Hen Parties in Cardiff

Accommodation

In Cardiff we stayed at The Urdd City Sleepover Cardiff - it might be signposted as Gwersyll yr Urdd Caerdydd (obviously!) which is situated in the Millennium Centre near Mermaid Quay. We were really struggling to find somewhere to stay, as the particular weekend we'd chosen was the Ryder Cup Golf weekend so all hotels in the city centre were booked up.

The Urdd is kind of like a youth hostel - with the rooms having bunk beds - but then each room did have its own bathroom. The bonus is it's cheap and it's only a £5 taxi ride away from the main train station - Cardiff Central. The staff there were so lovely and accommodating (accommodating BOOM BOOM). We had to ring them so many times to rearrange the room allocations etc. and they were still all smiling when we got there!!

PS - if you are staying here then you do need to bring your own towel.

Other hotels in Cardiff

There are several hotels in Cardiff - including one part owned by John Malkovich! I guess it just depends which areas you want to base your hen do around or how much you are willing to pay for taxis. 

Open top bus ride and boat trip!

On the Saturday we had a lazy morning in Starbucks (I didn't make it to breakfast...) then we met the others for lunch in a bar called Salt in Mermaid Quay just near the Millennium Centre. There are lots of restaurants to choose from at the Quay, including Pizza Express, Strada and Bellini's (a lovely Italian where we had dinner on the Friday night).  Later on in the afternoon, we went on the open top bus ride around the city. This should have cost £9 each but I called a few weeks beforehand, said we were a group and they offered us a £1 discount each. All you had to do was give them a password which you quoted on the day.

We got the bus from the front of the Millennium Centre and the round tour lasted about an hour. After the bus tour, I had arranged for us to go on a boat trip. So it was back to Mermaid Quay, just round the corner from the Millennium Centre and on to the boat. They were doing a special charter for us and it only cost £5 per person. We were allowed to bring booze on to the boat and also the bride to be was allowed to have a little go at driving the boat herself.

Then it was back to the accommodation to get ready for the night out. 

Fancy dress

As the bride to be is called Fiona then I thought it would be rude not to dress her up as Princess Fiona. This - I must add - is in no way a reflection of how we connect Shrek with her future husband!!! And we didn't paint her green. 

But there was a long green dress, a brilliant red wig and of course the green ears. For the evening, all the hens wore flashing green ears - which did manage to attract quite a bit of attention. All the fancy dress was obtained by doing a tireless search of the internet for Shrek fancy dress items!! 

Anyone wanting a size 12/14 Princess Fiona outfit then let me know!

Minksys Showbar and Walkabout!

We all met in one of the rooms at the hotel, I read a poem and then we did the Mr and Mrs quiz. After this we all went to a cheesy bar called Minskys Showbar - in the middle of Cardiff (just near the Debenhams). This is a show bar with drag artists singing during the night. I phoned in advance and booked us in for the traditional buffet. The buffet, along with entry to the bar and reserved seating came to a bargain total of £9 each. The bar itself is small but there is a stage in the middle, and people seem to dance everywhere. This is a cheese fest and has a good atmosphere. And the hen seemed to like it a lot. 

It also had the added bonus that you could email them photos of the hen in advance and they showed them on the big screens!

Then, once that had finished at 12.30am, the remaining hardcore few went on to Walkabout at the top of St Mary's Street. I had phoned ahead and put our names on the guest list so that we didn't have to queue. Once inside it was absolutely heaving - probably because of the golf. We had a little dance but I think we decided the music wasn't quite cheesy enough and all our feet were hurting so we headed home at about 2am! Lots of taxis waiting outside and it only cost us about a fiver to get back to the hotel.

All in all a top hen do!  

 


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