20 Creative Date Ideas You BOTH Will Love
Finding creative date ideas can be tough. Finding creative date ideas that you BOTH will love? Really tough.
Dating your spouse after years of being married is challenging.
The same old Dinner+Movie+Coffee date that we love gets routine and sometimes it is fun to try something new.
But what?
If you are like us, and life is busy and it is truly a miracle that you got out alone for an evening. Planning a date can come last to actually setting up the date to begin with!
Jeremy has challenged me in this… what are some things we can do for dates that we both will enjoy.
When we get a chance to go out, what should we do?
Creative date ideas that is something that I like to do AND something that he likes to do.
Although, I’ve been told that whatever I want to do is something he will want to do as long as we are together.
Did I marry a sweetheart or what?
So, I’ve been working on a list.
Thinking like we were dating again. Trying to come up with unique things to do for date nights.
I’ve made a list before… with our Top Ten Things to do for Date Nights… but this time I wanted to break out of the norm and go big. Set up a list of dream dates for us.
Jeremy… you can just pick whichever of these you want to do. Well, we can do them all. Some now… some when we have the money. But this list is a start.
Creative Date Ideas
1. Fondue at home. Splurge on a great fondue set for your house. Buy some fun cheeses, meats, veggies, chocolate and goodies.
2. A trip to Build-a-Bear. I know… you are adults… but seriously. We did this one year for my birthday and it was a really fun date night!
3. A visit to a unique store or a fun downtown area with lots of little shops. They might have local coffee shops or art boutiques to browse.
4. A Picnic at the beach… even in the colder months, a winter picnic would be beautiful! (and yes, Jeremy, I will borrow your hunting socks so I don’t have to worry about cold feet! #hunterwifeblessings) This sweet basket will make your picnic perfect and quaint.
5. Take a historical walk. Jeremy and I both love history. I found a book recently that is about historical walks in Paris. We actually walked a few of them while in language school in Paris! Check out these Frommer’s 24 Walk books for numerous locations.
6. Splurge on a Hot Air Balloon ride. This is on our bucket list. And one day, when we have the money, we are totally doing this!
*update: DONE! Johannesburg, South Africa
7. Spend a day visiting Museums. We have done this before and it was wonderful. Sometimes your city will have a guidebook or a ticket pack for the city museums with passes for each one. See how many you can fit into one day!
8. Get a couples massage. We have given this to each other as gifts for Christmas or birthdays. A gift card for a favorite spa is a great date idea! Or, relax and do this at home.
9. Go Camping. We are all about family camping. We LOVE camping. But just the two of us? That would be a great overnight getaway!
10. Sample Sushi all around town. We LOVE sushi… well, I love veggie sushi and he loves raw meat and other weird sushi things… but it would be a fun date to just visit a few different sushi places and try new things! Another idea is to get a sushi kit and learn how to make it at home.
11. A fun photo shoot. We love having family pictures and we do have some great pictures of the two of us. But, keeping up-to-date couples pictures is a great thing!
12. Go for a Dinner Cruise. I have never done this! I think it would be a very fun date… get dressed up and go for a nice dinner on the water!
13. Star Gazing. Bring a blanket and find a spot to watch the stars. We have done this before during a meteor shower… it was very sweet.
14. Run in a Color Run or another fun race. Something about waking up early, going to a race, and then out for breakfast… fun!
15. Create your own progressive dinner from your favorite restaurants or try some new places. Buy the gift cards for your spouse as a gift and get the date on the calendar!
16. Re-live your first date. Football and McDonalds anyone? Yes, that was our first date and yes, I would do it again.
17. A Midnight snack date after the kids go to bed. S’mores in the kitchen, chips and salsa… a fun way to spend time together!
18. Do a picture scavenger hunt together. At the mall. At the park. At the restaurant. My sis in law got us something like this and it is on our to do list!
19. Fill a Time Capsule together. Take a date night to collect things about that year or that season of life for your family. Hide it away somewhere for later years. This would be tricky for us to find a place to leave it but I think it would be a fun memory for us right now! These Infinity Jars would work perfectly.
20. Go to a live show or musical. Again, when we have money, we love seeing live shows on stage.
No matter how long you have been married, learning to date your spouse and KEEP dating your spouse can be challenging. Finding creative date ideas isn’t always easy.
Try something new. Step out of the box. And create your date dream list!
More Date Night Ideas!
What is something you would put on your creative date ideas list?
Hey Jenilee,
Saw one of your posts on FB and came here to brows your site. Good stuff. Thanks for this article. I think many people need to be aware of the importance of dating after marriage. 26 years strong and my wife and I still go on dates – often weekly dates. Just last night I used an analogy of dating at our bible study. A good date is sometimes the one where not communication takes place – you just enjoy eacho ther’s company even when words are not uttered. That’s when you know your spouse really wants to hang out with you. 🙂
I like your “couple’s massage.” I would have never thought about that one, but since my daughter is now a massage therapist, guess what we get to do every so often? 🙂 Yeah, as a free massage date :-). Hey you guys keep up the good work on the other side of the world 🙂
Blessings,
Alex
Thank you for stopping by! I love to hear of couples who are still dating! Such a great example and testimony!
I stumbled upon this by accident, but I am so glad that I did!! We just celebrated our first anniversary and when we got married we promised to have one date night per week so that we never let life get in the way of our relationship. (We’ve both been married before and life got in the way) My husband and I dated when I was 17,(I will be 41 this Sunday) but unfortunately, he was ‘the one that got away’ After 20 years we found our way back to one another and I am living my own fairytale now!! We live in a small town and there isn’t much to do in this area, so date nights consist of dinner and a movie. I will definitely be trying some of these date nights!! Thanks for the ideas!!
oh so fun! I LOVE your story! How sweet! Thanks for sharing 🙂 I can’t wait to hear about your amazing dates!
I love #17! It’s much better than hiding in the closet to sneak a bite of a cookie while the other spouse keeps the kids distracted, which is how most of our nighttime snacks are consumed…
We’ve been married 45 years and never really had date nights, but wished we had done that on a more scheduled time. My daughter gave us a Dinner Cruise and it was wonderful.
I love your progressive meal suggestion and am putting it in my to do list for a fun time. We went to New Mexico for our anniversary a few years ago and wished we could go on a Hot Air Balloon ride but our anniversary is November and the weather was snowing while there so didn’t make it. Another for my list. 🙂
One that we did that you might like was a Bed and Breakfast. It was on the Ohio river and the owners were awesome. Would love to do that in New England sometime.
Thanks for your list.
Oooo….thank you so much! I love your posts. They are always fun and inspiring!
Those all sound fun! We usually only get about 2-3 dates per year. But here is the worst of it….
Valentine’s Day and my Birthday (our for sure 2 annual date nights) are both in the winter. UGH! Walk? no thanks! Picnic? Sorry, but 20 degrees and below and I don’t go. So our biggest challenge is finding something cheap, warm, fun and different. I would LOvE more suggestions and ideas on that one. But for warmer weather…love your ideas!
Sara, I will think of some more and post them… I already have a few in mind!
http://ourgoodwinjourney.com/2011/10/top-ten-date-nights/ is my other date nights post. Hope that helps! Thanks so much for stopping by!
indoor rock climbing and anything else that gets your heart rate up!!
oooh! that’s a good one!
Some of these, like the walks, the camping ( just us two) and the winter picnic we’ve done and I’ve loved.
Some of these like museums and the melting pot were ideas I was going to use to gift hubby with this year.
However also love the idea of recreating our first date. (The arcade and coffee with friends and his brother) ( maybe we will skip them thus time. Lol)
As well as the star gazing.
Great list.
One of the things we love to do at home. Is set up a big bed in the living room, buy junk good, make a big bowl of buttered popcorn and watch a couple if movies.
oh I love the bed in the living room idea!!!