On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I organized the first Columbia Pub Crawl. We were very lucky, with a good turnout and favorable weather. But it was not all luck. A lot of planning took place prior to our stroll through Columbia, Maryland. Here’s how I did it.
Identify the pubs
Select bars that are within walking distance to each other. Knowing the area well helps, but it is surprising how much you can learn by searching the internet. Collecting the names, addresses, web sites and opening and closing times in a spreadsheet really helped organize things. Also, a visit to a potential bar’s site alerts you to possible conflicts as well as deals or other options you may not have thought about. For instance, I did not know the Ale House offered a Saturday brunch.
Plan the route
Once you have collected and organized your information, it’s time to plan the route. I used google maps. Google maps offers walking directions with estimated times. I had to plot one leg of the journey at a time, due to memory constraints. It’s a bit tricky, but there is a way to modify the journey by dragging the route to an alternative path. As I plotted each leg, I recorded the estimated walking time in the spreadsheet.
After some deliberation, I planned to stay at each pub for about 45 minutes. Also, don’t forget about eating. I doubled the time, allowing for 90 minutes if a meal was planned. Finally, don’t forget to check the weather and sundown. If the weather looks particularly bad, you might want to pick a different day for the crawl. In a truly urban area, darkness is not a problem. But in suburban Columbia, Maryland, especially along the pathways, you want to be inside after dark.
Anticipating a gang of beer swigging walkers’ behavior is difficult. As the journey continues, don’t assume much common sense. Crossing busy streets late in the crawl is ill-advised. Add darkness and you are asking for problems. I was meticulous in choosing our paths, and actually walked most of the route to witness traffic, sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic lights, etc.
Plan the transportation
Here’s the question. How do you make sure a horde of drunken and tired participants gets home safely? In Columbia, public transportation is really not a good option, so I looked at other ideas. Designated drivers are one option. Also, don’t forget Lyft, Uber or a taxi.
Notify the pubs
Call the pubs to give them warning and make reservations if possible. Most were quite helpful. I really only made reservations when meals were involved. Don’t forget to ask if there is a potential conflict, like another big party.
Notify your friends
So, you’ve planned and organized your crawl. Now you need people. Social media is the best way to recruit crawlers. I sent out the invite via email & GroupMe. As this was a holiday weekend, I gave almost a month’s notice and a couple reminders later on.
Lessons learned – Things went well for us on the pub crawl, but there’s always room for improvement. Next year, we hope to have a theme and perhaps a name. How about the “Turkey Trot”, “HoCo Stumblers”, or “Pathway to Pubs”? I’ll poll this year’s crawlers for some good ideas. We pretty much stayed on schedule, but we had to be flexible. Forty-five minutes for just drinking and 90 minutes with meals seemed to work well for us. Next time there will be something unexpected. We should have a backup plan. What do you do if it rains? What if a pub is unexpectedly closed?
Most importantly, have fun!
Other links
How to organize the best bar crawl
Science of the best night ever
Cheers!
Warren
All your hard work and planning paid off. The Crawl was super fun ( even for a dd)