LGBT Travel - Europe's Top 10 LGBT Friendly Destinations!

Over the years we have shared a number of posts on gay travel. We have even compared gay travel to straight travel, so when we received an email from James Villa Holidays with an updated list of Europe's LGBT friendly destinations we thought it was worth sharing.

Before getting started here is a link to our post on Gay Travel, Is It Any Different To Straight Travel?

Our 2012 post on Not-So-Gay-Travel: Better To Be Safe Than Sorry a list of destinations to avoid, that sadly hasn't changed that much in 6 years.

So which destinations are Europe's Top 10 Most LGBT Friendly?

(The following list has been complied using research from DestinationPride, which looks at six key factors and gives each destination a score out of 100)

The key factors!

In first place and a recent destination our ours is the Canary Islands. A group of islands of the coast of Africa, owned by Spain, that includes Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria where we spent a week earlier this year. You can read our tips for visiting the island here.

In second place, and home to our most recent destination - the Balearic Islands consisting of Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca. A boats trip from mainland Spain and only 2 hours flight from the UK they are perfect for a quick getaway, especially if you want somewhere warm!

Third place goes to another country we love, The Netherlands or Holland. We celebrated Laura's 26th birthday there and have to agree it is one of the most LGBT friendly places we've ever been to.

Germany featuring at number 6 is good to see. We had a great mini break to Stuttgart to meet a German friend we had made through the blog and had a wonderful time. Our trip write up is here.

And finally in at number 10 is France. We love Paris but would love to explore further afield. It's such a beautiful country with plenty to offer in addition to the food. Our last weekend trip to Paris is detailed here. 

There are definitely some destinations on this list that we need to add to our to-do list - we chose Oslo, Norway over Denmark as we had friends who had just moved there but we'd love to head back to that part of the world. 

Have you been to any countries on the list? What was your experience?