A crane placed the upper arm of a cross atop the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church's soaring central piece, which now stands 172.5 meters (566 feet) above the city, the church said.

With Friday's addition, the Sagrada Familia inched closer to being done. The unfinished monument became the world’s tallest church last year after another part of its central tower was lifted into place.

The first stone of the Sagrada Familia was placed in 1882, but Gaudí never expected it to be completed in his lifetime. Only one of its multiple towers was finished when he died at the age of 73 in 1926, after being hit by a tram.

In recent decades, work has sped up as the basilica became a major international tourist attraction, with people enthralled by Gaudí’s radical aesthetic that combines Catholic symbolism and organic forms.

The inside of the Tower of Jesus Christ is still being worked on. Its exterior is flanked by construction cranes and scaffolding.

Still, topping the central tower, which soars above the transept, has been a priority ahead of celebrations this June that will mark the centenary of Gaudí’s death. The scaffolding surrounding the central tower is expected to be removed by then, in time for the inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ, the church said.

As Gaudí had planned, the cross has four arms so its shape can be recognized from any direction, said Sagrada Familia's rector, the Rev. Josep Turull. If Barcelona’s city government will allow it, the original plan also includes a light beam shining from each of the cross’s arms, symbolizing the church’s role as a spiritual lighthouse, he added.

Millions of tourists visit the Sagrada Familia every year, and entrance fees largely fund the ongoing construction.

This year, the Sagrada Familia will hold several events to celebrate the Catalan Modernist's legacy, which includes other stunning buildings in Barcelona and elsewhere in Spain.

The Sagrada Familia became the world's largest church last October, when it rose above the spire of Germany’s Ulmer Münster, a Gothic Lutheran church built over more than 500 years, starting in 1377. That church tops out at 161.53 meters (530 feet).

At Sagrada Familia, a prayer verse is included at the base of the cross installed Friday afternoon, said church rector Turull.

It reads: “You alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High.”

The week-long celebration spans multiple venues in Miami Beach and nearby areas, offering over 20 events centered on music, dancing, and inclusive festivities for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer people, and their allies. Key highlights kick off on Friday, February 27, with RESIST at MAD Live in Wynwood from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., featuring DJs Abel and Morabito spinning techno, tech house, and underground electronic music.

Saturday, February 28, brings two marquee parties. The Pool Party returns to the National Hotel Miami Beach from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. , hosted at the venue's 205-foot infinity pool for the first time since 2019, with DJ GSP delivering uplifting anthems amid palm trees and ocean views. That evening, Service Station transforms M2 Nightclub from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., powered by DJs Joshua Ruiz and Karsten Sollors.

The festival's flagship event, the Beach Party, takes place Sunday, March 1 , from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 10th Street Beach in South Beach. DJ Joey with the Mustache opens with uplifting melodies, followed by Toy Armada and Jace M, creating an inclusive space celebrating queerness and diversity with state-of-the-art production and oceanfront views. Ticket options include general admission at $125, VIP starting at $220 for priority entry and open bar on a private platform, Cabana Club at $300, and beach cabanas at $6,000 for two with upgrades for eight guests.

The nightlife continues Sunday night with Masterbeat Odyssey at M2 from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., featuring DJs Brady Prince and Sagi Kariv amid mythical themes. Monday includes The Red Eye Afterhours at Studio 60 from 6 a.m. to noon with DJ Oscar Velazquez, and the Finale at Palenque Nightclub featuring Nina Flowers, Kam, and Juanse. Additional events like SWEAT in Wilton Manors on March 1 expand the footprint.

The DJ lineup boasts international talent including Abel, Brady Prince, GSP, Jace M, Joey with the Mustache, Joshua Ruiz, Karsten Sollors, Morabito, Oscar Velazquez, Sagi Kariv, and Toy Armada, with more announcements expected. Pass options provide value: VIP Passes for priority access and Beach Party open bar; Festival Passes for all events; Weekend Passes covering major parties.

The National Hotel Miami Beach serves as the official host hotel, offering exclusive rates starting at $350 with reduced fees, though rooms are sold out; attendees can contact housing concierge Delmay and Partners for alternatives. Historically attracting around 10,000 participants from the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, and Australia, the festival underscores Miami Beach's role as a premier destination for LGBTQ+ travelers during winter. Funds support the National LGBTQ Task Force's year-round work advancing transgender people, queer individuals, and the broader community's rights and visibility.

From our Victorian funny uncle to the artist formerly known as Stefani Germanotta, wise queers and their allies have long spoken the naked truth: Baby, we were born that way. 

Too frequently, today’s world encourages us to hide away our truest selves and feel uneasy in our own skin. But it’s essential to regularly remove our armor and reboot our spirits.

There’s no place better to strip away the daily grind, let the sunshine in, and experience a cheerful sense of rebirth than the clothing optional men’s resorts of Palm Springs Preferred Small Hotels.

Located at 51 Christopher Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the Visitor Center occupies part of the original Stonewall Bar. Much of the original interior of the Stonewall Bar had been lost. However, one architectural detail, the Archway was able to be preserved. Privately operated by co‑founders Ann Marie Gothard and Diana Rodriguez, the Visitor Center is the result of six years of dedication to returning this historic site to the LGBTQ+ community. For Diana, the project is especially meaningful.

She comes from four generations of military service members, including her Uncle Tony, a Vietnam veteran who returned home seriously ill but continued serving others as an administrator at the Veterans Administration (VA) in New York City. When he passed away at just 47, his family learned he had died of AIDS. No colleagues from his military unit or the VA attended his funeral. Today, the flag laid on his coffin, along with his medals and dog tags, are displayed inside the center. The tribute honors him—and countless members of a generation lost to HIV/AIDS whose stories often went unrecognized.

Inside the 2,100‑square‑foot space, 57 years of queer history have been carefully curated into a series of immersive exhibits. The Stories of Stonewall grounds visitors in the evolution of the building, the neighborhood, and the uprising that reshaped LGBTQ+ activism. The exhibit also honors Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two revolutionary figures in trans history whose courage and advocacy helped drive the movement forward.

Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday, marks the climax and end of the weekslong Carnival season and a final chance for indulgence, feasting and revelry before the Christian Lent period of sacrifice and reflection. The joyous goodbye to Carnival always falls the day before Ash Wednesday.

Among the final parades in Louisiana’s most populous city, which is world-famous for its Mardi Gras bash, is one hosted by the Zulu Social Aide & Pleasure Club.

Marchers and float riders in the Zulu parade wear African-inspired garb and toss “throws” — trinkets that include plastic beads, candy, doubloons, stuffed animals, cups and toys. This parade's signature “throw” is hand-decorated coconuts, coveted items that many revelers hope for.

Later in the day Rex, the King of Carnival parade will roll along St. Charles Avenue, lined by paradegoers and stately oak trees covered in Spanish moss and beads.

Carnival events are popular for their spectacular and enormous floats, and also the intricately crafted outfits worn, such as Black masking Indians, whose beaded and bejeweled costumes are topped with feathered headdresses, or paradegoers walking the French Quarter in homemade costumes that capture the unique spirit of the Big Easy.

The good times will roll not just in New Orleans but all across the state, from exclusive balls to the Cajun French tradition of the Courir de Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday Run — a rural event in Central Louisiana featuring costumed participants performing, begging for ingredients and chasing after live chickens to be cooked in a communal gumbo.

Parades are also held in other Gulf Coast cities such as Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, and there are other world-renowned celebrations in Brazil and Europe.

Zona Rosa's Amberes Street forms the epicenter of the queer community, lined with dozens of gay bars that cater to diverse tastes, from drag shows and dancing to quiet drinks. The area remains bustling year-round but transforms into party central during Pride celebrations in late June, drawing over 1.5 million visitors to the Pride Parade alone, part of a festival spanning more than 60 events. This annual event starts at the Angel of Independence Monument, underscoring the neighborhood's role in public queer visibility.

Beyond nightlife, Mexico City welcomes approximately 2.5 million LGBTQ+ tourists each year, contributing $1.4 billion to the local economy, according to recent estimates. Neighborhoods like Roma Norte and Juárez enhance the appeal, offering coffee shops, restaurants, and same-sex couples openly holding hands, alongside gay saunas and cultural centers in Roma Norte and Polanco. These areas provide safe, inclusive environments where transgender people, gay men, lesbians, and nonbinary individuals can navigate freely.

Specialized tours amplify the city's queer offerings. The Gay Hopping Tour, led by local guide Chapu—a prominent figure in Mexico City's gay nightlife—takes visitors to three curated hotspots, bypassing lines and providing VIP access with dedicated service. Chapu's connections ensure an authentic experience, from drag performances and DJ sets to private areas, fostering safety and community for international travelers. Similarly, MxCity for the Girls, Gays & Theys offers an LGBTQ+ walking tour through vibrant streets, sharing stories of unsung queer heroes, with complimentary food, drinks, and accessibility features like hearing aid support. Founded by a tour leader who started crafting queer-focused experiences five years ago, it emphasizes hidden histories absent from mainstream narratives.

Other tours delve into LGBTQ+ history, rescuing faded voices from Mexico City's past and highlighting its gay legacy amid beautiful landmarks. Nightlife extends to venues like Cabarétito Fusión, which draws lesbian crowds on Tuesdays, blending pop, reggaeton, and Latin rhythms with drag queens and go-go dancers. The city's metro system, with 12 lines and 195 stations, plus metrobus lanes, makes exploration accessible without heavy reliance on rideshares.

Mexico City's queer scene thrives alongside major holidays like Day of the Dead and Mexican Independence Day, plus gay festivals such as Pervert, BearMex, and Sunland. While generally safe—especially in Zona Rosa, where community members prioritize mutual protection—travelers note the value of guided experiences for navigating popular spots confidently. No major controversies dominate recent coverage, though guides stress awareness in a massive urban environment.

This enduring vibrancy positions Mexico City as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and top queer destination, blending history, nightlife, and community for LGBTQ+ travelers seeking authentic connections.

That history does not stay in museums; it runs through the docks themselves. At Stanley Dock, industrial warehouses built for tobacco and other imports reveal the scale of Atlantic commerce. At Pier Head, shipping offices and riverfront memorials point to the movement of migrants and mail between Britain and the United States. Walking the waterfront turns familiar scenery into a map of how the two countries were once economically intertwined.

Start at Stanley Dock, where the trade scale is still visible

Stanley Dock offers a clear starting point when exploring Liverpool's waterfront. Titanic Hotel Liverpool is a four-star property built into a former dock warehouse, with brick, steel and long interior spans designed for storage and movement rather than comfort.

Directly opposite, the Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse links the waterfront to a commodity Americans recognize immediately. Built between 1898 and 1901, it stored tobacco on an industrial scale. It is considered the largest brick warehouse in the world and could accommodate approximately 60,000 hogsheads of tobacco. For Americans, tobacco is not just a period detail; it evokes Virginia and Maryland, coastal ports, plantation wealth and an early U.S. economy tied to Atlantic trade, where goods were insured, warehoused, counted and sold.

The same waterfront carries the economy behind Atlantic goods

Liverpool's dock wealth relied in part on commodities produced by enslaved labor. The city's International Slavery Museum documents Liverpool's role in trading enslaved people and handling goods such as sugar, cotton, coffee and tobacco. That history is behind the same brick waterfront visitors photograph today. It is part of the physical setting as travelers move between docks, museums and former shipping offices.

Stanley Dock sits north of the core tourist waterfront. Redevelopment is converting industrial space into hotels and apartments, bringing new foot traffic and new people to a historic area.

Follow the river south to the civic waterfront at Pier Head

From there, a straightforward route runs south to Royal Albert Dock and Pier Head, the waterfront most Americans recognize. A walking tour adds the missing context, linking the warehouse district's scale to the trading streets behind the docks and the riverfront markers tied to war and migration. Royal Albert Dock and Pier Head keep the city's two exports in view: music on one end, port infrastructure on the other.

The Beatles Story at Royal Albert Dock explains the modern export that draws many American visitors. A short walk inland to Castle Street for lunch at Pasta Cosa, lined with former banks and trading offices, then back to Pier Head, connects the Beatles waterfront to the commercial streets that financed and serviced the port.

At Pier Head, the Three Graces stand as a record of the city's waterfront power. The Cunard Building, long tied to the line that carried passengers and mail between Britain and the U.S., faces the river like an office built to manage departures, arrivals and money. This is where travel was processed and where letters, tickets and schedules linked the two countries.

Civil War and migration markers remain on the riverfront

Civil War-era traces sit on the same waterfront. Near the river, Alabama House points to Confederate links, and guides direct visitors to plaques tied to the CSS Shenandoah, a Confederate commerce raider that arrived in Liverpool after the war had effectively ended. For many Americans, it comes as a surprise; it is an unexpected reminder that the conflict's networks extended beyond U.S. shores.

Migration stories run through the riverfront, too. Memorials and public art along the waterfront nod to families leaving Europe for America, with Liverpool as a departure point. For Americans with Irish or British ancestry, Liverpool often functioned as the last major stop before an Atlantic crossing, even when family lore compresses the journey into a single line: "They left from England."

What the docks still prove about the US connection

Liverpool 's American history is not hidden. It is structural, visible in warehouses that record what moved, riverfront offices that show who controlled the money and paperwork and a wartime memorial that acknowledges what it cost, all within the same corridor that also includes the Beatles sites. Together, those landmarks turn the waterfront from scenery into evidence of how trade, travel and conflict linked Britain and the U.S. for generations.

Mandy is a luxury travel, fine dining and bucket-list-adventure journalist with expert insight from 46 countries. She uncovers unforgettable experiences around the world and brings them to life through immersive storytelling that blends indulgence, culture and discovery, and shares them with a global audience as co-founder of Food Drink Life. Her articles appear on MSN and through the Associated Press wire in major U.S. outlets, including NBC, the Daily News, Boston Herald, the Chicago Sun-Times and many more.

What sets Ljubljana apart as a lesser-known queer-friendly haven is its evolution from a post-Yugoslav enclave to a progressive EU member state. Slovenia legalized same-sex marriage and adoption in 2022, ranking it among Europe's more forward-thinking nations on LGBTQ+ rights, though it remains off mainstream travel lists dominated by Amsterdam or Barcelona. The city's riverbanks, lined with willow trees and pop-up markets selling local honey and handmade jewelry, provide serene spots for queer couples to picnic under the watchful gaze of Prešeren Square's pastel buildings. Local attitudes reflect steady progress: residents in the university district and old town areas exhibit respectful, low-key acceptance, making it ideal for transgender people, non-binary travelers, and same-sex couples seeking privacy without isolation.

Ljubljana's compact layout—most attractions lie within a 15-minute walk from the Triple Bridge—makes it perfect for queer travelers prioritizing ease and immersion. The Ljubljanica River bisects the city, its emerald waters reflecting the luminous Dragon Bridge, a symbol of protection, adding a mythical layer to the welcoming vibe. Stroll along the embankment to encounter queer-friendly cafes like Le Petit Cafe , where baristas serve lavender-infused coffees amid rainbow subtle decor, or pop into independent bookstores stocking Slovenian LGBTQ+ literature.

Ljubljana's LGBTQ+ visibility is subtle yet robust, with Slovenia's Pride parade—Ljubljana Pride—drawing thousands annually in late June through the old town, emphasizing rights advocacy over commercialization. Participants from local groups like Lezješčine, a lesbian network, share stories of growing acceptance since the 2022 marriage equality win, noting how rural-to-urban migration has diversified the scene. Queer locals emphasize the city's safety: Slovenia scores high on ILGA-Europe's Rainbow Index for legal protections, with low reported incidents against LGBTQ+ visitors.

Foodies revel in Ljubljana's farm-to-table ethos: dine at queer-friendly Strelec in Ljubljana Castle, savoring venison with wild berries overlooking the city, or join wine tastings in nearby Vipava Valley, where vineyards host low-key queer suppers. The city's thermal spas, like Terme Dobrna , offer nude saunas with affirming attitudes toward diverse bodies.

Ljubljana's rise stems from word-of-mouth among queer nomads tired of overtourism in Sitges or Brussels. Its green credentials—95% car-free center, beehives on roofs producing Ljubljana Honey—appeal to eco-conscious LGBTQ+ travelers. Day trips to Lake Bled or Postojna Cave add adventure, with guides noting increasing queer group bookings. As Europe grapples with rising conservatism elsewhere, Ljubljana's steady inclusivity, cultural depth, and unpretentious charm position it as an emerging essential. Queer voices call it "Europe's best-kept secret for authentic connection, "where the focus remains on living openly amid alpine beauty.