Banzai Stag & Hen Weekends Blog

How much should you spend on an Oxford Stag Weekend? Banzai’s Budget Busting Tips

Weddings are an expensive for everyone involved – even as a guest you have to consider the costs of buying a gift, something to wear and overnight accommodation. On top of that is the money spent on the stag weekend and before you know it, you’ve spent a small fortune on a weekend away leaving you feeling a bit strapped for the rest of the month/year!

With this in mind, here at Banzai we have come up with some budget busting tips & advice so you can decide how much you should spend on your Oxford Stag Weekend.

Accommodation in Oxford can be expensive unless you know where the best deals are. In Central Oxford you are looking at hotels more suited to the tame tourist rather than the sozzled stag so you need to look slightly further out. Find a hotel that is easy to get to by bus or taxi with parking at no extra charge. 

Banzai Budget Busting Tip: Large no-frill chains often offer a clean & cost effective room with flexible sleeping arrangements – great for sharing 3 per room.

Budget £75 pppn

Activities in Oxford are plentiful and diverse so you need to know what you want to do. There is a dog track, go karting, punting, ice hockey, football, paintballing and off-roading amongst others.

Banzai Budget Busting Tip: When choosing your activity, try to book directly with the supplier so you get the best deal and so you know where you are going and what to expect.

Budget £75pp

Alcohol in Oxford can, and yes you have guessed it, be expensive. The more trendy bars and restaurants like to charge a packet for a pint so it is better to have a few beers in your hotel before you go out and then seek out some bar prices that won’t break the bank.

Banzai Budget Busting Tip: Oxford is full of great, traditional pubs and student haunts that charge realistic prices. Check them out, along with places that have a ‘happy hour’ or special offers.

Budget £50pn (including your burger at 2am!)

Our final budget busting tip: Book through Banzai!

Free booze, 3 for 2 & Stag & Hen goes free – we have the best deals in town and as we are Oxford Stag Weekend specialists you can be assured that our activity & hotel packages with club entry are amazing value for money, easy to organise and great fun. With loads of activities to choose from, and top deals on hotels you will find it be hard to beat our prices. Contact us to find out more, or look through what we have to offer on our  Oxford stag weekend activity days  and our current Oxford stag weekend special offers.

Posted 3 days ago

Choose your Oxford Hen Weekend theme

Oxford Hen weekends would not be the same without a theme. Everyone loves a theme and whilst we can’t all follow the lead of celebrities such as Martine McCutcheon for a ‘Sex in the City’ hen party in Paris, there are plenty of other popular themes to choose from:

1. Pink Ladies from Greece – Find your inner Olivia Newton-John: buy some fabulous pink bomber jackets and team it with black leggings and heels and you’ll have an affordable & fun outfit. Dinner in an American diner such as Frankie & Benny’s would be greased lightening!

2. Senorita from Evita – Black or red dresses, beautiful lace fans and a flower in your hair makes this a vibrant and easy theme. Throw in some long glamorous gloves and a feather boa for the hen and hit the tapas bars and salsa clubs. Dinner at La Tasca or Las Iguanas will compliment this theme as will a jug of sangria or two!

3.80’s style from Flashdance – Buy neon accessories to go with your black cycling shorts and leotard. Plastic jewellery, sweatbands and legwarmers can be found in many high street stores, so why not go the whole hog and curl your hair tight too? Find a funky burger bar or club – the food doesn’t matter as long as there is room to dance!

4.Lara Croft from Tomb Raider – All action, and easy to follow. Put on some face paint for your disguise, plait your hair and pop on those trademark shorts. Grab a bite to eat from any bar or pub and then get back on with being a heroine.

5. Sparkles from Breakfast at Tiffany’s – If your budget is tight or if you want a subtle theme then go for sparkles. Think glamour, sequins and glitter as your jewels will sparkle under bright lights and you wont feel out of place in a higher end restaurant.  Choose to dine in the Living Room or Browns – perfect for a canapés, champagne and a more sophisticated feel.

We’ve seen all these themes here at Banzai and we have the photos to prove it!

What other Oxford hen weekend themes can you think of? Let us know and also give us a call if you need help arranging your Oxford hen weekend. We have something for everyone, from Sandy’s to Lara Crofts!

Posted 5 days ago

Build your own Oxford Stag Weekend

So, you have to organise a stag weekend, either for yourself or for your mates, but where do you start? Do you want to get a specialist company to organise one for you? Or do you want to go it alone? Follow our top tips on how to build the perfect Oxford Stag Weekend:

1. Find out how many people who are planning on coming on the stag weekend and what dates they are all free (sounds easy, but co-ordinating diaries takes ages so pencil in plenty of time for this)

2. Email or text everyone and find out how much they are looking to spend – doing your research on affordability early saves a lot of drop-outs and disappointment later on

3. Consider what you want to do & what people like doing. Do you want it to be laid back or wild, adventurous or tame? What will the people coming want to do?

4. Armed with all the above info, choose an activity. Consider Quad biking, air weapon shooting, rally driving, dog racing, go karting or horse racing or a combination, but remember you can’t do them all! Check out our ultimate stag weekend activity packages to get you started.

5. Choose a hotel – you want it to be clean, affordable and central. Trip Advisor and other review websites are great for getting a real feel for a place.

6. Organise transport for the whole group. Minibuses can be hired if you have volunteer drivers, but do your research as you might be better to use public transport.  For example, trains, bus service and taxis are great in Oxford and should definitely be considered first as parking can be expensive.

7. Give your group the total price and ask for the money upfront. Remember to include ALL of the costs including T-shirts, petrol, accommodation and activities. No one likes expensive surprises later down the line. Get all of the money before booking as this proves people’s commitment and will stop them from dropping out.

8. Finally, do the fun stuff like choosing a fancy dress costume for the stag, designing T-shirts, booking additional entertainment, finding restaurants and booking VIP club entry.

If building your own Oxford Stag Weekend sounds like too much hard work, you can always give us a call and see if we can take the stress away. We can’t co-ordinate your diaries, but we can book activities, accommodation and club entry and our rates are always really competitive. To find out more, take a look at our Oxford Stag Weekend packages and our current special offers.

Posted 3 weeks ago

Private rooms for Oxford hen weekends & parties

If you are quite a large group on an Oxford Hen Weekend it can be quite difficult to get booked into a restaurant which will welcome you, and which has the space, food and atmosphere that you are looking for. This is where we think a private room can be a great choice.

In Oxford, there are plenty of options and actually there are some great places for you to consider. There should be one here to suit every budget:

Mal Maison – For your last night of freedom, why not enjoy the irony of using one of the Mal’s sumptuous prison dining rooms? Room hire starts at £100 and party menus are around £35 per head.

Quod Brasserie – Vibrant, classy rooms give you the option of dining with 21 or 54 friends. Canape, buffet & meal options are around £25 per head. Good menus and a central location makes it a good option that doesn’t break the bank.

Al-Andalus – This great little traditional Spanish tapas bar is close to all the cocktail bars surrounding Little Clarendon Street and offers a party menu for either £15.50 or £18.50.  

We know that when organising a hen weekend there is often so much to do, with a lot of negotiating back and forth between venues, bridesmaids and the bride all takes its time, so you might like to think about combining your celebration meal with your activities during the day. Here at Banzai we can provide BBQs or home cooked food whilst you are here with us. Give us a call to discuss what we can do for you.

If you want to know more about the Oxford Hen Weekends we offer, contact Kelly who will only be too pleased to help.

Posted 3 weeks ago

April showers only make our Oxford stag weekends more fun

Whilst we were so lucky to have some great weather at the end of March, April showers are well and truly upon us and it looks like they are here to stay. Never fear though because we think that it just makes our activities more fun, more challenging and much more memorable!

We recently had a group of 11 lads visit us for their Oxford Stag Weekend and being a typical British day Nick and his mates had to contend first with blinding morning sunshine, followed by a fierce hail storm and finally a drenching rain shower all in the course of just a few hours.

But, this extreme weather only increased their fun as they got to put their driving skills to the test as they slid, skidded and raced around our track. They coped with everything the elements threw at them and emerged at the end of the day exhausted but exhilarated, and really rather muddy!

Just as well they were off to their hotel to shower and change before heading out to party the night away in Oxford!

Posted 3 weeks ago

Oxford Stag Weekend – Our top 5 activities as voted for by you!

The results from our 2011 Oxford Stag Weekend survey are in and we can now reveal the activities you and your mates enjoyed the most:

5. Off road Grass Karts were a really popular choice and we think this is because you enjoy putting your on-the-track go-karting practice to the ultimate test. You told us you liked the adrenaline from speeding along inches from the ground, having some close wheel-to-wheel encounters.

4. Air weapon shooting ranked well in our survey and we are not surprised. All you budding commandos loved putting your xbox practice to good work when shooting our moving and static targets.

3. Reverse Steer Jeeps.These proved to be one of the biggest challenges for our Oxford Stag Weekend groups.  Reverse steer driving with or without being blindfolded is something completely different which always makes for great laughs. Manoeuvring a 4 WD over and around various obstacles, gates and slaloms certainly sorts the men from the boys!

2. Honda Pilots. These are always a favourite for the adrenalin junkies amongst you. We knew this would be a popular choice as our practice and time trials allow for lots of testosterone filled competition, all friendly of course.

AND THE WINNER IS… Quad Bikes - You told us that time and time again that the all-action quad bike safari was ‘awesome’  and ‘addictive’. Riding our full size, Yamaha and Polaris automatic quad bikes on our challenging 4x4 course, complete with dips, mounds and a wall of death got your top marks.

Kelly, Banzai’s Oxford Stag Weekend co-ordinator says: “We really enjoyed 2011 and we hosted over 215 groups on Stag weekends. We follow each booking up with our survey form so that we can get as much feedback as possible and make sure that the activities we offer continue to exceed expectations.”

Posted 2 months ago

How To Have A Healthy Oxford Hen Weekend

Your Oxford Hen Weekend does not need to be full of late nights and alcohol to be fun. It is a weekend where you and your friends escape the boring routine of life, to be together and celebrate your last few days of singledom. Why not make it a weekend to be remembered for the right reasons and not for just for girl dramas and sore heads?

Kelly, the Oxford Hen Weekend Co-ordinator here at Banzai says:”We’ve found that there is a growing popularity amongst brides wanting a healthy alternative to the drink-fuelled, dancing-until-2am weekends.

Maybe this rise has come about because we are tending to get married later in life, or because we appreciate the damaging effects that excess has on our bodies? Whatever the reason, we think that although it is alternative and therefore not for everyone, you should definitely consider incorporating healthy activities, food and pampering.”

Because there are so many choices, Banzai, a Stag & Hen Weekend specialist have put together this guide on how to have a healthy Oxford hen weekend:

1. Start by booking yourself into a hotel, guest house or country lodge that has tranquil surroundings. From the moment you arrive, you’ll be relaxed and after a dip in the pool or jacuzzi you will feel cleansed from the inside out.

2. Next, you’ll need to get the blood flowing, get the heart racing and get some exercise. Our Oxford Hen Weekend activity packages offer something for everyone. After racing round on the quad bikes you’ll feel energised and you’ll not only have an amazing time but you will have done something healthy in the fresh air.

3. After all the excitement you will want to follow this up with a spa treatment – we think you can’t beat a massage to melt away any pre-wedding worries. Spending a bit of time on yourself is good not only for the way you look, but you will emerge happy and refreshed and ready for the wedding build up.

4. Finally, once you are ready for your night out go to a restaurant that serves locally sourced organic food. Most restaurants have something delicious and healthy on the menu.  Seafood is one of our favourites, as are places that have plenty of vegetarian options.

Lisa, from Stoke-on-Trent booked her healthy hen weekend through Banzai and was really pleased that she did something different to the norm: “We had such a great time and we genuinely felt so good afterwards – and we can remember every second of it! Even the ladies who were not keen at the start soon got into the swing of it.  We feel we got the best of both worlds as we enjoyed an amazing Oxford Hen Weekend  but went home feeling refreshed and energised rather than hung-over and tired.”

Posted 2 months ago

Oxford Stag Weekends

Just setting up for a busy weekend ahead of us for our Oxford Stag Weekends. Looking forward to having a whizz round on the Honda Pilot Buggies and Quad Bikes.

Posted 2 months ago

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Congratulations if you have got engaged on what is probably the most romantic day of the year! You have lots of exciting wedding planning ahead but if you want us to help by organising your perfect Oxford Hen Weekend or Oxford Stag Weekend then get in touch.

Posted 3 months ago