How To Survive Your Next Bar Crawl

By Alexandra Brown on April 22, 2015

A huge part of college life, whether you choose to participate in it or not, is drinking.

It’s a culture on college campuses. College students like to drink and have a great time, whether doing so in bars, apartment or house parties, or fraternity parties.

We as college students like to drink to take the heat off. It’s a fun way to wind down, take our mind off our studies for a little while, and enjoy spending time with our friends.

A big part of why drinking is so prominent on college campuses is because we’re rewarding ourselves for studying hard and hopefully getting decent grades, but we don’t really need a specific excuse to drink.

With these warmer temperatures, there has been increased day drinking, even on weekdays, which also most likely has to do with the fact that it’s the end of the semester, and students are procrastinating all of their final projects, long papers, and beginning studying for final exams.

In addition to apartment, house and fraternity parties and casual bar drinking, bar crawls are popular group-drinking activities on college campuses. These are usually group outings organized among certain student-run organizations or Greek life on campus, complete with matching t-shirts, jerseys, or other attire labeled with the organization’s name, letters, symbols, etc.

Groups travel from bar to bar on campus, attempting to hit as many as possible throughout the span of the night.

An essential part of attending a bar crawl is participating in it successfully. In other words, this means making it out alive, safe, and with no important possessions lost.

Here are 5 tips for surviving your next bar crawl.

1. Choose a bar crawl buddy, and stick with them.

Nothing is worse than getting increasingly drunk as you go from bar to bar, and losing the people you came with. Before you know it, you’re alone–unsure of where you are on campus, how close your apartment is, or what bar you’ve just left.

These events can be fun, but it’s important to have a designated bar crawl buddy (or something of the sort) at the beginning of the night, so as to make sure that the least amount of bad decisions are made throughout the night.

This can either be a close friend who is also on your bar crawl, or an acquaintance within the organization that you don’t mind spending time with from bar to bar. You’ll watch out for them, and they’ll do the same for you.

Having a buddy throughout the night just increases safety. You never want to be walking alone at night, if you’re walking from bar to bar, or even back home at the end of the event.

2. Pace yourself.

It’s obviously important to pace your drinking, especially if you plan on pre-gaming the event. Stick to the mantra, ‘liquor before beer, you’re in the clear; beer before liquor, never been sicker.’

Don’t go too hard at the pregame; this is essential because if you do, you ruin your night because you can’t enjoy the rest of the bar crawl, which was the whole point of going out in the first place.

You also want to pace yourself at each bar, making sure to not drink too heavily at one bar, and trying to keep a consistent flow at each bar.

3. Keep your valuables close.

Key things you’re going to want to have with you when you go out for the night are your phone, keys, and wallet. If you don’t want to carry around a large wallet, make sure you have your ID or license, student ID, cash, and probably a debit or credit card for an emergency.

If you’re a girl, keep these possessions all together in a cross body bag that you can wear and not worry about carrying around. If you’re a guy, make sure you have deep pockets on whatever you choose to wear out.

Losing any of the above things is truly an inconvenience, and can also be dangerous and affect your safety, so keep everything close.

4. Have an endgame.

What’s important when embarking on a bar crawl, or going out in general, is having an endgame in mind. Decide where you want to end up by the end of the night, what you’re okay with happening, and what you’re not okay with, and stick to this plan.

You’ll be safer, and there will be no unwanted surprises.

5. Enjoy yourself.

Keeping the above 4 tips in mind, don’t forget to enjoy yourself! Bar crawls are meant to be fun, not dangerous. Be smart, but still have a fun time with your friends.

Especially since it’s the end of the semester, and if you’re a senior, you’re going to want to enjoy the last few bar crawls of your college career.

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