The best bachelor parties are ones where everyone walks away with stories they can tell people– and one’s that they cant. It’s something that brings all of your close friends together in a bonding, lips-forever-sealed weekend. It’s why Las Vegas, strippers, gambling and drugs have all been popular choices for wild bachelor parties over the years.
But the typical Vegas bachelor party is just that– typical. With a little creativity and open-mindedness, there are plenty of other unique bachelor party ideas to choose from. Let’s jump in to ten great options for throwing a bachelor party that can be as wild or reserved as your group needs it to be.
1. Choose a theme and build from there
A theme is a great way to start the juices flowing when looking for a bachelor party idea. Favorite movies, Hawaiian-themed, 80s, etc. With a theme chosen, you can begin to fill in the gaps with music choices, costumes, and activities.
2. Get outdoors
Whether your group is experienced “roughing it” in the woods or not, it can still be an excellent time. The great part about camping, backpacking, etc. is that you have no neighbors or noise complaints to worry about (note: convincing strippers to attend is going to be a hard sell). Some challenges you may encounter camping is limited access to power or utilities. A 12V battery or a small generator (if you’re car camping) can really boost your options for running lights, speakers, blenders and more .
3. Food frenzy
If going to clubs isn’t really your thing, make it a gluttonous weekend instead. Talk with the other bachelor party attendees and see if they’d be up for spending most of their time (and money) on great food and booze. Really splurging on great restaurants can be costly, but so is Vegas. Especially for those groups who maybe don’t want to drink too much, or get too rowdy, this is probably one of the best bachelor party ideas.
4. BYO(F)B
Bring your own fancy booze. No matter what you’re doing for the bachelor party, we’ve been to several where each guy was responsible for bringing a bottle of great booze. Kick the first night off by opening all of them and sampling each one (right now, we’re pretty fond of Aberfeldy 12, which is only $40). Can’t finish off all that booze? Give what’s left to the groom at the end of the weekend.
4. Vision Quest
This is a personal idea that has been passed around our own friend group. It’s essentially a hilarious, multi-step gauntlet that incorporates embarassing features of the grooms past. You can think of it like an American Gladiator event meets a Comedy Central Roast, complete with a script and lots of props (read: booze). We generally rent Airbnb’s that are pretty secluded, offering lots of land to work with and plan around, and the different “stations” do not all need to revolve around drinking– you can have them complete a coordinated task like using a slingshot/watergun, or a simple puzzle to assemble in a certain time. If he fails? DRINK, and move on to the next station
Each man is responsible for some portion– whether that’s planning, reading/writing the script, or setting up the different stations and its props. Obviously, the groom should know as little as possible when planning, and it’s best to keep him blindfolded in another room as you set up the whole event. A Vision Quest has a lot of moving parts– to help, you can utilize the private channels of Guestboard for planning and keeping track of who’s responsible for what.
5. Girls only like guys who have great SKILLS.
Bachelor parties can be expensive, so why not get something useful (and awesome) out of it? Look in your preferred city for a 1-day class/course in something like the following:
- Beer-making
- Woodworking class
- Archery/skeet shooting/etc.
- Butchery class (these are awesome, and everyone leaves with a ton of meat)
6. Guys vs. Guys.
If your group is the competitive type, you can kill a lot of time with a day full of paintball, or head to a local community park (or rent out a real baseball diamond) to play some sloshball. (You’ll want to check to make sure the park you’re in allows drinking, or you can simply be prepared to scram).
For other competitive activities, there’s a lot of great articles on hosting your own beerlympics, which can be easily repurposed for a bachelor party.
7. Go big on the digs
Assuming you don’t spend too much money on bars/clubs/etc, you can pool your money and get a really kickass house on Airbnb or VRBO. Like beach house mansions, 8-bedroom mountain houses, or a god damned castle. You might need to pinch some pennies in other areas (bring your own food to cook, etc), but if your group is composed of more “home-bodies”, why not go big on the “home”! Round it out with a big digital projector and watch a movie or play video games on the biggest wall in the house.
8. Back to the future
Nothing prepares you for marriage better than realizing how old you’re getting. And a fun way of doing that is throwing it back to the good old days. Most bachelor parties will consist of high school or college friends– set a nostalgic theme by going back in time and doing what you used to do together in your early days of friendship. Do some deep Facebook digging to get some ideas. Dust off the ol’ plastic bong, eat that entire Little Ceaser’s pizza, plant those Smirnoff Ices, and plug in the Xbox. It’s 2007 all over again.
9. Hit the high seas
If you live near a coast, a 3-day cruise is an often under-realized bachelor party idea. They are typically very affordable and include all of your meals (you can pay more for unlimited booze), and have pools, activities, casinos and more. One simply rule: keep the groom on the ship.
10. Take over a new town
Millions flock to Vegas every year, but you and your friends don’t have to be just another number. There are plenty of other awesome cities in the U.S. (or elsewhere) that have incredible restaurants, breweries, clubs, outdoor activities and more. Check out cities like Dallas, Nashville, Seattle and Pittsburgh– just to name a few. You’ll also get more bang for your buck if you go to smaller towns. Check out lists of the best college party towns where you can out-drink some local fraternity bros.