Different for Girls: Top 5 Lesbian Meccas

Gay travel is often "different for girls." Does a listing that states "gay-friendly" also mean "lesbian-friendly" or "lesbian-popular"? If accommodations are advertised as "gay/lesbian," will visiting women find themselves lone ladies in a gay male-dominated, clothing-optional compound? Will female travelers make the unfortunate discovery that accommodations are "lesbian-overly friendly" and find themselves the objects of unwanted interest? Call ahead to potential accommodations and ask about their percentage of lesbian guests. But don't allow such concerns to limit vacations to the same spots that have lured ladies for decades: a slew of off-radar sapphic spots await.

If you're looking for new places to vacation in the company of women, click here for a tour of our top-five offbeat lesbian destinations, starting with number 5 and counting down to our number 1 absolute favorite getaway for girls.

5. Asheville, N.C.

Fall colors are at their finest in Asheville, a remarkable artsy Appalachian town of 70,000 where women walk hand-in-hand and art deco, beaux-arts, and neoclassical architecture create an elegant backdrop. The best places to leaf peep in and around "Sheville" are along 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway between Shenandoah National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains or in downtown's Asheville Botanical Gardens.

Best spot to meet the girls

Lively Malaprops (55 Haywood St; 828-254-6734; Malaprops.com ), a friendly, lesbian-owned bookstore and hub of the women's community, has a sidewalk cafe. It's the perfect perch to browse local ladies. Once it's too dark to admire foliage, a packed evening events schedule is stacked with bookings from Women on Words Poetry Circle to Bridging Difference book club nights -- where locals and visitors discuss works such as lesbian writer Audre Lorde's Sister Outsider .

4. Key West, Fla.

If you're in the mood for a wild week, schedule sojourns south for WomenFest ( WomenFest.com , September 8-13, 2009), when 3,000 women stream over 126 miles and 42 bridges down the Florida Keys to the southernmost point in the continental United States. The raucous WomenFest schedule brims with hot events from clothing-optional pool parties to competitive bull riding.

Best spot to meet the girls

During Womenfest you'll find women everywhere, but make it even easier by booking one of 38 rooms at luxurious Pearl's Rainbow, a women-only inn converted from a 19th-century cigar factory.