Weekly Date Nights [52+ Date Night Ideas]

Whether you’re in a relationship or hope to be in one in the future, relationships take intentionality. It can be pretty easy to move from the excitement of the relationship being new and end up in place where it becomes mundane and even stale.

Creating a weekly rhythm around having a date night with your partner or spouse can be life giving for the relationship. You get to benefit from quality time together, have an opportunity for a shared experience, can relieve some stress of the week, help you prioritize fun, and provides a chance to learn something new with each other.

During different seasons of life, the type of date night that will make the most sense for you can vary. Whether you’re on a tighter budget or have small kids at home, there’s a variety of options when it comes to a date night, but does require some creativity.

Helpful Tips

These are tips that we’ve found increase the chances of us keeping the date night as well as actually enjoying it.

Start Wherever You Are – Even if you’re not married yet, having intentional dates together is never too early to start. One of the best investments you can make is in your relationship.
Plan in advance – You can plan a month at a time or a quarter or even a season. Do what works for you.
Mix Them Up – As you’re planning, mix in some easy at home options as well as budget friendly options in with any events or those where that may take more time or money
Connect With Others – Every few weeks we may do a date night with friends. It could be to dinner or to a class. While we try to make sure we’re connecting, it can be fun to do something with others every once in a while.
Don’t Get Too Serious – This is our personal preference, but we look at date night like a time to connect but have fun with each other. While we may talk about topics that are more serious, we save our marriage check in (another rhythm) for Sundays where we do give each other feedback and have more serious conversations.
Keep The Promise – Try your best to keep the commitment you made to have an opportunity to connect with your spouse weekly. Maybe that means staying instead of going out. Maybe it looks like adjusting your budget to try to accommodate a date night. It could look like getting a baby sitter or trading services with another couple where you take turns watching each others kids. Your relationship relies on opportunities for connection so as much as you can, try to keep the rhythm.
Winter Date Nights – These can be hard. Something that’s helped us is to go through the list you’ll find below and highlight those that would be great for winter. Then we will save them for the offseason. Things like a painting or pottery class, a movie, an indoor event, bowling, an arcade, game nights, trivia, or trying a new restaurant can be great during the off season.
Long Distance – These can be even harder. And require more planning. But you can get creative to play a game online together or watch the same movie on video and talk about it. You can eat a meal together via video. Or cook together but in separate places. Again, more creativity required but doable.

Below is a list of over 52 date night ideas that are separated by those you can do at home (great for budgets and those with littles) as well as those you can go out and do. Teddy and I have done quite a few of these which I include notes on, and many others we have on our upcoming list!

Date Night Ideas

At Home

At home game night – Teddy and I keep a cabinet full of games in here and pick one to play for the evening. We may have an easy dinner made or dinner delivered.
Have a movie night – Teddy loves movies so sometimes we make a pizza or popcorn and enjoy a movie at home.
Make a fort or blow up an air mattress – We did this on Christmas Eve and blew up an air mattress and watched Christmas movies with snacks. The dogs got to hang out too.
Make a charcuterie board
Make your own pizzas
S’mores over a fire in the backyard – We love a bonfire so this is one we do often if we’re camping but enjoy doing at home as well!
Make dinner and eat outside – I love eating outside so firing up the grill or smoker and enjoying dinner at the outdoor table with some music is so peaceful.
Go on a walk around your neighborhood – We will go on the trail by our house and talk along the way. This is one where we may leave the dogs at home so we can better connect and don’t have to worry about cleaning up after the dogs.
Make your own sundae bar at home
Order food delivery – While we try not to do this regularly, sometimes a date night at home where the food is pre made is incredibly helpful.
Do a workout together
Taco or pasta bar
Take dinner together
Do a puzzle – We’ve only done a puzzle together once, but we loved it. This is something I plan to incorporate into future date nights, especially in winter
Bake a treat together
Play games in the yard like croquet or horseshoes or cornhole
Pick a chore you’d normally do separately but do it together and make it a game
Virtual escape room with friends
Take a class together online on something that interests you both
Do a DIY paint night at home
Make each other hints for an at home scavenger hunt
Play hide and seek at home
Read to each other – This may sound lame but Teddy and I have enjoyed doing this on a book we’d like to read together
Watch sunrise from the porch – If schedules don’t align to watch sunset, get up for sunrise together and enjoy coffee! Make these work for you in however make sense.

Date Nights Out

Go to a play or musical – Teddy and I have done about three of these since we started dating and have truly enjoyed them so much. Neither of us saw many shows prior but have come to really enjoy them.
Sporting event – We’ve gone to an MLB game as well as a local hockey game. Both not my normal routine so a fun change of pace.
Rodeo – We did this one over the winter months as our state Farm Show puts on a rodeo.
Museum or exhibit
Go on a walk or do a hike – We keep a list of trails we want to walk or hike which makes this easier to do when the weather is nice.
Visit a bookstore together
Go to a favorite restaurant or try a new restaurant – While we do often eat during date night, we try not to make going to dinner the thing we do each week since that itself can get boring.
Progressive dinner
Get ice cream or milkshakes – Another favorite. And budget friendly if you want to eat dinner. athome but just go out and grab ice cream.
Volunteer together
Bingo – We’re doing this one in the near future. Outside of school I’ve never played before so we will see how this goes!
Go somewhere and take photos of the town or wildlife
Go for a scenic drive – If we need to just reset, this has been a go to for us. We put on music we like and catch up in the car. I may pack some snacks or we may grab ice cream or a bit to eat wherever the road takes us.
Have a picnic by a lake
Conversation cards – We have a few packs of these and can bring them on road trips or even date nights. They can be fun or serious. Grab some on Amazon.
Pottery night – We did this one recently and both said it was a favorite thing we’ve done together!
Glass blowing date – Teddy picked out this one for us over the summer. Again, something I’d never done before but we had such a great time.
Visit the local farmers market
Go to a local event in your town or city – We did a fire and ice festival recently and got to enjoy food trucks and ice sculptures and got to see friends!
Go out on a date night and do whatever the other couple chooses
Go to a comedy show
Visit a Top Golf location
Go to a concert – We have a few of these coming up this year and have a chance to see some favorite artists. These tend to be when we will move the date night to a Friday or weekend due to the scheduling.
Go to the batting cages
Go to an escape room – Another great one to do with friends (that you’d like doing an escape room with)
Visit the casino but agree on a $ limit prior to going
Drive to a lake or breach and bring pizza
Paint night
Try your hand at archery
Go to the driving range or play mini golf – A mini golf date night followed by some ice cream is a favorite summer activity for us
Go to a trivia night and make it a double date with friends
Go axe throwing
Visit an arcade
Go bowling
Go antiquing – You can guarantee we are doing this at least once during the month if not more. Most ideal for a weekend date night
Go wine tasting – We want to do this over the summer as well and choose a night where there’s live music there.
Take a class at a local museum or garden center – This is on my list of something to do in the future. I’d love to do a class at Landis Valley or at Longwood Gardens

If you really want to get serious about date nights, print out this list. Go through and highlight which you’d like to try. Then look at your next month or quarter and pick a few to do.

If you want to take it up a notch and be even more intentional, pick about 12 and break them up seasonally. Grab your phone or a pen and piece of paper and break them up by winter, spring, summer, and fall ideas. So maybe wine tasting in the fall as well as a scenic drive to see foliage and a swing at Top Golf. For winter, add axe throwing, antiquing, bowling, a play, and a movie in theaters to the list. For spring, add a visit to the farmer’s market, a trip to a local garden show, and visiting a new restaurant with a patio. And summer could look like a walk around the lake, going to an outdoor concert venue, and getting ice cream. With that you already have a few ideas per season. Figure out what works for you and get your partner involved in the ideas (we plan our date night during our Sunday check in). Whatever you choose, remember that you can be flexible with what you choose and when. Move the day of the week if needed. Do it at home if you can’t get out. Pick some inexpensive options over spending. No matter what, I don’t think you’ll ever regret intentionally investing in a relationship with your partner.