Detours Gay Travel Blog

A Detours love story

• Shane Bingham
• Feb 17, 2022

Eric & Phillip
_{Honeymoon - Thailand, 2016}

We met nearly 10 years ago and were married in North Carolina on September 24, 2016.  For our honeymoon and first trip with Detours we chose to go to Thailand. That trip would come to mean so much to us in several ways.  Miles and Shane are amazing and inspiring people. They took great care of us on our trip, even arranging for fire dancers during dinner one evening.  Our trip was full of wonderful people, some who have become best friends. But we also fell in love with a beautiful country full of so much culture and happiness.  We’ve also gone to Croatia and Greece. Detours is a perfect way to travel and we look forward to our next adventure.

Ryan & Moises
_{Honeymoon - Costa Rica, 2022}

My husband and I just finished the Costa Rica trip for our honeymoon. We had never been to Costa Rica and wanted to be able to see as much as possible. I had previously taken [Detours'] Thailand trip, so I thought this would be a great way to accomplish this. The idea of sharing your honeymoon with 10 other gay men may not seem so romantic. However, I was aware that we were able to spend as much time with the group, or alone, as we wanted. Not surprisingly, we thoroughly enjoyed the other travelers and spent the majority of the time as a group. The activities were all amazing. I highly recommend the white water rafting/tubing, zip-lining and sloth tour. 
 

The major draw to detours is how effortless it is for travelers. As soon as we got off the plane, the only decision we had to make was what activities to do the following day. Brandon, group leader, had everything perfectly planned and organized. He even treated us to a bottle of champagne upon arrival! He set us up with a spa day, recommended great restaurants, and organized for our laundry to be done. My husband wanted to plan a surprise Birthday date night for me, and Brandon helped him purchase flowers, pick a perfect restaurant, and found a chocolate cafe for dessert. We then went to the natural hot springs for drinks and to relax. 

It definitely was not a typical honeymoon, but we had just done a vacation by ourselves and wanted to do something new, without having to do any of the leg work! We made some great friends and even better memories. Brandon was a gem and would love to go on another tour with him! Many good laughs, activities and lots of drinks!!

Don & Max
_{Planned Honeymoon - Italy, 2022}

In early 2018, i was living in South Korea, and I booked a tour to New Zealand for the end of '18. Shortly after I booked, I met Max, who little did I know, was destined to change my life. We were dating when I went on the New Zealand trip. Max was working, so he stayed in Korea and I went. It was during that tour I realized just how much Max meant to me, and how I didn’t enjoy the trip as much because he wasn’t experiencing it with me. It was that moment I decided I never wanted to travel without Max ever again. So I began planning my next trip, to Europe, for Max and I, with Shane, the NZ trip leader. That is when I planned to propose and was working with Shane to pick the perfect spot to propose, etc… we had everything in place when COVID hit. That’s when the trips started getting cancelled. Ours was one of them. So the best laid plans often go awry. I still proposed, though in Korea rather than Germany. We were married not long after, and of course I shared all of this with my friends at Detours. The moment the trips started up again, Max and I booked one. Now we are awaiting our rather late honeymoon on another Detours trip to Tuscany late this summer.

Keith & Don
_{Honeymoon - Greece, 2019}

Our first trip with Detours was our honeymoon trip to Greece in September 2019. We were not sure how ‘group travel’ would work for a honeymoon but trip leader Miles & Detours made this memorable and romantic! We had plenty of alone time for “celebrating”us and enjoyed meeting some great people from around the world while exploring, sailing, atv’ing, swimming, diving and dining. It was a true celebration!

The icing on the cake was our special honeymoon dinner arranged by Miles for a romantic oceanfront table for two. The taxi driver however heard the name of the restaurant incorrectly and ended up taking us to a working farm restaurant 45 minutes from our hotel and what seemingly could have been a disaster ended up being romantic, flavorful and very unique! We will remember our dinner at Rizes…A journey back to our RIZES (roots)… A journey in time and the history of the original Mykonos back in time. 

Miles was shocked and surprised at our experience and a bit disappointed that we did not get our romantic seaside dinner but we were thrilled to have experienced a culturally unique and very flavorful dinner….. after all Detours is adventure travel! 

John & Ian
_{Honeymoon - Greece, 2016}

Detours is very special to Ian and Myself. We did the Greece Tour for our honeymoon! We also did the Thailand adventure two years ago. And will certainly do many more with Detours. Unfortunately we had to cancel the Caribbean cruise. We have made lifelong friends on our trips. Thanks to Facebook, it is so easy to stay in touch with the whole group.

When we go to the US we catch up with our travel buddies. We even look after them when they come to Sydney.

We look forward to many many more happy memories with Detours.