Sherman's Travel

Beaver Creek’s slopes may be the star attraction at this sister resort to Vail in Colorado, but they have some competition from an increasingly delectable culinary scene. The latest manifestation of this new foodie fervor is the first annual Beaver Creek Food & Wine Weekend, held January 26-28.

Events range from casual après-ski noshes to semi-formal multi-course dinners with wine pairings. You’ll also find cooking demonstrations, wine seminars, and a meet-and-greet with the chefs. Throughout the three days, event-goers will sample exquisite culinary creations from visiting celebrity chefs – like Tim Love, John Besh, and Stephanie Izard – as well as local talent from area restaurants.

You’ll have to act fast to score tickets, as some programs are already sold out. Tickets start at $75, and all events are for ages 21 and up.

Planning to make a weekend of it? Beaver Creek has lodging packages on offer starting from $425 per person, per night that bundle accommodations, multi-day lift passes, and select event tickets. Click here for more information.

For general trip-planning information, see our Vail and Beaver Creek Travel Guide.

Ahhh, gay equality . . . First comes honorable military service. Then comes marriage. What’s next? The beer gut.

That’s right. Out with abs and in with frosty brews! Up in Canada (naturally), the Queer Beer Festival taps the kegs of Toronto on Thursday, August 4. A first-of-its-kind event in North America ? gay days at Oktoberfest come the closest in Europe ? the fest aims to embrace the queer and trans communities while celebrating Canada’s rich brewing history. Expect live entertainment, food tents, visits from experts of the craft from around the world, and tastes of more than 200 brands. Mezcal might be the drink of the summer, but on our tab, it’s time for some suds.

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Boston’s South End has a growing attraction for anyone who appreciates community-centered commerce and fun. The SoWa (South of Washington Street) Arts District specializes in attracting the über-cool, offering a vast selection of handcrafted accessories, indie designer clothing, and vintage wares at its SoWa Sundays (sowasundays.com). The weekly event includes an open-air bazaar, with an Open Market (www.sowaopenmarket.com) for arts and handmade crafts, a Vintage Market (www.sowavintagemarket.com) with clothing, antiques, and collectibles, and a Farmer’s Market for fresh local produce, flowers, and baked goods. This all-in-one package runs through October 30 this year, from 10am to 4pm As an added bonus, the market hosts food trucks along its Harrison Street location with menus that run the gamut from barbecue and coffee to gourmet grilled cheese and Elvis Presley’s favorite fried peanut butter and banana sandwich (served here without the bacon).

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If lobster is one of the your favorite foods (and you enjoy sharing it with someone special) mark your summer travel calendars for these four very different opportunities – from romantic to rowdy – to indulge in all the tender, buttery crustaceans you can eat.

Lobster Lovers Itinerary from Absolute Belize: Belize, a friendly, sunny Central American country, marks the beginning of its annual lobster season each June (Belize lobsters are shown above at left) with the weeklong San Pedro Lobsterfest (www.sanpedrolobsterfest.com) on Ambergris Caye.

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Need a little drama in your life? Look no further than the Spoleto Festival, America’s premier performing arts festival, running May 27-June 12! Right now, the Andrew Pinckney Inn in Charleston, N.C., is offering rates starting at $149 per night through the duration of the festival. In addition, guests receive complimentary breakfast served on the rooftop terrace.

THE VALUE: The Andrew Pinckney Inn is conveniently located near many of the festival venues and by staying there you can save 15% on select festival performances.

THE CATCH: The Spoleto Festival is not free. Each performance requires a separate ticket.

THE DETAILS: To book, visit the Andrew Pinckney Inn and enter the promotional code: GSAP11 or call 800.505.8983 and ask for the Go Spoleto! discount.

WE’VE GOT MORE: Use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find low rates on flights to Charleston, N.C..

Check out our Charleston Travel Guide and find out what else you can do while enjoying the festival!

One holiday down… a season to go! And if there’s one thing we made sure to give thanks for at our table yesterday, it’s the bevy of queer cheer Europe provides this time of year – two Pink Christmas festivals alone.

Kicking off December 1 with a World AIDS Day gala (TicNet.se), Stockholm brings the festive flavor all month long with parties, shows, and seductive Santas. Highlights include a mondo lesbian party December 11 at Södermalm clubs Momma and Roxy and an all-night affair celebrating Saint Lucia, the queen of light, on December 12. If last year’s festivities are any indication, different bars will take a non-traditional slant on the theme before Lucia “herself” drags it up, dressed in white with a crown of candles before dawn on the 13th. For more info on Pink Christmas and the whole Pink December festival, check out QX magazine (QX.se/gaymap) or Stockholm’s LGBT blog (StockholmTown.com/gay-lesbian), which will have all up-to-date info as it’s released.

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Fresh from the land of Kafka, Pilsner, Absinthe, and Bel Ami comes some pretty spectacular news: the first-ever Prague Pride (PraguePride.com) has been scheduled for August 18-21, 2011 pending police and city hall approvals. Sure it’s near a year away, but that’s the only weekend left in Europe’s summer without a conflicting Pride, so mark your calendars now. Because if my recent visit to the Czech Republic for the 11th Annual Mezipatra Queer Film Festival (Mezipatra.cz) was any indication, gay life is thriving. Prague, long a beacon for backpackers and culture vultures thanks to its über-romantic Old Town is also a haven for LGBT folk of the Central and Eastern European region thanks to a basically agnostic society and a sense of nationalism that makes it easier to be gay than non-Czech.

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Gay-owned, Seattle-founded, rocknrolla hipster hotel chain Ace Hotels knows how to throw a party. Just check out the teeming fashiony hoards any weekend night at its Portland or New York City locations. D.I.Y., art-filled funkified style certainly draws a crowd. And this coming weekend, it’s bringing some cachet to the cliche of Palm Spring Pride (PSPride.org), November 4-7, the last big one of 2010.

Deemed the West Coast Love Train – a hotel-based hootenanny for “hot misfits, radical faeries, starving indie artists with a price, leather, squirrels, queers, furries and fuzzies, poly-tastic warm leatherettes, drag kings and queens, changlings, disco dollies” and way gay kitchen sinks – events are free for hotel guests and $10 a day for the public. A weekend Pride Package helps you get your freaky deeky on with 20% off double-occupancy rooms (from $229/night). They’ll also throw in a $25 treat resort credit for those all-important first cocktails. Call 760-325-9990 with code “Love Train” to book; two-night min.

Or better yet, head online, sans package, and take advantage of either 15 percent or 20 percent discounts each night for a 2- or 3-night stay, respectively. With discount applied, the cheapest rate for a standard king starts at an astounding $136/night for a standard room.

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New Year’s might seem far off, but for powder hounds, it can’t come soon enough – especially when there are deals to be had for booking some of 2011′s roster of gay ski weeks early. Some even start happening before your hangover has had time to subside. Details below.

Never been to a gay ski week? Looking for something more low key? Ski Bums, the nation’s largest LGBT ski and snowboarder organization, runs group trips across the country and select worldwide pilgrimages (Courchevel, France and heliskiing in Sweden are on tap for in 2011), as well as day trips from NYC, creating what amounts to a mini gay ski week in the process. A new California chapter launches next Friday, October 8 at Gym Sportsbar in WeHo, so West Coasters can start feeling the chilly thrills soon. Both black diamond masters and bunny hill newbies are welcome.

Even during summer’s swelter, New Orleans can feel pretty spooky, what with its Voodoo past, atmospheric architecture, crumbling cemeteries and mean trade in ghost tours. But in the dead of fall on All Hallows’ Eve, it can get downright terrifying – and by that, we mean absolutely bonkers. Next to Southern Decadence, Halloween is New Orleans’ biggest gay event of the year and the entire city comes alive (with walking dead!).

Besides general costumed craziness and the official slew of parties for Halloween 27: Famous, from a black tie gala to circuity blowout October 28-31 all to benefit HIV/AIDS home Project Lazarus, other highlights of the long weekend include a Vampire Film Festival (www.vampirefilmfestival.com), Krewe of Halloween Parade on the 30th  (www.kreweofhalloween.com) and the aural blowout Voodoo Music Experience (www.thevoodooexperience.com). Muse, Ozzy Osbourne, My Morning Jacket, MGMT, Drake, Hot Chip, Kelis, Macy Gray, Florence and the Machine, and the Crystal Method are some of the 60-plus acts for the 3-day festival.

Book the following hotel deals now before lost savings come back to haunt you.

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