Second (or third) that. Come prepared - one memorable BP for a friend of mine had the groom paintballing in white outfit, decorated with bullseye motifs and the words “SHOOT ME”. Set the mood for the evening, that did…
I’ve never been a big fan of the “put the guy around lots of nekkid women” theme. Go macho instead. Rock climbing, skeet shooting, archery, horsrback riding, eating red meat, beer running like water - that sort of thing.
Hey, same here! If by go-carting you mean last minute trips to Montreal or Toronto, followed by all-night binge drinking with strippers. Compared to a couple I have been to, that is tame.
Go-carting and paintball both sound fun, but paintballs can raise a bit of a welt, and I don’t think the strippers would like it that much.
What?!
Golf, always popular, is a bad idea. Organizing more than two foursomes is a headache of epic proportions. Yes, I do mean golf foursomes. Trust me. I have a dozen 5-iron related homicides on my record.
A friend of mine and my brother conspired together to take me to F1 Boston, where we raced like maniacs for an hour or two and then played pool and drank beers. My Dad, future brothers-in-law, my brother, of course, and a couple other members of the groom’s party participated. It was nudity-free, and loads of fun. There’s a place in Boston called Jillian’s that’s all pool tables, super-high-tech arcade games, and lots of great beer on tap that I’ve done a couple bachelor parties at. Sometimes people dovetail a party with Sox game at nearby Fenway Park, though that can get crowded. Anyhoo, wherever you are, bachelor parties in these kinds of venues are a lot of fun, and I heartily recommend a good night of pool and games. I’ve been to precisely one bachelor party in a strip club, and one where strippers came to the house, and I say with no reservation I had way more fun at the “clean” events than I did staring at fake tits all night and feeling like a pervert.
My husband had a smashing bachelor party. He had 45 minutes in between the arrival of the Best Man and groomsmen and the rehearsal. They went to a bar, played pool, and talked about philosophy and classics. 
Paintball and/or a nice dinner out and drinks and pool are nice. Go-karting would be awesome. I’d combine a few things, and end it at a nice pub or bar.
D’oh! Painball! I’ve done that, and didn’t even mention it. Actually, paintball was the beginning of the bachelor party I participated that ended with the strippers coming to the house. Paintball was, by far, the better part of the day. Just do the paintball, and then nurse your welts over beers and pool in the evening.
Paintball? Whitewater rafting? Bad ideas.
It is so hard to get into a rented tux while wearing a cast, or while in a wheelchair. Sure she loves you, but if you screw up the wedding photos, you will never be allowed to forget it.
My bachelor party was very low key, by my request, for many of the reasons you’ve stated. I didn’t want the strip club, or a stripper, or any drunken slobfest. I didn’t mind drinking, but you get my drift.
So, my best man invited everyone to his house for the weekend. The first day we golfed 18 holes, had a great time, and took some fun pictures. Afterwards, we went back to his house, he grilled steaks & ribs, and we sat around eating, drinking, telling stupid stories and playing games. I think cranium was one of the games. It was a blast.
When the buffalo wings came out around 4 am, we had had enough. And we all crashed. Everyone had a great time, there was no stripper, and I have to say it was the best bachelor party I was ever a part of. (and not just because it was mine). The only semi-embarrassing part of the whole night was when they brought a cake out with a not-so-flattering picture of me taken a few years before. My face was buried in the cake.
Congrats, by the way!
There’s a local sports bar, with a comedy club in it. (It’s also the same place that has the Whirly Ball) Maybe we’ll catch a show at the comedy club, then hang out at the sports bar, playing darts, pool, video games and the like.
I like the idea of the overnight trips, but sadly this is going to be held the Thursday before the wedding as most of the guests don’t live in the same town as me, and any festivities will have to wait until they’re in town for the wedding.
For the party I ran a few years back, we went to a Moroccan restaurant – good food, and a belly dancer. Then we went to an all-female improv comedy show.
Everybody had a great time. And no nudity was involved.
And when I burned a CD of my photos of the wedding, I included the bachelor party photos.
I’m with Indygrrl on this one. My husband and his friends almost always go to the go-cart track for bachelor parties, in addition to going golfing and usually to a strip club. Not all guys are lying assholes, you know.
I just want to offer an idea that hasn’t been mentioned yet: your own perfect, private cabaret show. Here’s the clue: not all the great, best entertainers in the world are well-known, headline acts that cost a fortune to hire. I know lots of entertainers and other people who do cool stuff. Most of them are really, really good, even though they aren’t famous. A lot of them are a darn sight better than people who are famous, and this shouldn’t be surprising (whisper it: fame is not a reliable guide to either talent or quality). And many of them will happily work for you at a private function for very low, reasonable rates.
So here’s the idea (I’ve done this loads of times). Hire a bar and lay on some snack food and background music. Okay, that’s your party basics taken care of. Then, put together your own cabaret show. Choose a local comedian who you know is good. Maybe a local music act or two. Maybe even one of two ‘speciality acts’ (this term does not necessarily equate to anything risque, and can be ‘nice’ as per the OP). Basically, pick and choose the acts that you want to see. And you have your very own, unique and memorable show that you will remember forever, full of acts you like and with no acts you don’t like.
Not many people ever do this. But it’s a darn good idea, and every time I’ve done it in the past people have really enjoyed it, have all told me what a great idea it was, and to this day say the shows were all good and memorable.
We went go-karting at my brother’s bachelor party; in fact, it was in Atlanta, at a place called Mario Andretti’s Something-or-Other. It was really, really great; I’ve never had the slightest interest in go-karting before, but that was terrific.
For my bachelor party, we just went to a bar where I’ve been a regular for about five years, played pool and darts, and got good and drunk. It was a blast; a bunch of my friends were there, along with my older brother and my dad. We played music on the jukebox and drank whiskey and talked too loud. It was simple to plan, decadent enough to be memorable, but not so decadent that I can’t tell my wife about it.
When my friend got married in Salt Lake City many years ago, we all went down to the 59th Street Galleria (an indoor pinball/video game/batting cage type of place) and played miniature golf. Hey, it was SLC – even in the stripper bars they can’t go past the bikini. Then we went to Greenstreet’s for dinner with ----ahhhh! — alcohol.
My own bachelor party was in my sister’s backyard. We had a barbecue. There was only one female there – my few-months-old niece. But she did strip, at one point.
My bachelor party was just two Saturdays ago.
Because of scheduling conflicts, we had to cancel the Paintball portion of the party. Instead, we made it all in the evening, when everybody could meet after their varied afternoons. Went to a nice Chinese restaurant (City Lights of China in Dupont), then to a beer bar (Brickskeller).
The plan was to only stay at Brickskeller for two or three rounds before moving on, but we ended up staying there until about 12:30. The plan was to finish with Brickskeller then head back to my apartment for (talk about low-key) videogames and Trivial Pursuit geekiness, and everybody passing out inebriated in perfect safety on my floor.
The home portion got scrapped, except for one friend. He and I had prearranged to continue the party the following morning with a round of golf. We were supposed to have a third, who couldn’t stick around for golf. So the two of us then went out and played the worst golf of our lives, but had a blast.