20 (Stripper-Free) Bachelor Party Ideas

In addition to the ho-hum routine of pole-dancing and beer, consider mixing it up with the following 20 ideas.

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If you're over the age of 12, you know that the traditional bachelor party involves strippers, booze, and then more strippers. [Yawn.] That's all fine. And we would never discourage lapdances and liquor.

But you can do better. You can get more creative. In addition to the ho-hum routine of pole-dancing and beer, consider mixing it up with the following:

1. Hunt. Especially for guys who don't usually go hunting—it's a wacky adventure. 10 guys. 10 guns. 10 cases of beer. What could go wrong?

2. Play poker. Perfect for a lean budget. Grill steaks, get beer from a cheap grocery store, and play Texas Hold 'Em with a $20 buy-in.

3. Camp. Swigging beers around the campfire—stars in the sky, clear air, no Blackberries—is just the right contrast to the madness of wedding planning.

4. Golf. But only if the groom actually—you know—likes to golf. Otherwise it feels forced, rote, and awkward. If someone influential eagerly suggests, "Hey guys—let's do golf!" others might feel obligated just out of peer pressure. Feel out the groom's honest interest-level.

5. Taste whiskey. This ain't cheap. But arranging your own private "tasting" at a posh whiskey bar—like any of these in New York—lets you class-up an ordinary bar experience.

6. Take a road trip. Ideally, to someplace fun and quirky, like Graceland, Atlantic City, or the Baseball Hall of Fame.

7. Herd cattle. Think: City Slickers. Yep, you can actually book this kind of "working vacation" where you live like cowboys. More info at sites like this.

8. Kill each other. Virtually. If your group is into video games, a weekend of Halo, Grand Theft Auto, or Madden could be the perfect (if nerdy) way to relieve stress. If you do this, just lie to other friends and tell them you hit a strip-club.

9. Ski. The Plunge's favorite bachelor parties are the ones that incorporate both rugged outdoors and drunken revelry. Skiing fits the bill: a few runs on the slopes, a few bourbons in the lodge. Bonus? Ski bunnies.

10. Rent a beach house. When enough guys chip in, renting a house is cheaper than hotels, gives you an Old School-type vibe, and increases the odds that the groom, at some point, will vomit. Which is the goal of every good bachelor party. (Unless, of course, the bachelor party is the night before the wedding. Which you would never schedule, right?

11. Play paintball. Only two rules: 1) You have to let the groom's team win. 2) You can't let the groom know that you're letting him win.

12. Go white water rafting. Plenty of organizations now offer multi-day, pre-planned, guided rafting trips that require no knowledge, experience, or sobriety.

13. Fish. Maybe. Obviously, this depends on the personality of the groom. Some guys will find it boring—profoundly so—to stare, for hours and hours, at a tranquil sea of water. He'll get enough of this tedium in marriage.

14. Taste cigars. Splurge on a swanky cigar lounge and smoke cigars that you would never, ever ordinarily justify buying. If not now, when?

15. Skydive. Most guys want to go skydiving...but never do because of the eye-popping cost. (Hundreds of dollars for only a few minutes fun—it's a worse $/minute ratio than Eliot Spitzer's hooker.) Like cigar tasting, you might as well live it up now.

16. Take in a game. If you can swing it, get box seats. If you can't, just get really, really drunk. Either way, pony up the cash to get seats you would never usually afford.

17. Rent dirt bikes. Or dune buggies, ATVs, or anything else that provides at least a 13% chance of death.

18. Flee to Mexico. Not the obvious party-cities like Cancun or Cozumel, but the actual real Mexico-the real culture, cities, and grit. Less comfortable but more rewarding. Um.....yeeeeaaaah. Before you grab your ticket to Mexico, you might want to sure the jaws of hell haven't opened.

19. Feast on steak. Maybe your group has tons of dough but can't find a weekend to all get away. No problem: rent a limo and go for a steak dinner. Especially if this is not the kind of lifestyle your groom is used to, this will make him feel like royalty.

20. Anything but this. Learn from this real-life example. In your attempts to get more creative, don't let the pendulum swing too far. Unless the groom is a recovering alcoholic or doesn't drink for religious/personal reasons, you still want to incorporate booze and debauchery. Don't turn into this exchange:

Question: Do you have ideas for a Clean, Christian Bachelor Party?

My husband is the best man and is clueless to what to do for his best friend. Needs to be clean (no strippers, no drinking)!

Best Answer -

Have an advice and blessing party. The friends get together at someones house and help him fill a book of marriage and child rearing advice - personal and scriptural advice. Things that could be covered are:

To encourage them to pray together daily and share scripture.

That he should respect and treasure her as his wife and hold her above all other women.

Never stop dating - no matter what always make time for each other.

Have all the men at the party write these down a a page from a 3x5 scrapbook and then when they have all contributed and placed the book together they all raise up a prayer of blessing for his future that he be a good,faithful and generous husband and a father his children can be proud of.

Hope this helps!

...and that was voted as the "Best" answer.

Have any other ideas for bachelor parties? Drop us a line at Drowning@ThePlunge.com.

For North America's 10 best bachelor party destinations, click here.

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Comments (11)

...

I'm gonna enduldge in numbers 4, 5, 10, and 19. It will be a splended morning of beer, followed by a beautiful afternoon of beer, concluded with a magical night of beer.
Tempo013, July 30, 2009
 
..., Low-rated comment [Show]

you know what's great, mags? Irony.

Mags, I love that you come on this entertaining and informative site with the purpose of lecturing complete strangers and anonymous webmasters about how they should act/think vis-a-vis their upcoming marriages. In attempting to deride our approach and attitude, you actually provide a case study as to why this site is so enjoyable: it gives men (and women) a chance to escape and/or laugh at people who take marriage/weddings a little too darn seriously. Laugh a little, and if you can't, please refrain from generalizing and infantilzing men you've never met, lest you end up in the stereotypical romcom role of the nudge party pooper. By the by, my lovely wife to be (who is laughing at the irony too as i write this) is very comfortable with theplunge and it's healthily irreverant tone.. Great job fellas!
wodan, August 04, 2009
 

thanks for the list

Just found out I am planning my buddies bachelor party, since the best man is going to be out of the country on business (lamesauce). This list is awesome, and I am sure I will use a few of the items on it - maybe a roadtrip to camp, hunt, raft, play poker, and possibly paintball. Thanks for the advice.

PS Mags you suck.
almostbestman, August 30, 2009
 

video scavenger hunt

My brother wanted a no-strippers bachelor party for 20 guys. That night, we gathered up 5 camcorders, split into teams of 4, and sent each group on a mission to videotape themselves doing shots with hipsters, sitting in basketball hoops, running parkour, and other physical challenges. At the end of the time limit, we met back at my apartment and watched the five videos with some PBR and burgers. The result was some of the funniest shit I've ever seen in my life, and it was a great bonding experience too.
B Dubs, September 18, 2009
 

...

B Dubs - love the video scavenger hunt idea. In fairness, when you first say "video scavenger hunt," the natural response is to roll your eyes.. but when you describe it, it actually sounds fun and funny as hell. Good stuff.
Jeff, October 01, 2009
 

Jack and Jill party

Most of my fiancees good friends are also my good friends, and are mostly dudes. I know how that sounds... but we met in college where the male/female ratio is about 10-1, hense we share a lot of the same friends and they are mostly guys. That said, she already told me no strippers anytime, bachelor party or whatever, I'm fine with that. But she was worried about her bachelorette(sp) sucking because most of her friends would be at my bachelor party. We decided to have a big "jack and jill" style kegger with all of our friends. We live on a good chunk of land in the mountians and have planned a day/night of 4 wheelers, skeet shooting, golf at the course down the road, barbeque, and a band at night. I realise this unique situation hardly applies to anyone, but it's just a suggestion in case someone else out there has similar circumstances.
bdl610, November 24, 2009
 

We tried it, so should you

Maybe a better alternate to the paintball idea, might be this new game our bachelor party stumbled onto. The groom lives in NJ and we took the group for a day at outdoor laser tag. This game is a lot like paintball but with the following positive spins:
No Pain
No Bruises
Accurate up to 1000 feet away!
Inexpensive
Major Adrenaline rush

Check out the website, it says it all: www.outdoorlasertag.com

Hope this helps anyone in the NJ area have a blast. This game would probably be a lot of fun for a bachelorette party that wants to be adventurous.
Commando Rick, December 24, 2009
 
Good ideas, but..., Low-rated comment [Show]

Sweet Baby Jesus...this is going to be interesting

I have a pretty crazy situation and I'm looking for some advice. I'm a female...and so if my fiancee...so it is going to be one hell of a night when it comes time for our bachelorette parties. Obviously, we enjoy women in all of the same ways that men do, which is why I was looking on here about advice for the party involving strippers. Trust isn't an issue, but conduct of the party members is. I cannot trust that at least one member in her party will stay sober to keep others from crossing the line, and that scares the hell out of me. So would it be better to say no strippers? It isn't like there won't be plenty of nights that we go out in town together to do things like that. So would I really be asking too much?
2Brides2Be, January 19, 2010
 

Some ideas.....

I was the best man for my ex-brother-in-law. We took him to a very nice steak house for dinner then to a biker bar/strip club afterwards. We all had a great time and I will never forget it. But, now I am getting married again ( I never had a party for my first one) and I am not interested in strippers, and I don't gamble. I have thought about the possibility of something competitive though. Like a martial arts tournament, that I would be in, or driving race cars on a rented track. But, honestly I would be happy just haning out with my best friends drinking and listening to good music and seeing who will puke first like the old days.
JD by the fifth, January 22, 2010
 
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