Stag night in Cowes...

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daveyladboy

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Sailing over to Cowes in a few weeks for a stag night and looking for somewhere to eat, drink and be merry! We average 40yrs + and are a relatively respectable bunch (ie. we have wives and children), so we're looking for a bit of action, without the threat of violence... Money is no object;)
 
I would look somewhere else like Gunwharf if you want action, Cowes will be pretty much closed by mid September - you would basically have the choice of a choice of a couple of Indian restaurants, an over priced Italian or a couple of run of the mill pubs.
 
That is a pretty broad request so I would say if you want to eat then be merry, I would suggest Tonino's Italian (which came in the top ten UK boaty restaurants in a Mobo Magazine), maybe the Red Duster for pricey food, then The Anchor pub which tends to have a lot of bands. Cowes lends itself to a pub crawl. I can count seven pubs in close proximity to each other, six of them in the pedestrian area. At least four of them won't involve a punch up! You can have fun working out which is which. If you berth at Cowes Yacht Haven, you can count the distance to the first pub in feet and inches. Book your berth and restaurant.

Or if you want one venue with no fuss, carry on up the river to the Folly Inn on a Saturday. Way better than average food, live music, dancing on the tables and pontoons / ferry at the front door. Usually very busy so obviously book table. Berthing almost never a problem.
 
Or if you want one venue with no fuss, carry on up the river to the Folly Inn on a Saturday. Way better than average food, live music, dancing on the tables and pontoons / ferry at the front door. Usually very busy so obviously book table. Berthing almost never a problem.[/QUOTE]


Another vote for the Folly on a Saturday night.

Or, as a visiting yachtsman you could eat at the Island SC and then head down to the Anchor, Waterside etc. Plenty of choices and Cowes will still be buzzing for a few more months yet.
 
Many thanks for the suggestions! We won't be dressing up, you'll be glad to hear... The weather, thankfully looks like it will be kind to us - I'll feed back on the experience next time. We've booked an Indian restaurant and will leave the rest to chance - cheers!
 
All went well on the stag weekend!
We started at The Anchor - a good boozer with pool table and live music (we didn't stay for that). The staff were very friendly and had no objections to a stag group of 11 blokes. However they refused to serve the very rowdy hen party of about 30 girls that turned up later.... We moved on for a curry at The Saffron, good food & beers, just what we were after! Carried on to The Pier View, another nice pub, with no objections to our increasingly drunken party! The lovely bar staff, when they closed up, then recommended The Union Inn, which was open until 2am and again were suprisingly tolerant of our drunken antics.
Thanks for your recommendations - the crew of the yacht we chartered warned us off one particular pub, the Papermakers I think, but all in all a successful trip and The Isle of Wight was friendly and relaxed!
 
l'escargot said:
More probably "The Painters'" - a Cowes institution with a strong local clientèle who can be a bit yachtie adverse at times. You can tell the regulars - more tattoos than teeth and that's just the women! :D
Click to expand...

I used to drink in there when I worked in Cowes
 
I sail the Solent every other weekend and I have organised a couple of stag nights in the last few years. One of the doo's we had the night at Gunwharf quays, and the other was in Cowes, but even with just general friends we do a pub crawl mostly in Cowes.

So when i have a boat full of friends we tend to head for Osbourne bay first, drop the hook, have some lunch, few beers then once cleared up we run down the Medina and moor up at the Folly. If you get here early you are normally on the pontoon so no need to raft and you have a good spot for later.

We either order taxis (car, £6 for five one way) who pick you up from the back of the pub and take you to East Cowes and we go over by the chain ferry (Free) or jump on the folly water bus (More fun if the others have not done before) £8 return per person and get dropped straight into West Cowes.

From here we normally would do the usual wander through Cowes. Starting at The Anchor which is a good pub, food isn't bad either. We then wander along to Pier View which again is a good "yachtie" pub, never a problem in either of these pubs. Now that we have had four pints we hit the pub opposite (bit rough round the edges but after four pints its acceptable, again no problems here). Then next door to the hotel bar (normally ok in the winter months but summer time you get some idiots from the main land).

From here we normally hit a curry house about 7 - 7.30, our only choice is Saffron. Yet to have a bad meal here, in fact i reckon this place is in my top 5 curry houses and i have a ruby at least once a week. I even took some clients there in the summer who asked me i could take them back for our Christmas get together, so its not just my opinion. The menu is huge which normally puts me off but its spot on.

Thats Cowes done and we head back to The Folly, again it's a yachtie pub and there is a guy who is there every Saturday playing live music, and by 9.30pm people start dancing on the tables and its a really good night out. No idiots there, in fact every one is having a good time, music is 70's, 80's and 90's and once it closes the water taxi takes you back to the pontoon in the river.

I will always do this tour with anyone who has not been over before and it never fails to be a good afternoon and night.

The food at the Folly is also good but if you eat here always book a table.

Hope this helps
 
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