If you’ve come to associate organized tours with massive chartered cruise ships, packed buses, and onerously large groups of fellow travelers, you might want to give this concept a fresh look. Today’s organized-travel options include a tremendous variety of companies offering intimate, upscale, customized adventures. In many cases, the method of transportation - canal barges, bicycles, vintage trains - are part of the excitement. Many upscale tour companies that cater to relatively small groups are also extremely gay-friendly, attracting educated and sophisticated travelers who appreciate a diverse mix of participants. Here’s a look at five exceptional tour operators, four of them mainstream and one specifically gay-oriented, but all offering guests unusual ways to experience some of the most intriguing destinations in the world.
Ride the Rails Through the Rockies
With its accepting and tolerant attitude toward gays and lesbians, Canada continues to generate plenty of interest from GLBT travelers. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that parts of this country rival just about anywhere in the world for stunning scenery - the Canadian Rockies, a region best explored by luxury rail, are especially breathtaking. Gay-friendly Royal Canadian Pacific offers cushy, distinctive rail excursions from late spring to early summer. Transportation and accommodations are inside beautifully refurbished 1920s and ‘30s railcars, where large windows afford dazzling views of snowcapped mountains and pristine lakes. At a number of points, passengers leave the train for touring, hiking, golfing, fly-fishing, and horseback riding through the countryside.
The 6-day Royal Canadian Rockies Experience starts and ends in Calgary, Alberta (you spend the first night at the historic Fairmont Palliser Hotel), a modern and lively city with an intriguing gay scene (and, in late June, the Canadian Rockies International Rodeo - the world’s largest such gay event). The route winds west through Canmore (where Brokeback Mountain was filmed), Banff National Park, Lake Louise, and the Columbia River town of Golden. Then the train heads south through the Rockies before cutting east at Cranbrook and venturing into the Canadian Prairie and the city of Lethbridge, before finally heading north back to Calgary. The 6-day Royal Culinary, Wine, and Music Experience is another great itinerary - it begins in Calgary and continues through Banff, Yoho, and Glacier national parks, before ending at beautiful Kamloops, with a side trip to the stunning Kelowna and Okanagan Wine Country. Royal Canadian Pacific tours include fantastic food and ultra-posh accommodations, and they start at around $5,500 per person, double-occupancy
Stroll Through Northern New Mexico, Tuscany, or New Zealand
We live in a super-speedy, boom-boom world, and it’s in part for this reason that so-called “walking” vacations have become increasingly popular in recent years. One company that has tapped into this market with great success, offering tours to a variety of stunning and gay-popular destinations around the world, is The Wayfarers, whose intimate and pleasingly slow-going 4- to 12-day rambles cater to educated, independent-minded, and curious adventurers who are fit enough for extended walks but still appreciate upscale accommodations and superlative food. On Wayfarers vacations, during the day you’ll hike with a guide and your small group of fellow travelers, maintaining a leisurely clip through some of the world’s most picturesque terrain. At night, you stay in distinctive accommodations, from adobe inns in Santa Fe to posh resorts in the South of France to seaside villas on Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast.
Wayfarers offers tours in several regions, including such European destinations as the British Isles, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, the South of France, and Spain. In the United States, you can tour the Maine coast, New Mexico, Utah, Washington’s Cascades and Olympic Peninsula, and Santa Barbara. In a few destinations (Italy’s lakes, England’s Cotswolds, New Mexico) you can choose between women-only and mixed-gender tours. These trips are great for couples or groups of friends traveling together. They’re well-suited to outdoorsy types, but they’re also accessible and enjoyable to globetrotters who don’t get outside much yet still enjoy occasional opportunities to commune with nature. Prices vary a bit according to the itinerary - the 5-day New Mexico trip is about $2,300 per person, the 6-day Tuscany adventures cost $3,500 per person, and the 12-day New Zealand treks cost $4,200 to $4,500 per person.
Pedal Across Provence, Adalucia, or Iceland
Of the many gay-oriented (i.e., open to gays and lesbians as well as friends of the community) tour companies out there, few have earned a more stellar reputation over the years than Alyson Adventures, which offers a slew of soft-adventure getaways that focus on such invigorating activities as canyoneering, rock-climbing, hiking, kayaking, rafting, and scuba diving. In particular, Alyson offers wonderful bike tours through some of the world’s most fascinating places. These tours typically last about a week; are led by knowledgeable guides; include accommodations in well-chosen, mid-range hotels; include all breakfasts and some lunches and dinners (for others you’re on your own); and use of a bike. The trips are geared toward all levels of biking experience (they average 25 to 40 miles of travel per day, depending on the route), as participants are free to go at their own pace, and you’re as likely to meet single travelers on these adventures as you are couples or groups of friends.
Alyson offers about a dozen itineraries, most of them in France (Provence, the Dordogne River, the Loire Valley, etc.), but others through Tuscany, Spain’s Andalusia, Iceland’s volcano and hot-springs country, Vietnam, and Arizona’s Mission Trail. There are tours from mid-spring through mid-fall, and prices range from about $1,700 to $2,800 per person, double-occupancy. This helpful company has even created a website, www.gay-bike.com, filled not only with further information on the tours it offers but also with tips on traveling by bike. If you’re keen on other types of adventure, consider some of Alyson’s similarly intriguing getaways, such as rafting the Grand Canyon, diving off the Caribbean island of Saba, or eco-touring Costa Rica.
Cruise the French Canals
French Country Waterways offers travelers an intimate, upscale way to traverse some 4,800 miles of navigable rivers and canals throughout the Gallic countryside. This is not your conventional cruise adventure. These leisurely and romantic excursions are offered in four regions: Champagne (a short distance east of Paris), the Upper Loire, Burgundy, and Alsace-Lorraine. If you’re planning a gay vacation to Paris and its hip Marais District, consider tacking on one of these boat trips after your city stay. The company uses five beautifully outfitted barges, which accommodate from 8 to 18 passengers, and whose staterooms and suites all have private bathrooms and individual climate control. Each barge has a large wooden sundeck, ample lounge space and bars stocked with complimentary beverages and snacks, and richly furnished dining rooms in which you’ll be treated to superb classic French cuisine and fine wines. Special meals are also planned at a number of restaurants along each itinerary. French Country Waterways cruises last a week, are offered April through October, and cost from about $5,000 per person, double occupancy.
Trek Through the African Bush
Among the many companies out there offering African safari adventures, Philadelphia-based Premier Tours earns kudos for its distinctive and well-planned itineraries, which provide participants a nice mix of in-the-bush adventure and sophisticated big-city and wine-country diversion. The gay-friendly company has a huge range of trips covering several African nations - Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Gay travelers should book a trip that includes some time in the scenic and vibrant city of Cape Town, South Africa. For instance, the 7-day Cape Town & Safari excursion includes Cape Town and nearby wineries as well as safari experiences in Kruger National Park and the stunning Elephant Plains Game Lodge. There are also much more extensive 15- to 17-day South Africa tours, some that include Johannesburg, Zambia’s Victoria Falls, and Swaziland.
The company’s many different types of tours cater to a wide range of interests and capabilities, as you can try anything from a rugged adventure trip that includes hiking and camping to cushier trips where you spend the night in fine hotels and posh game lodges. Premier Tours provides accommodations, many of the meals, airport transfers, game-viewing experiences, and other daily tours. Tour prices start around $1,300 per person, double-occupancy, for the 7-day Cape Town & Safari tour. This is a pretty amazing deal, when you consider the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see elephants and leopards in the wild, not to mention the swank restaurants and lively gay nightclubs of Cape Town.
Andrew Collins is the author of Fodor’s Gay Guide to the USA and eight additional travel guides.
The Little Black Book (all prices quoted in the article are in U.S. currency):

Alyson Adventures (305-296-9935 or 800-825-9766, www.alysonadventures.com). French Country Waterways (781-934-2454 or 800-222-1236, www.fcwl.com). Premier Tours (800-545-1910, www.premiertours.com). Royal Canadian Pacific (403-508-1400 or 877-665-3044, www.royalcanadianpacific.com). The Wayfarers (401-849-5087 or 800-249-4620, www.thewayfarers.com).