Bachelor Parties

These trips come to us about six weeks out, earlier than most of what we quote, because flights and the rental house get sorted first and the ride follows.

The best men who have the easiest time request a vehicle the same week they book the house. Waiting until the group lands leaves you picking from whatever is still open on a Friday in spring.

The median group is a dozen, and the vehicle choice at that size is a real fork: we quote Sprinter limos and party buses about equally. For bachelor groups it usually comes down to gear and legroom. Twelve guys going to dinner and bars fit the 14-passenger limo Sprinter. Add golf bags, a cooler, or a few tall groomsmen and the 16-passenger party bus is more comfortable. When the college friends and the work friends both come, the 20-passenger party bus gives everyone a seat with room left over.

On money, the median historical quote for these trips has been around $1,200, or roughly a hundred a head across twelve. That is a record of past quotes, not a price, and it is usually less than the same group spends on rideshares over a full day spread across the Valley.

Worth knowing before you pick the night: Saturdays in March, April and May carry a six-hour minimum, so a spring Saturday is a six-hour plan. A Friday is four, and Friday is when most bachelor groups go out here anyway.

Bachelor itineraries fail on distance, not on ideas. The desert courses are in North Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and out toward Fort McDowell, 25 to 40 minutes from Old Town. Cardinals games and big concerts are at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, another 35 to 45 minutes west. Suns and Diamondbacks are downtown.

Try to hit all three points in one day and the day belongs to the freeway. Plans that work:

• Golf, then Old Town. Morning tee time, back to the house by two, pool and a nap, pickup at seven. Two shorter trips, or one long one if you want the bus at the course. Our golf outings page covers tee-time transfers.
• Game, then downtown. Tailgate, game, and bars within walking distance of the arena. One district, one simple route.
• Spring training, then Scottsdale. In March a 1:05 first pitch at a Scottsdale or Tempe ballpark leaves plenty of evening. See the spring training page.
• Casino night. Talking Stick is fifteen minutes from Old Town, so the two combine without effort. More on the casino trips page.

Map it in the route planner before you promise the groom anything.

Five things, and the rest of the planning gets a lot easier.

• A real headcount. Count only the guys who have paid for the house or booked a flight.
• Friday or Saturday. Friday is the top night for these trips. If most of the group lands Friday afternoon, a Friday dinner and a Saturday main event may suit you better. Decide before you ask.
• Start and end addresses. A house in Arcadia and a house in Desert Ridge produce different quotes for the same night.
• The money. The groom does not pay. Work out each share in the split cost calculator, add gratuity since our quotes do not include it, and collect before you reserve.
• Supplies. If you plan to bring drinks, ask about the on-board policy with your quote, then use the drink calculator so you buy the right amount once instead of twice.

Planning five stops. A large group of men moves slowly through doors. Three stops in four hours is realistic, and two good ones beat four rushed ones. Where a venue takes table reservations, a booked table gets everyone inside faster than a line ever will.

No plan for the guy who fades. Somebody will be done by eleven. Decide beforehand whether the driver runs him home during a stop or he rides it out in the air conditioning. Either is fine. Deciding at 11:15 is not.

Four pickup addresses. Every extra house costs eight to twelve minutes, and a big vehicle moves slowly through subdivision streets. Meet at one place.

Treating July like March. A summer bachelor party is cheap and easy to book, and it is 105 degrees at nine at night. Keep everything door to door, put water on the bus, and move golf to a 6:30 a.m. tee time or drop it.

If there is no wedding attached and this is just a night with the guys, our guys' night out page is the better starting point.

A round with warm-up runs about five hours, which is the whole question: do you want the bus sitting at the course for it, or do you want two shorter trips?

Either is normal. A transfer out and a transfer back is usually the cheaper arrangement. Keeping the vehicle means a cooled place to leave bags and shoes, and no waiting on a second pickup when the round runs long, which it always does.

What helps us quote it accurately:

• The course name and the tee time, since some clubs have specific instructions for large vehicles.
• How many bags, not just how many players. Twelve club bags fill more space than twelve people.
• Whether you are eating at the clubhouse after or heading straight back.

Test the drive both ways in the drive time calculator, because a 6:30 tee time and a 1:00 return are completely different drives on the same road.

Old Town Scottsdale is the default and deserves to be. The bars sit close enough together that a group can move on foot between two of them, which means the bus delivers you, repositions once, and takes everyone home.

Downtown Phoenix is the better call if you are going to a game, because you are already there and the walk from the arena is short. Mill Avenue suits a younger group and a smaller budget, and it is fifteen minutes from Old Town if you want both, though we would pick one.

For groups staying in the East Valley, downtown Gilbert and downtown Chandler both have enough good rooms for a full night without crossing the Valley at all. See the Gilbert page for pickup notes.

Whichever you choose, tell the driver where you are ending before you start. A drop-off order agreed at 9:00 p.m. is a much better conversation than the same one at 1:00 a.m.