Mancation all I ever wanted ... Mancation happy to get away!
OH MY GATOS! This sounds awesome ...
(Provided by the online.wsj) Ask Marc Van Driessche about a recent vacation, and he will describe an adrenaline-charged shark-diving expedition off the Mexico coast with two menfriends. While he enjoyed his up-close encounter with Bruce, a great white shark the size of a bus, the family stayed home.
Sue Shellenbarger discusses the rise of the "mancation," trips for men that go beyond traditional golf or fishing outings. What's in? Extreme sports, such as shark diving and machine-gun shooting.
As much as he loves his wife and two young sons, Dr. Van Driessche, a Mukilteo, Wash., chiropractor, says some vacations are better taken with other guys.
Pop culture has a term for it: the mancation. More men are getting away from family, work and household duties for trips with male friends who will watch your back, push you if you lose your nerve, and take care of themselves if they get seasick, Dr. Van Driessche says. They are departing from traditional male golf outings or fishing trips to engage in extreme sports, from off-road racing to machine-gun training. Also, more men are heading to destinations long regarded as more alluring to women—many with added "man caves" and other mancation-style amenities, such as poker tables and cigar bars.
The trend shouldn't be confused with the bachelor-party stereotype of drunken bar crawls or partying at casinos, says James Hills, founder of mantripping.com, a two-year-old Web site that helps men plan their trips. Nor are they "singles trips" aimed at finding partners, he says.
Instead, more men are using trips to deepen friendships, teach each other skills or push each other into adrenaline-charged activities that their families prefer to sit out. Others want to recapture the camaraderie of high school or college sports, or escape what they regard as an increasingly female-dominated world. A shift toward rising individualism in marriage is fueling the trend, by making separate getaways more acceptable to spouses.Men haven't quite caught up with women yet, who have been targeted for years by the tourism industry for "girlfriend getaways." Among 1,026 adults who plan summer vacations, 7% of the men will be going with friends, compared with 13% of the women, based on a survey last April by the American Express Spending and Saving Tracker. No comparable earlier data are available. The travel site TripAdvisor.com has seen a 7% increase in trip reviews posted by men traveling with friends for the first five months of 2010, compared with a year earlier. Reviews by men traveling with a spouse or partner are down 3%.
Since connecting with 10 high-school friends three years ago on Facebook, Steve Seligson of Belmont, Calif., has taken annual trips with them, snowmobiling and skiing outside trail boundaries in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
"My wife does girls' trips and she does stuff I wouldn't want to do. They go off and see 'Sex and the City' and get manicures. For me, that's not fun," Mr. Seligson says. "For me, there's just something great about being able to let loose and be a macho idiot with a bunch of other guys."
Andy Kubic, Richmond, Va., a former college football player, does martial arts and distance runs with his wife to stay in shape, but says he misses the camaraderie of team sports. When several men friends invited him to Philadelphia next month to do the "Merrell Down and Dirty Mud Run," a 10K military-style obstacle course over walls, mud pits and water crossings, he jumped at the chance.
Erik Waters of Somerville, Mass., takes vacations with several friends at least once a year, from white-water rafting to skiing. On a cross-country cycling trip, Mr. Waters pressed his friends Dustin Campbell of Oxford, Ala., and Biff Brett of Denver, to cut back on bacon-and-eggs breakfasts and "dial up the vegetables," Mr. Waters says. Mr. Campbell says he listened and dropped 30 pounds on the eight-week trip. Mr. Campbell in turn helped Mr. Waters train for and finish his first marathon, Mr. Waters says. He and his friends "are always pushing each other to be better," he says.
Patric Douglas, owner of Shark Diver, a Marin, Calif., expedition guide, has seen a 15% increase in male groups in the past five years, to about 30 a year, a shift he attributes partly to social networking. "Guys have one great adventure together a year, one that delivers a shared adrenaline rush. Then they post shark pictures on their Facebook page and get bragging rights," Mr. Douglas says.
Travel providers are tailoring offerings to male groups. Mancation Nation opened last year in Parker, Ariz., on the Colorado River, offering wake-boarding, golf, fishing, simulated dog-fighting in vintage airplanes, tactical-weapons training and a no-women-allowed residence. Visitor Don Ashforth, Escondido, Calif., says wake-boarding there with other guys was "kind of a primal thing. The camaraderie was incredible."
Co-owner Randy Goodman says he saw a need for a guys-only destination designed to deliver a healthy adrenaline surge. In contrast with bachelor-party stereotypes, "drunken things where guys chase women," Mr. Goodman says, "we're trying to make you better men. When we send you home from here, we want you fast, fit and fun."
After seeing an increase in groups of male guests, the Andon Reid Inn, a Waynesville, N.C., bed and breakfast, started 1½-years ago offering a "For Men Only" package, adding a man cave with darts, billiards, a big-screen TV and fitness gear.
After 54 holes of golf on an annual mancation last year with 20 college buddies at The Abbey, a Lake Geneva, Wis., resort, Dave Calzaretta booked a group visit to its spa, recently renovated to include a private room with a big-screen TV, bar, poker tables and a cigar-smoking area. While "initially people give you the eyebrow" about booking guys into a spa, his friends loved getting massages, he says: "It's a mental vacation away from work, the stress of being a father and husband and provider."
Haven't we ventured down this road before?? ...Hot tub time machines FTW!!(Thanks a heap for the post Molly!!)
