Hit the Roof: Top 5 Rooftop Bars

Originally published on OutTraveler.com
by Aefa Mulholland

Make the most of those last rays of summer by eking out the evenings at these first-rate open-air bars.

Sometimes having your head in the clouds is a good thing. For overseas sky sipping, we adore 64th-floor Sky Bar at restaurant Sirocco, on top of the Lebua Hotel, Bangkok -- at 65 stories above the chaotic streets below, it’s the rooftop bar with the most altitude; London’s 1.5-acre, Alhambra, English Woodland, and Tudor-themed Roof Gardens on chic Kensington High Street; and Sky Lounge, Hotel Continentale, Florence, which perches atop of the Medieval Torre de Consorti and overlooks the Ponte Vecchio and the river Arno. Nearer home, as summer canters to a close, we’re planning on topping off our night at one of our five favorite North American rooftop bars.

Lesbian Nightlife: Let's Get Together!

As a lesbian in the gayest city in the world, you’d think going out and enjoying the San Francisco nightlife would be a no-brainer. Well, think again.

My friends and I find ourselves having the same conversation every weekend: where should we go? Do we really feel like dealing with the crowds at the gallery? Is that hot bartender even still working there?

If we’re having that conversation in SF, I imagine many of you might be having the same one where you live...

Wanted: Nightlife Correspondents

We're launching a new nightlife section on Gay.com, and we're looking for a few – ok, maybe 50 – gay men to contribute. 

Here's the thing:  We're tired of the same old calendar listings currently offered readily to gays on the Internet.  Sure, calendar listings serve a purpose -- if you’re looking for often outdated, bare-bone lists of only the most established nightly destinations and events, in only major cities, written by someone who’s generally never been.

Sweetbriar 5: We Are Still Gay Out Of The Castro

I know there was a time when the Castro was the only haven for gays in San Francisco, but wake up my fellow boys of fabulousness! It ain’t 1975. Of all the cities in the world, San Francisco is one place where being gay doesn’t turn too many heads regardless of were you are the gay mecca. So venture out of the Castro and leave your gayness on dance floors all over the city. Here are a few picks this week to get you started.

Sweetbriar 5: We Oughta Be Startin’ Somethin’

Boy, the first couple of months of 2009 have definitely been a bang, and this week we continue with somethings new, renewed, and rejuvenating.

From new clubs opening in the Castro to the up rise of gay nightlife in Union Square, we have definitely started something worth talking about. And I sure love to talk. Here are my top 5 picks for San Francisco!

Girl Bar Dinah Shore Week

There’s a reason why Girl Bar Dinah Shore Week is known as the "Greatest Women’s Week on Earth". It’s all about the girls -- and this year they promise a larger, wilder and sexier event.

This isn’t just any vacation; it’s the unforgettable experience that inspired the international hit series "The L Word" and no one does it better than Girl Bar. That’s why this year, all Girl Bar Dinah Shore Week main events, including Girl Bar’s gigantic world-famous pool parties, are centrally located at the Wyndham (the main host hotel) and the Hotel Zoso. Additional room accommodations are also available at the Courtyard by Marriott.

And this year the Wyndham is all Girl Bar, all the time.

Spring Parties Turn Up The Heat

Shake off the winter blues and bound into spring's sizzling hot social schedule. There is a thrilling slew of parties about to perk up gay and lesbian calendars, from ostentatious oceanside options to decadent desert diversions. Check the dates, check your luggage and come out to play.

Saint-at-Large Black Party: March 21, 2009 New York City (www.saintatlarge.com)

The Black Party throbs through the New York night from Saturday night till 3 p.m. Sunday -- a seething sea of leather and bare flesh packed onto a dance floor meant to hold half that number of bodies. Brilliant, brutal and bizarre stage shows, featuring some of the best porn names, turn tricks and treats that would warrant infinite XXX ratings. (Gay men)

Gay Mardi Gras: Goin' Down In The Bayou!

It makes perfect sense that Mardi Gras should be the most fabulous celebration in New Orleans, and that New Orleans should have the most fabulous Mardi Gras in the United States. For it was on Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") in 1699 that explorer Pierre LeMoyne first encamped here along the Mississippi River.

Mardi Gras is known in many parts of the world as Carnival, from the Italian for "taking away the meat" or "putting away the flesh." In New Orleans, the ribald several-day celebration consists of colorful parades, gala costume balls and especially in the gay community, plenty of fleshly pursuits.