Since freshman year of college, my group of girls has grown to include about 13 crazy college seniors. We decided to go on an end of the year bar crawl to celebrate our final weeks in college. From the naming the bar crawl to ordering the shirts and deciding our route, the planning had to be perfect, but it didn’t necessarily work out that way. We made some mistakes, for sure. Now that it’s over here is what you can do to avoid making our mistakes and to make your bar crawl as successful as possible.
Step 1: Naming your crawl
Ours was “Don’t be a pussy, be a lion” (We’re talking cats here people. Cats.). The name means a lot to us because it’s been kind of a running inside joke between our group of friends since we were underclassmen. The name is clever, and something we all like and found hilarious (even if we’re the only ones).
Choosing the perfect name for your tour requires you relate it to the group you’ll be crawling with. An inside joke for a group of friends, altering the name of your organization to something drinking related, or the most random thing you can think of, all work. Our name might not be funny to anyone else but us, and that’s okay. Choosing the name of your bar crawl is all up to you, so be creative, just clear it with your fellow crawlers first.
Step 2: Carefully plan your route according to 3 criteria:
Location
It’s very important to plan your route according to location. You don’t want to send your fellow crawlers all over State College toggling from the east to west side of downtown. Keep your stops relatively close in location, preferably starting from one end to the other. Our idea was to go from east to west, but we kind of forgot about another key factor in planning our route.
Opening times
We paid literally NO attention to when the bars actually opened, which, turns out, is very important. We planned to start our tour with food at Kildare’s, and then if we spend approximately an hour or two at each bar following it, we’ll end up at the Saloon around 5 or 6 p.m. Thing is, it doesn’t open until 8 p.m. (Plus, who goes to Saloon at 6 p.m.? Pretty dumb mistake). Don’t do what we did. Pay attention to the opening times of the bars.
Happy hours and live music
Use the bar tour app to help you plan your route following the specials at each of your favorite bars. The premium app only costs $.99 from the app store and will tell you where the specials are, when happy hours begin and end, and where the live music is at all hours of the day.
Step 3: Shirts
We ordered our shirts through collegiate pride on East College Ave., and they did an amazing job of getting our design exactly how we wanted it, and doing it quickly. It took only a few days for them to send us a proof and they were printed and ready about a week after that.
Be sure to put the list of bars in the order you plan on going to them on the back. This is helpful so everyone knows where to go incase someone gets separated, but more importantly, it’s cute and you’ll have a permanent memory of exactly where you were.
Step 4: Pace yourself
No one likes a sloppy friend, especially when the crawl is only half way over. It’s kind of a buzz kill for your friends when they have to take care of you. Don’t’ be that girl, just don’t.
Step 5: Make memories
If you’re planning a bar crawl, you’re probably a senior, and probably about to graduate. So, even if there are no shirts, and no name for your bar crawl, that’s okay. Having fun and making memories with your friends is the most important part. College doesn’t last forever.
Organizing a group of people to plan a bar crawl can be completely stressful at times, but in the end it’s worth it. If you follow these steps to planning your end of the year bar crawl you’ll end the night with a lot of fun memories, and one hell of a hangover.