If you’re thinking of heading to Lisbon for your stag do, I want to do my best to help offer advice, inspiration and personal experience. So who am I to guide you? Well firstly, I celebrated my stag do in Lisbon! I chose this location based on me working in the stag and hen do industry for over a decade.
I know all the details on where to go and what to do, based on what you’re looking for and Lisbon perfectly matched my interests, so I’ll do my best to share more details and hopefully it resonates with you.
Which Activities To Try
Below are the activities you could book for your stag weekend in Lisbon, as well as my personal thoughts on the experiences and what you can expect.
Boat Party
I loved this part of my stag do and would definitely recommend giving it a go. It was a lively group, pretty much fully booked on the boat party, while they took us along some nice scenic views along the Tagus River, but we were too busy dancing and drinking to notice everything, culture went right out the window.
They had live music blasting out and there was quite a few stag and hen parties, therefore we were told to dance on the stage for everyone, a tiny amount of humiliation but totally worth it.
The boat party is in the evening, so you inevitably get to see the sunset, not that you’re out for a romantic time, but it’s a nice addition to the experience.
Unlimited Tapas & Drinks
The thing that many people forget when arranging the stag do is where they’re going to eat, forgetting that some restaurants might not want 16 drunken lads entering their venue. This is why it is important to book something in advance and let them know you’re a stag group.
There are companies like TheStagCompany (where I used to work) that offer bookings for unlimited tapas & drinks and this is something I chose as it sounded perfect, while it lived up to the name.
The food was amazing, there was a lot of meat, but we had a couple of vegetarians in the group and they were still happy with what was on the table. It was way too much food to get through, you won’t be left hungry!
The unlimited drinks were either beer, wine or sangria, or of course soft drinks for those that want that. You can stay on after if they don’t have a further booking, normally the case as it’s booked for 2 hours in the evening, but we wanted to head on to another bar or nightclub so it was time to carry on with the evening.
Rooftop Brunch
I felt so sorry for everyone that had to head home on the Sunday morning, as they missed out on this activity and we all agreed it was one of our favourite parts of the trip!
The venue was called Lumi, while you could help yourself to the buffet and you ordered in your mains and drinks. They also provided mimosas, but this was 11am on the Sunday after 2 heavy nights, so we were slow sipping.
Being on a rooftop of a venue where you’re overlooking the whole city, it has to be highlighted that this did involve a walk up the hill, but we loved it, getting some cardio in and seeing some sights along the way, before celebrating with a feast and some drinks.
Genuinely, this one surprised me how much I enjoyed it, I’d definitely book it for your stag do in Lisbon.
Guided Bar Crawl
I’m going to give this one a mixed review. I wanted a guided bar crawl because I’ve learned over the years that it puts all the pressure on them to manage where we go and what we do on the experience, rather than the best man tearing his hair out.
Having said that, most of the bar crawls have lazy routes going door to door on a main street, a route you could have worked out yourself. This one did have similar issues in that it didn’t show us anywhere unique or any hidden gems, but just the main strip you expected to see.
But apart from my moaning, it was good fun. You did get drinks included at one of the venues for an hour, including sangria, but the sangria was all in a big bucket and didn’t taste great. I’d moan about the quality, but I went up for multiple refills, it’s a stag do at the end of the day, I’m not expecting the Ritz.
I’m glad we did this one, so I can’t complain too much, while they leave you near the nightclubs so you can head on with your evening to your preferred venue. In total, I believe it was 3 bars they took us to, hardly a huge crawl, but when you’re spending an hour at one, plus having to shepherd people together, I can understand why they wouldn’t include loads of venues.
Beer Bike / Sangria Bike
Honestly, I wasn’t overly impressed with this one. They had friendly staff and it was a fun experience, but the views and route are what killed this.
So unlike beer bikes in other cities, where you go through town and see the big sights, making it a combo of tourism sightseeing with drinking and music, this one just went in a straight line along the waterfront and then back again. We’re also not talking about a beachy lively waterfront, we’re talking a relatively empty area where you don’t see much other than the bridge, so I’d personally give this one a miss, unless you’re really keen and that doesn’t put you off.
As for the experience itself, they basically provided unlimited drinks during the ride. I like my sangria, so I opted for the sangria bike, but it’s the same bike, therefore they had both on-board, meaning beer drinkers can opt for that instead. In fact, I think they forgot it was a sangria booking (mainly only for hen parties, what can I say), so they quickly hopped off near their office to grab more of the sangria.
We’re not talking great quality drinks, we’re talking canned beers and sangria from a bottle from the supermarket, but they all tasted fine and everyone was happy. They have music blasting out, but you can also take over and connect it to your phone to choose your personal playlist, so I’d recommend doing this and finding some funny songs.
How Long Should You Visit For
I visited Friday through to Monday, however some people stayed Friday to Sunday as they couldn’t get the extra day off work. It’s obviously better to visit on the weekend, you might be tempted to save money and go during the week, but many of the activities or bars might not be open during the week or won’t be as lively, therefore I’d stick to the weekend if possible.
Whether you choose 2 or 3 nights is completely down to you, but I wouldn’t do a single night as it’s simply not enough time to have a real experience. On the Sunday, one friend had to travel on for a meeting after the stag weekend, so he booked a train Lisbon to Porto, which takes around 2 hours 40 minutes on the quick service or there is a slower one taking 3 hours.
It’s important to book adventure or adrenaline based activities on the first day, before the drinking begins, as you don’t want everyone trying to do something intensive on a hangover. I had plans for day one but eventually backtracked on them as some people would be arriving late and would miss it and the issues around hotel times and baggage meant it didn’t seem worth it.
Travelling
If you’re looking at visiting Lisbon from the UK, then you can fly in directly from Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Bristol or Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Belfast, while the flight will take on average 2.5 hours, depending on where you’re heading from.
You don’t have to spend the entire stag do in one city, you could travel Portugal by train, as they have a really top-end train system in place, but I didn’t fancy moving too much while hungover so I stuck with Lisbon.
Where Is The Nightlife?
So probably the main area is Pink Street. It has this name as the street itself is literally painted pink. There were a number of bars and a couple of clubs along this street, while it was rammed every evening, probably the most busy area for people looking to head out for drinks. The bar crawl also took us near here, so we made sure to head over a couple of nights in a row.
If you don’t want to be surrounded by crowds, there were more quiet bars at the far end on both sides of Pink Street, but this is where you can expect all the stag and hen groups to go.
Another key area is Cais do Sodre, where you will find around 15 bars within walking distance of each other. Many of these were cocktail bars and were a bit more pricey than other sections, so it really depends what type of evening you’re after.
I’ve already mentioned Lumi as a rooftop bar that we visited for the brunch, but you can head here to enjoy the rooftop bar in the evening, or alternatively you could go Sky Bar or Park Rooftop.
A lot of the music in the nightclubs seemed to revolve around hip hop and house, I’m a rock fan and couldn’t find music to my taste, but once the sangria hit, I really didn’t care.
