Creative Date Ideas | For the lazy, for the adventurous, for the bold.
It's time to spice up your dates.
Here’s the situation: You want to impress your date and treat him or her out to somewhere special, but unfortunately money doesn’t grow on trees.
That’s why my older sister, Tiffany (a high-profile blogger on Medium), and I have decided to put our heads together and compile some of our most innovative date ideas. You might’ve seen these online, but we’ve added an extra twist to make your dates extra special.
I challenge you to a crossword puzzle!
Nothing is more romantic than testing your date on how much they know about you with a crossword puzzle. You can do this activity at the park, at coffeeshops, in the car, at home, anywhere where there’s a seat.
• Find an online DIY (do it yourself) crossword generator that allows free printing, like PuzzleMaker, ArmoredPenguin, and PrintableCrosswordPuzzle.
• Incorporate a mix of inside jokes, personal favorites, unforgettable memories, embarrassing moments, anything that challenges them to think carefully about their answers.
• Create your crossword puzzle, and you’re ready to play!
Once the game is over, you’ll discover more about your partner and have fun reliving the past memories you’ve had together.
Spontaneous weekend getaway
Reserve a weekend off for you and your date. Then discuss (through phone, email, text) with your date what cities you haven’t visited that’s within a reasonable driving distance. Write the cities on separate pieces of paper and throw them into a large glass jar. One partner will blindly pick the city from the jar, while the other will play “tour guide” and plan out what activities to do. It’ll be a weekend both of you will totally be excited for.
Color-Coordinated Picnic
Choose a color from the following: Green, Red, Yellow, Orange, White. You and your date will create a picnic spread that includes food and drinks of this color.
Here are some ideas:
Green— pesto pasta, guacamole, edamame, broccoli, mixed green salad, spinach tortilla wrap, honeydew juice, avocado smoothie
Red —stuffed red bell peppers, chili, spaghetti, bruschetta, salsa & red tortilla chips, strawberries, fruit punch, watermelon juice
Yellow— rice pilaf, corn on the cob, yellow curry, quiche, grilled cheese, egg noodles, egg rolls, bananas, pineapples, lemon squares, lemonade
Orange— buffalo chicken wings, salmon, garlic shrimp, Thai chicken curry, butternut squash soup, chow mein, mangos, orange juice
White— mashed potatoes, alfredo pasta, deviled eggs, cod/tilapia, clam chowder, hummus, coconut macaroons, cheesecake, horchata
Once both of you have chosen what foods/drinks to prepare, pick a park with nice scenic views and plenty of shade. Spread a blanket on the ground and start laying out the foods and drinks aesthetically — that way you can take a snapshot of your hard work. If you use Instagram, you can tag your picnic photos with the hashtag #CCpicnic.
Note: Bonus points if both of your outfits matches the color as the theme!
Scavenger Hunt
In this activity, you’ll need to “temporarily borrow” a house for at least an hour. The goal is to get your date running around the house in search of the next gift or clue. This fun, vigorous game will test how much your date knows about you.
• First, prepare a trail of clues that make your date guess about you and the relationship. For example, one of the clues can say “Under the hat I wore on our first date.”
• Once your date finds the clue, it can lead to two things: A small gift or another clue. We recommend giving a gift on the first discovery, because this will encourage your date to continue playing. After that, it’s up to you to decide what order of gifts and clues you want for the remaining fun of the scavenger hunt.
The end result: A fun memory to laugh back on and a house you have to clean up before your family or housemates get home.
Table Decor, Dinner War
This activity requires a competitive edge and a huge ego from both parties. You’ll need a party of 3–10 (family, friends, you choose) who are willing to taste-try your food and judge your decor-making skills.
The goal is to prepare the most presentable table decor and most scrumptious homemade entrees (appetizer, main entree, and dessert). Food can be prepared a day in advance if needed. But if it’s possible to cook on the same day, you and your date can go to the grocery store or the dollar store (if you’re tight on budget!), to buy ingredients together.
Decor (5 minutes)
You only have 5 minutes to lay out the napkins, plates, table runners, place mats, centerpieces, candle holders, flowers, etc.
Food (1.5 hours)
Once the decor is set in place, prepare the appetizer, main entree, and dessert using the ingredients and kitchen utensils you have on hand. I’d highly recommend pre-planning what you should cook first vs last.
When both of you are done plating your masterpiece and serving each one on the table, your guests will rate you on two things on a small slip of paper:
1. Presentation of decor
(1–5: 1 being disorganized, 5 being fine-dining style)
2. Taste of food (separate ratings for the 3 entrees)
(1–5, 1 being horrible, 5 being unbelievably amazing)
One person will tally up everyone’s results and average the scores. Whoever gets the higher average wins!
If you are excited to try these ideas, please like this post by clicking the heart button on the bottom of the page! If we reach over 100 total likes, Tiffany and I will consider writing another collaborative post on (psst, SPOILER ALERT!)...creative and thoughtful gift ideas for dates. Also, don't forget to leave your comments down below on any future topics you would like for us to collaborate on! :)
Much Love,
