Having been to many a hen's party over the years, I feel I've covered off the main types 'of activities to celebrate the occasion:
Dinner and a show of beefed up male "dancers" to which seem more like a comedy show than a sexy show.
A hen's party at home filled with games, such as pin the male appendage on a cut out of the Stag, followed by a suburbs classed stripper.
An outing to the Brazilian inspired cheesy and sleazy Copacabana (a must at least once in your hen's night lifespan).
The not so refined booze cruise down the Yarra river.
High tea on a rooftop in the city followed by dinner and dancing.
A drive for a relaxing girls weekend away to a destination in Victoria (Daylesford, Mornington, Bellarine Peninsula, the Dandenongs, etc) where you can drink and be merry while surrounded by hen's paraphernalia.
There is one place I haven't been for a hen's weekend and that is interstate, until I was summoned to a hen's weekend away to the Gold Coast. My initial thought was "ew the Gold Coast is so tacky" but shelving my negativity I concluded that all the other hen's celebrations I have attended have been tacky and cheesy some more than others.
Serene views at the Gold Coast
Embracing my new found love of tackiness it was full steam ahead to the Gold Coast, with only $240 return flights with
Tiger Airways and $110 for accommodation for two nights at the
Mantra Crown Towers Hotel in Surfers Paradise, it was hardly going to break the bank.
Image taken by Gold Coast Limousines
Attired in our personalised hen's weekend T-Shirts, we arrived at Coolangatta airport and were met by
Gold Coast Limousines, which I strongly recommend, as it was $43 each return to the airport plus a bottle of sparkling to share. This was only $10 more than a return cab, which didn't include the style and sparkling.
Our place of sleep,
The Mantra Crowne Towers had a very nice lobby and lagoon which part of the pool came up into the lobby. The air conditioning was only working in half the apartment, so one bedroom was extremely hot and after reporting this we had a hard time getting anyone to respond and do anything about it. The message was that they don't guarantee air conditioning in the rooms. We did manage to get shifted for one night but it was an effort. I also heard different patrons complaining about other things while I was waiting in line at reception. Lucky we didn't intend on spending much time in the apartment.
After settling in, we took to the streets of Surfers Paradise and ran into a young guy promoting a nightclub tour for Plan B. A salesman he was. Originally offering a tour of 5 nightclubs with a drink at each club for $110, we negotiated down to $60 each, plus the hen goes for free and he threw in a nightclub pass that we could use for the Friday night also, but in hindsight we didn't need the nightclub pass as we were offered entry and drinks into several places. I was somewhat sceptical of the deal, so while he was still convincing us to jump on board, I googled Plan B and there were a number of positive reviews and the
website seemed legit.
On the Friday night for dinner, we opted for
The Avenue which had a good variety of food and had a nice long table outside for our group. Our waitress was nice and excited for our weekend. The food was okay quality, reasonably priced and had some yummy cocktails to get the party started.
Onto our own exploration of clubs, we found as we walked along that everyone wanted to offer us free entry, so we checked out
Club Liv which had a special for $10 unlimited basic spirits until midnight., Great value considering it was only 10pm. The bar tenders were a tad rude and focused more on serving male patrons who were more likely to give a tip than us girls. The music started as Top 40 and a bit of old school dance but then moved towards harder stuff like trance which was accompanied with laser lights.
Next club was
Vanity whose reputation of their renovated 2 million dollar ladies bathroom preceded them. After taking in 30 seconds of more hardcore dance music, we went to check out the bathrooms and took in the far less than fabulous and somewhat quite dated surroundings. The timber panel underneath the basins fell onto mine and another girl's leg leaving us bruised and sore. Vanity need to get a bit vainer and lift their look.
We finished up so we would have some stamina for the Saturday Nightclub Crawl.
For breakfast we found this fantastic buffet breakfast that was varied, fresh and delicious for $14.50 at
Surfers Sandbar. Great value and we loved it so much we went back the second day too. Only thing to note is if you are in a group and want to sit together, you all have to order the buffet.
After breakfast we went for a swim and a relax by the hotel lagoon/pool and before we knew it, it was time to get ready.
The Nightclub tour starts at 5pm at
Strike Bowling Bar (weird but the bar was ok) where we got a shot of something lethal. It looked harmless enough in a coloured shot glass but didn't taste so good.
Cocktails at Strike Bowling bar - Image taken by Sammie
First nightclub, was
Blush Bar, this was before we knew we got preferential treatment for being on a hen's night, so we lined up with the other 300 people on the tour which was probably the only downfall of the tour, as they have so many people that are wanting to get into the same place all at once, it can take a bit of patience waiting in line, and once you get in, you get to join the line for a drink, but surprisingly everyone is friendly and even as the night went on there was no hostility, especially when we were jumping the queue.
Blush was nicely decorated with podiums and poles around the place which I was surprised at, as at the early time of 7pm there was a queue of girls lining up to strut their stuff. After a crazy wait for drinks, we made our way into a back room and got our own little area of plush couches and before long our hosts were handing out pizzas to everyone. This is a great responsible thing to do on a club crawl and the pizzas were so tasty.
Next on to
Melbas, where we were discovered at the back of the line by one of the hosts who dragged us to the door so we could get in first. Melbas is a more relaxed venue that has a long bar going around in a rectangle. Five girls and five guys, including our hen, were brought up to the dancefloor where they competed in some dancing/naughty positions games! It was very funny to watch.
Next on to
Sin City and with our priority entry we secured a balcony overlooking the rest of the club with a couch and table. They played some fun songs and had a dance off. This was probably the best club in terms of layout, music variety, oh and something for the boys were the bar maids wearing white sexy lingerie.
Our final destination on the tour was back to
Vanity. We were well warmed up by this stage and having lots of fun but decided to head back to Sin City, however it was after 11pm so we were requested to pay $20 entry.
Instead we opted for a kebab and a trip to the beach. There are lots of food places open near the clubs for those that have the munchies post dancing.
Our final day was spent eating breakfast at Surfers Sandbar and lazing around the pool of the hotel.
It was really great to see how many strangers along the way took an interest in making sure we had a great weekend.
If you want something different to celebrate your last few days of freedom, then I highly recommend heading to the Gold Coast. And it's not just for hen's weekends, the above itinerary is great for Buck's weekends or just getting away with your friends.
There are also other great things to do such as
Aquaduck which takes you on a trek through Surfers and then into the River,
Lunch cruises,
Wicked Club Tours (they aren't affiliated with as many of the clubs as Plan B, but additionally have Party cruises),
Shopping,
Karaoke or even the
Theme Parks if that's what you like!
