Puerto Rico is the most gay-friendly destination in the Caribbean, with lots of accommodations, restaurants, clubs, and bars that actively cater to a gay clientele. A free monthly newsletter, Puerto Rico Breeze, lists items of interest to the island's gay community. It's distributed at the Atlantic Beach Hotel and many of the gay-friendly clubs mentioned in this book.

The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA; tel. 800/448-8550 or 954/776-2626; fax 954/776-3303; www.iglta.org) links travelers up with gay-friendly hoteliers, tour operators, and airline and cruise-line representatives. It offers monthly newsletters, marketing mailings, and a membership directory that's updated once a year. Membership is $200 yearly, plus a $100 administration fee for new members.

Above and Beyond Tours (tel. 800/397-2681; www.abovebeyondtours.com) offers gay and lesbian tours worldwide and is the exclusive gay and lesbian tour operator for United Airlines.

Now, Voyager (tel. 800/255-6951; www.nowvoyager.com) is a San Francisco-based gay-owned and -operated travel service.

Olivia Cruises & Resorts (tel. 800/631-6277 or 510/655-0364; www.olivia.com) charters entire resorts and ships for exclusively lesbian vacations all over the world.

Out and About (tel. 800/929-2268 or 415/644-8044; www.outandabout.com) offers guidebooks and a newsletter 10 times a year that is packed with solid information on the global gay and lesbian scene.

Spartacus International Gay Guide and Odysseus are good, annual English-language guidebooks focused on gay men, with some information for lesbians. You can get them from most gay and lesbian bookstores, or order them from Giovanni's Room bookstore, 1145 Pine St., Philadelphia, PA 19107 (tel. 215/923-2960; www.giovannisroom.com).

Gay Travel A to Z: The World of Gay & Lesbian Travel Options at Your Fingertips, by Marianne Ferrari (Ferrari Publications), is a very good gay and lesbian guidebook series.