What Stags Really Want

The Stag Company’s Marketing Manager Keith White knows what a man wants from his final hours of freedom. Here he dispels outdated myths about tacky stag dos, and paints a picture of a thoroughly modern male.

Image courtesy of Clear Cut Weekends

Stag weekends have got an image problem that even Max Clifford would wash his hands of. You only have to leaf through a copy of The Daily Mail and you’ll see that stag weekends ruin cities/marriages/the ozone layer. Delete as applicable.

I guess if the stag do is to blame for the impending holocaust, that makes companies like ours one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The truth is quite different.

I suppose ‘stag do passes without arrest’ isn’t the best headline, but you can see my point. The fact is that these days if your stag do consists of 10 pints down the local you’re suffering from a massive lack of imagination. Of course, alcohol is a key ingredient of a successful stag do but it shouldn’t start and end there, there are so many incredible destinations and activities that you should match up for a packed itinerary.

Easily the best way to say, “I love you mate – but not in a weird way” to your groom-to-be.

Adrenalin pursuits are a stag weekend’s best friend – not only do they bond factions of your group that might not be acquainted, but they also give the weekend a real sense of occasion. We all know that paintballing and go-karting are as intrinsically linked to stag parties as roast beef and gravy, but if you think outside of the box you’ll be rewarded with a weekend that lives long in the memory.

In the UK you could throw yourselves in at the deep end with coasteering, which consists of scaling cliffs, swimming into hidden caves and generally mucking about in a way you mightn’t have since you were knee high. Alternatively you could try zorbing which is flinging yourselves down an English hillside in a transparent ball – basically the closest you’re going to get to being Sonic the Hedgehog.

If you fancy heading further afield, some of Eastern Europe’s most famous cities offer really novel approaches to the stag weekend. Get yourself on a Riga stag do where you can sample the local Latvian delicacies on a food tasting tour, or perhaps a game of 5-a-side football will be the closest you get to playing in an away Champions League match.

So there you have it. Let’s do away with the myths surrounding stag weekends forever and start celebrating this ancient ritual that celebrates brotherhood in a way no other party will.

There are more great hen party ideas in the Hen & Stag section!