Stag Weekends

Bristol - A Stag Weekend Overview

Overview
Occupying a narrow strip along the banks of the River Avon, This charming city is situated around a picturesque harbour. With its incredible number of trendy bars and flexible licensing policy (many clubs are open until 4am), Bristol is now one of the great hotspots for stag and hen weekends in the UK.

Nightlife
Whether you’re looking to sweat the night away on the dance floor, or swap anecdotes over a few beers in a welcoming pub, Bristol offers all the trimmings for both. Start off by trying the infamous Exhibition cider at the Corrie Tap (8.4%), which can only be served in half pints, then, (if you’re still standing) hit the clubs. Bristol is an endless source of new musical talent, so whatever you’re into you’ll find a club that plays it. Try something a little different by dancing the night away in club Thekla, which is anchored off Bristol harbour!
If however you’d prefer to sink into a comfy sofa with a cocktail and be dazzled by beauties then the Dojo lounge should be experienced. With its atmospheric roof terrace and heated outdoor area it’s the perfect place to funk the night away.

Lap dancing
When it comes to half naked ladies dancing around for cash Bristol wont let you down. Four strip clubs are there to snatch you up off the street if you still have loose notes in your pocket. These would be well spent in Central Chambers, which spices up your visit with fantasy themed dress up every Friday. You wont be taken to the cleaners either as unlike many such establishments the bar maintains standard pub prices.

Daytime activities
If your heads not throbbing too badly then Bristol offers a massive range of extreme activities to occupy your stag weekend. Whether it’s putting the local woodland to good use in a game of paintball, bouncing around the muddy terrain in 4x4s, or gunning down pigeons (clay only!) a good time is assured. If that night out was just too heavy then there is every conceivable cuisine available to sooth an unsettled stomach.

Report By BBC's Watchdog on Stag Night and Hen Party Company Big Weekends Ltd

A recent report by BBC's Watchdog, highlighted the fact that you should take great care when booking your Stag Weekend or Hen Night, with the numerous companies which "claim" to organise your pre-wedding party for you.

Here is an excert from the report:

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Big Weekends Ltd

29th November 2005

You're getting married and it's tradition to have one big blowout with your friends before tying the knot. Hen and stag nights have turned into big weekends and there are more than a few companies who are desperate to organise everything for you.

We heard from viewers about a company called Big Weekends Ltd, based in Leigh-on-Sea. It specialises in organising hen and stag weekends. Its promise is 'value for money' and 'no hassle just fun'.

Joanna and her friends paid nearly £2,000 to Big Weekends Ltd to take away the stress of organising the weekend themselves. The rooms in its 'three-star' hotel in Brighton had damp on the ceilings and some of the doors had no locks. Big Weekends Ltd says it tries to test all its hotels. Watchdog discovered that the hotel hasn't been registered with the Brighton Tourist Board for over two years and doesn't have a star rating.

Laura's hen party of ten paid Big Weekends Ltd nearly £3,000 to organise their weekend in Bournemouth. They arrived for their pre-paid meal on the Friday, to discover the restaurant hadn't been paid and they had to pay again. They'd booked a pampering session, only to be told a few days before that they couldn't have a manicure or pedicure because there were no therapists available.

The hen parties had been booked and paid for in advance. It would seem that Big Weekends Ltd didn't start organising them until later on.

Cathy organised Katy's hen party in Sheffield. She booked with Big Weekends Ltd in April but was only sent her itinerary the day before. The group had paid over £2,000, including VIP entry into a club for the 15 girls. The club had no record of their booking, despite the girls having paid Big Weekends Ltd in advance. The tarot card reader they'd booked turned out to be a medium, and the big surprise the girls had planned for Katy was ruined when Big Weekends Ltd booked the limousine for the wrong time and it turned up too early. The girls were unable to get any help when they called the 24-hour hotline. "Your hen weekend is supposed to be the weekend that you won't forget ... well, I won't forget it, but not for the right reasons."

Big Weekends Ltd says sorry to our ladies. It's offering a £1,000 refund to Joanna's group, who had hotel and nightclub problems. It disputes some details of the experiences of the other two groups, but is offering both a partial refund and says problems are the exception, not the rule.

Click Here to read the full BBC Watchdog Report on Big Weekends

Stag Weekends in Riga:

Riga is a great city and the largest of the three capitals in the baltic states (The others being Vilnius and Tallinn). It has a bit more of a cosmopoitan feel than the other 2, because it is larger and although it is probably not quite as chocolate box pretty as Tallin or Vilnius, the city centre is still stunning with great architecture. What really makes riga great is the nightlife, the clubs are fantastic and absolutely rammed with stunning looking latvian girls - Club Essentials is excellent and so was Fashion Club . One place to avoid like the plague is "La Rocca" its is full of russian meat heads spoiling for a fight (and I am talking huge guys here!). If you are looking for activities to do on your stag do then I would recommend the bobsleighing, we met some locals who took us to do this - it is fantastic! When we went we stayed our first night in a hostal near the main market and it was pretty grim. After that we moved to the Hotel Viktorija which is just passable - make sure you ask for the "renovated" rooms though - they are very rough and ready with old beds and furniture so I would hate to think what the un-renovated rooms are like!! Personally I would recommend checking out other hotels as I don't think we did well on the accommodation front! If you are going to Riga on your stag do, then I would definately recommend a nightlife guide as we spent the first 2 days trekking round and round in circles from random bar to random bar and it was only after this and talking extensively to locals, that we actually found the decent places - obviously you don't want to spend the whole of your stag weekend without finding the best hotspots. If you are looking to go to a lapdancing club then I would recommend Dolls we went to quite a few and this was by far the best - On that note you really need to watch yourself if you want to go to a lapdancing club- most are mafia run and they have a scam where the girls ask you to by them a drink (hard to resist when they are stunning!). The trick is that while the drinks you buy for yourself are about expensive pub prices, there is "onother" menu for the girls drinks - where they average about £20 a drink!! That is one of the standard tricks and I have heard much worse stories!! Here is more info on Riga stag weekends . Overall I would give riga a 9/10 - it would be 10/10 apart from our accommodation problems and the fact we spent a couple of days going to average clubs before we eventually found the excellent ones!

Stag Weekends in Vilnius:

Vilnius is quite similar to Tallinn in architecture although maybe not quite as pretty (but still stunning). Size wise, of the three Baltic capitals, it is in the middle. As a destiantion for a stag weekend, this would defiantely be near the top of my list. The nightlife again is superb and as with all the Eastern European cities we went to, what amazed me most was how trendy the bars and clubs are. Most would not look out of place in London and what you will also see is tons of designer shops. The people of the former eastern block are style concious to the extreme and it is obviously very important to them to look their best at all times. I think it must be impossible to buy womens shoes in eastern europe which have less than 3 inch heals, it really is true that the women dress up like they are going to a ball just to get a pint of milk! As far as nightclubs go there are several I would recommend Fashion Club if you are into posey type clubs. The girls in there are just rediculously fit, but it may be a bit too pretentious for a stag party. One interestig place isGravity Club which is based in a former soviet bomb shelter! Another place you may be interested in is Connect Club which is a popular stag party venue. Be warned of another scam here, we have heared that a large number of the girls here are on the staff payroll - their job is to chat you up and get you to buy them expensive drinks! - Unbelievable ehh! We stayed in a small B&B in vilnius so unfortuately I can't really give any advise on accommodation that would help with a stag weekend. As far as lapdancing clubs go then I would recommend Dolls - I'm not sure if it is part of a chain connected to the one in Riga, but it is good. One activity that may be of interest for a stag weekend in Vlinius, that we saw was a "bar on a bycicle" - we saw it go round with about 15 guys drinking on it - looked like good fun! Here is more information on Vilnius Stag Weekends. Overall I would give Vilnius a 8.5/10 as a stag weekend destination.

Stag Weekends in Tallinn:

The city centre of Tallinn is like a chocolate box picture, it is simply stunning. Its old city centre is walled, and within the walls almost all the building are original, with spires and quaint churches everwhere. Go up to the castle for a great view. For a stag party Tallinn is great, as most of the bars are on a few streets around the city of the walled heart of the city, so you can easily walk from one to another. There are a couple of bars almost directly oposite on another is the centre called Nimega (Bar with a name) and Nimeta (bar with no name!) - Nimega is a great place to go for pre clubs drink and it has its own little dancefloor at the back. Ask for a guy called Adam, behind the bar and he will be able to give you some good advise on places to go to and places to avoid. Nightclub wise I would recommend Venus and Hollywood which are in the city centre and Parlament which is a taxi ride away. On lapdancing clubs I would recommend X Club - it not cheap but then again neather are the other, and this one is very good! Accommodation wise we stayed in a hostel, on my first trip we stayed in one terrible hostel on the first night (and it really was terrible), and then moved to a pretty good hostel called old town hostel. The second time I went we stayed in a hotel about 3 miles from the city centre and I really would not recommend it to be honest - its a real pain in the neck having to get taxi's into the city centre - a word on taxis here, everywhere we went in eastern europe we got completely ripped of by them, they all have convenient buttons under the dashboard they press to rig there metres and I am not joking when I say we paid sometimes 8 times the price for exactly the same ride, by different firms!! Also never, ever ask a taxi driver for recommendations for clubs, bars, restaurents and particularly lap dancing clubs, they are all get kickbacks from where ever they take you to, and we met some guys on a stag weekend, who where taken to a strip club in a taxi over an hour away across a border, apparently the place was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by dodgy blokes with guns!! They made an excuse that they had to go to the bank to get cash, and then had to get another taxi all the way back! Also on being stiched up, look out for very forward girls who chat you up and ask if you want to go for a sauna. Its a scam where they get you in the place undressed and their accomplices out the back then take everything you own. I imagine getting back to your hotel without cash or clothes could be slightly embarassing! The one main problem I can see with Tallinn is that its nightlife centre is so small it would only take a few stag parties to totally overrun it. Therefore I think riga is probably a better option as it has the size to absorb it without it being totally in your face. Here is more info on Tallinn stag weekends. Overall I would give it a 8/10 as a stag weekend destination, but if it gets overrun with stag parties, as I soon expect it will, then I think it may have a very short shelf life!

Stag Weekends in Prague:

Beautiful place, but Aiden says, it is overrun with stag parties, which is probably not what you want. It is also getting pretty pricey and although it is still relatively cheap compared with the UK most other cities in eastern europe are cheaper. That said there are loads of great clubs and bars - just a shame that they are full of other pissed up english guys on a stag night. Here is more information on Prague Stag Weekends . Overall I would give Prague a 7.5/10 as a stag weekend destination.

Stag Weekends in Bratislava:

This is a very "nice" city, which is doing a lot to buildits profile as a tourist destination - They have recently commissioned an artist to create a whole load of bizarre bronze statues which you will find dotted around the city ( and when I say bizarre I really mean bizarre, one which I liked was a worker coming out of a drain cover). Its quite a quiet sort of place and it seems to be relatively undiscovered with regard to stag weekends. It a very clean city and the main city centre area is mostly devoid of cars, so its ideal for travelling round on foot. Its also pretty cheap, although there is a huge difference between what you will pay in a trendy bar and a locals boozer. The nightlife seems slightly quieter than Budapest, Riga, and Prague, and probably on a par with Tallinn and Vilnius, although there are a still plenty of bars and clubs to keep and stag party happy for a weekend. Look out for the nightclub that is on the boat which is pretty good and it is also worth a trip up to the bar which is in situated in the UFO like tower spanning the bridge - again along the "bizzar" then the blokes urinals are actually cleaners buckets!! Here is more information on stag weekends in Bratislava. Overall I would give it a 8/10 as a stag do destination.

Stag Weekends in Bucharest:

This city is weird, we hit this place in summer and it was dead, and I am being totally serious when I say that all the clubs had closed for the summer!! Apparently for 3 months every summer, everone of a youthful age just ship out and moves to the coast, taking their nightclubs with them. We had really high hope and they were dashed on the rocks so spent about 3 days in casino's. One nice touch about casino in eastern euopean cities is that almost every where you go the drinks seems are free and at most places they have a seriously good buffet of food. So if you aren't loosing on the tables this is a seriosuly cheap way to get fed and drunk. Here again though comes my final tip on being scanked, you need to be playing big at the tables else your drinks dry up. We had a decent win one night, went back the next day sat at the same table and some heavy can down from the overseeing eyes above and top our croupier to change the house rules - our minimum bet had suddenly gone up to £10!! As a stag weekend destination I would give it a 4/10 although this may be higher when everyone has not buggered off!!

Stag Weekends in Kiev:

Kiev is a very cool place, and if you go you will see that it is a lot less westernised than the other destinations I have mentioned. While in the other destinations you can see and feel mafia type undertones, in Kiev it is slapped in your face. There seem to be only two categories of cars in this city, small and shabby lada's and skoda's, and black, tinted windowed, alloyed wheeled mafia mobiles. I have seriously never seen so many G-Waggons, Merc's and Landrovers all in black - generally parked out the from of casino's. As a stag weekend destination, although Kiev is very cool and interesting, it is really a place you need to be shown round, it a big city and you will have absolutely no chance of finding anywhere, even with a good guide book. There are a lot fewer english speak people for one, the city centre nightlife sprawls all over the place and to top that they do not use the english alphabet. Without a good guide you will seriously have a complete nightmare - with a good stag night guide though you will have an absolute ball. As hotspots for nightlife go I would recommend that you head over to the Arena Complex It a big concrete amphitheatre with a number of different bars, several clubs and a casino. If you go to the casino there is a nightclub upstairs which quite seriously is just full of supermodels and their fat elderly partners - you have quite simply seen nothing like it. You can just sit at the bar in the casino and see the best looking girls you have ever seen - quite unbelievable. If you fancy your chances at pulling a supermodel away from their mafia partner, then entrance to the club is £15 - now bear in mind the average Ukraine salary is about £100/month, you can start to put 2 and 2 together and see how this city works. As for stag weekend accommodation I am afraid I can't help. We stayed in an apartment, which is the cheapest option. For some reason Hotel in Kiev are at London prices and it was only last year that they got their first international hotel. As a stag weekend destination I would give it a 7.5/10

Stag Weekends in Budapest:

I loved this place and this is where I organised a stag do to last year. One of the best things about Budapest, which sets it apart from most of the other capitals in eastern europe is the spas. We went to one of Budapests largest spa's on the saturday afternoon, its a stunning building with about 15 different pools - some indoor and some outdoor. Each pool has a different theme, hot ones, cold ones, ones with ice! - and pools with circling water where you are dragged round and round the pool by a fast current. If you go to Budepest I think the Spa's are a must - its just the best hangover cure ever. We also did some pistol shooting in the morning which I would also recommend. On the other day we where there we had a boat trip with strippers on board. I thought we were going to get a tiny boat, but this thing was huge, it could have fitted about 150 people, but we had the whole thing to oursleves - its also a really good way of getting to see the sites. The nighclubs we where taken to where also out of this world, we where taken buy our guide on a bar crawl and then went to several different clubs - I have seriously never seen anything like them, most where open air right by the river. They go on all night and the last night I was in this club till 8 in the morning and it was just as busy as a UK club would be at 1am. Price wise it is probably on a par with Prague, so there are a lot cheaper places, but I really would recommend it - we never saw another stag party the whole weekend. One word of warning (which goes for all Eastern European cities), you are very likely to get ripped off unless you have your wits about you, I got ripped off for a £30 taxi ride for a 3 mile taxi back from a club - unfortunately you can't really argue as I prefered to pay up rather than get a beating - we heard a few horror stories about guys being beaten for not paying up in taxis and lapdancing clubs, which as in all eastern european cities can be seriously dodgy if you go to the wrong one!! If you do go, and that goes for all these eastern european cities, then I recommend using a specialist company, there are numerous companies out there, from the good through to seriously dodgy so be very careful! ( A recent report on watchdog highlighted one company for malpractice read the full watchdog report here: Stag Weekends Watchdog Report ) . Everything is completely sorted for you and it would have just been a complete nightmare to even attempt to do what we did on my own ( We went with Chillisauce.co.uk who provided an excellent service ). I would highly recommend getting the guided nighlife tours as these are just invaluable - we would have spent the whole weekend going round in circles getting ripped of in crap bars without it. There are plenty of activities they do in Budapest and I would really recommend what we did. Overall I would have to give it 9/10 for a stag weekend destination (Although this may be slightly biased as it is the only place I went to on a stag weekend, and we where guided round to get to the best places) . Here is some more information from Chillisauce on Bubapest Stag Weekends.

Riga - Capital of the Balitics, makes a superb Stag Weekend Destination:

Right now the capital of Latvia is one of the brightest stars on the European Horizon. As a result of frequent and cheap flights, an excellent exchange rate and - if you happen to hail from a European Community country - visa-free travel, more tourists than ever packing their phrase books and flocking to sunny Riga. And courtesy of a smorgasbord of thrilling activities and a smokin’ nightlife Riga is also quickly becoming the stag weekend destination of choice. So don your pastalas* and head over to the Paris of the Baltics, where the party is only just beginning.

Jumping Juniper! They Sure Know How to Make Them There Drinks!

They sure do. Those crazy Latvians have been making their legendary Riga Black Balsam since the 18th Century to a strictly guarded recipe which, some say, contains over 99 individual ingredients mixed in pure Vodka. The liqueur is also said to have curative properties with Lativian grannies everywhere sneaking a sip to cure everything from toothache to cancer. At about 90 proof we can only attest that it certainly has properties of a most ‘transformative’ nature. Other than the blessed Balsam, Lativians know how to brew a decent beer with Aldaris being one of the national favourites.

In Part 2 of this articles we will give you more low down on Riga Stag Weekends, and just what this superb city can offer.

You Can afford a Legendary Stag Weekend

Do Not Proceed Until You Have Met the New Kids on the Bloc

When it comes to the perfect stag weekend, Prague is certainly having its moment in the sun. For the better part of ten years the Czech capital has been the ‘it girl’ of the former Eastern bloc. And just like ‘it girls’ from Essex to Primrose Hill, Prague is being done like a dinner. Those who aren’t already going there are thinking of going there and everybody else already went in the 80s before, like, it became so popular. Now there’s nothing wrong with abandoning Bournemouth and Skegness in favour of a bit of Iron curtain history and culture, in fact it’s where the smart money is. But listen up people, there’s a whole map out there filled with quirky, exotic and down right crazy locations that are just champing at the bit to show you a good time. So let’s start with the new kids on the Eastern Bloc. Think of them as best friends you’re yet to meet. Lovers you’re yet to kiss, you get the drift. So here are some handy hints, interesting facts, useless trivia and some slap-your-granny-you-can’t-be-serious exchange rates on places that you might want to consider upon organizing the mother of all stag weekends in Eastern Europe. Gentlemen, get your phrase books ready.

Over the next few weeks we will bring you the lowdown on the coolest cities in Eastern Europe, along with various ideas to make your stag party go with a swing.

One Lucky Stag Has a Taste of Heaven in Estonia’s Thumping Capital (Tallinn)

There’s a lot to love about stag parties in Tallinn. Right now all I could hear was ‘Void you like another beer?’, and all I could see was row upon row of straight, white, perfect Estonian teeth and long, shiny, blonde Estonian hair. The waitress, and owner of said teeth and hair, was asking for the trillionth time: ‘Beer. Do-you-want-another-one?’ Even though it was my stag night which made me emperor and overlord of all I surveyed, I couldn’t even muster eye contact and so just nervously spluttered out a well rehearsed ‘Jah!’ Sweet. Beer in the form of the fine ‘Le Coq Premium’ would be soon on its way and, well, I had to admit that my Estonian was coming along beautifully.

But before the beer could even be pulled from the beer pulling thing, before Miss Estonia could even return to service our table, the lights dimmed and there was a venerable hush. And after what had to be the slowest minute known to man, a vision appeared like a phoenix rising. Or something. Just 23 and a half hours earlier I had been arguing about the price of insulation batts in Reading Argos and now, before me stood – or rather lay -a moveable feast in every sense of the word. She was Tanya. She was 22. She was from Haapsalu. Or was it Hishpalaa? Somewhere west of the capital. She was naked. She had our dinner strategically placed on her 22 year old perfect Estonian body. She was very talented.

In Japan, this practice is called nyotaimori and the name literally means ‘adorned body of a woman’ and for the next three hours the unlimited beer flowed and me and my twenty-nine best friends wined, dined and hatched plans about escaping management consultancy and setting up our own bar in down town Tallinn. Or maybe we could open up an English school. Or an academy for young ladies wanting to be learned in the ways of contemporary British life. My stag weekend in Tallinn was only half a day old and it was fast surpassing Skegness as my holiday destination of choice. We toasted to the Saku the finest Estonian lager to pass my lips, to Reading topping the table and to Tanya’s left thigh. We toasted to Tallinn’s remarkable ability to produce the highest concentration of the fit birds per square mile and, of course to me and my upcoming nuptials. We were still toasting when we left Tanya half covered in dessert and fig leaves and little else. We were toasting the magnificent delights of Tanya’s right thigh in a rather loud manner, lager and le Coqs in hand, when we noticed what seemed to be a troupe of troopers walking in our general direction.

Crazy-Tallinn-street-cleaners-who-just-couldn’t-part-with-their-soviet-army-fatigues (to them it would always be 1989). We toasted to 1989. To Berlin. To Gorbachev. To Reagan. To Yeltsin, who we were all sure was very certain of the infinite native delights of Estonia. To the greatest stag weekend ever. Thank you Tanya, wherever you may be, Tanan and Head ood! Thank you and good night. I will never look at grilled Greek pork in the same way again.
Peter Finlay spoke to Amalia Illgner. We are pleased to announce that Peter is now a happily married man with a house full of white goods in Reading.

Special Thanks to Chillisauce for organizing Peter's Tallinn stag weekend.

Amalia Illgner is a writer from Sydney, Australia. She has published work in the free to street press on men's issues and travel and lifestyle.

Back when Michael Caine was a sex symbol, Michael Jackson still black, and Chicken Tikka was considered the height of culinary chic; the perfect stag night simply consisted of a case of beer, your best mates, a fully loaded Polaroid, and an amateur stripper named Bambi. How times have changed...

According to the office for national statistics we're now far less likely to get married in the first place and if we do get dragged down the aisle it's far later than ever before. In fact for men the average age has crept up to an all time high of 30 and a half years, so there's little wonder that it's not just a small cause for celebration when two people in this Bridget Jones world manage to step away from their work stations, microwave-meals-for-one and eBay auctions and actually commit to each another.

What this means for the stag weekend is that generally couples have more money to spend on their respective hen and stag weekends and what that means is that the stag weekends are getting more elaborate, adventurous and action packed. In other words the ante is being upped along with the expectations. Forget sitting on your rear and ordering the seafood special at your local, the typical 21st century stag weekend consists of action packed days filled with paintball army combat style, canyoning, quad biking, Munich beer halls, Estonian feasts and coasteering. For those of you who think crossing Piccadilly Circus during peak hour is about as rugged terrain as you've ever seen, coasteering is the fine art of scrambling around a coastline and leaping off cliffs into wave lapped coves below. It's about as close to becoming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as anyone who works in an office is going to get. Ever. And the guys are loving it. In fact, coasteering - as well as the trusty faithfulls like paintball and quad biking - is fast becoming the new black when it comes to planning the ultimate stag weekend. There truly is nothing like getting a bunch of lads together adding a strong element of fear, the smell of competition and the threat of ritual humiliation to bring out the dormant Evil Knieval within.
And it seems this chest beating machismo and daring even stretches into the cultural realm as scores of quintessential British stags are downloading Google earth, thumbing through a phrase book and heading off shore to experience far flung destinations for their weekend of freedom.

The foreign office released a detailed survey at the end of last year and found that a staggering 70 per cent of young Brits "now prefer to travel abroad for hen and stag parties". That sure is a giant leap from our parents' night out in Bournemouth. And perched at the top of the destination pack is undeniable the cool of Eastern Europe. Riga. Vilnius. Tallinn. Bratislava. Moscow. They're so cool they're hot. The Iron Curtain is cool and the Eastern Bloc is rocking. This is principally from the recent expansion of the European Union making costly and irritating visas at thing of the past and the fact that flights are now cheaper than a ticket to see Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits tour at Wembley. And let's not forget the exchange rate. Ah the sweet exchange rate, where often one humble quid will be enough to buy more than one pint of quality local brew. This point is often argument enough to entice punters from expensive metro poles like London (where one quid may buy you a copy of The Sun and half a mars bar).
So 21st Century Stags unite! The options are as endless as your imagination. That really is the easy part. Now it's just a matter of convincing her to marry you...

Chillisauce.co.uk is a fully bonded tour operator specialising in custom made stag weekends. Please have a look at our website for more information on adventure filled Stag Weekends in Eastern Europe.