Organising a Stag Party Abroad isn’t easy! Check our advice on how to begin and what to pay attention to.
The organization of a good stag party especially abroad is a complicated and tiring business for a best man. It can involve him in writing literally hundreds of mails if a group is on the large side. There is also a good chance that he will never even have met some of the group members but will still have to organize a whole stag weekend’s entertainment for them. This can be a pretty thankless task. People will express praise and gratitude of things fall into place but will roundly condemn you if they don’t. We’re here to take the stress out of the job of organizing your stag weekend abroad and allow you to party in peace.
Here is some advice:
- Look Ahead
Encourage members to book their flights well in advance of the party date. There’s not a lot that’s more frustrating than negotiating a deal for a group and then having to start again because some of them left it too late and couldn’t find or afford flights and tell you this a week before you are supposed to leave.
- Save time and money
Give yourself plenty of time. 2 or 3 months sounds a long time but it simply flies by. Last minute bookings can also mean that certain services are unavailable or more expensive- remember that most popular central hotels and apartments usually sell really well and fast. The same applies to most popular stag activities- they have to be booked in advance or otherwise you may find yourself in a situation where your preferred stag do activity is already taken at the requested time and date or at least convenient hours are already booked by the other groups.
- Finish the formalities in time
Whether you are using a dedicated stag do company to take care of the reservations for you, or you prefer to contact all suppliers directly (which takes a lot more hassle) make sure you confirm things in advance and pay for the reserved services in time. There is nothing more frustrating for companies dealing with reservations for you, than lack of contact from the client who confirmed, but hasn’t paid the deposit or made the final payment in time, and is not answering. Delayed payments may result in cancellation of initially booked services- in the worst case you might even lose your deposit and date of the activity might not be able to be re-booked.
Also make sure you send all the requested info to a stag company in advance- meaning your preferred times of the activities, contact numbers, updates on the group size, accommodation address (if you have booked it on your own). This allows them to prepare the itinerary for your group.
Also try to keep the list of activities simple otherwise your job will become open ended. Have a word with your co-organiser or best mate, choose 2 or 3 activities or packages maximum and then send this off the rest of the group. Some best men spend weeks trying to get a common decision from people that they’ve never met just because a couple of them prefer one activity that the rest don’t like.
- Keep things simple
The bigger the group size, the more difficult you as the organiser will find it to match everyone’s tastes, preferences and budgets. First agree on the most important stuff – the budget. Once done, choose your destination and secure your flight dates. Then decide whether you prefer to leave reservations to a professional company, or if you prefer to act as one dealing with all the bookings on your own. If you go for the latter, start with booking your accommodation first and then move into booking airport transfers and activities. Problems which you might encounter will often be:
- foreign suppliers (bus companies, activity suppliers) might speak little English,
- should something go wrong you might find it difficult to get a proper compensation (different countries- different laws)
If you opted to have your weekend organised by a pro company, this will make your life a lot easier, but it might also cost you more. A tip which might save you a lot of money is to use stag companies which are based in the destination you’re going to. Local organisers book things directly with suppliers or are direct services providers in many cases. To give you an example – let’s say you want to have a Krakow stag do. You can choose to book directly with a locally based stag company such as e.g.: PartyKrakow, or can go for big UK based brands. The UK brands use local companies to deal with the local activity suppliers. Therefore they put their margin on top of the agent’s invoice. Hitting the agent’s web directly makes the whole chain shorter, and leaves more money in your pocket. Multiply this saving by your group size and this can go into hundreds of Euros or Pounds.
- Make sure you book some daytime activities.
Get the boys to do some sporting activities on your 2nd day in the late morning or early afternoon. Thanks will freshen them up and allow to continue to party in the evening again, rather than getting silly drink and ending up sleeping at the apartment.
- Stay fit
It’s a good idea to recommend all members private travel insurance. Failing this, getting an E111 or EU EHIC card is a great idea since it gives you access to the Polish health system (very good too). It can be obtained online.
- Deliver the details. When applying for a quote, it’s a good idea to remember the following:
– include the number of travellers
– include the dates
– include a phone number - Once you safely arrive to the destination of your choice, advise all members to leave passports and valuables in safety at their accommodation. A lost passport means a lot of trouble and the loss of a lot of time.
