Your Favorite Summer Weekend Getaway

[Guest Starbuck]

It's a Friday in August, so I thought I'd ask... Do you have a favorite getaway for summer weekends, a place you keep going back to, never tire of, always enjoy? And if you do, what are the things you like best about it?

 

For me that place is Cape Cod. I think I've been there for at least a few days every summer of the last 30 years (and sometimes for longer stays, and in other seasons). I love it for beach time and biking, for sinking my feet in the sand or wandering along Commercial Street in P-town. I love the fragile, improbable geography of it ... the fact that you're never far from the water ... the background music of waves breaking on the shore.

[mike carey]

I don't have a favourite summer getaway, for the simple reason that after I left home to go to university and then when I was working, my summer holiday would be to go home and spend time with my family. Sometimes it would only be a week either side of Christmas, sometimes longer.

 

Looking back beyond that, when I was at school we would spend the last two weeks of January at a small coastal village, spend time on the beach, get hopelessly sunburnt and generally relax. I sometimes wish that I had kept doing that, but it has drifted away into the past. Recently, for a couple of years, I spent the last weekend in January camping at a national park on the NSW south coast, but that never became a fixed practice. Cape Cod would be nice, just not in January!

[dcguy20]

I went to P-Town several summers in the 90s. Since then I usually take my vacations in the fall. I'm not so much a beach person, but there are times I just want to get away to the water like Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket.

[Traveler North]

It's a Friday in August, so I thought I'd ask... Do you have a favorite getaway for summer weekends, a place you keep going back to, never tire of, always enjoy? And if you do, what are the things you like best about it?

 

For me that place is Cape Cod. I think I've been there for at least a few days every summer of the last 30 years (and sometimes for longer stays, and in other seasons). I love it for beach time and biking, for sinking my feet in the sand or wandering along Commercial Street in P-town. I love the fragile, improbable geography of it ... the fact that you're never far from the water ... the background music of waves breaking on the shore.

 

 

Born in Boston but moved away years ago. Summer vacations to visit relatives in Boston area meant time at the Cape where they had summer homes. Loved the beaches, visits to Ptown to go whale watching and dune riding. Also in recent years spent hot times there with several escorts. Always a favorite place along with Palm Springs and Key West.

[bigvalboy]

In SoCal my fav was Lake Havasu...well for obvious reasons. Boys, boating, floating, relaxing, skiing, racing and the sheer beauty of the desert and the perfect place to just let the world go by, but that was another time and a world removed... Today it is where I live, where most days are like being some place special.... When I do sneak away for a couple of days, I almost always find myself in 'The Keys'...For me it is a tiny piece of paradise, that time forgot.

[+ Axiom2001]

For me my favorite and easy to get away place is that fabulous "City-by-the-Bay," San Francisco. In fact, I'm driving up today and stay overnight which I'll make unique

because I'm attending a special performance of a notable Cuban Jazz Band which has been touring. I write special because our flag has just been raised outside of the

American Embassy in Habana, Cuba about half an hour ago, a place I passed by innumerable times when I was in this city for week back in March of this year! And I

am assuming that this occasion will be alluded to this evening!

 

...had wanted to see a very special man while there, but he's out-of-town right now!

[Racketjock]

I, too, love Cape Cod and it is a magical place. Being here in the South where it is sweltering this time of year, for the past several years, I have taken to heading to somewhere in Canada for a long weekend if the flights are reasonable (Banff and Whistler are favorites) or Eureka Springs, AR which is drivable from Houston. Its a great little artsy town in the mountains with cooler weather, great activities, and very welcoming to the gays.

[robberbaron4u]

The Grand Hotel at Point Clear in the last weekend of the summer season. . .

[+ WilliamM]

When I lived in Massachusetts, Gloucester & Rockport. As much as I like P-town, it could be a real challenger traffic-wise on weekends from where I lived.

 

Before I retired in 2005 (and had more money), I liked Southern CA -- W. Hollywood, Santa Monica and especially Malibu.

 

If I was rich, I would spent several months in the winter in Australia, especially Sydney and its gay beaches..

 

Sorry for the long answer.

[AdamSmith]

When I lived in MA, it was the southern Maine coast -- Ogunquit, the Yorks, Cape Neddick, Kittery (not the outlets ), also Portsmouth, NH. Infinitely more accessible than Cape Cod, always a traffic mess in summer as WilliamM notes.

 

http://visitingnewengland.com/blog-cheap-travel/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/goldenrod-york-beach.jpg

 

http://www.chubbychinesegirleats.com/wp-content/uploads/media/2011/06/5837785306_93572b5699.jpg

 

http://portsmouthnh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ogunquitplayhouse1.jpg

 

http://www.yorkriverfarms.org/photos/york_beach.jpg

 

http://gatewaytomaine.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/nubble-light.jpg

[+ quoththeraven]

Not that this was a weekend place, but Maine, specifically a lake an hour north of Portland where ex's social worker aunt and school teacher uncle (now both retired) own a non-winterized A-frame built on a lot they bought many years ago. The uncle's father, himself a builder, thought they were nuts for intending to build on a lot with as steep an incline as theirs. (He died without seeing the finished product.) They now spend June through September there, spring and fall in a condo near the eldest of their children living in the States, and winter in a rental or timeshare in Florida.

 

I'm also fond of the mid-Hudson region of NYS and Cape Cod, which I haven't visited since I lived just outside of Boston. I still remember visiting P-town with my then-boyfriend, now my ex. We were there mostly because he wanted to go deep-sea fishing. Fine with me, but not a choice I would have made myself. As it turned out, I caught a fish and he caught nothing.

 

I knew beforehand that P-town had a reputation as artsy and countercultural. I did not know ahead of time that it was an LGBT mecca. I had, however, caught on to this before some men yelled "Straight!" at us as we were holding hands while walking toward the center of town from the lot in which we'd parked the car.

 

I assume it was meant to be the same kind of insult as "Fag!" or "Queer!" aimed at gay men. It didn't work that way for me, though. I doubled over laughing. I'm not sure how my ex felt, as I didn't ask, but I also assumed those involved were disappointed he didn't swing their way. While on the chubby side, he's an otherwise good-looking guy who was carded at bars and while buying alcohol well into his 30s.

[thickornotatall]

Cherry Grove..Fire Island...we stay until late in the season...way after Labor Day....walking to the beach...wearing a terry robe...and dropping it as we get in the water...so quiet....peaceful....a magical place....we still see deer walking in the dunes after the crowd leaves...and only 2 1/2 hours from the city...

[Epigonos]

I was born and raised in Southern California. When I was a kid my family spent weekends camping in and around Ojai and Santa Barbara. When it was time for me to go to university I decided to go to the University of California, Santa Barbara where I lived for four years. I absolutely love that entire area including Ojai, Santa Barbara, Lake Cachuma, and the Santa Inez Valley wine country. It used to be an easy drive from L.A. but over the last few year it as become a real pain in the ass. Even with the difficulty of the drive I still make the trip three or four times a year.If any of you guys find yourself in Santa Barbara make a point of having lunch or dinner at Brophy Brothers. The restaurant serves great fish at very reasonable prices and is located at the commercial pier NOT the main tourist pier.

[AdamSmith]

P.S. Taffy-making at the Goldenrod cafe & confectionery (pictured above), York Beach, Maine.

 

[Rudynate]

At least once every summer, we go to the Yuba River in the Sierra Foothills.

 

http://www.halfordrealestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/yubapc-1024x793.jpg

[+ Just Sayin]

San Diego! We try to go Memorial Day weekend, the 4th of July weekend and Labor Day weekend; great to get out of the desert heat, go to the beach, Balboa Park and walk and dine around Hillcrest.

[geminibear]

My family's cabin near Twin Lakes, Colorado. A little bit of heaven on earth especially after Labor Day. Warm days, cool nights, less tourists.

 

I keep trying to post of picture but for some reason I am unable.

[dcguy20]

Reading everyone's responses makes me want to take a proper summer vacation. Looks like I'll have to plan for summer 2016.

[Battle]

Don CeSar Hotel on St Pete's beach..

[bigvalboy]

My family's cabin near Twin Lakes, Colorado. A little bit of heaven on earth especially after Labor Day. Warm days, cool nights, less tourists.

 

I keep trying to post of picture but for some reason I am unable.

 

Hope this helps a little...

 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/34/d3/65/34d36571014490a1c8d1d4da381ebd68.jpg

[Diverdan]

Door County, Wisconsin for many years was a great vacation spot... sometimes for a weekend, but most often for a week at a time. It's not very "gay" but a fantastic place to unwind, relax, read books, swim in the cold water of Green Bay and Lake Michigan and some smaller inland lakes. But my favorite spot for vacation (although not possible for me for just a weekend) is on any of the islands in Hawaii. And for a long vacation, nothing can beat Australia and New Zealand.

[geminibear]

Hope this helps a little...

 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/34/d3/65/34d36571014490a1c8d1d4da381ebd68.jpg

 

Wow! Yes it does. Not the view from our cabin but I know this place well. Thanks Bigvalboy.

[+ poolboy48220]

I'm not much of a traveller, but for years I'd go with a group of friends to Pinery Provincial Park, in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. Beautiful campground and we found the perfect sites a few years in, open and spacious and a 2-small-dune walk to the beach on Lake Huron.

[Traveler North]

Door County, Wisconsin for many years was a great vacation spot... sometimes for a weekend, but most often for a week at a time. It's not very "gay" but a fantastic place to unwind, relax, read books, swim in the cold water of Green Bay and Lake Michigan and some smaller inland lakes. But my favorite spot for vacation (although not possible for me for just a weekend) is on any of the islands in Hawaii. And for a long vacation, nothing can beat Australia and New Zealand.

 

Agree with you about Hawiai and Australia and Ne Zeeland. Been to both. They are magical