Chernobyl May Be The World's Oddest Bachelor Party Spot

A proper bachelor or bachelorette party should include lots of beer, cocktails and somewhat questionable decisions. Visiting a place that remains highly radioactive, however, is pushing things a bit too far.  

According to Vice’s Broadly blog, the site of a legendary nuclear accident in 1986 is now seeing visitors hoping to enjoy a unique bachelor or bachelorette party.

It spoke with various tour guides and tourists who have taken a trip to the site of the Chernobyl disaster – an event that would eventually claim the lives of 31 people and may, according to the World Health Organization, contribute to 4,000 people losing their lives because of radiation exposure.

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Yet it remains one of the rare places on earth that is not only taboo to venture but may also be highly dangerous.

As the report suggests, it’s that sentiment that has some seeking it out for a remarkably unique bachelor/bachelorette destination.

Think back to you own stag shindig. You can probably boast of drinking too much or skydiving. Maybe you went out of your comfort zone and ran with the bulls or something else that is personally astounding. Not many have meandered into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

Of course, this place isn’t completely devoid of tourists. The report reminds that it has been open to tours since 2010.

A local tour guide, 48-year-old Sergei Ivanchuk, spoke with Vice on how well things are going for the budding industry surrounding Chernobyl.

Ivanchuk estimates: “Frankly we don't really keep track of how many stag people go with us. Last year we had 30,000 people in total, and this year we've had 25,000 already."

Chernobyl isn’t the Lost City of Z, some unattainable entity; it’s an actual place that you can visit – regardless of the eerie silence of a population that quickly moved from the area over 30 years ago.

Solo East Travel, for example, boasts tours via Kiev for the low price of $79 for a "regular" solo excursion. Chernobyl Tour is yet another option that offers one or multiple day treks to this extraordinary attraction.

The opportunity has widened to entice that special travel demographic that has aims for debauchery and exclusivity. Though it should be noted that drinking of any kind is not allowed in the exclusion zone.

Vice spoke with 24-year-old Louisa Naks who recently went to Chernobyl for her sister’s great pre-wedding send-off: “There is that kind of morbid curiosity—you know, people like to do dangerous things—they skydive, and there's this little element of danger to it; like, 'Oh it's really radioactive.' Our family are from Poland so we've got a bit of a fascination with weird communist Eastern Europe.”

As for why anyone would want to celebrate matrimony in this manner, Naks explains: “My sister's the first one in our group of friends who is getting married so we thought we'd do something completely crazy! We wanted to kind of make a splash.”

U.K. native Christopher Doggett had a classic stag-night story amid a rather rare location. He explains to Vice on his party’s trip to the exclusion zone: “We had to pull over [the tour bus] so he (groom to be) could dry heave on the pavement. It was a little bit embarrassing, as I'm sure you can imagine.”

It’s once you get to Chernobyl that it may dawn on you that this is no place for jubilation but a destination for reflection and solace.

If you weren’t sober before, the images certainly have that effect. Doggett continues: “The guide kind of let us off the leash a little bit so we were allowed to go into the areas where you shouldn't really have been and stuff. What brought it home was the kindergarten," he says somberly. "It had children's toys and stuff—all sorts—scattered everywhere.”

The Telegraph walks us through the particulars of a trip to this danger zone turned travel curio, a place some 10,000 people enjoy every year (a figure that tempers Ivanchuk’s estimate mentioned above).

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You will indeed be monitored as so far as you will be screened before and after your excursion. You are also not allowed to drink while in the area, sit or touch anything.

After that, it’s up to you whether it’s worth the risk. The Telegraph explains: “Local tour companies insist that, after 30 years, the site is safe to visit. By contrast, Ukrainian officials have suggested that Pripyat will not be inhabitable for another 20,000 years. The crews which maintain the concrete sarcophagus that keeps the exploded reactor in check work strictly monitored five-hour days over the course of a month, then take 15 days off.”

Then there is the obvious notion that people lost their lives or saw their livelihood greatly affected by the disaster.

It doesn’t exactly ring rollicking good time, but it's a worthy destination regardless of how much radiation is in the area.

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