Pub Crawl Stag Do

Every stag do ends up on a pub crawl eventually. The only question is whether it’s a good one or a dozen lads wandering round a strange city, arguing over a map on a dying phone. A stag do pub crawl with a plan behind it fixes that. Someone who knows the town picks the bars, the route makes sense, and you spend the night drinking rather than looking for the next place.

I’d put one on the first night of almost any weekend. It gets the group mixing, it shows you where the decent bars are for later, and it takes the thinking off the best man. You’ve got enough to organise.

There are three main flavours. A guided crawl with a local host, an interactive crawl with games and challenges, and the beer bike, which is a bar you pedal. All three are below.

A guided bar crawl gives you a host who walks you between a handful of bars. Depending on the package you might get a drink or a shot at each stop, entry to a club at the end, or a quicker way past the queue. Check what’s included, because “a drink in each bar” and “a free bar” are very different nights.

The host is the secret weapon. They know which bars are happy to take a stag group, which ones will turn you away at the door, and where the late licence is. They also herd the stragglers, which means you don’t have to.

If your lot need a bit of competition, go interactive. Pub golf is the classic. Each pub is a hole, each drink has a par (the number of sips you’re allowed), and you keep score on a card. Go over par and you take a penalty. The dress code is golf clothes, the louder the better, and the stag gets the worst outfit going.

Other themed crawls add a challenge or a dare at each stop, a quiz between bars, or a points table that crowns a winner at last orders. It turns a normal night into a running joke, and the scorecard makes a decent souvenir if anyone can still read it. Our stag do dares are handy if you’d rather build your own.

A beer bike is a bar on wheels. Everyone sits round it, pedals together, and the whole thing trundles through town while someone pours. They’re a stag favourite in Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam and Albufeira, and the effort to reward ratio is excellent. You pedal a bit, you drink a bit, the locals take photos.

A few things worth knowing. Nobody breaks the speed limit on one, so think slow parade rather than bike race. Rules on where they can ride and what you can drink on board vary by city and change from time to time, so check with the provider before you get your heart set on it. And put the stag in the seat nearest the tap. He’s earned it.

• Tell them it’s a stag. Plenty of bars won’t take a big group in fancy dress. A good host knows which ones will and books ahead.
• Eat first. A proper meal before the first bar saves the night. A bag of crisps at the second pub does not count.
• Split a big group. Twenty lads are harder to get through a door than ten. Break into teams and race each other between bars.
• Dress the stag. A crawl is the perfect stage for a stag do costume. Half the city will see him.
• Leave the next morning empty. Don’t book anything early on Sunday. Trust me.

A crawl slots in after almost anything. Do a beer tasting in the afternoon so the lads know what they’re ordering, or start the evening on a party bus and let it drop you at the first bar. If the beer bike is the main draw, Prague and Budapest are the obvious places to start.