Should I Travel for my Bachelor Party?

Are you wondering if you should travel for your bachelor party?

Bachelor party planning can be a hot mess.

You might think it's easy. After all, it's just a bunch of guys looking to get drunk and cause some mayhem right?

There's a ton of thought that goes into bachelor party planning that the outsider simply doesn't understand. There are many things to consider and one of those is the location.

They say, location, location, location. Sure, they works for real estate, but does that really apply to bachelor party planning?

The short answer is, yes!

At some point you will ask yourself the question "should I travel for my bachelor party?" With this decision, there is a lot to consider.

There are a ton of factors that are involved in bachelor party planning and certainly a ton of factors that are involved in picking a bachelor party location.

Lucky for you, we are going to discuss the pro, cons, benefits, and features for a destination bachelor party versus a local bachelor party.

Let's start with some simple definitions.

What is a destination bachelor party?

A destination bachelor party is a bachelor party that takes place out of town. That is, at least an hour or so away from the bachelor's primary location. For us on the east coast, Atlantic City can serve as a destination bachelor party even though from where I am writing this article, AC is only about 45 minutes away. It is also only about an hour or so from NYC.

Let's just say, if you have to book hotels or overnight accommodations, it is a destination bachelor party. The overnight stay is the determining factor.

What is a local bachelor party?

A local bachelor party is exactly that. It is local!

What makes it local is that the bachelor party planning involves a night out in the hometown of the bachelor and most of the party. That is, you pick a bar or sporting event and everyone meets you there.

There are usually no overnight accommodations necessary because you all live within an Uber ride.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's see the pros and cons of each!

Destination Bachelor Party

Pros:

You get to go somewhere cool. 

There is a good chance the bachelor and many members of the bachelor party don't travel very much. Once kids are involved and to some extent when you meet a nice lady, the trips with the guys can become few and far between.

What the bachelor party does is give you and your homies the excuse you have always needed to fly to Vegas or Miami and party it up for an entire weekend. And the best is, the wife can't say anything to you about it because this is your best friend's once in a life time event.

So take out that home equity loan or sell some your doll collection on craigslist and put together the cash for the flight and hotel to your buddy's destination bachelor party.

No one knows you there.

Not that anyone is doing anything illegal or immoral, but chances are if you get a bunch of dudes together that haven't seen each other in a while and/or haven't done anything cool in a while.

Throw in some alcohol and rowdiness may occur.

For the most part, I don't recommend you do anything that you wouldn't want people that you know to find out about. But the great thing about hosting a destination bachelor party is that the folks at the hotel don't know anyone you know and the bartenders and patrons at the classy joint you closed down on Saturday night don't know anyone you know either.

Spilling your drink all over yourself, falling down the stairs, or telling your bud how much you love him one too many times probably won't get back to your social circle at a destination bachelor party.

You don't have to go home. 

Not having to go home after a bachelor party evening is a plus for two reasons.

First, you don't have to deal with your normal day-day responsibilities like taking care of your kids, going to work, or watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey with your wife. This allows you to party it up for 3 days straight or chill at the pool and not have to deal with, well...life.

Secondly, as much as your room mates, mom and dad, or wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/SO love you, I am sure they would rather avoid having to deal with you coming home after a long day drinking fest and almost burning the house down trying to make a grilled cheese.

You leave the dead weight at home.

Let's face it boys, not everyone was made for bachelor parties.

I went on a bachelor party for a friend of mine and the guy that planned it brought a football. Now, there is nothing wrong with a football.

I like footballs. I like football catches.

But this guy had never been to a bachelor party and just assumed that what goes down at bachelor parties is a mild-mannered football catch among bros.

That's a guy you leave at home.

The advantage of the destination bachelor party is that all the guys that either can't afford it (and thus can't buy anything like hotel rooms and drinks) or are lame as heck and will just ruin it for everyone else are immediately weeded out the minute the best man sends out the email stating you are going anywhere outside of their comfort zone.

Cons

It's expensive. 

If you don't have a lot of money or a lot of the guys don't either, then maybe you are better served staying local.

Depending on where you go, you are dropping $1,000 without even thinking about it.

Even if you find a cheap flight somewhere, once you split up the hotels, go to dinner a few places, and buy some drinks, you are in for a grand no problem.

You are away from family.

Before I started writing this I actually had this in the pros section. I thought about it a little harder and realized that depending on your situation, this is a tough one and definitely a negative for the destination bachelor party.

Not everyone can buzz off for a weekend to hang with their bros and leave the family at home. People have real responsibilities. And even if you could leave the family at home for a weekend, some people just don't want to and that's fine.

Good luck coordinating this.

If you invite 10 people to this bachelor party you will get 10 opinions about everything.It takes a very strong leader / best man to keep the ship traveling in the right direction. Every dude will make side comments about the plan. It will go a little something like this:Best Man: "We are going to Ocean City, MD on July 9th and are staying at the Bayside Princess".

Guy 1: "Hey I don't like that hotel, can we stay somewhere else?"

Guy 2: "I will only go if Tom doesn't go. He's a real jerk!"

Guy 3: "I don't like those bars because I don't like light beer. Can we go somewhere that has a few local craft brew options?"

You get the point. Not only with there be so many opinions that you can't even, just getting everyone there will be a pain. Getting 10 guys to show up on time, book a flight, get in a club, or get matching t-shirts will be an uphill battle.

Good luck.

Local Bachelor Party

Pros

Everyone is included.

Many Bachelors, including a party I am currently involved with, want everyone on their list to be included.  This is a once in a lifetime occasion, and many guys want all of their closest friends to be included.

As stated above in the destination bachelor party section, going away somewhere overnight weeds out a lot of people and if your goal is to have everyone show up, do it locally and make it as easy as possible for people to be included.

We did one of the summer where the best man hosted a large tailgate for a Phillies game. It was really the perfect way to go. We just texted everyone on the list with the parking lot location and voila, everyone was included. We printed some of these bachelor party shirts and called it a day. Then since the Phillies stink so bad, buying tickets was very easy. We just went to the window and got all the same seats for $15 in the same section. We were subsequently kicked of said section but that's a story for another day.

It doesn't cost a lot of money. 

Have a local bachelor party like the one I just mentioned and your bachelor party planning is pretty much done. If you did it right, you could have people spend less than $20. Some of the guys at the tailgate I previously mentioned didn't go to the game. They just brought a sixer and called it a day.

You could even just go to a bar. I am sure there are plenty of bars in your area with sweet drink specials for $2 Bud Lights.

Dilly Dilly, folks.

No overnight stays. 

Although doing something local isn't as epic, it really makes the bachelor party planning easier for people.

There are no considerations for leaving the family, ditching your responsibilities, or coordinating hotel rooms. All of which could be spun as something you may want to do but I guess it depends on what your goals are.

Less coordination.

For the simple man, the local bachelor party is the way to go. I mentioned above that one of the cons of the destination bachelor party is that there is a large amount of coordination.  Bachelor party planning can be a real pain and staying home really helps reduce the pain.

The older I get, the less I can't stand coordinating a group of any people to do anything. There are too many opinions and if you are the best man, expect 100 calls and texts about everything from "where you at" to "my old lady won't let me come now".

Setting up something local avoids all of that.

Cons

One might say it's boring.

Evenings out are what you make them, that's for sure. If you go out one night with a bunch of bumps on a log that have nothing to say, well you my friend are in for one boring night.Any night can be awesome and epic if you have the right crowd and the right environment. Still, some might say that traveling for their bachelor party is the right thing to do because it's a once in a lifetime chance (see above).

You go home to the same house, probably drunk.

Again, it all depends on your goals. I see this one as a pro and a reason to travel but if your goals are to be nestled up next to your honey as soon as possible, then the local bachelor party is for you.

Those are the pros and cons of a Local and a Destination Bachelor Party.

Hopefully I have empowered you to make the right decision for your best man's last night in the wolfpack.

Take some time and really think it through. After all, he was the one that bailed you out that night you drove the wrong way down the boulevard and didn't tell anyone. You owe him.

As always, if I forgot one, comment below!