Abroad hen party ideas

diddleei

Hi, I'm organising my friends hen party and was thinking of abroad destinations. I've never even been on a hen before so only going on what I hear about them. Any tips / suggestions would be soooo helpful!!:) Where would be the most suitable destinations??

ElleEm

There are a million different suggestions you could be given so you're better off giving more details.

Number of people?
Ages?
Budget?
Interests?


Keep in mind that a Hen party that costs a lot (in both time and money) can alienate a lot of people, so people the bride want to go can't go. I have a couple of friends who had Hen parties abroad (Amsterdam, Las Vegas, Canaries) and they ended up having to have ANOTHER Hen party at home to cater for those who couldn't go to the foreign one.

diddleei

The bride will be 25 so the group going would all be in their mid to late 20's, it would also be a smallish group, 10 max I think at the moment..

Budget - as cheep and cheerful as possible.

Interests - obviously going two days would be better if going abroad so drinks at night and maybe a bit of pampering or a show during the day/eve.

ElleEm

You should look at cities on the Ryanair flight plan, and try get a deal that way. Your best bet would prob be the UK if you are only going for the two days. London can be quite expensive but you could do the Hop On/ Hop off tour and see a bit of the city's sights. It is usually cheaper to rent an apartment/ house rather than stay in hotels. With a house/ apartment, you can (usually) stay up late being noisy as long as you want!

I have been on a fair few hens, and it kinda annoys me when I have travelled for half a day to go to a hotel and do EXACTLY the same sort of stuff I could have done in Dublin (where myself and the previous "hens" live). If you are going abroad, make sure you actually do something that is unique to that city, otherwise it is just a waste of time and money.

evilmonkee

If you are planning on going abroad try and sort dates before you book / decide on anything.

People will need to book holidays from work, child minders , find someone to look after pets etc. so you will need dates in advance.

The dates would really dictate what you could do. You mentioned seeing a show: what will be showing on those dates and in what location? Can you book your planned activity for that day?

Where you stay could be dictated by what you are going to do and where you will do it.

Going away for such a short period will involve organization so that you are not wasting time in taxi / train / walking from place to place.

I agree with ElleEm, if you are going away try to make the experience something you couldn't do locally. IMHO I think it is a bit unfair to ask people to take days off, pay for flights and expenses to do something you can do with less hassle.

ElleEm

evilmonkee wrote: »

If you are planning on going abroad try and sort dates before you book / decide on anything.

People will need to book holidays from work, child minders , find someone to look after pets etc. so you will need dates in advance.

The dates would really dictate what you could do. You mentioned seeing a show: what will be showing on those dates and in what location? Can you book your planned activity for that day?

Where you stay could be dictated by what you are going to do and where you will do it.

Going away for such a short period will involve organization so that you are not wasting time in taxi / train / walking from place to place.

I agree with ElleEm, if you are going away try to make the experience something you couldn't do locally. IMHO I think it is a bit unfair to ask people to take days off, pay for flights and expenses to do something you can do with less hassle.

I have been on two Hens where there were activities planned for the next day, but most people had gotten so hammered the night before that they either stayed in bed and missed the activities or they struggled through them with no fun whatsover. If your group tends to drink heavily on nights out, then pre- organised/ pre- paid for activities might be wasted on them.

RickyBobby1

Do people still go abroad for there hen/stag?Im not even leaving my town for my stag as I think the weddings a big enough expense for people.Plenty to do here as well although most people just really want to go out and get pissed anyways

Gatica

plan an activity for the afternoon. Give them a chance to take wake up, a couple of pills and water... Went to a hen where the bride had planned a very active early morning hen and spend first half hour of it puking. The rest of us didn't drink as much and were fine. She'd have been better had it been a few hours later.

Merkin

Do you mind me asking why you want to have it abroad?

I personally think it's quite selfish on the part of the bride if they insist on doing so. It's asking people to essentially fork out a huge amount of money and for what? To honour them? And then the expectation to go to the further expense of attending a wedding?

Of course your nearest and dearest want to celebrate with you but a lot of people aren't particularly flush currently and asking people to go away for a couple of days abroad (regardless of how much you aim to keep the cost down) is going to have everyone incurring costs of roughly £500+ each before she's even walked up the aisle.

Maybe before organising you could take a consensus from everyone who you hope to invite to see what they'd be happy doing?

cazjk

Personally I want to go abroad for my hens I'm getting married next September and i've told people now to give them a bit o time I'm thinking of 3 nights somewhere in the sun and I dont think it will work out much more expensive than here. I had a friends honeymoon in Dublin last weekend (we live in Dublin) it was one day with activities and then into town and it cost 300. that was without the fancy dress costume, I'm also organising 2 other hen parties at the moment one in Wexford and one in Carrick on Shannon, and both are costing approx 200 for 2 nights one dinner and activity. So i've priced 3 nights in Malaga at 220 which i'm hoping to get down to 200. So its not that much more expensive- i know it will be very small but i only want my close friends there so it suits me fine.

I have agreed I'd only go if I can get flights and accommodation for under 200 though. But i have heard of people getting weekends to Benidorm for less than that- not everybody's cup of tea but i want a bit of madness

vfitzpatrick

I've organised a friends hen party in Magaluf We are going next week!

She chose to have it there!! It was 140 for flights in the aer lingus sale and then we booked into a cheap hotel for 50 quid a head for 3 nights! 190 quid for 3 nights abroad isn't bad! I paid more for a hen night in Galway last year!!

Great thing about going away is you don't have to organise anything except lying by the pool!!

Dortilolma

I'd say check to see who the bride really wants to be there and where she would like to go then check to see who would be able to make it and what kind of budgets people expect to have.

I'm getting married next year and am from Portugal so that's where the hen is happening.

I checked with all the girls I'm inviting before making any decisions to be sure everybody was on board with the location and the travelling. Since I have family there we're not going to pay for accommodation so the girls see it as a great excuse for a cheap sun holiday.

XMASSmrstobe

Hiya,

Just to add another thought as my BM's had nearly booked a hen abroad but the one thing that they hadn't factored in was annual leave as they are both flexi-time workers and kind of forgot! Essentially I can't really take any so although it may be nearly the same cost to fly out on a thurs evening and come back mid morning on a monday (brill destination with a bit of sun in spain and great value rental apartment plus bus transfer) - it would mean me and quite a few of the girls loosing two days from work, either taking two days unpaid leave or not being able to attend so we're staying in Ireland.

May be it doesn't apply to your crowd but I'm also mid-twenties and found that most people are new to jobs or still in first few years, without flexibility, so this was the decision factor for us! Best of luck by the way.

Also, I don't know if it helps but skyscanner.com has an option whereby you put in your dates and the departure airport and click 'everywhere' and it gives you a price for all destinations, includes ryanair and aerlingus, easyjet etc. Makes planning abroad easier!