Picnic Date Ideas
Where to go, what to pack and what to do on the blanket, one idea at a time.
- Time
- An hour to an afternoon
- Players
- Two people
- Best for
- Warm weekends from spring to early fall
- Deck
- 100 ideas in 5 categories
How to use these picnic 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 plan a picnic date
A picnic turns any patch of grass into a date with no reservation and no closing time. These ideas cover the place, the food and the slow hour after you eat.
The first warm weekend
Where to spread the blanket and What goes in the basket, while the grass is fresh and the parks are still quiet.
A long summer evening
A themed picnic after work, with dinner on the blanket and light that lasts past eight.
A forecast that turns
Picnics in unlikely places move the basket under a roof or indoors, so a gray sky changes the spot and not the date.
Ways to use these picnic ideas
Three cards, one plan
Draw a place, a menu and something to do on the blanket. Put the three together and the picnic is planned.
Split the planning
One of you chooses the spot, the other packs the basket, and neither asks about the other half until you get there.
A new spot every month
Work through Where to spread the blanket from April to September, one card a month, and keep the ones worth repeating.
Tips for a good picnic date
- Damp grass soaks through a thin blanket fast. Lay an old shower curtain or a tarp underneath.
- Keep cold food in a small cooler with ice packs, and eat the creamy dishes first.
- Pack wet wipes, a knife and a cutting board before anything else; the rest can be improvised.
All 100 picnic 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.
Where to spread the blanket
Parks, shores, hills and quiet corners worth carrying a basket to.
- Spread the blanket under the biggest tree in the nearest park and stay until the shade moves off you.
- Find a small river beach of sand or pebbles and eat with your toes almost in the water.
- Picnic in a botanical garden that allows it, right beside whichever flower bed is in fullest bloom that week.
- Go to the beach in the late afternoon, when the crowds pack up, and eat with your backs against a dune.
- Climb a grassy hill at the edge of town and eat facing the side with the longest view.
- Find a meadow about twenty minutes from a trailhead and unpack where the trail opens into the light.
- Sit close enough to a waterfall to hear it, and far enough back to keep the sandwiches dry.
- Find a footpath beside a farm field and picnic where you can watch the cows or the harvest.
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- Pick berries at a farm that welcomes picnics and eat your own harvest as dessert on the grass.
- Duck under a weeping willow and picnic inside the curtain of its branches.
- Lay the blanket in a pine forest clearing, on needles that smell better than any candle.
- Spread out at the top of a sledding hill in summer, when the whole slope is soft grass.
- Take the basket to a pond with ducks, plus a handful of oats or peas for them instead of bread.
- Claim a patch of grass in a busy city square at lunch hour and picnic in the middle of the bustle.
- Ride bikes to a park too far to walk to, with the basket strapped on the back.
- Follow a canal towpath until you find an empty bank, then unpack right there.
- Take turns choosing: one of you picks the park, the other picks the exact square of grass.
- Picnic on the grass near a lighthouse and stay until its light starts turning at dusk.
- Spread out on a wooden dock at a quiet lake and eat with your feet hanging over the edge.
- Picnic in an arboretum under a tree that comes from a country neither of you has visited.
What goes in the basket
Full menus that travel well, from a cupboard lunch to a weekend feast.
- Pack the classic: egg salad sandwiches, a bowl of strawberries, potato chips and a jar of iced tea.
- Bring a picnic of foods on sticks: fruit skewers, tomato and mozzarella skewers, chicken satay and peanut dip.
- Make a picnic of jars: layered salads, overnight oats and yogurt parfaits, each with its own lid and spoon.
- Fill two bento boxes with rice balls, pickled vegetables, sliced omelet and fruit, one compartment per food.
- On a hot day, pack cold sesame noodles, edamame and sliced mango in a cooler with two pairs of chopsticks.
- Bring a build-your-own wrap kit: tortillas, hummus, grilled vegetables, feta and herbs in separate tubs.
- Bake hand pies or empanadas the night before. They travel well and taste just as good cold.
- Pack a breakfast picnic: warm croissants wrapped in a towel, jam, yogurt and a thermos of coffee.
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- Make it dessert only: a whole pie, a box of cookies, berries and a chilled jar of whipped cream.
- Bring cold fried chicken, coleslaw, cornbread and a big jar of homemade lemonade.
- Pack a mezze spread: pita, hummus, tabbouleh, olives, stuffed grape leaves and a bag of dates.
- Press a big layered sandwich under a heavy pan overnight, then slice it into wedges at the park.
- Go nearly free with what is in the cupboard: peanut butter sandwiches, popcorn, apple wedges and water with lemon.
- Choose a park with public grills and bring veggie burgers, corn in the husk and a bag of buns.
- Pack the picnic a grandparent might have made: potato salad, pickles, ham rolls and a tin of homemade cookies.
- Bake a quiche or frittata the night before and serve it in cold slices with a green salad.
- Blend watermelon and lime into agua fresca, carry it in a jug with ice and pair it with foil-wrapped tacos.
- Pick up dumplings or bao to go on the way and eat them on the blanket while they are still steaming.
- Pack everything that crunches: radishes, snap peas, rice crackers, apple chips and a tub of dip.
- Bake a sheet-pan pizza at noon, cut it into squares and wrap it in foil to eat warm at the park.
Things to do on the blanket
Games and small pastimes for when the food is out and nobody is in a hurry.
- Open most likely to on this site and play between bites, pointing at each other for every answer.
- Prop the phone against the basket and play a round of never have I ever from this site.
- Draw the picnic spread as a still life before anyone is allowed to take a bite.
- Bring a slim book of poems and read one aloud each time someone reaches for more food.
- Make daisy chains or clover crowns and wear them for the rest of the afternoon.
- Pack a travel board game, like checkers or backgammon, and play a game between courses.
- Write postcards to three friends on the blanket and drop them in the first mailbox on the way home.
- Take turns telling a story that has to include every food left in the basket.
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- Bring a ukulele or a harmonica and learn one easy song together before the food runs out.
- Play cat’s cradle with a loop of string and try to remember the figures from school.
- Take turns lying with your eyes closed while the other describes everything happening in the park.
- Search the grass for a four-leaf clover together, and give yourselves until the food is gone.
- Make a list of the next ten places you want to picnic and choose the next one before you leave.
- Teach each other a hand-clapping rhyme from the playground and get it up to full speed.
- Bring a book of riddles and trade them across the blanket, with one hint allowed per riddle.
- Play I spy with everything you can see from the blanket, from passing dogs to the farthest tree.
- Split the weekend paper by sections and read the best bits aloud to each other.
- Start a picnic logbook and write down the date, the place and the menu every time you go.
- Narrate the ants and birds around you like a nature documentary, two minutes each.
- Eat watermelon wedges and see how far each of you can send a seed, cheering for every one.
Themed picnics
One idea sets the menu, the music and what you wear.
- Hold a hanami picnic, the Japanese custom of eating under cherry trees while they are in blossom.
- Pack the foods from a children’s book you both loved and read that page aloud on the blanket.
- Recreate your school lunchboxes, down to the juice box, and trade items like you did in the cafeteria.
- Copy the picnic scene from a film you both love, from the blanket to the menu.
- Go miniature: tiny sandwiches, mini muffins, quail eggs and grapes cut in half, all bite-sized.
- Each bring only foods that start with the first letter of the other’s name.
- Hold a medieval feast on the grass: drumsticks, crusty bread, no forks and grand titles for each other.
- Set a fancy picnic with a white tablecloth, cloth napkins, real plates and cups, and three courses from the basket.
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- Have a cream tea outdoors: scones, jam, clotted cream and tea poured from a thermos into real teacups.
- Pack foods from a trip you took together and bring a few printed photos from it to pass around.
- Pick a dress code, like all white or all stripes, and match the blanket and napkins to it.
- Celebrate a half-birthday with half a cake, one candle and paper hats cut in half.
- Throw a spy picnic: agree on a password, arrive separately and find each other by a secret sign.
- Go Paris-style with a baguette torn by hand, soft cheese, ham, ripe peaches and a striped shirt each.
- Build the menu around one star ingredient, like lemons or tomatoes, from the main dish to dessert.
- Hold a midsummer picnic on the longest day of the year and stay until the very last light.
- Call a picnic on the first warm afternoon of spring, whatever day of the week it falls on.
- Plan a surprise picnic for the other and tell them only which shoes to wear.
- Buy an old basket, two odd plates and a tablecloth at a thrift store, then use them the same day.
- Have a midnight feast by flashlight with the snacks you were never allowed after bedtime as kids.
Picnics in unlikely places
Rooftops, car trunks, snowbanks, bathtubs and the living-room floor.
- Spread the blanket at the back of the lawn at a free outdoor concert, where there is room to stretch out.
- Picnic on a rooftop terrace your building or a friend’s building lets you use, with the skyline as the view.
- Drive to a lookout, open the trunk and picnic on its edge facing the view.
- Have a snow picnic: a tarp under the blanket, hot dumplings in a lunch jar and mittens on.
- Fill a dry bathtub with pillows, climb in together and eat the whole picnic there.
- Paddle a canoe to the middle of a calm lake and eat lunch from a dry bag, life jackets on.
- Turn a road trip rest stop into a proper picnic, tablecloth spread over the concrete table.
- Wait out a summer shower in a park gazebo or bandstand and picnic to the sound of rain on the roof.
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- Find a public viewing spot near an airport and picnic while the planes come in to land.
- Show up at the other’s lunch break with a basket and picnic on the nearest patch of grass.
- Find a museum with a public courtyard and picnic beside its fountain on a free afternoon.
- Picnic on the bleachers of an empty sports field on a quiet weekday evening.
- Next time the power goes out, spread a blanket by candlelight and eat what the fridge needs used first.
- Turn laundry day into a picnic, with snacks on the bench while the machines spin.
- Picnic on the bare floor of a new home before any of the furniture arrives.
- Pack a proper picnic for a long train ride and unwrap it as the fields go by.
- Picnic on a backyard trampoline, bouncing only between courses.
- If you have a community garden plot, picnic on the path between the rows of vegetables.
- Spread the blanket on your own front lawn and wave to every neighbor who walks past.
- Hop across stones to a big flat boulder in a shallow creek and picnic on top of it.
Frequently asked questions
How many picnic date ideas are there?
There are 100 ideas, 20 in each of five categories: where to spread the blanket, what goes in the basket, things to do on the blanket, themed picnics, and picnics in unlikely places. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
What do you need to bring on a picnic date?
A blanket, water, napkins, a bag for trash and some shade if the day is hot. Each card in What goes in the basket is a full menu, so the food is already planned.
Is a picnic a cheap date?
It can cost almost nothing. Several menus come straight from the cupboard and most of the places are free parks and shores. For more low-cost plans, see cheap date ideas.
Can you have a picnic date in winter?
Yes, with a tarp under the blanket and hot food packed in a lunch jar. One card is a snow picnic, and several unlikely places are indoors. For more cold-weather plans, see winter date ideas.