It's A Guy Thing

For the ultimate manly man's weekend, head to Monterey County for an adventure-packed

Once upon a time, guys would go out of town together only for fishing trips or bachelor parties. But the newest vacation trend, the mancation, is changing all that. The mancation, a variation on the now ubiquitous girls getaway, involves a group of guys hitting the road for some golfing, gambling, scotch and cigar tasting, or any other manly endeavor. Resorts and hotels have picked up on the idea, and many now offer packages combining both the luxurious and the macho.

Thinking about a mancation of your own? Check out Monterey County. You might not put Monterey in the same category as, say, Las Vegas, but this Central Coast paradise offers easy access to mountains, ocean, race tracks, golf courses, great restaurants, and all sorts of activities that will require you to sign a liability release (lesson number one: manly equals life threatening). If you take your vacation with a shot of testosterone, this is the place for you.

Get off the grid
Want to go where no man has gone before? You’ll probably have to drive over some nasty terrain to get there, and the Land Rover Experience Driving School will teach you how.

Carmel Valley’s Quail Lodge houses one of only three Land Rover driving schools in North America (the others are in North Carolina and Quebec). Instructors take you into the woods on former cattle trails and into an old rock quarry, where you learn how to maneuver a Land Rover through thick mud, between trees, over logs and boulders, and around pretty much any other obstacle you may encounter. Lesson options range from one-hour jaunts to full-day excursions. Land Rover Experience Driving School, (831) 620-8854, www.landroverusa.com; one-hour lesson $200 per vehicle, full day $800 per vehicle.

Courtesy of Land Rover North America

Need for speed
Confession: I wrecked my first car driving a winding road at what we’ll call an “inappropriate” speed. If you’re like me, Skip Barber Racing School will get your pulse, uh, racing.

Skip Barber’s three-hour Introduction to Racing course starts with a classroom session with a former racecar driver, in which you learn proper braking and cornering techniques, how to adjust to oversteer and understeer, and other tidbits. After class, you get three sessions driving a thousand-pound, 130-horsepower open-top Mazda racecar on the world-famous, 11-turn, 2.24-mile Laguna Seca Raceway. When you come out of Turn 6 and floor it up the straightaway—pressed back into your cockpit, the wind doing its best to push the helmet off your head—you feel like you’re going a million miles per hour. Then, at the top of the hill, you slam on your brakes, take a hard left, and dive down a hill so steep that you don’t see the next turn in Laguna Seca’s famed corkscrew until you’re flying through it.

If the three-hour course doesn’t satisfy your need for speed, Skip Barber also offers a host of other classes, including combination courses and an intensive three-day racing school.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, 1021 Monterey-Salinas Hwy., Salinas, www.laguna-seca.com; Skip Barber Racing School, (800) 221-1131, www.skipbarber.com; three-hour Introduction to Racing $795, three-day racing school $3,995.

Rick Ross/Courtesy of Skip Barber Racing School

Peak performance
A narrow, winding road through the chaparral-covered hills east of Salinas carries you through the west gate of spectacular Pinnacles National Monument. The 26,000-acre park, which was made a national monument in 1908 by Teddy Roosevelt (undoubtedly the manliest of U.S. presidents), features awe-inspiring rock formations that offer some of the best climbing this side of Yosemite Valley.

Sanctuary Rock Gym, located just north of Monterey in Sand City, offers guided trips to Pinnacles. Your guides bring all the gear you need, set up your climb, and keep a close eye (and a tight rope) on you as you scale to the top and rappel down. Climbing is not for the meek—the adrenaline rush of hanging off a rock 70 feet above the ground will make your heart pound and your hands shake—but you’ll want to roar like a lion when you reach the top.
Pinnacles National Monument, 5000 Hwy. 146, Paicines, (831) 389-4485, www.nps.gov/pinn; Sanctuary Rock Gym, 1855-A East Ave., Sand City, (831) 899-2595, www.rockgym.com; guided climbs are $175 per person per day for non–gym members.

Drink like a man
For sustenance after a long day of adventure, Monterey’s manly men head to the Sardine Factory. This stately restaurant, opened in 1968 by Bert Cutino and Ted Balestreri in a dilapidated former sardine cannery, has been a dining destination for many celebrities, including Tiger Woods and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The restaurant has a renowned wine list, and the cocktails mixed by “Big Mike” Kolpaczyk, who has tended bar here for 35 years, are superlative. Try the excellent classic martini, or, if you need a brief respite from all the testosterone, the key lime pie (it looks like pie filling in a cocktail glass).

Oh yeah, we might need some food to go with those drinks, huh? The Sardine Factory’s menu blends a classic Italian sensibility with an emphasis on local ingredients, including fresh, sustainable seafood. Do not miss out on the grilled pink abalone medallions. They’re pricey ($75 for an entrée) but worth every penny.
Sardine Factory, 701 Wave St., Monterey, (831) 373-3775, http://http://www.sardinefactory.com.

Courtesy of Sardine Factory

G.O.L.F.
Think of Quail Lodge’s Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden (G.O.L.F.) package as a bachelor party all grown up. The Carmel Valley resort will book a two-night stay in a luxurious four-bedroom Fairway Villa for you and seven of your closest friends, and set your group up with a multitude of masculine activities: a personalized golf tournament on Quail Lodge’s 18-hole course; a poker night, including cards, chips, and catered snacks; and, best of all, a night of scotch and cigar tasting. If you can think of anything more manly than scotch and cigars, well, I’d like to hear about it.
Quail Lodge Resort & Golf Club, 8205 Valley Greens Dr., Carmel, (831) 624-2888, http://http://www.quaillodge.com.

Courtesy of Monterey County Convention and Visitors' Bureau