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`Mancations' are latest travel industry rage

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Good beer, good clothes and, of course, good company, are Cam Caldwell's keys to pulling off a kickin' guy trip.

Caldwell, 51, plans trips with his friends together several times a year - to Vail, West Virginia, the Colorado mountains, Las Vegas and New Mexico. The list goes on. Caldwell has been guy-tripping since 1984, when he celebrated his college graduation on a four-day backpacking and fishing trip through Rocky Mountain National Park.

Some people have started calling it a "mancation" - a man vacation, which typically includes outdoor adventures, sports, bar-hopping, cigar-puffing, gambling, tents, fishing poles and beer. No girls allowed. You might recognize the term from the movie, "The Break-Up." Thank you, Vince Vaughn.

Although mancations - uh, let's just call them guy trips - aren't a new phenomenon, travel agencies and businesses have latched on to the term. Web sites call mancations the tourism industry's "hottest new venture."

Several years ago, the industry was all about girl trips: spa packages, mud baths with your girls, yoga trips, according to Mary Ann Mahoney, with the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau.

But lately, Mahoney says she's been getting more calls from guys who are traveling to Boulder looking for suggestions on outdoor recreation, popular pubs and even - brace yourself - the best dude-friendly stores to shop at.

Mahoney says she recently spent so much time on the phone with a man who was organizing a trip that the Boulder visitors bureau compiled an official list of recommended activities for guy travelers.

On the list: renting bicycles, hiring a rock-climbing guide, renting Harley-Davidson motorcycles, hitting up Johnny's Cigar Bar and refueling at the Lazy Dog Sports Bar and Grill.

Guy trips, in one form or another, generate an estimated $10 billion to $12 billion a year, according to an online survey by the travel Web site I'm In (imin.com). About a third of the men surveyed said they'd taken a guy trip in the past year. Nearly 70 percent of those men said they guy-trip at least twice a year. More than half said they'd rather travel with a bunch of friends than attend a family reunion. The Web site estimates that's about 20 million mancaters a year.

And the hype continues to grow, according to John Pentecost, owner of Guy-Trips.com. Pentecost, of Portland, Maine, helped set up parties in college for his fraternity, so when he graduated, he kept the get-togethers going to keep his friends tight.

He says he learned the ropes personally and decided to turn it into a business two years ago, shortly before the "mancation" fad exploded, he says. He has since organized bachelor parties in Vegas and is helping guys from across the nation plan fly-fishing trips, horseback-riding excursions and a father-son gathering. He says he offers his clients "insider knowledge" of cool bars, and he spares them the hassle of coordinating schedules and transportation.

Oh, and he doesn't call them "mancations." "That's the lamest word I've ever heard in my life," Pentecost says.