Cape Town Lesbian Pride Vacation

It’s been a few weeks and I’m still on a high from our Cape Town group vacation! We had a week and a few days of adventure, culture, comradery, and fun! Our week started with a welcome dinner at Gold Restaurant, a must experience while in Cape Town. Let’s just say you haven’t been to Cape Town if you haven’t had the Gold Restaurant experience and our group had a blast! We started drumming and we were all in rhythm with a couple of people dancing to the beat of the drums. After our drumming session we had a 14 dish food tasting from different parts of Africa which was a unique experience. Many of the girls tried all the food from Lamb, Chicken, to Ostrich, a popular meat in South Africa. After we got some food in our belly we then danced it off to the popular African tune Jerusalem and of course, our girls showed out dancing and showed the crowd a move or two. It was a memorable night!

Gold Restaurant Group Pic

Our following day was a beautiful day to see the city, we made our way around the Bo-Kaap neighborhood to take some pictures, visit their artisan gallery, and learn the history of the community. Afterwards we went up to Table Mountain to catch the beautiful views of the city which is stunning. There was not a cloud in the sky and the weather was perfect to enjoy the scenery. From Table Mountain we headed over to NAC Helicopters to take a ride and see the view of the city from up above. Our pilot took us to see aerial views of Robben Island, Camps Bay, and across the 12 Apostles to name a few. An experience to say the least, one not to miss on your next visit to the Cape. After our helicopter ride, many of us freshened up and went to a local meet up with the Cape Town Lesbian Group from FB. Our group met a lot of the locals, made some new friends, and deeper connections. We definitely felt the South African hospitality!

Cape Town Lesbians FB Meet Up

A popular experience with the group we had while in Cape Town was the Food Jam. In the middle of the Woodstock neighborhood is this super cute experience called Soute Food Jam as it’s in the Soute Studios. Our girls were super excited and ready to get their cook on. We had about 40 women in attendance and we all got recipes for traditional South African dishes to cook with support from the head chef Shahieda. We danced, we cooked, and stuffed our faces! Food really does bring people together as it was yet another great night!

Soute Food Jam

It seemed like the weather was on our side the whole week as we headed over to Camps Bay to Sandy B Beachclub for a private event, just us and the beautiful beach in front of us. We had DJ Kixi a local lesbian DJ play South African & American tunes which kept the girls on their dancing feet all afternoon. Many of the girls called Camps Bay the Miami of South Africa and it certainly feels like it from the beautiful palm trees, beach, and homes in the area but this is Africa, a wildly diverse country with so many neighborhoods, cities, vibes that a week is not enough to see it all! In the evening we checked out Beefcakes a Drag Cabaret Club. We saw several performances many of which were comedy/stand up but made us laugh throughout the night.

After some good rest we got our adrenaline on and separated into three groups to go- paragliding, ziplining, and ATV riding. Everyone had a blast from all the stories we got on the way back to the hotel and the footage of some of the glides off of Lion’s Head. I personally went with the group to ATV ride in the Atlantic Sand Dunes and what a beauty…fine white sand where I felt like I was in a different country all together. I must admit I was a bit cautious as the hills had me a little bit nervous especially coming down but it was a ton of fun!

As if our trip wasn’t a ton of fun already we freshened up and headed out to the marina behind the Radisson Red hotel at the V&A Waterfront our host hotel and got on a Sunset Cruise! We were accompanied by DJ Kixi again, open bar, appetizers so it was about to be a bunch of fun. My favorite part of the cruise was the school of dolphins alongside playing around our catamaran as if joining us in the fun. It was a beautiful evening with a great sunset, tunes, and vibe!

On our final night in Cape Town, there was no other way to do it but to leave with a BANG! Ladies Touch Events was offered the opportunity to host the Official Lesbian Pride Party in Cape Town and we showed out. We got local talent, 300+ women of all different backgrounds, and danced the night away in celebration of who we are in a safe space that we are super thankful for and look forward to hosting again in the future!

Cape Town Lesbian Pride Party

After a long but fun week several of the girls headed back to the U.S. and the rest of us went to Aquila Game Reserve to RELAX! We got a few game drives in, saw 4 of the Big 5, pampered in the spa, and caught up with some rest which we all needed. You can’t beat finding a game reserve so close to Cape Town and so enjoyable. A must especially if it’s your first game reserve experience.

Aquila Game Drive with a cute ostrich photo session

We were all deeply touched with Cape Town and the memories will last a lifetime. Everything from our host hotel, tours, parties, we couldn’t have asked for a better We had such a blast that many want to come back, bring their friends, and explore more of Africa. Cape Town South Africa you won our hearts and we’ll be back soon!

Curacao a LGBTQ+ Women’s Paradise

It’s been a few busy weeks but I had the wonderful chance to do some site inspections in Curacao a few weeks ago and I’m so glad that I went! I was pleasantly surprised that there was so much diversity and inclusion on the island that it gave me peace of mind on my visit. Curacao has been on my radar for a while now because I have seen and heard that Curacao is a queer friendly Caribbean Island so I had check it out! Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a native that felt like my big brother. He then took me over to the Dreams Curacao Resort for my check in. Driving over to the hotel, I felt this sense of familiarity, like a place I have already visited. It reminded me of my roots, Dominican Republic. Once I settled into my room, I opened the balcony door to welcome the sunset, and the view was incredible.

Dreams Resort Curacao Sunset View

The next day I did a walk-through of both AMR Resort properties in Curacao, Dreams and Zoetry. Zoetry Curacao won my heart. I’m a fan of Zoetry properties because of their top-class hospitality but to see this new property made me feel utterly Zen. After talking business and such I knew I had to keep Zoetry as an option. One thing that I liked about both properties is that they are all-inclusive. Zoetry is more a la carte which means you can eat whenever but its freshly made which is a plus.

Zoetry Curacao Tropical Suite

The following day I made it over to Renaissance Willemstad in the heart of downtown and another great hotel making my choice even harder of where to pick for our 2023 group trip. Renaissance is perfectly positioned to get to shops, restaurants and bars. Literally, everything is walking distance and because they don’t have a beach, they made a beach by their infinity pool which has great views of the ocean and cruise ships that come by. Meals are excellent at the Renaissance and carefully created for those with food sensitivities as well as allergies. Their rooms have cute hues of blue with balconies so you can see the people walking by and shopping.

Renaissance Willemstad Pool/Beachclub

Decisions, decisions! After my stay with Renaissance my last stop was at Avila Beach Resort. Avila has been going through some renovations but as soon as you pass the lobby and are out by the beachfront restaurants you get this sense that you are in paradise. Avila has several areas with different style rooms, it has a private beach with beautiful waters, and a couple of restaurants with delicious meals. I definitely enjoyed my stay and food there even though my time was limited. I also liked that Avila was close to the downtown area making it convenient if you wanted to walk into town. In between my days in Curacao of site inspections, I also did a couple of excursions and checked out a few beaches. I loved everything about Curacao and look forward to bringing a queer women’s group there as I know everyone will love it. Curacao is truly paradise and to add that they are super welcoming and accepting of everyone is the icing on the cake especially for these three properties! Stay in touch for our group trip details as well as the top things to do while you are in town on our next blog!

It’s PRIDE Season!

Haaaaappy Pride! It’s been an amazing few weeks celebrating Pride in different cities and it’s just the beginning with still so many cities that have upcoming Pride celebrations. We kicked things off at Puerto Vallarta Lesbian Pride over Memorial Day Weekend and it was a blast! Puerto Vallarta is one of the most gay friendly cities in Mexico but it’s always been more dominated by gay men. This year we collaborated with the local lgbtq women’s businesses in Vallarta to bring a womxn’s week!

Puerto Vallarta Pride Parade

We started the week with the Pride Parade and the streets were filled with people in the community and supporters! I was impressed with the turnout and expect the parade will grow over the next few years for sure. From that we kicked off with Lesbian Owned Elixir Mixology Bar for the welcome party, then a Taco Tour with Vallarta Local Tours ( I even learned some new things about the food history in Vallarta which was fascinating), lastly our weekend parties. It was beautiful to see many women from all different backgrounds- Mexicans, Americans, Canadians, Europeans, even Asian just enjoying the music and vibe. I watched everyone with delight as I know the importance of having a safe space and that we had all week, it was worth all the work!

Sapphire Beach Club Party

Why is this important? It’s important because as mentioned for years gay men have dominated the Pride celebrations in PV. Don’t get me wrong I love the boys but truthfully it’s just a different energy when there’s more of them than us so we are hopeful to keep growing year after year and have more “L” visibility for Pride in Vallarta. Even the parade only had one float representing womxn so we hope to change that soon. Pride in Vallarta is typically the last week of May so mark your calendar to be in town next year. Vallarta has so much to offer- culture, beaches, nightlife, gastronomy, and more so make sure you don’t miss out next year as it will be a week to remember!

Details to book your Puerto Vallarta Pride Vacation will be available in the next few weeks so stay in TOUCH…

Crazy for Cartagena!

Just a few weeks ago our lesbian travel vacation was redirected to Cartagena due to some of the requirements and changes in our original plans to Thailand. With all the last-minute planning I’m so grateful that the trip fell into place because we had an absolute blast! I had two months to put it together but with one of my partners from Out in Colombia, a LBGT tour company in Colombia, we recreated a similar experience in Cartagena than we were supposed to have in Phuket which was basically a fun and energetic trip!

We had a long trip flying over to Cartagena as we were coming from the west coast, Los Angeles to be exact. Midway in Miami thankfully we went to American Airlines Admirals Club to rest, eat, and wait for our next flight. Upon arrival in Cartagena, our driver was there to pick us up and take us to Ivy House in Walled City in Old Cartagena. As soon as we entered the Walled City, we all already started to fall in love with its charm and quickly we arrived to check in. After our welcome drinks and appetizers, we all showered to get ready for dinner, it had been a long day. As we headed up to the rooftop, we smelled the yummy dinner being prepared by Nelsy who was our private chef for the week. We ate and got ready to head out. There’s so much that goes on in the Walled City that it can be overwhelming at first. People trying to sell you stuff, others performing as you pass by, women working…tons of beautiful women! We navigated around town and checked out several places including Townhouse Rooftop which was a totally cute vibe with mixed music and yummy cocktails. From there we checked out some other bars but I think we were all jet lagged still so eventually got back to the villa to rest.

The next day Belkin met us at the villa for a cultural tour. She’s a lesbian tour guide and I was so excited to have her go out with us for the day. We headed over to the San Felipe Fortress, Monastery of La Popa, and enjoyed the typical street food of Cartagena. Belkin gave us deep insight to the history of Cartagena which was like other Caribbean history. It humbled us as we have it so much better than many had in the past. The following day we took a catamaran out to Playa Blanca and its nearby beaches. It was a beautiful day to soak up the sun and water considering we were there in the winter while everyone else had been experiencing cold weather. The views of the high rises as we left the city and headed to the islands were beautiful. It was definitely worth the trip. On our 3rd day of the trip, we had the day open to rest as the water is always exhausting but headed out in the evening for our dance tour. This tour was so much fun! I don’t know if it was all the music or that we had a couple of drinks before we headed out but maybe it was both! March our tour guide picked us up at the villa and we walked over to Café del Mar for some live Vallenato a traditional Colombian genre of music. From there we met May our other tour guide and we danced in the streets to cumbia which was so much fun as we were in our own world enjoying it all! From there we stopped at Parque Fernandez Madrid for a show we weren’t expecting with folkloric music as well as traditional cumbia. If that wasn’t enough, we walked over to Getsmani to the Caponera Café Bar for some salsa dancing and Champeta, an African inspired dance in Colombia! Did I mention that at every stop we had shots which was part of the tour?? Aguardiente, rum, coffee, and more rum!! By this time, we were all super giddy dancing in the middle of Getsmani and wrapped up at the last bar with some more dancing before heading back. I must say this night was a special one and the group made it even more fun!

At that point, our trip had been amazing, we had lesbian tour guides, Cartagena was gay friendly, and we never felt disrespected. On top of that, the towns colors, charm, history was a great experience. After all the dancing the night before our next excursion was to Bora Bora Beach Club in the Rosario Islands and what a great spot that we highly recommend! Of course, we had VIP service because that’s how we roll at Ladies Touch Travel but we just enjoyed our plush day beds, meals, drinks, and beautiful beach all day.

On our second to last day, we had some down time to go shopping as we were right in the middle of everything. Souvenir shops, apparel, you name it and super inexpensive. We literally shopped til we dropped! After all the shopping we got our covid tests done and had dinner before our last excursion of the week. For our last night we went out on a traditional Chiva bus ride. Chiva buses were designed to transport goods in the past but gained popularity as a “party bus” experience. We rolled around the city in the Chiva and of course DANCED for a couple of hours literally! We realized with all these tours Colombians love music and to dance, we experienced that all week no matter where we went. We didn’t mind all the energy, we fit right in! To wrap up the tour we got dropped off at City Club in Cartagena the local LGBT club and continued to dance til the weeee hours of the night. The night was filled with fun memories, and we made new friends in the process. So many beautiful people and good music!

So, what do we think about Cartagena? We are crazy about Cartagena!! If you love culture, dancing, beaches, and high energy then Cartagena has your name all over it. We loved it so much that we plan to take another group to Cartagena this Summer 2022 so stay tuned! Check in with us in a few weeks on our site for trip details. Our group trips are about creating new friendships and having unforgettable memories as we did on our trip so join us to have a one-of-a-kind experience!