You've been handed the stag. Congratulations, and commiserations. The good news is that a stag do isn't hard to plan. It's just a lot of small decisions, and most of the stress comes from making them in the wrong order: booking a city before you know who can come, or picking activities before anyone has agreed a budget.
This is the order we'd do it in. It works for an overnight in a UK city and for three nights abroad.
1. Talk to the groom first
It's his weekend, not yours. Before you open a single website, get ten minutes with him and ask four things:
- Who must be there? Brothers, oldest mates, the future father-in-law? Get the non-negotiables named.
- What's off the table? Some grooms hate fancy dress. Some don't want anything 18+. Some have promised their partner a quiet one. Find out now, not in the group chat.
- UK or abroad? He may have a strong view, or none at all.
- Surprise or not? Plenty of grooms want to know the city and nothing else. That's a good balance: he can book the time off and you keep the details.
2. Build the guest list (and be realistic)
Write down everyone the groom wants, then split them into two columns: the core group and the "would be nice" group. Start the planning around the core, because they're the people whose dates and budget actually matter.
Group size changes everything. Eight people can walk into most bars and fit round one restaurant table. Twenty people need booked tables, accommodation that can hold them together and activities that run big sessions. If you're heading past fifteen, read our guide to stag do activities for big groups.
3. Pick the date before the place
Most stags happen one to two months before the wedding. Leave at least a fortnight so any black eyes and broken toes have time to heal.
Offer the group two or three weekends, not one, and give them a few days to reply. Fridays to Sundays are the norm. If half the group can't do a Friday, a Saturday-to-Sunday overnight is an easy fix.
Watch for clashes: big home matches, festivals and bank holidays fill hotels and push prices up. Our city pages flag the dates to know about, such as the Grand National in Liverpool or match days in Cardiff.
4. Agree a budget per person
This is the step most best men skip, and the one that causes the most fallings-out. Agree a per-person figure before you choose a city. Ask privately if you need to; someone on a tight budget won't say so in front of twenty mates.
As a guide, our own UK packages start from £75 pp for one night (Bournemouth Overnight) and our two-night trips abroad from £145 pp (Albufeira Two Nights), before flights. Our guide to what a stag do really costs breaks down the rest: food, drink, travel and the groom's share.
Agree early whether the group covers the groom. It usually does, and it adds roughly one person's cost spread across everyone else.
5. Choose the city
Now you know who, when and how much, the city mostly chooses itself. A few rules of thumb:
- Mixed ages or a tight budget: stay in the UK. No flights, no passports, and the night is easier to keep together.
- A group that's done every UK city: go abroad. Prague, Albufeira and Lisbon are the friendliest on cost.
- People coming from all over the country: pick somewhere central with good trains, like Birmingham, or somewhere with an airport most people can reach.
Our guides to the best UK cities and the best European cities go through each one, and UK or abroad? lays out the trade-offs side by side.
6. Plan the shape of the weekend
A good stag weekend has a rhythm: one daytime activity, a proper dinner, a big night, then a slower second day. Resist the urge to fill every hour. Two activities over a weekend is plenty for most groups; three if you're there for three nights.
Pick activities that the whole group can do. Go-karting, paintballing and bubble football work for almost everyone. Rafting or a long hike might leave someone out. Do the active thing before the drinking starts: shooting ranges and karting tracks will turn away anyone who has been drinking.
If you want ideas matched to your group (sporty, chilled, older, sober), see stag do ideas for every kind of group, or browse every activity by city. For worked examples with times, see our sample stag weekend itineraries.
7. Sort the money
Collecting money is the job every best man dreads. Don't put twenty people's money through your own bank account if you can help it.
With us, the whole trip goes on one group link. It shows the plan and the price each. Everyone pays their own deposit to secure their place and their own balance before the trip, and you can see at a glance who has paid. The balance is due ten weeks before you travel.
Be clear about drop-outs from day one. Deposits aren't refundable, and inside 70 days of the trip the full cost is due, because by then the rooms and activities are paid for. Tell the group that up front and you'll avoid the awkward conversations later.
8. The week before, and the weekend itself
- Send everyone one message with the times, the addresses and what to bring. Pin it in the group chat.
- Check every passport if you're going abroad. Our guide to the rules abroad covers what catches groups out.
- Make sure everyone has photo ID for the night out. Doors in most cities ask for it.
- Agree a meeting point for anyone who gets separated, and keep the accommodation address in the group chat.
- Plan the morning after: a late breakfast, somewhere to leave bags, and the time everyone needs to leave.
The jobs you can hand over
You don't have to do all of this yourself. When you send us the city, the dates, the group size and a rough budget, our team builds the weekend around your group: where you stay, the activities, the nights out and the transfers. Your plan comes back within 24 hours, with one link to share in the group chat. If you're comparing cities, you can price your trip for your dates and group size first.
Whatever you decide, start early. You'll get the widest choice of dates, rooms and activity slots while the calendar is still empty, and the group has longer to spread the cost.
Ready? Tell us about your group and we'll send a full plan within 24 hours.