Stag weekends are very important events. They mark the end of the single life as your best mate enters the realm of marriage (which they said is not a word but a sentence), and that’s one of the most significant things that can ever happen so when you have one chance to celebrate you want to get it right.

Organising a successful event takes planning and balance, it takes using and preparing the right suppliers, it takes timing, logistics, having the best practice, being smart with budget, quality delivery and support. On top of that organisers should be adhering to travel and commercial legislation as well as financially assuring their client’s money.

That doesn’t always happen and there are a lot of shady outfits promising results they’re unlikely to deliver and claiming status they just don’t have. There’s even one company claiming to be “award winners” and yet there are no stag awards! If you look closely many companies are not even following proper commercial law let alone key travel regulations, and you can forget about them providing the necessary financial guarantees that they should. And lastly but very importantly beware anyone trying to trade on someone else’s name, if you see this underhand practice keep well away, there’s an obvious trust issue before you’ve even started!

Don’t put yourself, your best mate and the boys in that position. Don’t risk it, you’re likely to regret it, bottom line the stag do’s too important to leave it to chance. Like anything if you want the best results go to the leading suppliers that can demonstrate a guaranteed history, show impressive and established experience, recognised financial bonding, valid testimonials, the right licenses and commitments to the highest levels of legislation and administration.

If you want to be sure of the highest quality at extremely competitive prices, choose StagWeb! Being the first stag specialist to be ABTA bonded (for several years now) and setting the standard in the highest quality stag weekends delivering events for over 85,000 clients in over 50 destinations in the UK and Europe since 2002 – you’re in the best possible hands! It doesn’t get any better.

If for any reason you decide not to use us, for the sake of a successful stag weekend, make sure any service you end up choosing is up to scratch – there are a lot of cheap imitations out there.

So boys where do you go to get the best stag weekend sun of the summer? It’s a great question and if the appeal is for warmer climates then as hardy rain battered Brits we normally head to Europe where there’s plenty of range, but disregard the UK’s finest summer resorts at your loss – if the weather’s right they are fantastic.

So in 2 parts we have Europe and the UK & Ireland for stag weekend choices. In this blog we’re going to talk about just 6 specially selected European stag destinations, 6 recommendations for the UK will follow in a forthcoming blog.

So the starting point for European sun has to be Spain while it is an obvious shout it is by no means ordinary, the weather nearly comes with a guarantee and there’s always a little carnival atmosphere. At StagWeb our best-in-market ground services cover Ibiza, Barcelona and La Manga. These 3 give you a fine range of options, Ibiza with its clubbing and chilled vibe, Barcelona with its multitude of bars, activities, beaches and adventure and La Manga for the highest quality golf.

Next to Spain we can cater for sunny stag weekends in the luxuriant Algarve, fly into Faro and then enjoy 3 nights relaxing in the surrounds of some of the Algarve’s finest enclaves. What you might not have thought about is Gdansk on Poland’s Baltic coast, a relatively new destination but with a bustling tri-city area that will keep you keen for the whole trip. Then there’s the beautiful Tallinn, only 10 minutes from the beach where your bird watching will likely deliver the rarest and most beautiful species in Europe.

So there you have it, 6 highly recommended scorchers, just let us know what you need and we’ll take care of the leg work, leaving you to enjoy the stag weekend!

While all the football lovers await the new season to start next month, some clubs are breaking the bank with new players. With a new world record signing, teams have been busy writing cheques!

The top Premier League summer signings –
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal to Manchester City, £25m)
Gareth Barry (Aston Villa to Manchester City, £12m)
Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn Rovers to Manchester City, £18m)
Glen Johnson (Portsmouth to Liverpool, £18.5m)
Carlos Tevez (Manchester United to Manchester City, undisc)
Antonio Valencia (Wigan to Manchester United, £17m)

Surprise of the summer –
Michael Owen (Newcastle to Manchester United, free) – Many people were surprised when Sir Alex Ferguson signed Michael Owen, but who wouldn’t on a free! Since signing the forward has scored twice in two games on the pre season tour!

Around the world –
Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United to Real Madrid, £80m) – Love him or hate him, Ronaldo is a fantastic player! With Kaka and Karim Benzema also new signings, Real Madrid will be looking for lots of success this season.

With over a month to go till the transfer window closes who knows what will happen next … John Terry to Manchester City anyone?

Waiting for a new season can seem like a lifetime, why not fill the time with some 5 a side football with the lads or even a stadium tour!

With so many people having Facebook accounts these days it’s a great place to organise the stag do!

When you know what you’re doing for the stag weekend, all you need to do is set up the event on Facebook. If you’re the bestman organising the stag, you may not know everyone coming to the stag and you certainly won’t know everyone’s email address – organising an event on Facebook will allow you to invite people if you have them as friends as well as allowing the stag to invite people!

Once you have put in the event information you can invite the lads to the event, this will then give you an idea of numbers, it will also give the lads the opportunity to see the itinerary in more detail, but more importantly it will give you the chance to chase them for the money! The lads will not want to be named and shamed as tight arses!

The event is also a great place to tell stories and put up a couple of photos when you’re home and hangover free!

Check out the StagWeb Facebook profile here

If your stag weekend is likely to be less than 10 people then some activities are definitely better than others. At StagWeb we cater for groups from 6 stags upwards, though we have done smaller by special arrangement. Unlike the honeymoon in terms of stag groups size doesn’t necessarily matter, it’s all about the performance.

The choice of activities differs slightly between the UK and Europe, often with Europe catering well for smaller groups even on some of the more exciting activities.

So we repeat, do not lose heart because size doesn’t have to be restrictive and in some cases it can give you the flexibility you need to really load the weekend with additional stag activities that you might not otherwise do, believe it or not many smaller groups take advantage of cultural offerings and city guides when they’re abroad. In the UK they might squeeze in a little “we won’t tell anyone” pampering. Bottom line is you can still do plenty, even taking on the white label activities if you’ve got the budget and are prepared to pay more, but if you want to keep it keen and great value the following 22 activities will give you some ideas to start with:

1. 4×4 off road driving (Brighton, Riga, Vilnius)
2. brewery tour & lunch (Prague)
3. city tour (Barcelona, Budapest, Prague, Rome)
4. clay pigeon shooting (UK & Ireland)
5. coasteering (Devon & Cornwall)
6. falconry (Scotland)
7. football (Barcelona, Milan, Rome)
8. paintball (anywhere)
9. golf (UK, Ireland & Spain)
10. guinness brewery (Dublin)
11. health / thermal spa (Bath, Budapest)
12. horseracing (UK & Ireland)
13. hydrospeeding & canyoning (Ljubljana)
14. off road karts (Birmingham)
15. ropes course (UK)
16. rugby (England & Wales)
17. sailing (Isle of Wight, Southampton & Barcelona)
18. skid pan driving (Bath)
19. stadium tours (Barcelona, Liverpool, Milan, Rome)
20. surfing (Devon & Cornwall)
21. target shooting (Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Riga, Vilnius)
22. winetasting (Budapest, Paris)

Major eating sports result from the weekend – 68 hot dogs wins it http://ow.ly/gGp8

Brett Lee out of first Ashes test – bad luck bretty! http://ow.ly/gGpV

Be careful out there – wrestling midgets killed by fake prostitutes http://ow.ly/gGrF

Kiwi kid is headed for the naughty step http://ow.ly/gGs7

England Rugby recall bionic man to Elite Squad http://ow.ly/gGtq

Flight News

Vilnius flights – There’s a new route to Vilnius, Lithuania’s magical capital, with Star 1 Airlines. For stag ideas and reasons why you should consider Vilnius as one of Europe’s greatest destinations – see our pages on stag weekends in Vilnius.

Flights from Birmingham to Newquay - There’s a new seasonal route to Newquay from Birmingham with BmiBaby. Flight dates Tues / Fri / sat / Sun and the route runs until 20 September. Newquay’s one of the very best coastal destinations in the UK and perfect for a summer stag do with the boys. So if you haven’t booked it yet now’s your chance, and if you’re still considering what Newquay’s got to offer see our Newquay stag weekend guide.

Andy Murray to play today!

Try out this link for live scores http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/.  Come on Andy!

Lions squad for tomorrow!

http://www.lionsrugby.com/news/8398.php