from strangers the rest of the evening. I am sure my mother warned me against this
at some point in my life. Luckily, I was able to meet up with friends who live in Paris and didn’t have to accept questionable drinks from even more questionable men. We hopped around the neighborhood and made stops at Cafe Cox, Spyce, and Les Souffleurs. All solid options and will have a crowd, especially on weekends.

At this point, I was exhausted and had only a few hours before I had to head to the airport. Naturally, I woke up late and knew I wouldn’t have time to take the train. Luckily, I was flying out of Orly airport, so I knew that a taxi would be significantly less than to Charles De Gaulle Airport. I checked out of the hotel and had to pay the tax (€1.65), hopped on Uber (use my link to receive $15 off your first ride) and headed for the airport, which ended up being a €40 flat fare to Orly.

HOW DID I DO?

My grand total came to €168.95! Ok, so I was €18.95 over. Considering I had some major wins, like $25 off my hotel room and I took a taxi, instead of public transportation, I’d say, all in all, I was successful. Had I gotten up early enough, the train to Orly would have cost just under €13, which would have brought me in under my budget with a few euros to spare.

Have you ever done a mileage run? What would you do with only 24 hours in a city?

Why I Hate Travel Blogs

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Brian Marchetti

Nothing excites me the way traveling does. I guess you could say I have a permanent case of wanderlust. Dreaming up a new destination, booking a flight and a hotel then arriving and exploring, every step in the process excites me.

What I hope to accomplish with this blog: I hope I can help you discover (or re-discover) the excitement in travel. Whether it is a road trip through the Pacific Northwest, a weekend getaway to a bustling city or redeeming miles to fly in a luxurious international first class suite where you are served expensive champagne and caviar.

I also hope that with my blog, I can give a voice to other LGBT travelers out there and help them to discover all the wonderfully accepting locations and how to avoid trouble in the not so accepting locations.

What this blog won’t be: I have resisted starting a blog for some time. Not because I don’t have stories to share, but because I feel that many travel blogs spend too much time telling readers how and what they must do when visiting versus encouraging them to explore and discovering whatever is is that excites them in a city. I believe you should travel however you want.

With that, I hope you can leave my blog a little more excited and inspired to travel than when you came here.

– Brian Marchetti

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