People from Los Angeles love to make fun of San Francisco and vice versa. We might not admit it openly, but behind the rivalry, we kind of like each other.

We love our job, really we do, most days it’s just as much fun as a tickle party at former Rep. Eric Massa’s house. But it’s important to get away every now and then...

"It’s my favorite getaway," said Linda Stiles as she embraced her girlfriend in the pool at the gay Russian River Resort. She added that she gets to the Sonoma County town of Guerneville several times a year.

Dallas will probably never shed the image it gained from the eponymously named 1980s primetime soap opera in the minds of many Americans. But you can’t fault the Texas metropolis for trying.

San Diego was in crisis during my trip earlier this month. For the first two days of my visit, the temperature didn’t get above the mid-50s. It was windy. At one point, there was even light rain.

I was bundled up as I walked through the snow in a pristine forest earlier this month. Kids and adults were cross-country skiing, sledding, and playing in the snow. Just an hour later, I was at a patio restaurant in a T-shirt in the warm sun looking for a table with shade.

Las Vegas, once home to all-you-can-eat buffets and gritty gambling grottos, now shoots for the stratosphere with the opening of the 67-acre CityCenter. At a cost of $8.5 billion, CityCenter is the most expensive private construction project in America.

Writer Ed Walsh explores several German cities and their gay sensibilities in his on-going report on Gay Germany. This week Walsh discusses Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt.

The recession, lower gas prices, and cheaper airline fares have made a trip to Palm Springs a great value. And the city’s tourism bureau hopes that more and more Californians will stay in their own backyard for a more economical vacation.

The owner of the gay-oriented Saratoga Springs retreat in Lake County said the historic mineral spa resort is a victim of the nation’s current credit crisis and is seeking investors and business to keep its doors open.

Jeff Cartney and his partner, Thom Morrill, may best illustrate why Palm Springs is one of the favorite gay resort destinations in the world.

The competition for LGBT tourists is no longer confined to urban cities or tropical destinations. The battle over gay travelers is increasingly being waged on the ski slopes.

A look of shock came across the face of an Argentine woman I met while we were waiting in the subway in Buenos Aires. I had been talking to her in broken Spanish about the Bay Area’s transit system. I mentioned that it costs $1.50 to ride buses and the subway in San Francisco and even more to take BART outside of the city.

A few days off found Out There motoring down the coast highway to Monterey, invited to be a part of a Guys Getaway gay press tour courtesy of the Cannery Row Company there. We joined two of our colleagues, Darren Cooper of Envy Man magazine and Tyler Steele of Instinct, for a few days of R&R that included some quality time kayaking amongst the marine life in the Bay. Gosh, did we need any special gear for such an athletic endeavor?