# Eight Beer Cities Worth Building A Guys Trip Around *By James Hills, mantripping.com — Updated August 2026* There is a difference between a city guys go to drink in and a city where the beer itself is worth the flight, and the two lists overlap less than you would think. Bamberg brews a smoked lager you cannot properly drink anywhere else on earth. Portland, Maine fits more than 25 breweries into a city of 68,000 people. Those are the reasons that justify airfare on a guys trip built around beer. ** Questions** ** No answer selected. Please try again. Please select either existing option or enter your own, however not both. Please select minimum {0} answer(s). Please select maximum {0} answer(s). /polls/travel-and-trip-ideas/what-do-you-prefer-to-call-your-guys-trips.html?task=poll.vote&format=json 1 Guys Trips (532 votes / 44.78%) 44.78% votes Guys Getaways (119 votes / 10.02%) 10.02% votes Mancations (112 votes / 9.43%) 9.43% votes Brocations (154 votes / 12.96%) 12.96% votes [{"id":5,"title":"Guys Weekends","votes":271,"type":"x","order":1,"pct":22.809999999999998721023075631819665431976318359375,"resources":[]},{"id":6,"title":"[Guys Trips](https://www.mantripping.com/guys-trip.html)","votes":532,"type":"x","order":2,"pct":44.780000000000001136868377216160297393798828125,"resources":[]},{"id":7,"title":"Guys Getaways","votes":119,"type":"x","order":3,"pct":10.019999999999999573674358543939888477325439453125,"resources":[]},{"id":8,"title":"Mancations","votes":112,"type":"x","order":4,"pct":9.42999999999999971578290569595992565155029296875,"resources":[]},{"id":9,"title":"Brocations","votes":154,"type":"x","order":5,"pct":12.96000000000000085265128291212022304534912109375,"resources":[]}] ["#ff5b00","#4ac0f2","#b80028","#eef66c","#60bb22","#b96a9a","#62c2cc"] ["rgba(255,91,0,0.7)","rgba(74,192,242,0.7)","rgba(184,0,40,0.7)","rgba(238,246,108,0.7)","rgba(96,187,34,0.7)","rgba(185,106,154,0.7)","rgba(98,194,204,0.7)"] 350 ** Vote Now** Vote Form** ResultVotes ** What Separates A Beer City From A Party City** The cities that reward a trip built around beer are not the ones with the loudest nightlife districts, and a few practical tests sort one from the other before you book anything. - **Density beats headcount** - what matters is how many breweries sit inside a walkable radius, not how many the metro area claims on a tourism page. - **Ask what a city makes that others cannot** - Bamberg's smoked lager and Brussels' spontaneously fermented lambic both need equipment and local conditions almost nobody else kept. - **The famous brewery is rarely the good one** - in most of these cities the building with the gift shop and the building with the interesting beer are two different addresses. - **Taproom hours and pub hours are different** - European brewery taprooms often shut by early evening while the pubs run past midnight, so brewing and drinking are two separate outings. - **Check who else brews within an hour** - several of these cities are gateways to villages and smaller towns doing better work than anything downtown. ** Article Index** 1. [Bamberg Brews A Beer Almost Nowhere Else Still Makes](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#bamberg-brews-a-beer-almost-nowhere-else-still-makes)[Dublin's Best Pint Is Not At The Guinness Storehouse](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#dublins-best-pint-is-not-at-the-guinness-storehouse)[Prague Anchors The World's Heaviest Beer Drinking Nation](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#prague-anchors-the-worlds-heaviest-beer-drinking-nation)[In Brussels The Yeast Comes Out Of The Air](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#in-brussels-the-yeast-comes-out-of-the-air)[Boston Pairs New Breweries With Taverns From The 1700s](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#boston-pairs-new-breweries-with-taverns-from-the-1700s)[Portland Maine Fits 25 Breweries Into 68,000 People](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#portland-maine-fits-25-breweries-into-68-000-people)[Halifax Has A Brewery Steps From Where The Ships Dock](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#halifax-has-a-brewery-steps-from-where-the-ships-dock)[Portland Oregon Trades Density For Range](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#portland-oregon-trades-density-for-range)[How To Pick The Right Beer City For Your Group](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#how-to-pick-the-right-beer-city-for-your-group)[Match The City To How Your Group Drinks](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#match-the-city-to-how-your-group-drinks) 2. [Build Around One Anchor And Let The Rest Fill In](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#build-around-one-anchor-and-let-the-rest-fill-in) 3. [Take One Day Outside The City](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#take-one-day-outside-the-city) [Book The Flight Home A Day Later Than You Think](https://www.mantripping.com/travel/beer-lovers-guys-trip-destinations.html#book-the-flight-home-a-day-later-than-you-think) Four of these cities are in Europe and four sit within a long weekend of most of the East Coast, and that gap decides how you plan. Bamberg is a week off work; Portland is a Thursday flight. If your group has never built a trip around a single interest, start on this side of the Atlantic and find out whether everyone actually wants to spend a Saturday afternoon in a brewery before you buy transatlantic seats. Going without the group is a different calculation, and our roundup of [European cities for guys traveling solo](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3683:best-places-in-europe-for-a-solo-trip-for-men&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350) weighs nightlife and logistics rather than what is in the glass. ## Bamberg Brews A Beer Almost Nowhere Else Still Makes Bamberg is a UNESCO-listed old town of roughly 70,000 people with ten breweries inside it, sitting in Franconia, the region with the highest brewery density in the world and more than 250 breweries across it. The reason to go is Rauchbier, a smoked lager built from malt dried over beechwood fires. Two breweries still make it the traditional way and both are here. Schlenkerla, first recorded in 1405 as the House of the Blue Lion, is run by the Trum family in the sixth generation and lagers its beer in rock cellars hand-carved beneath the brewery in the 14th century. Spezial has been brewing its own since 1536. Give yourself a day outside town for the Fünf-Seidla-Steig, a 10km trail linking five village breweries near Gräfenberg, forty minutes by regional train from Nuremberg. A Seidla is a half liter, which tells you how the trail is meant to be walked. Fly into Nuremberg or Munich, and if the group wants the big halls too, our guide to [Munich's beer gardens](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=474:best-beer-gardens-in-munich&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350) covers that end of the trip. Guys Trip Destinations and Getaway Ideas MANTRIPPING [Transportation Guide For A Dubai Guys Trip: How To Get Around Dubai Safely and In Style](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fgetting-around-dubai-transportation-guide.html&id=1101&type=blog&site=mantripping) [Read More →](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fgetting-around-dubai-transportation-guide.html&id=1101&type=blog&site=mantripping) MANTRIPPING [Egypt's Red Sea Resorts: Dive, Golf, and Desert Thrills for a Guys Trip](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fegypt-beach-resorts-guys-trip-getaways.html&id=1483&type=blog&site=mantripping) [Read More →](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fegypt-beach-resorts-guys-trip-getaways.html&id=1483&type=blog&site=mantripping) We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. ## Dublin's Best Pint Is Not At The Guinness Storehouse The Storehouse is what everyone books, and it is a museum with a bar on the roof. The Open Gate Brewery, a few hundred meters away in the Liberties, is where Guinness brewers test recipes - small batches of stouts, ales and lagers that never leave the city and never reach a shop. There is no cover charge, you order by paddle, and it is the best beer hour in Ireland. Around it, Dublin's pub range is the draw: The Long Hall and John Kavanagh for rooms nobody renovated into a theme, The Porterhouse for Irish craft. With a spare day, Kilkenny is worth the trip south for the history alone. Smithwick's brewed there from 1710 until the last day of 2013, when production moved to St. James's Gate in Dublin, and Sullivan's Brewing was revived in 2016 by two Smithwick descendants specifically to put brewing back in the city. Our [Dublin guys trip guide](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4390:dublin-guys-trips-beyond-the-typical-tourist-trail&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350) covers what to do between pints. ## Prague Anchors The World's Heaviest Beer Drinking Nation Czechia has led the world in beer consumption per capita for 32 consecutive years, running around 120 liters a head. What that number reflects is beer treated as a normal part of lunch, which shows up in the standard of the average pub rather than the peak of the best one. Pilsner was invented about 90km west of Prague in Plzeň in 1842, and the style that now dominates global brewing came out of that one brewery. In the city, U Fleků has been brewing on the same site since 1499 and pours a dark lager you cannot get anywhere else. Order tankové pivo, unpasteurized lager served from a tank rather than a keg, and you will understand why Czech drinkers are unimpressed by most imports. Beer costs less here than in Dublin or Brussels by a wide margin, which makes Prague the easy sell to a group with mixed budgets. ## In Brussels The Yeast Comes Out Of The Air Lambic is the oldest brewing method still in commercial use. No added yeast - just wort left open to the night air in a shallow copper pan so wild yeast from the surrounding valley falls into it. Cantillon, founded in 1900 and run by the fifth generation of the same family, is the reason to come. When it opened, Brussels had more than a hundred working breweries; it is now one of a handful, and it doubles as the Brussels Museum of the Gueuze, so you walk through a working brewery rather than an exhibit about one. The beer is sour, dry and closer to cider than to anything on a normal tap list, and it divides a table fast. Have a fallback ready. Delirium Café near the Grand Place set a Guinness World Record with 2,004 beers in 2004 and broke its own record with more than 3,000 in December 2013. Send the lambic skeptics there. Guys Trip Articles and Ideas: [MANTRIPPING Detroit Sports Guys Weekend: Top 10 Must-Do Activities for a Legendary Motor...   Read More →](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fdetroit-sports-guys-weekend-must-do-activities-for-a-legendary-motor-city-getaway.html&id=347&type=blog&site=mantripping) [MANTRIPPING 5 Ways To Have the Ultimate Detroit Guys Weekend   Read More →](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fways-to-have-the-ultimate-detroit-guys-weekend.html&id=348&type=blog&site=mantripping) [MANTRIPPING What to Know Before Working with a Nightlife Concierge for Your Vegas Trip   Read More →](https://ads.flowmediamarketing.com/api/flowads/click/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mantripping.com%2Ftravel%2Fwhat-to-know-before-hiring-a-las-vegas-nightlife-concierge.html&id=23&type=blog&site=mantripping) We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. ## Boston Pairs New Breweries With Taverns From The 1700s I went to high school in Cohasset on the south shore, so Boston is the one city here I knew before I ever wrote about it. Harpoon sits in the Seaport with harbor views and a taproom big enough to absorb eight guys without a reservation. Trillium built a national reputation on hop-forward IPAs that people plan trips around. Samuel Adams in Jamaica Plain is where Jim Koch got American craft brewing moving in the eighties, and the small-batch pours there beat the flagship. Then there is the other half of the city. The Warren Tavern opened in Charlestown in 1780 and still occupies the original building, where both Paul Revere and George Washington drank. The Bell in Hand opened in 1795, when Jimmy Wilson retired after fifty years as Boston's town crier, and it is the oldest continuously operating tavern in America. Both are working bars rather than museums. One afternoon of breweries and one night of 18th-century taprooms gives a weekend two different characters, and our route through [Boston's most historic bars](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4617:historic-bars-boston-guys-trip&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350) puts that night in order. ## Portland Maine Fits 25 Breweries Into 68,000 People Maine ranks second in the country for breweries per head, and Portland is why. More than 25 breweries operate in a city of about 68,000, a tighter concentration than Portland, Oregon manages across a metro area many times the size. Industrial Way alone puts several within a twenty-minute walk of each other, which removes the rideshare math that ruins most brewery days. Allagash is the anchor. Rob Tod opened it in 1995 and made Belgian-style brewing viable in America; Allagash White is on tap half the country over now, but the Industrial Way taproom pours fifteen-plus beers you will not see at home. Bissell Brothers on Munjoy Hill does the hazy IPAs people drive up for. What sells this trip to the guys who are not beer guys is everything around it. We hauled traps out of Casco Bay on a [working lobster boat](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4503:lucky-catch-cruises-portland-maine-lobster-tour&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350), then ate the catch on the pier with a local craft list. That is the pitch for the guy who does not care about beer, and the reason a [Maine guys trip](https://www.mantripping.com/united-states/maine.html) holds up when not everyone is drinking. ## Halifax Has A Brewery Steps From Where The Ships Dock Garrison Brewing sits on the Halifax waterfront close enough to the cruise terminal that you can see it from the ship. I have had a flight in the Seaport Hall tasting room with the Seaport Farmers' Market next door, which solves food and beer in one stop, and Tall Ship East Coast Ale is one of their most popular. Garrison has been at it since 1997. For history, Alexander Keith's opened in 1820 and is one of the oldest working breweries in North America. Keith emigrated from Scotland in 1817 and later served as mayor of Halifax. Labatt owns it now and the tour is costumed and theatrical rather than technical, so treat it as a history stop rather than a beer stop. Propeller and Good Robot are where locals send you. If you are arriving by ship rather than by plane, our breakdown of the [best breweries on a Canada and New England cruise](https://www.cruisewestcoast.com/canada-new-england/best-breweries-to-visit-on-a-canada-and-new-england-cruise.html) maps the port stops in order. ## Portland Oregon Trades Density For Range Published counts here run from 70 to over 120 depending on what qualifies as a brewery, which is why the density argument goes to Maine. What the other Portland has instead is range, and few American cities give you more different things to drink in one trip. If one guy only drinks sours, another only drinks lagers and a third wants a barrel-aged stout, everyone is satisfied on the same afternoon. Cascade Brewing built its reputation on sour ales aged in wine barrels, which is the closest thing America has to what Brussels does. Belmont Station runs a bottle shop and taproom with a list deep enough to lose an evening in. McMenamins is the local institution worth one stop - old schools, theaters and a county poor farm converted into pubs, where the buildings are the reason to go rather than the beer. Portland is also compact and [easy to get around by bike](index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3936:portland-oregon-it-is-as-bike-friendly-as-tourism-ads-would-have-you-believe&catid=23:travel&Itemid=1350), which is a real advantage on a brewery day. ## How To Pick The Right Beer City For Your Group The mistake is picking the city with the most breweries. The better question is what your specific group will still be enjoying at four in the afternoon on the second day. ### Match The City To How Your Group Drinks A group that wants variety wants [Portland, Oregon](https://www.mantripping.com/united-states/oregon/portland.html). A group that wants one thing done perfectly wants Bamberg. Mixed groups do best in Boston or Portland, Maine, where the guy who is done after two beers still has a full day in front of him. ### Build Around One Anchor And Let The Rest Fill In Pick a single non-negotiable - the Open Gate paddle, a Cantillon tour, the Fünf-Seidla-Steig - book it, and plan loosely around it. Cantillon in particular rewards checking ahead, because it is a small working brewery rather than a visitor centre built for volume. ### Take One Day Outside The City Kilkenny from Dublin, Gräfenberg from Nuremberg, Plzeň from Prague, Freeport for Maine Beer Company. Every one of these is a train ticket and a few hours, and the smaller places are where the beer is made for locals rather than visitors. ### Book The Flight Home A Day Later Than You Think Every city here pours something that never leaves the building - the Open Gate's test batches, U Fleků's dark lager, whatever the village breweries on the Fünf-Seidla-Steig tapped that morning. No importer can get those to you. The extra day is the only way to drink any of them twice, and with a style as strange as Rauchbier, the second glass is the one that makes the case. Details Written by: James Hills Published: 15 May 2023 Last Updated: 02 August 2026 ### 🚢Ready To Book A Vacation? Let us help you plan a cruise, all-inclusive resort, or tour for your next guys trip, family vacation, or romantic getaway. 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