Weekend Getaway Ideas for Couples
Where to go, how to get there and what to bring home, one idea at a time.
- Time
- Two days and one or two nights
- Players
- Two people
- Best for
- A free weekend after a busy stretch
- Deck
- 100 ideas in 5 categories
How to use these weekend getaway 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 weekend getaway
Two days in a new place does what a month of evenings at home cannot: new streets, a different bed and nothing on the to-do list. The cards cover the whole trip, from choosing the town to the drive home.
After a long run of busy weeks
Kinds of places to go and Plan it together, for when you both need a change of scene but neither has the energy to research one.
A long drive ahead
On the way there turns the hours in the car or on the train into the first part of the trip, not the price of it.
A trip you want to remember
Once you arrive and Make the weekend memorable, for small habits and keepsakes that outlast the weekend.
Ways to use these getaway ideas
One card from every category
Draw a card from each of the five categories and you have a whole trip: a place, a way to plan it, the drive, one thing to do and a keepsake.
Save all week, choose on Friday
Each of you saves the cards you like on your own phone during the week. On Friday night, read your saved cards to each other and pick the trip from both lists.
Keep one ritual for every trip
Choose one card from Make the weekend memorable and repeat it on every getaway. After a few trips it is a tradition, not just an idea.
Tips for a good weekend away
- Keep the trip to about three hours each way. Any farther and the travel starts to eat the weekend.
- Small towns change with the seasons. Check what is open before you book, since some places close for winter or open only on weekends.
- Plan less than feels right. One thing each day and an empty afternoon is usually plenty for two nights.
All 100 weekend getaway ideas for couples 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.
Kinds of places to go
Lake towns, farm stays, hot springs and cities you have never seen.
- Rent a cottage in a lake town in the off-season, when the beaches are empty.
- Book two nights at a farm stay and help with the morning chores before breakfast.
- Visit a small college town during the summer break, when the streets are quiet and rooms cost less.
- Book a room facing the ocean in storm season and watch the waves roll in from the window.
- Go to a desert town in spring, when the wildflowers are out and the nights turn cold.
- Find a hot springs town and soak in the public pools once in the morning and once at night.
- Choose a city a few hours away that neither of you knows, and stay in its oldest neighborhood.
- Rent a cabin inside a state park, so the trails start right at your front door.
Show all 20 in Kinds of places to goShow fewer
- Time your trip to a small town’s yearly festival, like a strawberry fair or a kite day, and stay the night.
- Look for a room above a bakery or café, so breakfast is one staircase away.
- Pick a town on a river and build the weekend around the water: a morning paddle, an afternoon on the bank.
- Stay in an old railroad or mining town and spend an hour in its small history museum.
- Head to a beach town where you can rent bikes and leave the car parked all weekend.
- Swap homes for a weekend with friends a few hours away, each leaving a list of local favorites.
- Take a private room at a hostel in a city you want to see, and put the savings toward one great dinner.
- Try camping the comfortable way, in a yurt or a canvas tent with a real bed inside.
- Rent a camper van for two nights and sleep at a different campground each night.
- Choose a fishing harbor town and get up early to watch the boats come in with the catch.
- Pick a town known for one food, like peaches or barbecue, and try it everywhere that serves it.
- When the city is sweltering, drive up into the hills and sleep with the windows open to the cool air.
Plan it together
Ways to choose the place and shape the weekend as a team.
- Draw a two-hour circle around home on a paper map, close your eyes and point. Go wherever your finger lands.
- Split the planning: one of you plans Saturday, the other plans Sunday, and each day stays a secret until it starts.
- Each list three things you want from the weekend, like sleep or a long hike, and make room for all six.
- Agree on a budget first, then choose the place that fits it, rather than the other way around.
- Choose one word for the weekend, like “slow” or “outdoors”, and skip anything that does not fit it.
- Book only the first night, and decide where to spend the second once you are there.
- Let the distance choose: anywhere you can reach on one tank of gas, or by one train with no changes.
- Pick the dates first, then choose the place the week before, based on wherever the forecast looks best.
Show all 20 in Plan it togetherShow fewer
- Go to the place you have driven past a dozen times on the highway and never stopped at.
- Each find one photo of a place you would love to wake up to, and go to whichever is closer.
- Each choose one must-have for the room, like a bathtub or a porch, and book a place with both.
- Leave Sunday afternoon empty on purpose, so the drive home never feels like a rush.
- Take Friday afternoon off if you can, so the getaway starts before the traffic does.
- Plan the meals instead of the sights: one breakfast out, one picnic, one dinner cooked in the rental.
- Make it a weekend of firsts: a place, a food and an activity new to both of you.
- Each rank mountains, water and a small town from one to three, add up the numbers and go with the lowest total.
- Look at the weekend after a holiday instead of the holiday itself. Rooms are often cheaper and towns quieter.
- Narrow it down to three places, cross one off each, and go to the last one standing.
- Describe your perfect Saturday morning away to each other, then plan the rest of the trip backward from it.
- Camp the first night and book a comfortable room for the second, so you get a little of both.
On the way there
Make the drive or the train ride part of the trip.
- Pick an audiobook about as long as the drive, and save the last chapter for the way home.
- Pass the phone to the passenger and play would you rather on this site until your exit comes up.
- Stop in the town with the funniest name on the route and take a photo by its welcome sign.
- Find the exact halfway point on the map and have lunch at whatever is open there.
- Leave the car at home and go by train or bus, with both of you free to watch the view.
- Set off before sunrise and eat breakfast wherever you happen to be when the sun comes up.
- Pull over at every scenic overlook sign on the way, however small the view turns out to be.
- Read every roadside history marker you pass aloud, and pick the strangest fact by the end of the drive.
Show all 20 in On the way thereShow fewer
- Give the passenger one detour to spend on the way, no questions asked.
- Keep a list of license plates from other states and see how many you collect by Sunday night.
- Listen to a podcast or a short history of the place you are heading for, so you arrive knowing a little.
- Take turns telling the story of a trip from your childhood, one for every hour on the road.
- Swap drivers every hour, and let whoever is driving choose the music.
- Make a road bingo card before you leave, with squares like a red barn, a horse and a hand-painted sign.
- Guess what each town is like from its water tower, then drive through one to see if you were right.
- Each make three predictions about the place you are heading to, and check them once you get there.
- Find the local radio station once you are in range and keep it on for the last stretch.
- Roll the windows down for the last mile and try to name the first smell of the new place.
- Stop at the oddest roadside attraction on the route, like a giant statue or a tiny museum of one thing.
- Grab a pile of free maps and leaflets at a welcome center, and plan Saturday from them over lunch.
Once you arrive
Small ways to get to know a new town in two days.
- Ask your host for the one place locals love that visitors usually miss, and go there first.
- Walk the whole town on the first evening with no destination, just to learn its shape.
- Sleep in with no alarms set and let breakfast happen whenever it happens.
- Read the local paper over breakfast and go to one thing listed in its events column.
- Spend one hour apart, each exploring on your own, then meet for coffee and trade stories.
- Leave the car parked all of Saturday and get everywhere on foot.
- Take the first coffee of each morning outside, on a porch step, a dock or a bench.
- Play whatever board game the rental left on its shelf, by whatever rules are in the box.
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- Walk to the water, the woods or the fields at the edge of town before you even unpack.
- Book a beginner class in something the area is known for, like weaving, glassmaking or fly fishing.
- Find out what the town does on a Saturday night, like a band in the square, and join in.
- Browse the general store and buy one thing you have never seen at home.
- Walk the main street at seven in the morning and watch the town wake up.
- Try the specialty of every bakery in town and choose a favorite before you leave.
- If there is a pool or a hot tub, use it at the hour when nobody else does.
- Leave the map in the room for one afternoon and find your way back by asking people.
- Buy bread, eggs and fruit from local shops and cook a slow breakfast in the rental kitchen.
- Find the ice cream stand the town is proud of and go back every evening for a new flavor.
- Find the best view in town and go back at a different time of day to see how it changes.
- Spend one evening in with takeout from a local favorite and a movie set somewhere like where you are.
Make the weekend memorable
Little rituals and keepsakes that bring the trip home with you.
- Photograph your two pairs of shoes on the ground at every getaway, and keep the pictures in one album.
- Each write a page about the day every night of the trip, and swap pages on the drive home.
- Let the first song on the radio when you arrive become the song of the trip.
- Give each getaway a name, like a chapter title, and add it to a list on the fridge.
- Hang a map at home and add a pin for every town where the two of you have spent a night.
- Bring home one local ingredient and cook with it the week after, to taste the trip again.
- Ask someone to take one photo of the two of you on the last day, and frame that one.
- Leave a long entry in the guestbook together, with one tip for the next couple who stays.
Show all 20 in Make the weekend memorableShow fewer
- Buy one fridge magnet in every getaway town, however tacky, until the fridge door is full.
- On the way home, each name one thing to keep for next time and one thing to change.
- Write the date and the town inside the cover of the book each of you read on the trip.
- Mark everywhere you went on a free town map, write six words each on the back and keep it.
- On the last evening, tell each other one thing you noticed about the other this weekend.
- Sleep with the curtains open on the last night, so you wake up to the view one more time.
- End every getaway with the same meal on the way home, like pancakes or a burger, wherever you are.
- Leave a good book on the rental’s shelf with a short note inside for whoever finds it.
- Buy one small thing made in town by someone you meet, like a mug or a print, and use it daily.
- Record a one-minute video on the last morning, each saying what you want to remember.
- Before you leave, each pick one thing you saw but did not do, and save it as the reason to come back.
- Bring home the smell of the place, like a local soap or a sprig of pine for the car.
Frequently asked questions
How many weekend getaway ideas for couples are there?
There are 100 ideas, 20 in each of five categories: kinds of places to go, plan it together, on the way there, once you arrive, and make the weekend memorable. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Does a weekend getaway have to be expensive?
No. The ideas run from a campsite, a hostel room or a home swap with friends up to one nice room with a view, and most of the planning, travel and keepsake ideas cost nothing.
Can we do these without a car?
Yes. Several ideas are built around a train or bus ride, a beach town with bike rentals or a weekend on foot, and most of the ideas for once you arrive need only walking shoes.
What if we cannot get away this weekend?
Stay home and treat it like a trip with staycation ideas for couples. For bigger trips to plan for later, see the travel ideas on the couples bucket list.