Top to Bottom Travel

A new travel guide is taking a unique approach to jet setting – by giving the lowdown on destinations and travel tips from two perspectives: a gay male top and bottom.

The aptly named Gay Travel Guide For Tops And Bottoms by Drew Blancs is created for and by gay men whose sexual preference may dictate this summer’s travel plans. Each review is written with sexually charged observations about popular international destinations.

The raunchy book rates a lot more than where to eat, sleep and visit by taking it a step further and ranking local top and bottom gay men with a – gulp – five-point rating system (you can probably guess the criteria). And the destinations? They range from Singapore and Malaysia to Greece, Canada, Thailand and Korea.

“We want to do to gay travel what Fifty Shades of Grey did to erotica, which is revolutionize the way people think,” says Blancs, who admits he was inspired to write the book after gay male friends complained that most other guides failed to take sexual preference into consideration, and instead, lumped all gay men into one fierce and fabulous category.

But thanks to the frank discussion of sex acts, the book’s created no shortage of controversy. When it was promoted on LinkedIn, the site pulled the ads saying they contained “inappropriate content or language.” Google and Facebook, however, have allowed ads for the book to run on their sites – and to much success, says the author.

And while the book – however sexualized – tends to focus more on the mission to meet men than most any other travel guide, it does provide a crash course into the sexual customs, taboos and legality of homosexuality around the world. Think The Joy of Gay Sex meets Fodor’s.