Planning a hen party in Dublin? It’s a great city for that kind of trip. With so much going on, it’s just hard to know where to start.
To make things simple & fun, in this article, we’ve broken every down everything you need to know about planning a great hen party in Dublin.
Let’s dive in.
1. Plan the Hen Party Trip to Dublin
Planning a hen party is like planning any other trip. You need to start by planning the fundamentals.
Establish Who is coming
This is very straight forward… in fact, if you’re reading this article you’ve most likely done this step already.
Decide on a date(s)
If you haven’t already done so, decide when your Hen do will be and what the duration of the trip will be.
Dublin is a touristic city, which means there is a lot of things to do and a lot of fun to be had. However, it also means that some dates are busier (and more expensive) than others.
As a rule of thumb, if you’re hoping for ‘good weather’ (don’t we all), May, June and September tend to be less busy than July and August. You can find some practical information on irishtourism.com
Pro-tip: Use Kayak to check for optimal travel times. On their Dublin page, they list information about flights, hotels and activities.
Plan travel arrangements
You need to decide at what point the Bride should be made aware of the final destination.
If you’re from Dublin, you can skip this section.
If you live outside of Ireland and you’re flying in, you’ll need to book a ticket. Maybe her future partner can help you there. In which case you can inform here when she gets to the airport.
If you live in Ireland, and you’re travelling up to Dublin for the occasion, it’s a lot easier although she’ll probably guess soon enough. As a side note, if you’re driving, make sure you plan where you’re going to park. In the city centre, it can be expensive!
Remember if you keep it a secret until the very last second, someone will have to pack for them…. This can cause some problems.
Make a budget for the Hen Party
Establish how much everyone is willing to spend on the trip. You also need to take into account the travel expenses of the bride which are most often divided among the members of the group.
The amount will depend a lot on the time of year, your travelling costs and the duration of the trip. But to make an estimate take into account the following things:
- Number of nights
- Number of meals
- Transport
- Number of activities
- Drinks
Pro-tip: Use an app to do all the bill splitting work for you. Just make sure you start using it from the get-go.
2. Decide where you’re going to stay
Dublin can be an expensive place to stay. There are numerous different options at different price points.
You’ll also need to decide whether you all want to stay in the same place or not. It’s usually more fun but if you’re a big group it can be trickier. There is no right or wrong answer. It all depends on your budget and what you want.
Hotels & B&B’s
Decide whether you want to book a hotel room or a b&b for the occasion.
It’s the same as everywhere; rooms in the city centre are more expensive than ones that are further away. If you choose the latter, take into account that fact that you’ll need to travel into the city centre during the day and get back cab in the evening…
Hostels
If you’re on a budget (and if you’re feeling adventurous), consider booking a hostel. Ideally, you would want to book a room all for yourselves. This isn’t always possible, but it’s worth checking.
Glamping
Glamping (‘Glamours Camping’) has grown in popularity in recent years. You get to sleep in Yurt or a wooden hut which can be a fun activity to do for a Hen Party.
However, you most likely won’t find anything within the Dublin itself. Again if you don’t mind commuting a bit, it’s an option to consider.
3. Hen Party Accessories
Hen Party Theme
You can go the extra mile by theming the bride party. You can find some inspiration in our list of adult party themes.
Hen Party Outfit
Costumes have become a staple of bride and bachelor parties. The sillier the better. And ideally, the bride should stand out from the rest of the crew. As always, you can find endless amounts of ideas on Pinterest.
If you want to keep it simple, just get t-shirts printed for the occasion. There are numerous websites online that provide this service. If you enjoy a bit of DIY, you can also buy blank t-shirts locally and spray paint them yourself.
However, if you don’t want to do outfits, consider getting just a simple identifiable item. For example a pin or hair bands.
Hen Party Bags
Hen Party Bags aren’t a necessity but they’re a nice plus. Fill them with goodies to help everyone survive the weekend. Check out this article by one fab day for some filler ideas.
Plan a First Aid Kit
Ask someone in the group to carry around a first aid kit. Restaurants and venues all have one but it can still be handy in a pinch.
4. Hen Party Activities
This is an extensive topic. For that reason, we’ve dedicated an entire article about Dublin Hen Party Activities. Remember that the activities you do will be dictated by the date, the group size and your location inside Dublin.
Pro-tip: Pictures will make your trip (and your silly costumes) unforgettable. If you want some professional pictures of your trip why not book a photographer for the occasion?
5. Hen Party Games
Of course, the future bride can’t get away with it too easily… You should definitely challenge her with a few games.
Balloon Challenge
Give 15 to 20 balloons & string to the bride and challenge her to get strangers to blow them up. She then needs to attach them to herself. Try and see how many she can get… don’t forget to take pictures.
Open Mic Nights
Its common knowledge public speaking is ranked as peoples number one fear… so why not make the most out of that information.
If the bride-to-be has naturally funny bones challenge her to go tell a joke (or more) in front of a crowd at an open mic night. Dublin is full of great open mic nights.
Scavenger Hunt
Plan a scavenger hunt throughout the city with different challenges at every step. This is a great opportunity to visit the city while having fun.
Run an Obstacle Course
An unplanned workout is always tough… challenge the future bride to complete an obstacle course. This can be a fictitious one you set up on some grass or an actual obstacle course.
Set Some Dares
Give some dares for the bride to do. The list of possibilities is endless. Stay away from anything that could be offensive or dangerous. Other than that, the sillier the dare the better. You can find some inspiration in this article by Go Hen.
Party Games
These are games you can play together as a group. You can find some more party games for adults in our article dedicated to the topic.
>> Insert More options here
6. Decide where you’re going to eat
If you’re a relatively small group, you don’t need to plan every single meal in advance. Dublin is packed full of great restaurants, pubs and cafés. It’s hard not to stumble upon something nice. However, for large groups, make sure you have a reservation!
Brunch
Brunches are very popular in Dublin. You should be able to find a great spot near you. However, a few of your favourites are:
Pro-tip: Try to make the booking the day before. On the morning ‘of’ reservations are usually full. with
Pubs
If you’re not from Ireland, visiting a Pub is a must! With Google, you should be able to find a great pub near where you’ll be staying.
In the city centre, a few of our favourites for food and drinks are:
Afternoon Tea
There will never be a better excuse than a hen party for an extravagant afternoon tea. You’ll find countless great afternoon teas in Dublin. Here are just a few of our favourites.
7. Decide Which Places You Want to See
If your site seeing is your thing, then the hen party is the perfect opportunity; In Dublin, there is a lot to see:
The list just goes on and on. You can find some more ideas in this article by Crazy Tourist.
Remember that with large groups, you tend to get fewer things done. So don’t try to do too much. Instead, choose two or three tours and stick to those.
Also, if you’re coming from outside of Ireland, and you’re hoping to travel out of Dublin, a weekend won’t be enough. You’ll want to extend your stay. Ireland might seem smaller than your home country… but each destination can easily fill up a day and some.
Pro-tip: In our article about hen party activities in Dublin section, we listed a few bus tours you might want to consider for Dublin sightseeing.
8. Make the schedule
The main decisions you need to make are the ones we’ve already outlined above:
- Date
- Hotel
- Activities
- Games
- Food
- Visits
So select a few options of each and start planing…
Unfortunately, making a decision as a group can be difficult. Especially when you’re trying to plan things through WhatsApp. For that reason we recommend:
1. Let everyone book their travel tickets individually. Sure, you might not be in the same plane nor all arrive at the same time but it will smooth out the planning.
2. Give up democracy and appoint a decision-maker. You’ll never get everyone to agree on everything so will save a lot of time. For every key decision, the decision-maker can refer to the group by using doodle polls or any other software.
3. Start by making a budget. We mentioned it at the start of the article but don’t overlook it. It will make planning a lot easier as you’ll only consider options that are within your price range.
That’s a Wrap
We hope you’ve enjoyed this article and that you have a great Hen Party. If you’ve enjoyed this content, consider subscribing!
