Girls' Night Out

Most Valley groups land between eleven and fifteen riders, and the next biggest bunch is ten or under. Girls' nights live right on that line, so the first question is whether you're a "ten or fewer" group or a "just over ten" group.

At ten or fewer, more than half of what we quote is a Sprinter limo, and there's a reason. The 12-passenger limo Sprinter leaves room for purses, a jacket pile and the friend who confirms at four that afternoon. If the photos matter more than the dance floor, the white 10-passenger limousine is the dressier call.

Small groups also decide late. Three weeks out is the normal ask, and it usually still works. Saturdays are the exception, because those go first and they go early.

Almost every girls' night in the Valley is one of three shapes. Knowing which one you're planning makes every other decision quick.

• Dinner, then Old Town. A 7:00 reservation, one cocktail bar, then the clubs until close. The Scottsdale nightlife guide covers that end of it block by block.
• The slow one. A wine bar, a long dinner and dessert, usually in Gilbert's Heritage District, downtown Chandler or Kierland. Nobody's dancing, everybody's talking, and the ride home is the after-party.
• Show night. A concert, a comedy show or a touring musical at ASU Gammage, with drinks before and a late bite after.

The slow one is made for a Sprinter. The Old Town version can go either way, and if you're planning to stand up and dance between stops, look at the 16-passenger party bus for the aisle alone. Sketch the stops in the route planner and you'll see fast whether the night fits four hours or wants five.

Door-to-door drop-offs aren't a luxury here. From May through September, an evening walk from a garage to a restaurant undoes an hour of getting ready, and Old Town's brick sidewalks and gravel lots aren't kind to heels in any month.

With a chauffeur you get out at the entrance and get picked up at the entrance, and the cabin stays cold while you're inside. A few small things make it better.

• Bring flats in a tote and leave them on board. You'll want them by midnight.
• Jackets, gift bags and leftovers stay on the vehicle instead of going bar to bar with you.
• Winter nights drop into the 40s out here. One wrap that lives on the bus solves it for everybody.
• During monsoon season, look at the evening with the weather checker, because a 7:00 dust storm ends patio plans quickly.

Every group wants the pictures, and the ones who get good ones plan ten minutes for it instead of hoping. The best light in the Valley is the half hour before sunset, which is around 5:30 in December and closer to 7:40 in June.

Take the group shot first, at the pickup address, before anyone's hair has been through a dance floor. Save the cabin photos for after dark, when the LED lighting actually reads on camera instead of looking washed out.

A theme does more for the photos than any backdrop. One color, one decade, one accessory is enough, and the theme generator will hand you options to drop in the chat.

Pick one organizer and let her make the calls. A quote needs a headcount, a date, a pickup address, a rough list of stops and an end time. It does not need agreement on every bar, and waiting for that is how groups lose the Saturday they wanted.

On money, a small-group night has historically landed around $90 a head at ten riders. That's a record of what we've quoted before, not a price for your date, and your hours and vehicle will move it. Collect everybody's share before the night so nobody's doing math at one in the morning.

Decide two things up front: whether the guest of honor rides free, and what happens if two people drop out the day before. The vehicle and the total usually stay the same, so the rest of you absorb it. The split cost calculator handles uneven splits, and anything about changes or cancellations is worth asking us when you call so it's in writing.

Last call in Arizona is 2 a.m., and that's exactly when rideshare prices in Old Town spike and the wait times stretch past twenty minutes. Fourteen people trying to split into four cars on a crowded street is the worst part of a lot of otherwise good nights.

Set the pickup for 1:30 or 1:45 instead. You beat the crush, everyone leaves together, and nobody misses anything they'd remember. Agree on a corner a block off the busiest street and drop a pin in the chat before anyone has a drink.

Tell us up front whether it's one drop-off or two, because that changes the end time more than people expect. If the night is really for a bride, the bachelorette weekend guide covers the two-day version, and a Sunday daytime run is on the bar crawl page if brunch sounds better than a club.