Evolution of the bachelor night

From this times article

Nowhere are these costs more blatant than in the choice of hen and stag nights. Once men were happy to drink themselves senseless within a one-mile radius of home, but now, with cheaper international flights, they do exactly the same thing abroad. “Stags scare the life out of me,” says Will, 34, a graphic designer. “It’s expensive but you can’t say no and everyone has to outdo one another. We’ve done Icelandand Dublin; and Amsterdam is so five years ago.” Next month he’s off to Bratislava. It was that or paint-balling in Lithuania.

Meanwhile, the stakes for hens are even higher because brides-to-be can be much more obsessed with status and fashion. The days of circling a handbag with a tumbler of tequila to I Will Survive are over, and recent Mintel figures indicate that exotic locations are replacing European cities — Cancún in Mexico and Las Vegas are becoming more popular. So hens can count themselves lucky to get away with a three-night tour of the cava bars of Barcelona or shopping in New York for a weekend. Will’s girlfriend Gina, 32, has just been persuaded to take part in Go Ape! — a “treetop challenge” involving rope crossings and Tarzan swings in darkest Berkshire. “I can’t think of anything I’d like to do less,” she moans.

I can. Organising a hen night for a perfectionist friend who makes the Desperate Housewives character Bree Van De Kamp look like a slob.

“She wanted the quintessential chocolate box weekend in an English country cottage and I had to organise it,” recalls Fiona, a 32-year-old lawyer. “It was like taking on a part-time job, one with a very demanding boss.”