About gayonaway

My name is Michael Benor. I'm a gay traveler, remote worker, and the person who built gayonaway because I kept asking the same question every time I considered a new city to base myself in: where can I actually move and live well — not just survive?

Over the past several years I've lived and worked from a handful of countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Each move taught me that the information you need as a gay nomad — not "is there a Pride parade" but "will I feel safe holding a partner's hand in a café, can I legally stay long-term, and will I find my people" — is scattered across legal databases, advocacy reports, Reddit threads, and word of mouth. Nobody had assembled it in one place with honest scoring.

I also run several travel websites for Israeli audiences covering destinations in Europe and Asia. Building those gave me the research and publishing infrastructure — and the SEO discipline — to do this properly. gayonaway is the project I built for myself first, and for the broader gay nomad community second.

The scores are not marketing. A low safety or legal score means exactly that: I wouldn't feel comfortable living there, and neither should you if those things matter to you (they should). A high score means I'd genuinely consider it. The methodology is published and the weights come directly from the scoring code — read how it works.

At launch: 22 cities across Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East — chosen because they appear most often in gay nomad community discussions, not because they scored well. Some score poorly. That's the point.

Each city profile includes a five-axis relocation scorecard (safety, legal status, community, nomad infrastructure, cost of living), a practical overview, and links to accommodation and experience booking. Scores are reviewed at least annually and updated when major legal or safety changes occur.

Found an error in a score? Know of a legal change we haven't captured? Want to suggest a city?

Email: hello@gayonaway.com

I read everything and update scores when corrections are warranted. I don't accept paid placements or sponsored scores.

Some links on gayonaway — accommodation booking, tours, experiences — are affiliate links. If you book through them, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This income helps keep the site running and the research current.

Affiliate relationships have zero influence on scores. A city's score is determined by the data and formula described in the methodology, not by whether we have a commercial relationship with anyone there.