Gay Travel Bloggers Sharing the Best LGBTQ+ Travel Tips and Tricks from Around the World
About Michael and Matt Travel
We’re Michael and Matt! Two travel-obsessed husbands from Portland, Oregon. We are sharing our stories to bring you the best of the best in LGBTQ+ travel destinations, gay travel tips, hints, and advice from local guides and the experts themselves! We love travel so much, we started providing gay group tours with SideQuests Travel. Read all about it below.
We hope that what we share not only inspires you to travel, but provides you with the information you need to plan your itineraries and take the best trips of your life!
We first met in 2014 over YouTube, through posting our coming out videos. One week later, Michael purchased a flight to visit Matthew in Seattle. And the rest? Basically history! We fell in love, Matthew moved to Nebraska for a number of years to be with Michael while he worked through Dental school, and after graduation, we got married! Michael works as a full-time dentist, and Matthew works as a full-time freelance photographer and writer.
When we are not traveling or working, we create and post content on YouTube and Instagram, and here on our blog!
For more information on Michael and Matt’s work, to inquire about a potential project, or to just say hello, feel free to get in touch.
Welcome to Our Gay Travel Blog!
Why We Started SideQuests Travel:
We’ve always believed the best parts of any trip aren’t on the itinerary. We didn’t start SideQuests to tick boxes, we started it for the stuff you can’t plan: the people you meet, the shared meals, the “holy sh*t—I didn’t know I needed this” kind of moments…
Let’s face it, we’re in a loneliness pandemic. People spend more time on computers now than they do with friends. We struggle to make connections, to feel seen, to have a sense of true-belonging within the our communities (especially within the LGBTQ+ community). Many of us may feel like we don’t know where we fit… I’ve felt that way for much of my life, but I’ve also found that when I take the opportunity to travel—I’m surprised by not only the people that are brought into my life, but how I open up as well. My walls come down. My biggest life-altering moments and ‘epiphanies’ have all happened while traveling and due to conversations with other travelers.
This is how SideQuests was born, by asking the simple question: what if LGBTQ+ folks had a safe space to travel that’s centered around building community and connecting with others?
So now, we lead group trips for LGBTQ+ people and the allies who love us. We curate experiences that bring us together in ways you can’t plan for but will remember for years. Many folks come solo, many come as couples. You don’t need to be “good at travel,” you just need to be up for an adventure and willing to say yes.
This is the friends’ trip you didn’t have to plan. Boutique stays, thoughtful experiences, and space to be yourself without hesitation. We’ll see the headline sights and linger where good conversation shows up. Come as you are, and leave with new friends and a bigger sense of community.
Travel for your character arc.
