Aussielicious

When I hit Vegas I intended to go to a Korean Baths that I had heard about but when I got to my hotel the guy at the counter told me he’d heard good things about Qua Spa at Caesar’s Palace. Well, I can guarantee that anything good that you hear is correct. It is a very luxurious roman baths style of spa with separate men’s and women’s areas. Each has a baths section with warm, hot and cold baths as well as having a steam room, a sauna, an aromatherapy steam room and a cool room that is “snowing” bubbles of moisturising foam.

Given that it’s in a luxurious Casino Hotel, don’t expect the prices to be cheap, but for a weary traveller who had been in dusty desert for a week, $45 to soak, nude in luxury for a few hours was a price I was more than willing to pay.

Planning my trip to the U.S. I knew that I would want to relax after the crazy nature of Burning Man, so I googled gay clothing optional Vegas and Blue Moon Resort was about my only option.

To use the word resort may be stretching the term a bit but overall I liked the place. It was a bit further from “The Strip” than I expected and not having a car it meant I paid for several cabs when I didn’t feel like the hike in. Cab drivers seemed a bit hit and miss as far as knowing where it was too but that’s not the resort’s fault. It seems a lack of the local language and knowledge of the area is the plight of cab drivers around the world.

My main problem with gay resorts is that they never seem to be quite finished off. The rooms at Blue Moon were relatively basic but quite nice and my room had a seriously comfortable bed. If you are going to play three channels of (at times a very strange selection) of free porn, maybe ease up on supplying little body lotions, and pop a tube of lube in the basket instead. The free wireless was a hit and miss but that’s probably because the modem was dangling from the socket and sitting on the ground in the corridoor.

If you want an attitude free stay in Vegas with the option of lying naked by a pool, or even cruising in their steam room (I didn’t venture in) with staff that were very helpful and friendly, then Blue Moon could be the place for you.

A friend pointed me towards this place today. He and his partner are nudie mates of mine and they are heading to New Zealand early in the new year so they were thinking of heading to Autumn Farm Naked Week but they won’t be able to get there sadly.

Autumn farm is “Home to a community of gaymen with deep roots in the artistic and environmental movements, we are open every day of the year and are ready to welcome you.” They have a few nude men only events through the year and it looks like a stunning place to go and relax, all in the buff.

Looks like my list of beautiful nude places to visit is growing! Check out their website here.

Ever since I saw a billboard back when I was living in London, advertising a horse riding tour in Iceland, the idea has germinated in the back of my mind. I couldn’t afford it then and I can afford it even less now. While Iceland has a reputation for the quirky, think Bjork and Sigur Ros, I suspect there is a quite a lot of beauty, history and fun to be explored in the area. It’s not a thriving hub of gay tourism, probably because of the amount of clothing required, but with the world’s first ever openly gay Prime Minister elected a year ago the Icelandic are a progressive and tolerant nation.

As far as a gay “scene” in Iceland, that is limited to Reykjavik. “Some foreign gay men and the lesbians travelling to Iceland for the first time hardly know what to think of Reykjavík. One night you might feel you are in a busy gay club in Hamburg or Manchester but the next night you feel that you have landed in a small village in North-Dakota and you´ve lost your train-ticket!” Sounds like fun to me.

Back to the horse riding. In times gone by, horses were the favoured mode of transport around this ruggedly stunning country and while modern transport has taken hold, horses are still popular and loved, with the native horses being smaller and sturdier than elsewhere. With a unique gait of their own, they are a great way to travel and see the countryside up close and personal. This tour sounds like a lot of fun for the intrepid and hardy traveller but if the more luxurious brand of sight-seeing is your kinda thing, Luxury Adventures might be a better place to start with customised tours.

For the time spent in Reykjavik, 101 Hotel is a very cool, stylish and let’s face it, pricey option. The decor is slick, modern with a minimalist hint of traditional. They pride themselves on their art collection displayed throughout the hotel. For those on a budget, a new kid on the block is Reykjavik Backpackers, which one visitor reviewed with “Reykjavik Backpackers helpted me to have one of the best weeks of my entire travelling experience.”

Deep in the South of France is a beautiful exclusively gay Bed and Breakfast called The Lotus Tree. The owners of The Lotus Tree will happily serve you bed and breakfast or you can provide your own meals in a self catered studio. For the majority of the year Lotus Tree is clothing optional and most guests do choose the nude option. In May (14 – 18) next year they are hosting a naked yoga retreat on the premises and July 3 – 10 is a compulsory 100% nude week.

If I’m heading to the south of France, I think I’ll definitely be seeking out the Lotus Tree to relax and enjoy some naked rest and sunshine.

Welcome to a new regular feature on Aussielicious, Travelicious. I’m hoping to bring you all kinds of travel destinations and experiences. Some gay specific, some gay friendly and others that just appeal to me. Sadly, I won’t be road testing all of the destinations, unless of course there are those in the business who want to have a first hand review! My first Travelicious destination just had to be an Australian business, so I found Sangoma.

Travel a little over an hour out of Sydney towards the famous Blue Mountains and soak up the modern luxury of Sangoma Retreat. North West of Sydney, Sangoma has three luxury suites available all finished in a style which could be described as modern, luxury country. While the retreat was unearthed in a google search for “gay hotel” there is nothing specifically mentioned on their site about being marketed directly at we gays. Having said that, any luxury accommodation that lists in it’s selling points, a two person Philipe Starck bathtub has to be at the very least, welcoming to the stylish, cashed up gay market.

The retreat has three suites all attached to, or near the main house which houses the common facilities such as dining room, entertainment room and lounge room. The grounds are very much nestled beautifully into the rugged Australian bush with a spectacular pool with a stunning view over the region.

Sangoma looks like a perfect way to escape the rush of the city, and judging by the online booking form that has most weekends booked for several weeks, it’s popular.