What Actually Happens On A Stag Do?

We all know the stereotype; a large group of rowdy lads on a bar crawl, pranking the main man and ending up in a strip club, discarding twenties like it’s toilet paper. Hey, it doesn’t sound like a bad night to me, but we were curious how accurate these stereotypes were.

We are constantly receiving calls for “a stag do a little bit different from the norm”, which we are adapting our activity list for, so we thought we would review recently married men about what they got up to on their stag do and the results were very interesting!

Do You Remember Your Stag Do?

I personally feel the groom should never spend more than 10 minutes without a drink in his hand. At the last stag party I attended, my friend was having shots at 10am, while he could barely walk by 5pm. You obviously want to remember your stag do, but you also want it to be a night you will never forget, however us Brits have a tendency to drink ourselves into oblivion.

According to our research, 41% of married men couldn’t remember their own stag do. Maybe sneak a drink of water in-between each pint to ensure you remember the big night.

We are seeing an increasing number of people booking midday activities so that the stag do doesn't purely revolve around booze, while we've also seen an increasing number of people asking for zero-alcohol beers to be arranged.

Pranking

Stitching up the groom on his big night has been a staple of stag parties since…well, a long time! In fact, we’ve written up an entire guide on stag do pranks if you required some inspiration (my favourite is the bungee jump trick).

However not everyone is as cruel as me it seems, with 63% of married men surveyed stating that they weren’t pranked on their big night out.

The most common prank we all think of is the groom being tied up to a lamp post, however of the men surveyed, only 1% said this actually happened, so you can rest assured you stand a decent chance of not being left tied to a post!

The most common trick was around the lap dance, potentially with a dominatrix or a roly poly stripper, which takes place right in front of the group.

Where Do People Go?

The number one destination for stag groups in 2024 so far has been Liverpool, for the first time ever! The five most popular destinations in 2024 has been Liverpool, Prague, Newcastle, Bristol and Edinburgh.

Prague is the only abroad destination in the top five, however Budapest and Krakow have been closely following behind. All three of these destinations are considered low cost destinations, where a party atmosphere prevails.

With the low costs and sun the Portuguese capital is also popular. Lads snap up the Lisbon stag accommodation quickly!

65% of all our stag bookings are domestic, so the majority would rather a train over a plane. Despite a huge amount of interest in Benidorm, people rarely actually book it, as the accommodation for large groups is often not available and activities tend to book way in advance, so most switch over from Benidorm to Lisbon.

Did You Get A Stripper?

The honesty of our interviewee’s may come into question here, however of the men surveyed, 81.9% said they didn’t have a lap dance or a stripper. This is a substantial figure considering the amount of lap dance entries we sell as an activity; however, we are certainly noticing a shift in what people want to do on their stag do.

We still sell a large amount of bar crawls and lap dance clubs, yet there has been a spike in the slightly more unusual activities, such as archery in Brighton or the binocular football activity.

Fancy Dress

Oh Britain, you disappoint me! 78% stated they didn’t try any form of fancy dress on their stag do. I expected so much more from you! Why not break this trend and go for something that will leave passers-by in stitches? We have written up some example fancy dress ideas you could try if you need some motivation.

But we would firstly recommend asking our team whether they can wear the fancy dress to the day time activity, most of the will be a yes but it's best to ask in order to make sure. However, some nightclubs may say no to fancy dress, therefore it might be worth limiting this to being a daytime option. It's the quickest way to get the groom thrown out as well.

So How Does A Normal Stag Do Go?

You may arrive on the Friday, travelling by train or plane to your destination, before arriving in the early afternoon and checking in to your stag accommodation. Some places won't allow you to check-in till 3pm, so you could always drop your bags off at a safe area in the hotel so you can head off to do an activity.

Day one is the day in which you're not hungover, so it's best to do something a bit more active, before the drinks start flowing in the evening. You will then often have a couple of activities on the Saturday and drinks in the evening, before all heading back on the Sunday.

Some prefer to keep it to a single night and head back the next day, but you still may be able to keep your bags at the hotel and do activities on day-2.