Cardiff Overnight

Your weekend, day by day

1. 1

   Day 1

   

   Guided bar crawl

   From about 20:30 · 4 hours

   Arrival day. Travel in and check in; the evening is the guided bar crawl: a run of bars with the guide handling the doors, finishing at a club. Dress for the last venue: no sportswear.

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   Cardiff's crawls stay in the centre, mostly around St Mary Street, which keeps everything on foot. A private guided crawl starts at 7pm and finishes at 11pm with three or four bars and club entry. A public crawl runs every Friday and Saturday from 7.30pm for about five hours, joining other groups and visiting around five venues. Bring photo ID, wear smart casual and expect fancy dress to be refused. Doors turn away anyone who has had too much, so pace the afternoon.

   You meet the guide at a fixed point and move through a run of bars across the evening, usually four or five, finishing at a club. The guide knows the doors, so you skip the queue and the group is not turned away for being too large.

   Most crawls include a welcome drink or a shot at each stop, and entry to the final venue. The rest is on you. Groups from several bookings are often merged, which some stags like and some do not, so ask whether yours is private.

   Dress code is the club's, not the guide's. No trainers and no sportswear at the last venue, and matching shirts get refused at some doors.

   

   Add-on

   Bowling, darts & pool

   From about 14:00 · 1.5 hours

   If the group picks bowling and darts, it runs in the afternoon: lanes or oches reserved for a block of time, with automatic scoring and a bar alongside, before the evening gets going.

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   For darts, the easy Cardiff option is an hour of electronic darts at a games bar in the centre, about 12 minutes' walk from Queen Street station. The board keeps score and runs several game modes, so nobody has to do the maths, and food and drink are bought at the bar. It works for groups of any size from two upwards. Pair it with pool or shuffleboard in the same building and the first two hours of a Saturday night are sorted without a taxi.

   You book a set number of lanes or oches for an hour or two and play through a scored league or a knockout. Scoring is automatic, shoes are handed over at the desk and the staff will set up a group format if you ask.

   It is low effort, indoors and cheap to add drinks to, which is why it survives on almost every weekend. Nobody needs to be good at it and nobody gets hurt.

   Socks are needed for bowling. Beyond that, wear what you like.

2. 2

   Day 2

   

   Activity bar (games, darts, shuffleboard)

   From about 12:00 · 1.5 hours

   Departure day. If the group picks the activity bar, it is a reserved booth with darts or shuffleboard and the screens keeping score, with food and drinks ordered at the table. A relaxed way to finish before the journey home.

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   Cardiff's games bars are central: one in the Brewery Quarter, about five minutes' walk from Cardiff Central, and another off Queen Street. The stag package is two hours with two games chosen from pool, shuffleboard, darts, beer pong, karaoke and axe throwing, plus two drinks each and a host, with slots hourly from midday to 6pm. Tech darts and table games run in one-hour blocks for eight to twenty people. A 90-minute hosted game show is also available in a private room at a city-centre bar. All are over-18s.

   You get a reserved area for a set block of time, with the games on your table or lane and someone on hand to explain the scoring. Most venues run digital darts, shuffleboard, beer pong or a mix of all three, and the screens keep score so nobody argues.

   Drinks and food are ordered at the table. Some venues include a drink or a platter in the booking, others put it on a tab. Check which you have before you arrive so the money side is settled.

   No kit needed. Wear what you would wear to the pub. Trainers are fine.