People travel for many different reasons: for work, to visit friends, family or lovers, or just for fun. Travel can be on your own, with friends, or with a partner. These things all affect the way you approach travel and even the way you behave.

Where?

Just as there are many different reasons for travel, there are many different places to go. Some places also offer opportunities for adventures and experiences that are not available at home. Many people choose travel destinations based on their ideas about the kinds of sex and sexual partners that will be available. Organised sex tours, especially to Asian destinations, are also common. However, sex may just be an incidental part of travel—an added bonus when and if it happens.

If you’re gay, you may also want to find out about laws related to homosexuality for the countries you intend to visit, or about the cultural and social acceptability of gay men and male-to-male sex.

If you are engaging in sex work—either as a client or a worker—you should be aware of the laws governing this in the country you are visiting. It’s also important not to make assumptions about the health status of the men or women you have sex with, based on the known prevalence of HIV or sexually transmissible infections (STIs). However, it’s good to be aware of common STIs in the places you are visiting.

Freedom

Part of the freedom of travel is being in a different place from where you live—where you don’t know anyone (or only a few people). You may also seek anonymity so that you can try things you wouldn’t normally do at home.

Many people say that they feel more confident about approaching people, either generally, or in a sexual sense, when they are on holidays. This may mean being more likely to abandon the rules you usually apply to your own behaviours, including safe sexual behaviours. Also, your usual decision-making processes may also be influenced by the use of alcohol and/or recreational drugs, the location you’re in and the people with you.

The freedom of travel, however, doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. HIV transmission can occur anywhere. Many HIV positive people in Australia believe that they acquired their infection when they were away from home—either in another Australian state or overseas.

Remembering to take condoms and lube with you is an important factor in having protected sex with casual partners while you are on holiday. Being determined to only have protected sex also helps in maintaining condom use while you are away from home.

Romance and relationships

Travel can include romance, but often it’s “Mr or Ms Right Now” who is more important than “Mr or Ms Right”. Likewise, if the people you meet don’t seem to want to know you after sex, it may be that they are simply being realistic about the difficulties in pursuing a relationship with someone who lives far away. It’s not necessarily personal.

Condom use

Introducing or suggesting condoms during sexual encounters can be difficult and for various reasons it may be even more difficult when you are away from home. Not all countries have the same kind of culture of safe sex that exists in Australia. Suggesting condoms for fucking can sometimes be interpreted as a disclosure that you are HIV positive, even if this is not the case. Not introducing or suggesting condoms can also be interpreted in different ways.

Travel tips

• Avoid making assumptions about the HIV status of sexual partners. These can often be incorrect. Many people, both HIV positive and HIV negative, think that if someone is willing to fuck without a condom, they must be the same HIV status as them
• Make a conscious decision that you’re going to use condoms for sex when you are away from home. If you leave it up to someone else to take the initiative, then it’s less likely you will end up having protected sex
• If you’re on HIV treatments, pack enough for your entire trip. Carry your pills in your hand luggage. Use alarms, dosette boxes, etc. to remind you about dose times if you think you’ll have trouble remembering
• If you’re travelling to somewhere you’ve never been before, take lots of condoms and water-based or silicon-based lube with you. In some places they are difficult to find or are of a low quality
• If you’re gay and going somewhere new, find out about the legal status of homosexuality in the country you’re visiting
• If you’re HIV positive, find out whether the required vaccinations are safe for positive people
• If you are having regular casual sex, have a general sexual health check-up before you go away and again when you return home
• If you’re HIV negative and you believe you may have been exposed to HIV, find out about the availability of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis or “PEP”