Lying poolside with a 64 oz frozen margarita in Las Vegas? There’s nothing wrong with that. We prefer the whole shebang with cabana rental, frozen grapes and an attentive, bikini-clad waitstaff ourselves — but we digress. There are reckless three-day jaunts that end in lawsuits and Congressional hearings, and then there are the few actual vacations we accrue after laboring day-in/day-out for the man.

A regular man may go lie on a beach somewhere. But the Better Man does not squander these precious vacation days. He plans a trip that will increase his knowledge, improve his physical condition and maybe even make the world a better place — and he has a helluva time doing it.

No.10 Wine Tour

Ain’t no way around it: Man has to be able to navigate a wine list, but there’s no need to become a master of wine here, so put down that 54-piece aroma kit, my son. An above-average fluency in grape varietals, wine regions and food pairings will really put a man at ease at the dinner table, and the best way to achieve that is full immersion. Organize a wine tour (or get a package deal) of a region that interests you and be sure to include both major producers and smaller, family-run vineyards. Eat the local food. Taste the full portfolio of wines (the word terroir will start to make sense).

Go here: Napa and Sonoma, CA; Columbia Valley, WA; Rioja and Basque Country, Spain; Burgundy, France; Central Valley, Chile.

No.9 Cooking Tour

In a perfect world, we’d all do a stodge in a restaurant kitchen and learn how to cook a piece of meat the right way every time, without pressing the skin between thumb and forefinger. The truth is that no cookbook — not even one by that old goat Escoffier — can teach you what experience will impart. A cooking tour is a happy medium: learn by doing without anyone yelling at you for forgetting to fire the souffles. Choose the tours that are less about sightseeing and more about technique, like hand-making pasta and bread, or sausages and charcuterie. Also, go somewhere that has relatively similar ingredients to your home state so the skills translate when you get back.

Go here: Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, Italy; Provence, France; Catalonia, Spain; Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico.

No.8 Car Racing And Test Driving

Wining and dining is well and good, but it won’t help you out much in a high-speed car chase. If you’re not trying to attack a convoy and steal a briefcase Ronin-style, the Better Man should at least know how to drive a standard and handle a car under adverse conditions. Car-racing schools and test-driving trips will get you partway there by exposing you to high speeds, challenging terrain and, in some cases, glamour.

Go here: NASCAR Racing Experience in Talladega; Bondurant School of High Performance Driving; Lamborghini tour in Italy.

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