Gay Friendly Washington, DC

Visiting Washington can be a little overwhelming because there are so many options for the gay traveler to enjoy: you could spend days traveling around the DC-area (including Virginia and Maryland) visiting the numerous historical landmarks, art galleries, monuments and sites of significance. More studious boys could while away the hours in the 15+ Smithsonian museums while the Type-As could put on their hiking boots and explore the Caverns of Luray, Virginia and the beaches of Rehoboth, Delaware. But in that smorgasbord of options lies the challenge: figuring out exactly what you want to do in DC - especially when the cityscape and social scene are going through an expansive transition.


Gay Friendly Hotels in Washington, DC:

Your first big decision when visiting DC is figuring out where to stay. That DC diversity extends from the city to its hotel scene which offers as many options as Ted Kennedy has shot glasses. From sprawling Williamsburg-themed hotels with reminders of Presidents past to hip and sexy boutique hotels minutes away from the Dupont and Logan Circle scene, you'll find something to meet your taste. Like any big cities, pay attention to your hotel's locale. DC is relatively small - the city-proper is just 70 square miles (compared to Los Angeles' 4000) but still, if you are lobbying your Senator, you'll want to stay in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, not 30 miles away in Dulles, Virginia (a common tourist mistake).

If your work involves Finance, you might want to be near Foggy Bottom which is close to the World Bank and hundreds of other financial instructions. Or depending on your taste, you might choose to be close to Georgetown's shopping or Dupont Circle's gay ground zero.

No matter why you came to town, you'll most likely want to find a gay friendly hotel in the Northwest section of town. Washington, D.C. is diamond-shaped and divided into four quadrants: Northwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. The axes bounding the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. Northwest is home to most hotels and attractions. Southeast used to be the seedy part of town but it currently undergoing an overhaul to house DC's new baseball stadium. Northeast is primarily residential while Southwest is a small sliver of land that comprises most of the memorial and monument-dominated National Mall, bounded by the Potomac River.

Popular gay-friendly neighborhoods include:

* Dupont Circle with its people-watching (some call it cruising) fountain and wide array of gay-friendly clubs, bookstores and restaurant. Up and coming neighboring Logan and Scott Circle are in the midst of gentirficatin so you'll find boarded up row-houses surrounded by gay-friendly coffee shops, real estate offices and a few boutiques and stores.

* Adams Morgan is alive with a world of ethnic restaurants, clubs and music lounges - and amazing late night pizza. Adams-Morgan, spreading north of Dupont Circle, has historically been D.C.'s most bohemian and funky neighborhood, but more recently has become a very international enclave of recent immigrants, predominantly from Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America, as well as a growing gay population.

* Georgetown's stately, beautifully preserved brick mansions and row houses from the eighteenth and 19th centuries might be recognizable to movie buffs as the setting for 1972's The Exorcist or synonymous for others with its university. In any case, the neighborhood's main thoroughfares are Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.


Getting around Gay Friendly Washington!

Planes
DC is served by 3 major airports: National or DCA (it's full name: Ronald Reagan Washington National airport�!), Dulles (IAD) located 35 miles and $45 cab ride away and Baltimore International (BWI) which is an hour or $75 cab ride away. You may think DCA is the obvious choice, and it is if you want the convenience of taking the subway to your hotel, but BWI and Dulles serve many more airlines and you can often get a very cheap flight into BWI or Dulles, which more than offsets the cost of the cab. It pays to explore your flight options.

Trains
The Washington DC Metro Subway is modern, clean and the recommended way for tourists to get around. The 106 mile subway system directly serves all the major sites including the Mall, Smithsonian museums and war memorials while the White House and Capitol Buildings are a short walk away. Buying that first Metro subway ticket from a fare machine can be confusing. Ask for help from someone or the Metro station master will be glad to explain. Visit wmata.com for all the details. And be sure to remember: stand to the right on the escalator � visitors standing on the left risk the fury of impatient east coasters and even worse, look like a tourist!

Automobiles
This is easy: don't rent a car. Why bother when parking is a pain and traffic sucks and cabs are plentiful? But be aware that Washington's cab drivers determine fares by the zone system. Zone divisions start from the heart of North-West Washington, which constitutes Zone 1 bounded by U St., Florida Ave., 2nd St., E St., and 22nd St. From there, the 8 zones and their 23 subzone divisions radiate outward in a semi-circular arrangement. Since the mileage covered by the radiating zones increases, subzones divide zones to better correspond fares to mileage. If your cab ride is confined to Zone 1 or a subzone of Zones 2 thru 8, you'll only pay the base fare of $4.00. Crossing subzone or zone borders incurs an additional charge of approximately $1.50 for each additional border.

Based on this pricing system, some trips you can travel a good distance all within the boundaries of a single zone for a cheap $4.00. On the down side, other trips can be shorter yet cross a zone border for an additional charge. Based on the District's law of averages, all your trips over a period of time should even out to the equivalent cost of metered fares - but be aware that your driver may also tack on additional fees for rush hour, gas surcharge, snow emergency or extra passengers. It sounds confusing but in general, most cab rides around the city cost around $10 including tip.


What to do? Where to go?

Washington's museums and monuments, including the White House and other government buildings, are its main tourist draw. Most monuments and government buildings allow visitors again after being highly restricted following the events of September 11, but allow extra time to get through more stringent security checks and be prepared to be flexible with your sightseeing itinerary, especially if the terrorism-threat level is raised. Key tourist sites include:

* The Capitol (First St, between Constitution and Independence Aves; 202/ 225-6827; www.aoc.gov), from which all streets in D.C. emanate. The Capitol is open to the public Monday through Saturday for free guided tours only (no wandering); daily ticket distribution begins at 9:00 a.m. at the Capitol Guide Service kiosk.

* The Library of Congress (First St. between E. Capitol St. and Independence Ave, SE; 202/707-5000; www.loc.gov) is the world's most extensive library, housed in three separate buildings: the Jefferson, the Adams, and the Madison.

* The White House (1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW; 202/456-7041, TDD 202/456-2121; www.whitehouse.gov) tends to be closed to everyone except school children and those on pre-planned tours. You might try to write your Congressperson for tickets but if not, it is still a kick to see such an iconic building even if only from the outside.

* The Mall is flanked by such colossal monuments and buildings as the Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial , The Washington Monument, the Holocaust museum, The FDR , The National Archives (Constitution Ave, between Seventh and Ninth Sts, NW; 202/501-5205; www.nara.gov) which houses the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights

* You could spend a solid week canvassing the Mall's vast array of Smithsonian museums alone but if you only have time for one or two, choose the Air and Space Museum. It is one of the largest and most visited museum in the world and is home to such iconic items as the Apollo spacecraft, Charles Lindberg's Spirit of St Louis and actual moon rocks. The place is usually crowded but it is worth seeing. The other Smithsonian you don't want to miss is the museum of American History which features Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Archie Bunker�s chair, Fonzi's jacket and the Hope diamond. You can whip through this museum in 20 minutes if you have a good map or tour guide, though if you have the time you could spend hours poring over the exhibit of ancient coins (really!)


CULTURAL /ARTISTIC

Washington has a heavyweight theater scene, just behind New York and Los Angeles. Key attractions include:

* The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2700 F St, NW; 202/467-4600 or 800/444-1324; www.kennedy-center.org), comparable to New York's Lincoln Center, is composed of five theaters and concert halls and attracts world-class opera, drama, dance, and symphonic companies from the world over.

* The American Film Institute (202/833-2348; www.afi.com) is also here, serving as America's cinematic library. The AFI shows film classics nightly.

* The National Gallery of Art (Fourth St, and Constitution Ave, NW; 202/737-4215; www.nga.gov) is divided into two wings: the West Wing contains some of the world's most priceless and breathtaking paintings and sculptures, the kind you've seen only pictures of your whole life, such as Rembrandt's Self-Portrait, Renoir's Girl with a Watering Can, Monet's Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, and many, many more.

* One block from the White House is the esteemed Corcoran Gallery of Art (17th and E Sts, NW; 202/639-1700; www.corcoran.org), which houses one of the finest collections of 18th- to 20th-century American art in the country.

* Each season the acclaimed Shakespeare Theater (450 7th St, NW; 202/547-1122 or 877/487-8849; www.shakespearedc.org) presents five plays by Shakespeare and other classical playwrights in its 449-seat performance space in the heart of Washington, D.C.'s Pennsylvania Quarter arts district.

* Near Thomas Circle on 14th St, N W, is a group of avant-garde theaters that regularly stage experimental, gay-themed, and new playwrights' work: The Source Theater (1835 14th St, NW; 202/462-1073; www.sourcetheatre.com), the Studio Theater (1333 P St, NW; 202/332-3300; www.studiotheatre.org) and the Woolly Mammoth Theater Company (917 M St, NW; 202/289-2443; ww.woollymammoth.net).


Shopping - a Gay Man's Dream in Washington, DC

No matter where you stay in Washington D.C., you're never far from good shopping. Malls or areas with a wide variety of shops include:

* Union Station on 50 Massachusetts Ave boasts over 130 Shops and restaurants.

* The Shops at Georgetown Park has a wide selection of stores from Ann Taylor and Polo/Ralph Lauren to The Limited and Express.

* Eastern Market 7th and C St. SE � Washington 202-544-0083

* Mazza Gallerie 5300 Wisconsin Ave. � Washington 202-966-6114 � 18 Shops

* Pentagon City � a huge Virginia mall on the Metro's blue line train that houses 120 stores.

* Devoted outlet shoppers should brave the 30 minute drive to Potomac Mills (2700 Potomac Mills Circle; I-95S, exits 156, 158B; 703/643-1855; / ww.potomacmills.com) in Prince William, Virginia, home to almost 200 discount outlets.

For a more family-friendly feel, visit Lambda Rising (1625 Connecticut Ave, NW; 202/462-6969; www.lambdarising.com) which is the big gay bookstore or find Universal Gear (1601 17th St, NW; 202/319-0136; www.universalgear.com), just above Chaos, selling gay-oriented clothing. Stop by Reincarnations (1401 14th Street, NW; 202/319-1606; www.reincarnationsfurnishings.com) for an eclectic mix of furnishings, unusual decorative accessories and gifts.


Gay Friendly Dining in Washington, DC

Washington D.C. offers lots of great restaurants that will please anyone's appetite. You can eat everything from seafood to sushi and do it with a fantastic view. Restaurants serving Italian, French, American, and Seafood can all be found close by. Washington's dining scene reflects its international character just as much as its ability to be all things to all people. There are four-star, world-class restaurants catering to diplomats and power brokers, trendy eateries operated and patronized by the gay community, and positively down-home joints that have a Southern-fried feel about them.

It's citizens myriad nationalities allow you to find an Ethiopian tapas-style (small portions shared among the table) restaurant across the street from some of the best local-grown crab-cakes in town. DC is close to the coast so you'll find the seafood fresh and creatively prepared.

Whether you're in town for business or luxurious relaxation, shopping or dining, you'll find it in DC. PrideCityGuide invites you to peruse our pages and visit any of our gay-friendly featured partners. Had a good experience? Tell them you found them on "Pride City Guide"! And tell us by posting your feedback for your fellow travelers.

Gay Nightlife in Washington, DC

From people watching in Dupont Circle and Georgetown to power grabbing on Capitol Hill; from the high-heeled drag race on 17th Street to the drag-queen brunches of Adams Morgan; Gay DC offers a unique scene. For as Conservative a town as DC can be, gay and lesbian nightlife presents locals and visitors a remarkably wide selection, from mild to wild, and always with the option to see, be seen and to be part of many different scenes.

Most of Washington's gay nightlife takes place in the Dupont Circle area, with 17th Street now surpassing P Street as the place to be. Logan Circle is home to several new bars that seem to be steering away from loud dance clubs to more intimate mingling establishments. A recent stadium and condo construction boom cost DC several of its hottest and most popular bars but there are still plenty of other options though due to the scene's relatively small size, you often run into the same faces everywhere you go - which isn't a bad thing! DC men are hot! D.C.'s gay crowd has had a reputation or being white-bread, button-down, and uptight, but the stereotype is overstated. When it comes to men, DC offers a varied smorgasbord of selection: there are many universities in town so you'll find fresh-faced college boys alongside eager Capitol interns. Its international flare assures a broad nationality spectrum making it possible to meet Germans, Argentineans and Latinos on the same dance floor.

DC once was home to a whole block of bars that featured dancing boys wearing nothing more than socks and a smile. The stadium construction boom saw the demolition of all but one. We're hoping those boys find a new home soon so they no longer have to roam the streets of south east DC in their g-strings and footies. For the circuit crowd, DC's Cherry Ball is a popular annual fete held every spring. Gay Pride is a big event in Washington as well! The gay parade and festival is a massive, all-day affair down near the mall. After the street fair, the local gyms swell as revelers head in for their "pre-party pump up" and the bars burst at the seams like a cheap pair of jeans.

For more information on Washington DC nightlife, look through the list of bars on Pride City Guide, or pick up a copy of the DC Blade newspaper to keep apprised of all the upcoming events.

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