Amsterdam Travel Guide

Amsterdam is Europe's gay epicenter -- in fact, it might just be the most gay-friendly city on the planet. It even has a monument, the Homomonument, dedicated to gays and lesbians who have been persecuted around the world through the ages.

Get information, or just meet people, by visiting COC, Rozenstraat 14 (tel. 020/626-3087; www.cocamsterdam.nl), the Amsterdam branch of the Dutch lesbian and gay organization, open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. At COC's facilities, there's a daytime cafe serving coffee and quiche, a meeting space for special interest groups, weekend discos (mainly men on Fri, women on Sat), and a special ethnic evening called Strange Fruit on Sundays.

COC's national office is just a few doors along, at Rozenstraat 8 (tel. 020/623-4596; www.coc.nl), open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm. The Gay and Lesbian Switchboard (tel. 020/623-6565; www.switchboard.nl), open daily from 10am to 10pm, provides all kinds of information and advice. Call AIDS Infolijn (tel. 0900/204-2040) for info on AIDS.

Gay and lesbian bars and clubs are well publicized. The free biweekly magazine Shark is an excellent source of cultural information, in particular for offbeat and alternative scenes, and has a listings section titled "Queer Fish." Gay News Magazine, a monthly magazine in both Dutch and English, is available free in gay establishments around the city.

The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) (tel. 800/448-8550 or 954/776-2626; www.iglta.org) is the trade association for the gay and lesbian travel industry, and offers an online directory of gay- and lesbian-friendly travel businesses; go to their website and click on "Members."

Many agencies offer tours and travel itineraries specifically for gay and lesbian travelers. Among them: Above and Beyond Tours (tel. 800/397-2681; www.abovebeyondtours.com); Now, Voyager (tel. 800/255-6951; www.nowvoyager.com); and Olivia Cruises & Resorts (tel. 800/631-6277; www.olivia.com).

Gay.com Travel (tel. 800/929-2268 or 415/644-8044; www.gay.com/travel or www.outandabout.com), is an excellent online supplement to the popular Out & About print magazine. It provides regularly updated information about gay-owned, gay-oriented, and gay-friendly lodging, dining, sightseeing, nightlife, and shopping establishments in every important destination worldwide.

The following travel guides are available at many bookstores and from most online booksellers: Frommer's Gay & Lesbian Europe (www.frommers.com), an excellent travel resource to top European cities and resorts; Spartacus International Gay Guide (Bruno Gmünder Verlag; www.spartacusworld.com/gayguide) and Odysseus: The International Gay Travel Planner (Odysseus Enterprises Ltd.); and the annual Damron guides (www.damron.com), with separate books for gay men and lesbians.