It's not every Saturday night you get the opportunity to ride around Bournemouth town centre on a double-decker bus, while a vicar gyrates in front of you to the tune of Dancing Queen.

Let me explain.

The bus ride was part of The Bournemouth Bar Tour, run by Dorset-based company UK Weekender, and I'm 99 per cent sure the gyrating of the stag dressed as a vicar was for the benefit of the two hen parties, also on the bus, and not just me.

The "Party on a Bus", as Mike Fisher, founder of UK Weekender calls it, ferries stag and hen parties from bar to bar around Bournemouth Town Centre before dropping them at a night club just after midnight.

Mike, 31, moved to the town in 1993 and actually spent four and a half years training as a hotel manager and working in sales before turning his fascination with nightlife into a profitable business.

In 1999 he got involved with a friend's university project and set up a "Pub to Club" website for his tourism dissertation.

He explained: "It was in the early days of the internet and we would go out to bars and clubs, taking pictures of clubbers for the website and dealing with the promotion of bars and clubs.

"We also did trials runs of bar crawls on foot with holiday style reps like you'd see in Aiya Napa, which proved to be very popular."

Pub to Club closed when it had run its course, but you never throw the baby out with the bath water and Mike, realising the success of the pub crawls, took that part of the business and joined up with another company that provided buses and a few years later the Party on a Bus was born.

The double-decker is an actual school bus, fitted with disco lights and a sound system, which ferries children to and from school Monday to Friday, then on Saturday nights is taken over by clubbers - ironically often dressed as school kids.

"People often get on and are really excited and nostalgic to be back on a school bus."

Aside from having a love for the town, Mike decided that Bournemouth's nightlife was attracting a lot of revellers to the area who weren't familiar with Bournemouth and so he set up ukweekender.com to provide day and night-time activities.

"The intention of UK Weekender is to provide a service for people - we try to provide a whole weekend of activities and fun for stag and hen parties, which includes the Bournemouth Bar Tour and the Party on a Bus."

The action-packed bus tour - which started out at 7.15pm with three groups of total strangers, and after one circuit of the town had fused into one happy gang of party people - took us to four bars and finally to a club.

Despite going to some of the most popular bars in Bournemouth, Mike said that most people enjoy the 15 minutes between each bar most.

"At the end of the night the only complaints we tend to get are that people wanted more time on the bus dancing to the cheesy tunes, getting acquainted with their fellow revellers."

The capacity of the Bar Tour is 150 and the bus can hold up to 75 partygoers at one time, with the average bus being made up of 60 per cent females.

I was one of 48 on the Party on a Bus, made up of two hen parties and a stag party, and as it was pouring with rain, being chauffeur driven from bar to bar was a blessing.

The bus caters for all age groups, and a mixture of people are always on the bar tour for a cheesy Saturday night.

One of the hens even had her mum along to witness her embarrassing pre-marital antics.

To some this may sound like hell on earth, trapped on a bus with rowdy hens and stags, but for those who enjoy going out, having fun and meeting new people it is an ideal way to experience what a new town has to offer.

It's not essential to come in fancy dress but it does help.

Mike said: "The most original fancy dress we've ever had was a stag do that came dressed as a pack of cards with the stag dressed as a joker, or the guys a few years ago who all came dressed as 118 118 men on a very cold night."

The Party on a Bus has played host to stag dos from Ireland, Scotland, all across the UK and people have flown in from as far as Australia, New Zealand and America to join parties.

The daytime activities available for stags and hens range from paint balling to go-karting.

With the building of the new surf reef in Boscombe these are exciting times for Mike and the Bar and Bus Tour.

"If it works, the reef will bring a new group of people to town, mostly the youth market who'll be looking for good nights out."

The tour is a novel way to experience the town's vibrant nightlife and is definitely value for money at £25 per person, considering you get chauffeur driven, have all your bar entries paid and a drink in each bar.