With thousands of unique activities and pulsating nightlife the UK really is a fantastic destination for your stag do.

The city of Bournemouth is ideal for a stag party by the sea.

Destinations by the Sea

England offers some of the best activity sites in Europe set along its glorious coastlines.

Bournemouth is top of the list with 7 mile of glorious sandy beaches and more lively bars and clubs then you can visit in a week let alone a weekend.

You are spoilt for choice with the amount of activities on offer that include rage buggies, quad biking, mini car racing, clay pigeon shooting, deep sea fishing to give you just a taster.

Bournemouth boasts Europe’s first artificial reef, which has made this lively seaside town an absolute hub for surfers.

Newquay has always been a hot destination for hen and stag weekends and you will see why from the exuberant nightlife and the activities available.

The centre of Newquay is littered with bouncing bars and clubs all within easy walking distance of your accommodation. Sandy beaches provide the perfect backdrop to the electric atmosphere.

Newquay has one of the best quad bike racing sites in Europe with a track’s capacity of over 30 riders at anyone time. This mile long course will see you tackle adverse and reverse chambers, straights at full speeds and jumps to create air between your bike and the mud.

Newquay is world famous for having reliable swell 365 days of the year so you could become a surf dude or body border or you could throw caution to the wind by jumping off a cliff edge in to the sea during a coasteering session but then again you may feel like putting your two fingers up to energetic activities and just do a spot of sunbathing on one of the blue flag beaches.

UK Cities Rock

A stag weekend in the UK capital city of London has always been choice, however other fantastic UK cities are snapping at its heels. Take Nottingham for example, this city has always been a stag do Mecca, It’s not surprising when you take a stroll around this vivacious city at night with its abundance of trendy bars and fashionable clubs all buzzing.

Nottingham is perfectly set up for the stag do market with an amazing choice of activities to choose from, it also has one of the biggest paintball sites in Europe.

Bristol since it’s billion pound refurbishment is a firm favourite and is now a must do stag destination.

Stag parties that choose Bristol enjoy luxury city centre hotels, copious array cosmopolitan bars and clubs all within easy walking distance. The waterside has stacks of bars and eateries including the American export, Hooters. At the very heart of Bristol you will find some amazing super clubs and contemporary gentleman clubs.

To keep your boys out of the bars during the day the activity sites surrounding Bristol are pretty full on and include activities to keep the adrenalin pumping well into the night.

The Capitals

Edinburgh has an atmosphere you’ll want to pick up and marry, the nightlife is just simply outstanding.

Enjoy the dynamic atmosphere around the Grassmarket bars or eat and party hard in the west end, wherever your stag convey parks up you are guaranteed a cracking good time.

Edinburgh is also only one hour away from the best white water rafting in the UK, however if you feel like becoming a true Scot why not tackle the Highland Games activities which obviously includes tossing the caber.

Cardiff in recent years has been rejuvenated into one of the most modern looking cities in UK. Cardiff Bay has tons going on including loads of bars and clubs, it even offers a man made white water rafting experience.

Just a short drive away is one of the best stag playgrounds for outward bounds type of activities including the extremely popular Gorge Walking.

Last and but not least London, probably one of the most trend setting cities of the world, London is one of the eclectic cities to hold your last days of freedom.

Tour the colourful markets and famous sites by day before experiencing the seven wonders of this great city at night; Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Camden Town, Covent Garden, China Town, Notting Hill and Soho.

So for a Stag Do with a magnitude of epic proportions choose a town or city in the UK.

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Written by the DesignaVenture team.

DesignaVenture is a sponsor of the man registry’s groomadvice blog

If you’ve recently been made the best man for a wedding, your head is probably still spinning trying to form ideas for the wedding reception’s speech. You’ll be forgiven for a 6/10 speech if you can pull off perfect stag weekends, and that’s where we’re here to help.

First, you need to consider the attendees of the groom’s send-off – consider their ages, their budgets and their locations. A factor that affects many best men is that the groom probably has more than one friendship group – often because of university or work these can be from different parts of the country and may never have met. Therefore it’s extremely important to pick a location that pleases everybody, ideally a centre point between these groups.

Ice-breakers

Breaking the ice between groups of people who haven’t met before is vital and can be achieved in a variety of ways. Perhaps a drinking game back at the hotel before you venture out is the way to go. “I’ve Never” is perfect for this. In this game you go around a circle and each take turns saying something you’ve never done, if anyone around the circle has done it they must drink.

Perfect for outing those skeletons in the closet and leaving your stag party open and receptive to one another for the night ahead. Another way to melt the ice is to embark on some activities that give the group a common cause and a talking point.

Location

Europe is perfectly set up to accommodate stag weekends, with cheap inter-continental flight routes and ridiculously thrifty alcohol. Riga stag weekends are particularly incredible, with the city almost built by the God of Stag himself with so many strip clubs and bars per square metre. Latvia’s capital hosts a “parade of the blondes” every year, where beautiful ladies walk down the street, showcasing the incredible beauty possessed by this Eastern European jewel. If you’re looking for some sunshine on your stag weekend, you could do a lot worse than Marbella stag weekends. Marbella is the sun-soaked getaway of the rich and famous and boasts an incredible nightlife, as well as all-year sun and some of the continent’s best beaches.

Get Active

There’s no better way to unite a group than to head out for some good old-fashioned competitive fun. Your group will really have something to talk about in the night ahead if you’ve got a go-karting grand-prix under your belt. You could also earn your stag weekend stripes after embarking on a paintballing war, capturing the spirit of the trenches as you and your boys take up arms against an enemy stag squad. Quad-biking, coasteering and white-water rafting are similar effective in drumming up the spirit of brotherhood for a weekend to remember.

The Night

Ah, of course, any stag weekend’s legacy is surely defined by the quality and the craziness of the drinking action you bring to the city. If you’re in an unfamiliar city for your stag weekend, any research undertaken in the weeks leading up to the big weekend is going to be invaluable.

The worst case scenario is that you leave the hotel and wander around, rudderless, unsure of where the best, liveliest bars are situated. The Stag Company builds in bar crawls with VIP club entry into their packages – road testing them for their stag suitability. There’s really nothing worse than spending the whole weekend traipsing around, wondering if there’s a better party happening elsewhere.

So there you have it, the guide to perfect stag weekends. Keep it fun, keep it activity laden and have the stag weekend your groom-to-be deserves.

By Mark Booth, TheStagCompany.com

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the stag company is a sponsor of the man registry’s groomsadvice blog

our friends at redseven leisure are dropping by the blog today to give some tips on the do’s and don’ts of stag parties. sit back and relax men, class is in session.

When it comes to getting married, you make sure you’ve got the right person. There’s no waking up in three months time andchecking if there’s a sale or return – this is for the long-term!

The same goes for your stag party: you only get one, so get it right. Here are three destinations to not go to and three to shortlist.

The don’t go’s

Boat cruise party: Somalia

No matter how beautiful a country Somalia might be, it’s not the place to be taking a cruise right now. If your best man rolls up with this idea, you really should put him on a slow boat to China, one way. Somalian waters are backed up with hijacked boats, so the only way you are going to see the shore is onboard a rescue helicopter.

North Korea

We are full of ideas for stag weekends abroad but some places just aren’t open for business. North Korea has been off-limits for as long as anyone can remember. The nearest you’ll get is the ‘freedom bridge’. Sipping a cocktail in China you’ll see the lights go out in North Korea  – that’s because the government turns them out!

Afghanistan

Officially the most dangerous country in the world 2010, Afghanistan is strictly out of bounds. Fly in with US military if that’s your day job, but you won’t hear of soldiers returning for their stag parties. Even without the current state of turmoil, it’s a country run by tribes happy to fight over opium crops, and forget the beer and strippers – not cool in this part of the world.

The must go’s

Amsterdam

Chilled, cosmopolitan, and with a reputation only matched by party town Las Vegas, this is a place to go. Your Amsterdam stag do will see you chilling in the bars, cycling the streets, losing your mind in the red-light district and raving it up in the clubs. A firm Euro favorite, and completely unique.

Prague

Characterful capital of the Czech Republic, this town has become party central. Attracted by the cheap, strong beer, European stags have helped turn Prague stag weekends into the stuff of legends. Relaxed gun laws let you blast away in the woods before banging mixers you never even heard of. And if you’ve a cultural bone in your body, you’ll see every style of architecture around since medieval times.

Barcelona

Soccer fans get ready. European soccer legends Barcelona infuse this Catalan centre with sporting life. Les Ramblas is the part of town for the party crowd. You’ll enjoy the smartest of bars, chic street cafes and clubs that stay open all night. Built around the Ramblas Boulevard, it’s largely pedestrianised, so walk the streets of this Spanish must-see destination and make your Barcelona stag do a night to remember.

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redseven leisure is a sponsor of the man registry’s groomsadvice blog

While we don’t proclaim to be the foremost experts on UK stag weekends (we defer to our brethren Staggered from across the pond for that)… we do recognize cool shit when we see it. Release Travel definitely falls under that category.

Release  Travel has been setting up the biggest and best stag weekends in the UK since their formation in 1999. We first heard about Release from a groom that wrote us after hiring Release for their Stag Weekends London service. One line in that groom’s message still stands out to this day:

I’ve no doubt I’ll be using Release Travel to book the stag weekend the next time I get hitched.

Over 33,000 customers booked their stag and hen weekends through Release Travel. Powered by tremendous growth, quality reputation and a brand new website they’re making 2010 even better. There is no better destination in the UK for stag weekends Brighton, stag weekends Newcastle and stag weekends Bristol than Release.

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release travel is a sponsor of the man registry’s groomsadvice blog