Exploring London's Soho Neighborhood
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Bears and dressed-down types, mostly ages 35 and older, pack into Comptons of Soho - head for the cozy upstairs lounge if you're looking for a quiet spot to chat with a new friend, or join the masses outside on the sidewalk, smoking up a storm (London bars are smoke-free inside). Across the street from Comptons, the Admiral Duncan has been a fixture in Soho for years, and it remains a friendly, attitude-free place to mix with locals of all ages.

Other Soho gay bars of note include Barcode, with its busy downstairs dance floor, a cruisy male crowd, and comedy shows on Tuesday nights; and Village Soho, a hip and energetic spot known for its buff go-go boys. Rupert Street is an unpretentious and friendly gay pub serving drinks and reasonably good pub food, from burgers to traditional sticky toffee pudding. It's a bit airier and less stuffy than some of its neighbors, and it draws a convivial all-ages bunch.

The neighborhood may have lost its reputation for hardcore adult entertainment, but Soho still has a number of boutiques selling gay fashion and underwear, adult movies and mags, and various Pride novelties and gifts - definitely check out Boy on Old Compton Street and Prowler on Brewer Street for the best selection of these items.

Soho doesn't have much in the way of accommodations, but you will find one gay-popular gem, Hazlitt's, set along trendy Frith Street. The smartly decorated, mid-priced boutique hotel occupies three adjoining Georgian houses. Guest rooms are decorated with gilt-frame paintings, four-poster beds, and unfussy but elegant antiques, along with such modern touches as flat-screen TVs and free Wi-Fi. The hotel is named for early 19th-century essayist (and confidant of the gay poet Byron) William Hazlitt, who lived and died in one of the terraced homes that make up the hotel.

Another fine option is the Soho Hotel, a sophisticated 91-room property just off Dean Street that occupies a soaring loft-style brick building. Rooms have high ceilings and huge windows, and some have terraces overlooking the neighborhood. The hotel's swish Refuel Bar & Restaurant serves very good mod-British fare, such as roast monkfish with olive-tomato salsa, and a salad of shaved fennel, feta, bacon, and chives.

For sheer luxury and supremely personal service, it's hard to beat the Radisson Edwardian Mayfair, a sleekly restored 1927 grande dame that's a favorite of celebrities and discerning travelers in the know. The swank suites with ornate design themes are a big draw, but even the standard rooms here are spacious and sumptuously furnished - the hotel is in ritzy Mayfair, an easy walk to Soho nightlife. If the n revelry and merriment of Soho proves a bit exhausting to you, this discreet property on a quiet lane near leafy Green Park may just be the perfect place to rest your head each evening.

Related article: Gay Travel to London

Andrew Collins is the author of Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA and as well as numerous other guidebooks.