First Date Ideas
Public, low-cost dates with something to do, one idea at a time.
- Time
- One to two hours
- Players
- Two people
- Best for
- First and second dates, by day or early evening
- Deck
- 100 ideas in 5 categories
How to use these first date ideas
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the idea on the top card. If you both like it, put it on the calendar.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next idea”, for another. Ideas do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save an idea on this device, or tap “Make a 10-idea list” for a list you can copy.
When to use these first date ideas
A first date goes best with something to do besides look at each other. These ideas give your eyes and hands a job, so the talk can come and go on its own.
After you match
When the chat is going well but nobody has named a place yet, send one card as the invitation.
Waiting in line
Pass the phone back and forth while you wait for a table or a ticket, and save a card for next time.
The second date
Do something side by side, or food without the formal dinner, for when coffee went well and you both want a little more.
Ways to use these date ideas
Choose together before you meet
Each of you draws a few cards and saves the ones you like. Compare by message and go with an idea you both saved.
A plan with an option
Pick one idea as the plan and keep one from If it’s going well in reserve. If the first part is enough, the date ends on time and nobody is let down.
Match the idea to the hour
Coffee and a little more suits a weekend morning, Walk and talk an afternoon, and Food without the formal dinner an early evening.
Tips for a relaxed first date
- Meet somewhere public, let a friend know where you will be, and arrange your own way there and home.
- Choose a place with a little noise and something to look at. In a silent room every pause feels longer than it is.
- Agree on a rough end time when you make the plan, so leaving on time and staying longer both feel easy.
All 100 first date ideas by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
Coffee and a little more
A drink to start, then one small thing to look at, try or play together.
- After coffee, step into a map or travel shop and each put a finger on one place you want to see.
- Stop at a music shop and ask to try the cheapest ukulele on the wall, one chord each.
- Read the posters outside an independent cinema and pick the film you would see on a second date.
- Have coffee at a train station café and choose a destination each from the departure board.
- Open this site’s first date questions over coffee and answer three cards each, taking turns.
- Take your cups through a flower market and each point out the bunch you would carry home.
- Try on hats in a department store after coffee and pick one for the other, no buying required.
- Join a free tasting at a coffee roaster and guess the flavor notes before the card gives them away.
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- Wander a fish market after coffee and find the strangest catch lying on the ice.
- Find a candy shop that sells old-fashioned sweets and each pick one you had as a kid.
- After coffee, try the pens on the sample pads at a stationery store until you each find a favorite.
- Pop into a museum gift shop without visiting the museum and each choose the best thing under five dollars.
- Get your coffee to go and do one lap of the nearest pond before you sit down.
- Bring one photo each on your phone of the best thing you saw this week, and trade the stories.
- Browse the seed library at your public library and each pick a packet to plant at home.
- Stop at a hardware store, find the strangest tool on the wall and guess its use before reading the label.
- Take two hot drinks to the benches by a skate park and cheer quietly for every trick that lands.
- Carry your cups to a playground with outdoor chimes or drums and play one tune together.
- Sit outside a café on a busy square and count how many languages you hear going by.
- Browse a plant shop after coffee and each choose the plant that would survive on your own windowsill.
Walk and talk
Side by side on foot, with enough to look at that the talk never has to carry itself.
- Walk a sculpture park and give every piece the title you think it deserves.
- Walk the main street and each choose an empty shopfront and say what you would open in it.
- Find an old photo of your downtown online and walk to the exact spot where it was taken.
- Look up where the street murals are in your town and walk a loop of them, picking a favorite wall each.
- Walk downtown looking only above the shop signs, pointing out carvings, dates and odd little windows.
- Pass by a community garden and guess what is growing in each plot before you read the signs.
- Download a free audio walking tour of your downtown and pause at every stop to talk it over.
- Make a loop of the little free libraries near you and peek inside each one.
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- Each choose a favorite spot within ten minutes on foot, then show it to the other.
- Leave the phones in your pockets and find your way with a paper map, taking turns holding it.
- Walk down the middle of the street on a car-free day, when the city hands it over to people.
- Stroll a street of small shops and step into the one with the strangest name.
- Time your walk to reach the town clock tower just as it strikes the hour.
- Enter a big park from the side neither of you knows and see where the paths lead.
- On a street one of you knows well, let the other point out three things you never noticed.
- On a rainy day, walk a big public building floor by floor, like a central library or a covered arcade.
- Hunt for the narrowest building or the shortest street in town and stand in front of it.
- Cross to the far side of the river or lake and look back at the town from there.
- Find the best-known statue in town and copy its pose for one photo each.
- Find the oldest shop still open in town and step inside to see what it sells.
Do something side by side
Activities that give you something to react to, so a quiet moment never feels long.
- Bounce for half an hour at a trampoline park, saving your energy for one big jump each at the end.
- Play a round of footgolf, kicking a soccer ball around the holes of a short course.
- Look for a dog agility trial that welcomes spectators and pick a dog to cheer through the course.
- Climb aboard a historic ship or submarine open to visitors and find the smallest bunk on board.
- Watch a birds of prey demonstration at a nature center and ask the handler one question each.
- Visit a living history village and watch the costumed staff bake, weave or shoe a horse.
- Check the feeding times at a zoo and plan your route around two of them.
- Pedal a four-wheel surrey bike along a boardwalk, one of you steering and both of you pedaling.
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- Look at a bonsai collection and guess the age of each tree before reading its label.
- Wander a rock and gem show and each pick the stone you would keep on your desk.
- Sit for a quick caricature by a street artist and see how the artist read each of you.
- Walk the rows of a free weekend car show and each pick the car you would drive across the country.
- Drive a few laps of go-karts at a family fun center and wave at each other on the straights.
- Find a hobby shop with a slot car track and run a few laps side by side.
- Get up early for a hot air balloon festival and watch the balloons fill and lift off.
- Go to a kite festival and pick the strangest kite in the sky.
- Look at sunspots through a solar telescope at an observatory’s daytime open house.
- Find an observation beehive at a nature center and see who spots the queen first.
- Take a free or low-cost factory tour, like a bakery, a candy maker or a printing press.
- Watch a model airplane club fly at their field on a weekend morning.
Food without the formal dinner
Casual, shareable food that keeps your hands busy and the bill small.
- Put your names down at a busy brunch spot and take a walk until they text you a table.
- Order noodle soup that comes with a plate of fresh herbs, and add them one at a time.
- Meet for a late breakfast at a diner, where the refills keep coming and nobody rushes you.
- Order by the pound at a barbecue counter and share the tray with a roll of paper towels.
- Eat at a place serving food from somewhere one of you has been, and let that person guide the order.
- Go for dim sum and take turns choosing from each cart that rolls past.
- Share one dish made for two, like a pan of paella or a clay pot of rice.
- Eat fish and chips or fries from the paper by the water, and guard them from the gulls.
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- Meet for a weekday lunch, which comes with its own natural end when the hour is up.
- Fill one shared plate at a lunch buffet with a spoonful of everything new to you both.
- Build bowls at a make-your-own noodle or grain bowl counter and trade a bite at the end.
- Join a public tea ceremony demonstration at a cultural center and taste the tea at the end.
- Order a basket of fries somewhere with a row of sauces and try every one of them.
- Order the same curry at two spice levels, mild and medium, and trade bites.
- Try a vegetarian spot that is new to you both and order the daily special.
- Share a dosa bigger than the plate, tearing pieces from opposite ends until you meet in the middle.
- Watch a free cooking demo at a kitchen store or market and taste whatever they make.
- Meet at a bagel shop and split one bagel with the strangest spread on the board.
- Split one oversized deli sandwich, the kind that needs both hands and a stack of napkins.
- Eat somewhere the menu is mostly in another language, and order by pointing at the pictures.
If it’s going well
Easy ways to stretch a good first date a little longer, with no big plan.
- Let the other choose a second spot nearby for dessert, then walk there together.
- Go back to the shop you both pointed at on the way in and actually step inside.
- Before you leave, scroll the ideas you saved on this page and pick the second date together.
- Walk around one more block before saying goodbye, then one more if you both still want to.
- Play this site’s this or that on one phone on a bench outside, until a pick makes you both laugh.
- Join the line at the busiest food stand you passed earlier and keep talking while you wait.
- Order a second coffee to go and keep walking until both cups are empty.
- Add another hour to the parking meter and decide together how to spend it.
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- Send each other one song on the way home, to play on the ride back.
- Each suggest one more stop within five minutes on foot, and let rock, paper, scissors choose.
- If coffee is running into noon, walk next door and turn it into lunch.
- Each name one thing in town you have never done, and do the closer one right now.
- Pick out a postcard of the place you went today and keep one each.
- If the diner has a jukebox, each choose one song for the other.
- When the café starts stacking chairs, carry the conversation to a park bench nearby.
- Try one capsule toy machine each and trade whatever comes out.
- If a fountain nearby has an evening light show, stay to watch the next one.
- If there is a free dance in the park tonight, watch from the edge and join in for one song.
- Drop a coin in a viewpoint telescope and take turns finding things for the other to spot.
- Swap one recommendation each, like a show, a book or a place, and report back next time.
Frequently asked questions
How many first date ideas are there?
There are 100 ideas, 20 in each of five categories: coffee and a little more, walk and talk, do something side by side, food without the formal dinner, and if it’s going well. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
What is a good first date idea if you are nervous?
Choose one where you stand side by side instead of face to face, like a zoo, a walk past street murals or a stroll through a flower market. Keep it to an hour or so, and add more only if you both want to.
What should we talk about on a first date?
Let the activity start the talk, then reach for first date questions in the quieter moments. They are light, easy to answer and fine to skip.
How much does a first date cost?
Most of these cost about as much as a coffee or a shared plate, and many of the walks are free. A few, like go-karts or a trampoline park, cost more, so check prices before you suggest one.