Rainbow Rooms: Great Pride Hotels

Get cool digs in five hot cities this Pride season. We've taken the guesswork out of finding a hotel and lined up a trio of great base camps.

One option is located close to the festivities, requiring little more than stumbling out the door to find the revelry. One spot caters to the budget-minded Pride traveler, and one choice is a little further afield, close enough to attend the Pride events, but removed enough -- in location or attitude -- to allow a break from the rainbow flag-waving.

More Hot Deals on Hotels

With occupancy rates down, hotels and booking sites have come up with new promotions to get visitors in the door. Check out this week's bargains, including 'pay your age' deals and free phones.

Chicago's Talbott Hotel is letting past guests pay their age on their birthday this year for a deluxe king bedded room. The offer is good for anyone who was a registered guest at the luxury boutique hotel in 2008. For example, if you stayed at the hotel last year and you're turning 40 this year, you can get a room on your 2009 birthday for $40 plus tax. Additionally, any guest who stays at the hotel in 2009 will have the same offer to "Pay your age" on their birthday in 2010. Of course, it's a better deal if you're 30 than if you're 80.

Vegas Spotlight: Luxor Hotel/Casino

Even after 16 years in business, Las Vegas's famed Pyramid-shaped Luxor hotel remains the eighth wonder of the modern world. Regarding its impressive, 30-story exterior, I was awestruck, like contemporary Pharos admiring our regal resting places. And the interior -- with its expansive city of buildings and structures, appearing more like a Nile River Valley resort than a garden variety casino -- is nothing to sniff at either, starting with the wondrous atrium lobby, as I experienced on a recent visit.

Vegas Spotlight: Mandalay Bay

Upon experiencing The Valley of the Waterfalls where fire pots, mythical architecture and lush landscaping conspire to create a scenic wonderland, you'll agree, as I did on a recent visit, that Mandalay Bay -- the two tower, almost 5,000-room hotel surrounded by a tropical oasis --is one of the truest (and most tranquil) resort hotels on the Strip.

While adjacent hotels like The Venetian and Paris Las Vegas attempt to approximate foreign sophistication with gaudy ostentation, Mandalay better captures the international exoticism of Southeast Asia with a "less is more" approach -- think tropical landscaping, Balinese carvings and the impressive Shark Reef Aquarium.

"Micro-Hotels" For The Shrunken Travel Budget

A New York hotel with luxury sheets and state-of-the-art audio for less than $100 a night? All you have to sacrifice is a bit of privacy and a little -- well -- a lot of space.

Moving beyond budget accommodations to an idea that borrows from a ship's berth or a train's sleeper car, developers are gambling that in tough times travelers looking for a little pampering at lower prices will embrace "micro-hotels."

Budget London: Fewer Pounds, More Fun

London is vast and its costs legendary, but don't be dazzled to the point of dismay by the glittering constellation of hotels and restaurants that jostle for the spotlight.

London caters to travelers from every part of the financial spectrum -- from "budget" to "don't have to ask the price." The wonderful thing about London is that so much of what makes this gargantuan metropolis -- its parks, museums, architectural magnificence and friendly inhabitants -- can be encountered for free.

Puerto Rico: Gateway To The Gay Caribbean

Puerto Rico is one of the gayest spots in the Caribbean. With much to offer gay sun worshipers, its sandy shores are U.S. territory (the area code for Puerto Rico is 787), so there are no customs formalities for travelers from the mainland. And the large number of flights from numerous gateways in the U.S. means convenient, inexpensive access.

But if you think Puerto Rico is just another chunk of U.S. soil, you haven't been to spectacular Old San Juan. The island capital looks more like a suburb of Madrid than an American city. It possesses a mystical ambience -- Castilian remains the predominant language, the music is tropical, the food totally un-gringo, gasoline is sold by the liters, and the architecture is an-old world delight! Old San Juan is the real thing, scenic and filled with interesting sightseeing and shopping opportunities.

Review: Hotel Rex in San Francisco

Stepping out of the hustle-and-bustle of the San Francisco theater district and into the lobby of the Hotel Rex is literally trans-formative. Not only does it enclose you like a protective cultural cocoon from the cacophony rising from the street outside, it transports you back to a bohemian world of salons, stiff drinks and irony. In a good way.

Review: San Francisco's Hotel Vitale

Proving that hospitality AND chic can actually co-exist in a hotel, San Francisco's Hotel Vitale is quickly earning itself a reputation as the place to stay in the City by the Bay.

Located on some prime real estate just across from the Bay Bridge and the gourmand's wet dream Ferry Building, Hotel Vitale ably covers all the basic we've come to expect in a luxury hotel: high-thread count sheets, fluffy towels and an intimacy set, as well a full tech-suite (Wi-Fi, LCD flat screen TV and CD player).