You’re over the moon in love and want to get married. But the list of places you can tie the knot is exploding. So where best to do it—and meanwhile not miss out on the world’s best Pride action?
A pair of round-ups of gay-friendly cities suggests that there’s a crossroads where Bride and Pride meet.
And that junction is Amsterdam.
Travel booker Cheapflights.com released its picks for the globe’s top ten gay-wedding destinations. Of the meccas that made the cut, four are North American (New York, Provincetown, Montreal, and Washington, DC), one is South American (Buenos Aires), and five are in Europe (Madrid, Stockholm, Oslo, Reykjavik, and Amsterdam).
Cheapflights points out that not only was The Netherlands the first country to legalize marriage equality (in 2001) but the “plethora of beautiful churches, five-star hotels, international cuisine, and charming streets and canals” in Amsterdam will have your wedding guests “eternally in the palm of your hands.”
Meanwhile, over at CNN.com, gay travel guru Ed Salvato helped run down the site’s top five Pride destinations: Boston; Tel Aviv; Asheville, NC; Atlanta; and—once again—Amsterdam.
“Unlike in most parades, Amsterdam’s floats actually float,” points out the piece about the city’s annual Canal Pride Parade, slated this year for August 4. More than a half-million people are expected to watch dozens of buoyant barges in the 2012 Canal Parade procession, just one of some 300 parties and cultural events slated for Amsterdam Pride.
For more info about all things Amsterdamish—including more details on marriage and Pride—check out the city tourism bureau’s official site I Amsterdam.
Images by Jos van Zetten, Amber de Bruin and FaceMePLS
SteveC
I lived and worked in Amsterdam between 2006-2011.
Amsterdam is one of the few places where being gay genuinely seems to matter very little to the society.
The Pride Parade is fun to watch and the city centre comes almost to a standstill for the duration of the parade. (Actually Queensday is more fun though – during Pride, the straight population seems to think that the city is one big bachelorette party, so much so that there are even specific street parties for gay-friendly people, to try to keep the numbers in the gay areas at a manageable level.
SteveC
It’s annoying however that France and Belgium are succeeding in getting the Dutch government to close down the coffee-shops, and that to buy marijuana in the Netherlands from 1 January 2013, you will require a ‘weed-pass’. Luckily the mayor of Amsterdam says that this new law will not be enforced in Amsterdam – sex and drugs and bad local pop music is what makes Amsterdam function.