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 is one LGBTQ+ piece on this site. It compares the three big full-ship charters on what the fare covers. Across the ten destinations we feature, the LGBTQ+ column is empty in all ten.
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.
The one piece
- 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.
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?
One piece, and it is about charters rather than a destination. That is the whole of it, and this page says so rather than padding a list with articles that mention Pride once. The gap is now the top of the commissioning queue, starting with Barcelona.
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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