What's your perfect hen party?

The thing that I've learned about hen parties is that not everyone wants the same thing. The two hens I went to this year were polar opposites, but they were both brilliant in their own way. I'm an organising fan, so I usually get somewhat involved, and many a time have I lectured the bride-to-be on not worrying what anyone else wants to do. The truth is that you can't please everyone, so you might as well focus on pleasing the person you are there for. Everyone's there because they love that person, so chances are they'll all have an awesome time anyway. I've never been to a bad hen, so. POINT PROVED.

It's interesting to see what other women would like though at a hen party, and that's my point! Spabreaks sent me some research on hen parties from a survey they did recently, and here are some of the highlights:

What's your preferred type of Hen party?
Relaxing e.g. a weekend spa break - 52.4%
Mixture e.g. a bit of everything - 35.6%
Wild e.g. a wild weekend in Magaluf - 9.2%
Activities e.g. white water rafting or absailing - 2.8%

I am so down with this research. White water rafting sounds both hellish and expensive. If a bride-to-be wanted to do this I would probably try and talk her out of it, totally contradicting my earlier commentary. But, yay! Relaxing things like spa breaks came out on top! Hooray.

When on a hen party, do you live by the rule 'What happens on a hen party stays on the hen party'?
Yes - 70.4%
No - 29.6%

I am now wondering what kind of things the average hen gets up to! That said, I have some hen do photos (and videos) that are NEVER allowed to go public on Facebook. But on other hen dos, the only gossip is about how much we ate.

How much would you pay to go on a Hen Party?
£0 to £50 - 37.2%
£51 to £99 - 31.6%
£100 to £150 - 20.8%
Over £150 - 10.4%

Hen dos can get really expensive, and I've been to more than one where the accommodation alone was £100 each. But that's because it is actually fairly pricey to go away for the weekend and most hen dos are full-weekend deals these days. I think you have to be considerate of people's budgets, and give them the option to choose how long they come for, but to me the point of a hen do is for the bride's best girls to get to know each other before the wedding, or to come back together when they all live apart, so having as long as possible is the best thing. Although, sadly, that puts me in the 10% that would expect a hen to cost over £150. BUT IT'LL BE WORTH IT.

Where would you prefer to have a hen party?
City - 49.6%
Countryside - 32.4%
Overseas - 18.0%

I guess most girls want the night out part, hence the majority choosing city breaks. I always have a great time on that part, but my faovurite bit is always when we're sitting around gossiping. So I think I'd choose countryside, because I just want to hide away with my friends and talk for hours and drink wine and maybe dance around the living room to Britney Spears at 3am. Although we did that overseas back in September, and we had the added bonus of sunshine, a pool and a hot tub. I think South of France might win out every time, tbh.

What do you think? Do you have a dream hen party - whether yours or someone elses? Or is there something amazing you've already done that's impossible to top?

Written in collaboration