Northampton Stag Weekend: Ideas & Inspiration

Stag weekends can be tricky things to organise. Especially when you are trying to arrange for twelve lads to arrive from ten different locations from around the country. I mean, it’s hard enough trying to get a few of your mates down the pub for the footie! But that’s what was on my plate when I agreed to be the best man for my best friend Keith.

I’m not one to shy away from a challenge though, and I was eager to arrange a stag do that was going to be more than a little bit different, and that would be easy for everyone to get to. It wasn’t until I looked at a map to try and figure out where would be a good place to have the stag weekend that was about equal distance from everyone, that Northampton reared its head as a possible destination.

The Unexpected Gem

Although it wasn’t somewhere I immediately thought of for a stag do, as soon as I started discussing it with Steve from The Stag and Hen Experience, it suddenly became very clear that this was a really good option. Why? Well, rest assured, it turned out to be one of the best choices I could ever have picked.

Because everyone was coming from somewhere different, Keith and I made sure that we got down to Northampton first. We dropped our bags off in the Guest House that we were staying in and popped to the local pub over the road to enjoy a few drinks. Over the next few hours, a steady stream of lads joined us until everyone was in the pub and enjoying a drink or two (or four...).

We’d planned to have a big night out, hit a whole bunch of bars and dance our way into the morning – but this local pub was so good, and since lots of us didn’t know each other very well, we ended up spending our first night of the stag weekend there until they threw us out! It was a great bonding evening, and I knew that the next day we had a lot going on, so an early(ish) night wasn’t a bad idea!

Activity: Hunting The Undead

Waking up the next morning, we were surprisingly all up in time for breakfast (as my dad says, “if you’ve paid for it, you’ll damn well eat it!”). Then we got ourselves ready for the day of entertainment. Keith had no idea what was coming.

Keith is a big fan of the works of George Romero, Resident Evil, and The Walking Dead, so he was about to have the experience of a lifetime. We had arranged to take part in a full-on Zombie Experience.

It was advertised as a full-contact experience. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but when we got there, it was amazing. The costumes and makeup of the ‘zombies’ were as scary as any I’ve seen on TV. Plus, if we got caught and ‘turned,’ we’d get made up too and unleashed to catch the others! We were sent out into the forest, running for our lives from the shambling members of the undead. This was one of the most exhilarating yet terrifying things I’ve ever done. The adrenaline was flowing faster than last night's beer! I can’t recommend this activity enough.

The Big Night Out

After we’d spent an afternoon fighting for our lives, we decided to stop off and have some greasy burgers at a popular fast-food place before getting back to the guest house to get ready for our big night out.

We started by heading into the centre of Northampton to find the best bars we could. We were bouncing from place to place – cheap chain pubs, mid-range bars, posh cocktail places; it didn’t matter where it was, if we could get in, we’d have at least two drinks.

Then came the pièce de résistance. When it was time to go to a nightclub, there was no need to spend the evening arguing over where we were going. On Steve’s wonderful advice, I had pre-booked us a table and a drinks package at one of the best clubs in the city.

Not only did this mean that we knew what nightclub we were going to, but it also meant that we got to skip the queue when we arrived. We had reserved seats (a godsend after running from zombies) and drinks already on the table. We even got table service, which was epic for a group of twelve.

Northampton turned out to be an amazing stag do destination – fun, full of things to do, and with an atmosphere that can be missing from the bigger cities.

Ready to plan your trip? Check out our Northampton Stag Packages today.