Photo: Ingridtaylor/Flickr
San Francisco and New York City, arguably two of the greatest, gayest cities on earth, each holding down a respective coast. So we're at a bit of standstill at the moment: both cities hold their big Pride events on the same weekend (this weekend -- helpful really, isn’t it?) and both events have fabulous queer-friendly activities planned, so what to do? What to do? Which city reigns supreme in the gay traveler's mind?
Our friends at travel booker/aggregator Kayak.com took this conundrum and applied a little Nate Silver action to it, crunching search term stats and finding a winner...
Duh duh duuuuhn... San Francisco!
"With two hotly anticipated Pride celebrations coinciding in June, KAYAK took a look to see what the most popular Pride was for 2011. According to the KAYAK research, San Francisco wins as the most searched Pride destination!
Comparing hotel searches for SF and NYC for this upcoming weekend (weekend of Pride) to the four weekends following Pride, NYC hotel searches were up 194% and SF hotel searches shot up a whopping 243%, making SF the ultimate winner."
But airfare and hotels aren't the only factors of course... Check out out battle plan below and see where your allegiance lies.
San Francisco vs. New York City
Event 1: March Grand Marshals
SF: Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis and LGBTQ activist Chaz Bono
VERSUS
NYC: “It Gets Better” founders Dan Savage and Terry Miller
Event 2: Shopping up a sexy storm
SF: Places like Density and Good Vibrations are sure not to disappoint
VERSUS
NYC:Babeland and Marc by Marc Jacobs always puts smiles on our faces.
Event 3: History and drinking – a mixer like no other
SF: The Lonestar Saloon where bears (and maybe some cubs) will be hanging out getting a few Pride specials all weekend.
VERSUS
NYC: Stonewall Inn, one of the most important landmarks in LGBT history and still serving it up proper.
Event 4: Everything else and more
SF: San Francisco Pride website
VERSUS
NYC: New York City Pride website
Who do you call as the winner?
