Carl’s Stag Party on London Eye, London – Photo Courtesy: Dan Taylor
In their lifetime, most men will attend at least one bachelor party but at certain age, some guys find themselves invited to several in quick succession. The range of activities organised for a typical stag can get old; going paintballing on a stag do will always be fun but the novelty wears off.
Make sure the send off you’re organizing doesn’t have your stags feeling like it’s the same thing all over again. Here are 5 alternative ideas that you might not have heard of before:
1. Hire a Boat
This is the watery alternative to a party bus with the added bonus that you get to play I’m on a boat by The Lonely Island as much as you like. I bet you’ll be thinking “I never thought I’d be on a boat!” but indeed boat hire is possible.
If you’re heading to London, you can arrange your choice of vessel to pick you up at Westminster and take a ride along the Thames, either returning to the same location or get dropped off at a different destination where you can continue the fun on dry land. A fully stocked bar and staff are included in the hire price and will be the perfect way to start the night; playing games on board before heading to a club.
2. Circus Skills Training
Circus Skills – Photo Courtesy: Andrew Williams
Experiencing days where you learn a new skill could be the start of a whole new past time for you and your friends. Many professional circuses and circus schools offer training in trapeze, juggling, acrobatics and tight rope walking. If there is something specific you’d like to learn, like fire poi, you could contact a trainer directly or ask the circus training centre to make sure you have a chance to learn some tricks in that area.
3. Play Your Favourite Game
Pick your game of choice whether that’s football, dodgeball, cricket or video games. A day time activity like playing a game of footy is cheap but provides plenty of male bonding time before heading out to the town in the evening. Pitch hire is relatively cheap or you could simply head to the park with a football or cricket ball and bat, some beers and your sun glasses to chill out during the day. If some of you don’t have the right attire for such an occasion, you could consider buying personalised sportswear while going shopping in a group.
This fulfils the same brief as going paint balling without the expense. Gamers may prefer to head to a gaming tournament e.g. Epic LAN, where players have a chance to plug into dedicated gaming servers. One day events and whole weekends are frequently organized by networks of enthusiastic gamers so check out the forums to find your nearest one.
4. Take a Road Trip
Recreate one of the most memorable road trips you’ve ever heard of. This will all depend on how much time you’ve got free as a one day drive does not a road trip make. 3-day weekends are feasible and quite common for stag dos these days or, if possible, take a week and treat it as a pre-wedding holiday. On the Road, Motorcycle Diaries and Mad Max are all epics but will have to be cut down to become feasible; e.g. take the section from Denver to San Francisco that is charted in On the Road.
Westbound freeway I-80 past Salt Lake City in Utah between Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California. It is part of the road trip made famous by Jack Kerouac in his novel ‘On the Road’. Photo Courtesy: Garrett
Road tripping the highlands of Scotland or the West coast of Ireland provides a much shorter route and closer destinations for those based in Europe. A road trip will ensure you and your mates have a wealth of memories of what could be your last ‘lads’ holiday for a while.
5. Go to a Carnival
Carnivals are celebrated all over the world. Trinidad and Tobago would make an amazing and authentic location for a carnival stag do but may be out of scope. New Orleans or even Notting Hill Carnival in London is an all fun alternative. A Carnival is generally celebrated on the weekend before Ash Wednesday, although in New Orleans, it begins in early January and builds up to a massive 2 week celebration before Lent commences.
A Stag Party is a fun event to be remembered with fond memories. So, whichever suggestion from among the above you choose, make sure to make the most of your Stag Do. You and your friends deserve it!
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