The 8 best LGBT weekends away in the UK (2024)

In terms of acceptance, we’ve come a long way over the past two decades. Rewind to the early Noughties and I’d be leafing through the classifieds in Gay Times magazine to find a hotel that wouldn’t generate the quizzical looks when arriving with my partner. And while you’d hope that no one would bat an eyelid at an LGBT couple checking in nowadays, some parts of the UK are inevitably more favourably disposed than others. These eight seaside, country and city break destinations combine thriving communities with world-class culture and food — and, yep, perhaps even the odd late night for the hell of it too.

1. Margate, Kent

I’m a Margate boy, so the unprecedented revival of the seaside town has been all the more fascinating for me; I remember shopping with my mum on a hipster-free Northdown Road. These days the main Cliftonville thoroughfare is peppered with LGBT-friendly hot spots (the recent census put the LGBT community here at more than 7 per cent — higher than in any other Kent coastal town, or even cities such as Bristol and Manchester).

Key cultural openings in Margate include the new bar and community space Camp, which hosts Monday pop-culture quizzes and monthly book clubs (campmargate.com), and the innovative Margate Arts Club, which has drag nights and life-drawing classes (margatearts.club). Also recommended is the super friendly bar, restaurant and club Faith in Strangers, where we danced after Margate Pride in August (mains from £11.50; faithinstrangers.co.uk).

Speaking of food Margate’s restaurant scene is exploding, with highlights ranging from the new wine bar Sète (small plates from £5.50, setemargate.com) and the pared-back tapas bar Dory’s, owned by the pioneering seafood restaurant Angela’s (mains from £14; angelasofmargate.com), to the much-acclaimed Sargasso wine bar on the harbour (mains from £14; sargasso.bar). Not forgetting the elegant restaurant Waverley House (mains from £15; waverleyhousemargate.co.uk) and media darling the Fort Road Hotel, which has the ex-River Café chef Daisy Cecil in the kitchen (mains from £16; fortroadhotel.com). For that all-important brunch it has to be a BLT brioche at Skinny Dip (mains from £7; skinny-dip-coffee.square.site). And for a killer Sunday roast book the LGBT-friendly pub with rooms the George & Heart (from £15.50; georgeandheart.com), which is moments away from the legendary LGBT bar Sundowners, the place to catch stars of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

Oh, and what of the art scene that kicked off Margate’s rebirth? As well as the Turner Contemporary, two new additions are the Carl Freedman Gallery (carlfreedman.com) and, up on Cliftonville Avenue, Quench (quenchgallery.co.uk).
Details Room-only doubles from £110 (fortroadhotel.com)

2. Glasgow

Edinburgh is, of course, a well-worn destination for LGBT visitors, but its rival has a bigger scene, including Category is Books, one of the UK’s best LGBT bookstores — you’ll find it in Govanhill, on the city’s Southside (categoryisbooks.com). After a long browse here I recommend the Mediterranean small plates at Lobo (from £7; loboglasgow.co.uk) and co*cktails at the new bar Lunar on Nithsdale Road.

Southside is not the only Glaswegian neighbourhood worth exploring. The place to start your weekend is in Merchant City with a visit to the modern-art gallery Goma (free; galleryofmodernart.blog), followed by a boozy, carnivorous lunch in the glam, double-height interior of the Spanish Butcher (mains from £16; spanishbutcher.com).

Happily, this area is also the city’s long-established “gay triangle”, so there’s drag fun at Underground on John Street, cabaret at the petite Katie’s Bar (katiesbar.co.uk) and the local institution Delmonica’s (delmonicas.co.uk), and more dancing at the nightclubs AXM on Glassford Street and Polo Lounge (pologlasgow.co.uk), beneath new LGBT hotel Revolver. A few minutes’ walk away is the Waterloo, the city’s oldest gay pub (waterlooglasgow.wixsite.com).

Finnieston and the West End must also make it onto any itinerary — after devouring quirky small plates at the Ox and Finch (from £8; oxandfinch.com) visit the cavernous Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum on Argyle Street, where LGBT highlights include Peter Paul Rubens’s Portrait of George Villiers, a lover of King James I, and Patricia Cronin’s bronze sculpture Memorial to a Marriage (free).
Details Room-only doubles from £50 (revolverhotel.co.uk)

3. St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex

For the Queer on the Pier festival in Hastings last summer my boyfriend booked a little place he knew a short walk uphill from the St Leonards seafront. Little did I realise how fabulous the vast restored Victorian pile St Benedict would be. Run by gay couple Paul and Stephen, each atmospheric room is filled with 19th-century furniture and unique artworks. The gardens are enviable, the breakfast hearty.

St Leonards and Hastings both deliver for visitors. But unlike medieval Hastings, with its picture-postcard Old Town streets and quaint watering holes, St Leonards is a grandiose, purpose-built 19th-century resort. Start at Goat Ledge, a colourful brunch and co*cktail stop on the beach that brews its own pale ale (goatledge.com), then browse the boutiques of hilly Norman Road before heading up King’s Road, where acclaimed gastropub the Royal faces the railway station (mains from £16; theroyalstleonards.co.uk).

En route don’t miss 25 London Road (25londonroad.com), a newish gallery and store from Kylie’s former creative director William Baker and the club legend Princess Julia. The local LGBT bar Forbidden Fruit on Grand Parade is another must (tffhastings.co.uk), while in Hastings itself there’s the popular Fountain on Queens pub (93 Queen’s Road), owned by another former London gay club legend, Wayne Shires.

Hungry? Try the organic produce and natural wines at rustic-chic Farm Yard (mains from £16.50; farmyardwine.com) or head to the stylish indoor food market Heist (heistmarket.com) and grab a counter spot, as we did, for oysters at Boatyard, Farm Yard’s sister seafood restaurant (mains from £15; boatyardstleonards.com).
Details B&B doubles from £130 (victorianbedandbreakfast.co.uk)

4. Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Personally, I think it’s a shame the nickname Trouser Town (a reference to Hebden’s manufacturing heritage) didn’t survive, although it has at least lent its name to a quaffable local IPA. Speaking of which, how about a pint down the “Old Gay”? That’s the witty moniker for popular Hebden Bridge pub the Old Gate (oldgatehebden.co.uk) during the town’s annual Happy Valley Pride (happyvalleypride.co.uk).

Of course, the West Yorkshire town in the Upper Calder Valley is now uber-famous because of the hit BBC1 show Happy Valley. It is also known as the “lesbian capital of the UK”, and has been something of a focal point for communities with alternative lifestyles since the 1970s, when artists and activists were drawn here by cheap property prices after the closure of the area’s cotton mills.

Visit today and it’s all indie stores, cafés, micropubs and restaurants, as well as boutique B&Bs such as the Hebden Townhouse. Every LGBT itinerary should include the indie and alternative music venue Trades Club (thetradesclub.com), not-for-profit independent cinema the Picture House (tickets from £6.50; hebdenbridgepicturehouse.co.uk) and the plant-based restaurant — and queer fave — Nelsons (mains from £14; nelsonswinebar.co.uk). For crafty beers try Drink on Market Street or the local taproom Vocation & Co (vocationbrewery.com).

Fan of Gentleman Jack? Shibden Hall, the former home of the 19th-century diarist and “first modern lesbian” Anne Lister, is a 20-minute drive away (£8, reopens March 1; museums.calderdale.gov.uk).
Details B&B doubles from £125 (hebdentownhouse.co.uk)

5. Belfast

There’s drag karaoke, and then there’s the wild Sunday afternoon the boyf and I spent with a very up-for-it crowd at the Maverick (themaverickbelfast.com). The bar is in Belfast’s LGBT quarter, which is centred around lively Union Street and is home to other bars such as Union Street (unionstreetbar.com) and the Kremlin (kremlin-belfast.com). And, if it hadn’t been for our early-evening dinner booking at nearby Mourne Seafood (set menu £25 for two courses; mourneseafood.com), we’d have surely ended up throwing some shapes at the city’s brand new LGBT club Libertine (libertinebelfast.com).

Some calm before the madness? Stroll around the buzzy Cathedral Quarter, where you can perch with a classy negroni at the decadent bar of the Merchant, an imposing former bank (themerchanthotel.com). Alternatively, go traditional at White’s, a candlelit tavern dating from 1630 (whitestavernbelfast.com); the Crown, a “liquor saloon” owned by the National Trust (nicholsonspubs.co.uk); or the Duke of York (dukeofyorkbelfast.com), with its neon umbrellas and slogans.

Slay that Guinness hangover with street food at the Victorian St George’s Market on East Bridge Street or the hipper (and wittily named) Common Market (commonmarketbelfast.com). For a Michelin-starred splurge, waterside restaurant the Ox serves delicious, highly photogenic plates such as scallops with coppa, and salt-aged lamb with salsify (set menus from £40; oxbelfast.com).

A walk around the vast political murals of west Belfast provides much-needed contrast, while on the other side of the city the new riverside Titanic Quarter is home to the prow-shaped museum (£25, titanicbelfast.com) and its neighbouring hotel, which has design-led rooms in the former headquarters of Harland & Wolff, the builder of the ill-fated liner.
Details Room-only doubles from £110 (titanichotelbelfast.com)

6. Manchester

OK, let’s start with some culture. First, at Whitworth Art Gallery, where the exhibition (Un)Defining Queer is examining the meaning of the term through works by Maggi Hambling, Wolfgang Tillmans and David Hockney (free; until December 3; whitworth.manchester.ac.uk). Move on to Manchester Art Gallery for Dandy Style, a look at 250 years of men’s fashion, showcasing pieces by Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen (free; until May 1; manchesterartgallery.org), then end up at Manchester Museum, reopening this month after a £15 million reboot (museum.manchester.ac.uk).

I know what you’re thinking: “What about the Canal Street area?” Well, it’s still going strong, with the 1990s stalwart Via (viamanchester.co.uk), the drag bar New York New York (newyorknewyorkbar.com), the long-established lesbian bar Vanilla (vanillagirls.co.uk) and Cruz (cruz101.com), which opened in 1992. On my most recent visit, however, I fell for the Molly House, a tapas bar and tearoom, and something of a salvation after navigating Canal Street on a Friday night (small plates from £4; themollyhouse.com).

And there’s another Manchester neighbourhood you shouldn’t miss. Just beyond the city’s long-vibrant (and still lovely) Northern Quarter — home to the bookshop Queer Lit (queerlit.co.uk), just north of the Abode Manchester hotel — is the former industrial district of Ancoats. It’s packed with foodie favourites such as the Michelin-starred Mana, if you have the cash and the vision to book ahead (set menu from £95; manarestaurant.co.uk), or the wonderful, airy Erst (small plates from £6; erst-mcr.co.uk). And to soak up that banging hangover it has to be the canalside Pollen Bakery, a justifiably popular brunch spot (sandwiches from £6.50; pollenbakery.com).
Details Room-only doubles from £75 (abodemanchester.co.uk)

● The safest countries for LGBT travellers

7. Brighton, East Sussex

My boyfriend went to university in Brighton, and his enduring love for the town means that we regularly rock up at the bars around St James’s Street, which climbs up to the long-established gaybourhood of Kemptown, with the charming Curzon cabaret bar at its tip (curzonbar.co.uk). This area is so queer that it’s almost hard to know where to start if you’re a first-time visitor, but my recommendation is a drag bar crawl on a Sunday afternoon, when local queens perform for free at the most popular bars, including Centre Stage (centrestagebrighton.com), Charles Street Tap (crafted-social.co.uk), Broadway (barbroadway.com), Affinity (affinitygaybar.co.uk) and — a personal favourite — the friendly Queen’s Arms on George Street. Don’t be surprised if you end up at the 4am-licensed basem*nt club Legends, also the town’s best-value LGBT hotel — for a boutique alternative check out A Room with a View.

The food scene is, of course, excellent. Two recent discoveries are the flawless Italian restaurant Tutto, from the owners of the acclaimed Brighton establishments Burnt Orange and the Coal Shed (mains from £14; tutto-restaurant.co.uk), and the tiny Kitgum, which pairs Gujarati and east African cuisine (plates from £7; kitgumkitchen.com).

Other faves include the modern British restaurant Flint House (mains from £13; flinthousebrighton.com) in the Lanes, the hip seafront food market Shelter Hall (shelterhall.co.uk) and, for brunch, the Egg & Spoon in Kemptown (mains from £7.50; eggandspooncafe.com).Afterwards? Why, sweat it out at the life-giving Beach Box wood-fired sauna, of course (beachboxspa.co.uk).
Details Room-only doubles from £55 (legendsresortbrighton.com) or £114 (aroomwithaviewbrighton.com)

8. Cardiff

Drop your bags at Cardiff Bay’s five-star Voco (Kylie’s hotel of choice when in town), before starting the weekend at the self-proclaimed “queerest place on earth”. The Queer Emporium was originally a pop-up during Pride Month in 2021, but is now home to 15 local LGBT makers and vendors, selling literature, art, clothes and more; there’s also a café and a schedule of comedy, speed-dating and film nights (queeremporium.co.uk).

Another unique queer-owned venture is the Glory Stores café, set up by Gays Who Wine and running “judgment-free” wine-tasting events. As well as knocking back the vino, you can munch on artisan fare and sip great coffee (glory-stores.com).

Cardiff’s dining scene is distinctly underrated. For a newish local try Daffodil, which majors on Welsh produce and small artisan suppliers from the historic Cardiff Market in a relaxed, quirky interior (mains from £13; daffodilcardiff.co.uk). Or for Welsh fare with a French twist — duck breast with rillettes, say — book a table in the atmospheric dining room at Thomas, the restaurant of the Pembrokeshire chef Tom Simmons (mains from £23; thomas-pontcanna.co.uk). And if it’s high-quality street food you’re after, Corporation Yard hosts a monthly rotation of eclectic vendors (thecorporationyard.co.uk).

As for Cardiff’s traditional gay scene, you can get stuck into “cabar-oke” at Mary’s (maryscardiff.co.uk), drag at Main Stage on St Mary Street and good old-fashioned karaoke at the Kings on Churchill Way; or party until 5am at Pulse (pulsecardiff.com). And don’t miss Wales’s oldest LGBT venue, the Golden Cross on Hayes Bridge Road — the bar is located in a landmark grade II listed building, and interior nuts will lap up the ceramic tiling.
Details B&B doubles from £149 (stdavids.vocohotels.com)

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