If you are a guy and you have never been to a House of Blues you must check this place out.

There are House of Blues locations nationwide and if you aren’t a “blues” fan, don’t worry - there is a lot more than blues bands playing at these places. In many ways, House of Blues is a perfect destination for a guys weekend because they are unbelievably cool in that sort of magical way they are decorated where everything is just perfect from the lighting to the decorations on the wall.

That’s why I was excited to be invited out to Atlantic City to check out the House of Blues inside the Showboat Casino last month.

With gas more than $4 per gallon here in Chicago, I unfortunately had to cut back on my some of my travel plans. Unfortunately my trip to Detroit this weekend to see the Red Bull Air Race is going to have to wait until next year (I hope they return, or better yet, come to Chicago instead!). However, it made me start to think about some great guys weekend / mancation ideas that might not even involve traveling.

The term staycation has become a buzzword recently, mostly in reference to families cutting back on their family vacations … instead of packing everyone up and going to Florida the family will stay at home or near home and have a staycation instead.

But what about us guys?

What is the mancation equivalent of a staycation?

Camping Trip with the Guys:

So you may need a little bit of gas to drive to the campground, but for the most part, no matter where in the country you live there is probably a camp ground within an hour drive. Once at the camp ground, your gas guzzeling is over as you celebrate being a guy by hiking, fishing, boating, and generally enjoying the great outdoors.

Bird Watching:

Think of this as hunting with cameras and binoculars! Unlike hunting, there is no open or closed season, and there are great places to find beautiful and unique birds all around the country - even in urban areas.

Help Build a Home:

Since you are now starting to feel the pinch of high gas prices, imagine what it feels like to not be able to afford a home! There are projects all around the country, from Habitat for Humanity and other organizations.

Buy Something Fun and Throw a Guys-only House Party:

Instead of traveling at all, how about buying something cool for the home and throwing a party around it. This could be a new grill, home arcade machine, a margarita machine, kegerator, even an outdoor pool table. The money you could have lost on gas you can now enjoy for years to come. Just remember to buy something made in the USA where possible!

Yesterday I talked a bit about my trip to Detroit next month for the Detroit / Windsor Red Bull Air Race, but I didn’t mention much about the Red Bull Air Race in San Diego that is coming up in just a few short weeks, May 3-4.

I watched the 2007 San Diego Air Race on tv and that was what got me hooked on this awesome sport in the first place.

So if you are in the Southern Califormia and looking for an awesome guys weekend, you can’t get much better than watching the 2008 San Diego Red Bull Air Race and some of the most talented pilots in the world. After all, this is the worlds fastest motorsport (Formula One and NASCAR are just a bit slower).

Are you sitting at home reading this blog, looking at all the super cool mancation ideas and wondering where to start or how to plan the perfect mancation?

Don’t worry, these tips should help!

Ticket prices for the 2008 Detroit Red Bull Air Race are now available! As we predicted earlier, tickets are $30 USD for the first two days for the American side and $25 CAD for the two day air race ticket in Canada.

This is a unique event because I think this is probably the first time where the Red Bull Air Race has actually been international - at the same event! For those of you not familiar with Detroit, the city is located directly across the river from the Canadian city of Windsor, Ontario.

UPDATE 2009 - Red Bull Air Race will be held on the Windsor side of the river this year - June 13-14, 2009.

Last night I was thinking to myself about what it means to take a mancation and this morning I decided to look around at the different places online that have attempted to define the subject. What I saw left me a bit distressed because for some reason "mancation" is often synonymous with the worst aspects of being a guy... or at least the more primal.

One of the biggest areas that I didn't see any coverage was Mancations for Geeks. Actually this subject came to me from a PR person for the upcoming ZERO1 festival in San Jose and made me (a proud card-carrying geek myself!) wonder what other Geek Mancation ideas I could find.

Are you sitting at home reading this blog, looking at all the super cool mancation ideas and wondering where to start or how to plan the perfect mancation? Don’t worry, these tips should help!

Remember when you were a kid?

Did your dad take you to the ballpark and you wondered what it would look like if you could explore the whole thing and see the areas only the players could see? Well, you don’t need to be a kid, you just need to visit Chicago’s Wrigley Field!

Father and son trips don’t have to be about nostalgia, but on some level that is what being a father is all about – passing down knowledge and experiences to the next generation.

That’s why a visit to your local railroad museum would make a great father son trip. Luckily for me, (and others of you in Chicago) there are several great ways to see trains in the Chicago area. One such place is the Fox River Trolley Museum.

What could be more exciting than watching some of the best pilots in the world fly as fast as they can, less than 20 meters from the ground at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour!

For you non-racing geeks, that is even FASTER than NASCAR! (NASCAR usually averages about 200 mph) While the Red Bull Air Race is truly an international event, this year the US stops include San Diego (May 3-4) and is in Detroit , May 31-June 1. Tickets for the San Diego Red Bull Air Race are on sale now, Detroit Red Bull Air Race tickets go on sale, April 15.

Tickets are Now Available for the Red Bull Air Race in Windsor / Detroit .

As the San Diego Red Bull Air Race approaches there is still time to grab a great hotel for the event! While several of the hotels right next to the air races are already booked, our super sleuths have done some research to find some great hotels that are still available.

Unfortunately, San Diego is a very expensive city, and especially downtown, so if you are looking for a fantastic hotel to use as your basecamp during the Red Bull Air Races then the Manchester Grand Hyatt can't be beat, but if you don't mind a little walking the Holiday Inn San Diego - On the Bay is still a great option.

While I like to focus most of our articles on the great guys weekends and mancation ideas right here at home, there are of course plenty of super cool places to go and things to do outside of the US as well.

One of our readers, Roger LaPlante of Leesburg, Virginia sent this awesome account of his father and son (Joshua LaPlante) mancation trip to Bunol Spain for the Valencia region's annual "tomato party" known as the La Tomatina Festival.

Yeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!

Saw this interesting story over at Puget Sound Business Journal that Westin Hotels are now beginning to feature Wii Fitness in their hotel rooms in New York City and Bellevue Washington.

While it isn't quite as cool as having a full game setup like the Hotel Sax in Chicago, it is nice to see that us video gameaholics can still have fun on the road :)

This article was written by a friend of ManTripping - Steele Luxury Travel: THE GYM—it is our savior.

The gym or any other form of exercise creates a separation between work and play. It makes us feel masculine and allows us to look optimum. It also increases our various mental and physical appetites. Some of us lift weights, some of us run with a buddy, or even ride bikes through town with a group of dudes. Some boys seriously get into yoga or Pilates.

As I mentioned previously, mancations and guys weekends don’t have to be about going off in the woods or roughing it, there are some great things to do for us geeks and art people too. One idea that came across my desk recently is the 01SJ festival in San Jose (one of my favorite cities btw!)

The festival describes itself as a “global festival of art on the edge” and starts this week, June 4-8 at various venues around San Jose.

Are you ready for the ultimate outdoors mancation? Does hiking and fishing sound like fun? Well, if you are like me, stuck in hot and humid Chicago right now, then maybe it might be time to think about heading off to western Wyoming for a visit to the Grand Teton National park.

Is your idea of a perfect mancation to spend time golfing with your buddies on some of the greatest golf courses in the world, then come back to a luxurious hotel where you can spend time spoking cigars and drinking premium bourbon?

While certainly drinking and smoking isn't for everyone, if this is your cup of tea then you ought to enjoy it while you can since smoking bans are clearly creeping across the country and this icon of men smoking cigars, sipping bourbon, and sharing stories and tall tales with other guys is sure to disappear at some point in the near future.

Our mission of not just talking about great mancation ideas, but actually showcasing some great mancations from our readers continues!

This mancation story was submitted by John from California. Since 2005, a group of friends and I travel to one's Buffalo Bills away game per year, Tampa in 2005, Houston in 2006, Pittsburgh in 2007 and this year will be headed to Arizona in October.  We have nicknamed our group the 'Wandering Herd' and are very recognizable given the hats that we wear.