Looking for some Free Date Ideas? We’ve come up with some great Date Ideas you can do to save money and still have some quality time together.
Dating is an important part of any relationship…especially if you’ve been together for a long time. It’s crucial to have quality time together as much as possible, and we always recommend couples try to shoot for a date night once a week.
But, dating can also get expensive depending on what you do each week. So we like to mix in different types of dates and we do lots of free dates throughout the year to help keep our budget in tact.
Free Date Ideas
Go On A Hike
Hiking is a perfect Free Date Idea to add to your list. Whether you find local trails around your town that you’ve never tried, or do some more famous hikes around your area, like hiking mountains, hiking around the beach or lakes, there’s sure to be some great destinations for you to explore together.
Couple’s Game Night
Couple’s Game Night is one of our favorite Free Date Ideas. You can do this with just the two of you, or you can invite some of your favorite couples to join.
This is a great free idea since you get to use the games you already own, and if you don’t own any games, you can find free games online that you can use. We discovered Amazon’s Alexa has free Escape Room Games you can play too! Talk about perfect free date ideas.
Breakfast In Bed
You probably have breakfast every morning, so why not make it a special and romantic date and have breakfast in bed together. Either surprise your spouse with a breakfast date in bed before they wake up, or make breakfast together and then climb back into bed and have a romantic lazy morning together.
Fort Sleep Over
One of the best parts about being married, is that you have a sleep over buddy every night! Turn your sleepovers into a childhood sleepover complete with a fort, junk food, and movies all night long.
Build a fort in your living room, and blow up your air mattress, or bring your mattress in for a “real sleepover” in the living room to mix things up!
Or try this backyard tent date!
Start A New Hobby
A cool thing about relationships is that you are two separate people with your similarities and differences. You both probably have your own hobbies, and they may be completely different from each other.
Why not start a new hobby for couples and spend even more time together enjoying your new hobby.
Art Night
Time to bring out your creative side and have an art night together. You can do this by painting a fun couples painting together, drawing portraits, doing a pottery date, or any other type of art you think you both will enjoy for your artistic date night.
You can find great tutorials that walk you through how to paint a specific picture together online like our couples painting date.
Build A Snowman
If it’s snowing outside, instead of complaining theres more snow, enjoy it like you use to when you were kids. Go build a snowman together, make snow angels and have fun with some of these awesome Winter Date Ideas.
Free Museum Days
Did you know lots of museums host free days? You can check out your home museums webpage and see which days these are, and head there on a free admission day.
Lots of museums don’t even charge admission and are free all year round as well, like all the National Museums in Washington D.C., so be sure to research some of those in your area.
Learn A New Language For Free Date Ideas
Now days, you can pretty much learn whatever you want for free online with sites like YouTube and Google Search. Why not learn a new language together? If you’re traveling somewhere out of the country where they don’t speak English, start learning some phrases from that language that you can use when you’re traveling.
Or maybe choose a language that will benefit you where you live, or with a job you have. Pick a language together and start learning each week.
Free Movie Night At Home
Movie nights at home are perfect, since you get to sit on your cozy couch and snuggle up together in your PJ’s.
For this free date night, you can record your favorite movies that are playing on TV, play movies you already own, or even head to the library to rent free movies from there.
You can even sign up for the newsletter from Redbox, and they send free movie codes every once in a while each month.
A movie date is always a good idea!
Coloring Day
Adult Coloring Books are the relaxing things to do these days. Grab your partner and have a coloring night together. While you’re distressing and enjoying some creativity, you can chat about fun topics and just enjoy each others company.
Window Shop
Need to get out of the house but don’t really want to spend money? Go window shopping. Walk hand in hand around the mall, or through your downtown area and check out all the window displays.
Talk about what you would buy if you had a million dollars, or a thousand dollar shopping spree to each store.
Play 20 Questions For A Free Date
A great game to play that helps you get to know each other better is 20 Questions. Each of you comes up with 20 random questions and the other one answers.
This is even a great game for married couples as sometimes your spouse may surprise you with their answer to some of the off-wall questions they have for you.
Everyone changes a little bit each year, and it’s important to always be learning more about one another.
Community Events
Does your community host events throughout the year? We see events come every season. And they’re typically free to go to.
Check out local farmers markets, Christmas in the Park, 4th of July Parades, etc. We’re sure theres some kind of event going on in your town or a town near you that you’ve never even heard of. This could give you lots of free date ideas throughout the year.
Movie In The Park
Want a creative date you may never have done before? Have your own movie in the park! Take blankets and pillows, some snacks and your laptop and play a movie while you’re hanging out in the sunshine. Use a headphone splitter so you can both have your own set and enjoy a different more creative date.
Go Swimming
If you live by a lake, river, or near the ocean, take a swim! Relax on the shore, take a dip, and enjoy the water. If you don’t live near any body of water, head out to your local pool and take a swim. There are local pools available in many towns where you can go for a dip. Or check out local hotels and gyms where you may be allowed to swim in.
Fun Free Dates
Do A Workout
Find a fun workout on YouTube that you can both do together in your living room. Or dust off those old workout movies and try one out for fun. Get that heart rate going and feel better working out together.
Nerf Gun War
If you have nerf guns around the house, bring them out for a full on nerf gun war. Set some rules, make up a game, and may the best (wo)man win!
Watch Your Favorite Movies
Movie night is always a great go to. And it’s a free way to spend some quality time with each other. Take an evening to watch both of your favorite movies back to back. (Or you can do back to back evenings if that works better). Flip a coin to see which movie you’ll watch first, and don’t forget the snacks.
Be Tourists
Play tourists for the day. Whether you do it in your own town, or drive to the next town over, you can enjoy the day exploring parts you’ve never experienced before. Even towns you have grew up in can have some random historical spots, museums, and different stores you’ve never been to. Spend the day walking around and finding new things around you.
Truth or Dare For A Free Date Night Idea
Play truth or dare together! This is another fun way to get to know what the other will say when given crazy questions, and having fun watching them do your dare.
You can play this at home, or out in public depending on what type of date you are looking for.
Try a game of truth or drink or do or drink for couples to mix it up!
Or mix it up with a game of Never Have I Ever, or these put a finger down questions.
Play Catch
Playing catch together is a fun and free activity you can do. Grab a baseball and a pair of gloves or a football and head outside to chat and throw the ball to each other. You can even head to the park or the beach to get out of the house and spend some time together in a different place.
You can grab a frisbee too!
Enjoy A Day In The Park
The park is a great place to have a date. You can bring a lunch and have a picnic, bring a blanket and a book to read together, or bring some food to feed the ducks.
Walk around the park hand in hand, play catch, ride bikes…there’s so much you can do for your day at the park. This can be multiple free date ideas in one!
Volunteer
Giving back is always very rewarding, and doing it together is a great way to bond. Find charities, churches, or organizations in your town that could use some extra helping hands.
Serve the homeless food at the shelter, help pick up trash on the beach, pull weeds around your church, or help with the toy drive during Christmas.
No matter what you choose, it will be a good day being able to help out your community.
Binge Watch A Show
If you have a Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, or any other streaming service, pick a day or several evenings together to binge watch a new show.
Find something you will both enjoy together and get started. No watching an episode without the other person! (It’s the golden rule of Netflix!)
Check out our list of TV Shows for Couples to Binge Together.
Cook Together
Yes, you make dinner every night and it doesn’t seem like its a fun task. But what about cooking together? We have found it’s a lot more fun cooking dinner when we do it together.
Especially if we are making something new. Find a fun recipe you’d love to try and make dinner together.
Don’t forget the music and dancing in the kitchen while you work.
Or try a free cooking class from YouTube.
Spa Night
Turn your house into your new favorite spa for an at home spa date. Turn on some relaxing music, get dressed in your robes or PJ’s and enjoy a romantic night with candle light.
Give each other a full body massage, take a hot bath, or jump in your hot tub, and maybe even do some face masks or manicures.
Fancy Dinner At Home Free Date Night
Turn dinner at home into a fancy date night by dressing up together. Set the table with your nice dishes, light some candles, and cook your favorite meal. Surprise him with pizza and beer all laid out in a fancy way.
Ride Your Bikes
Time to dust off those bikes and put them to good use for this free date idea. Don’t have your own bikes? Borrow some from your friends or neighbors. Take a long bike ride through town, through the park, and on some bike paths around your city.
Go Sing Karaoke
For those of you who love to sing, find a karaoke night that’s going on at a place near you. Most places don’t have a cover and you can just go sit and listen in and then jump up to sing when you’re ready.
Go To An Open Mic Night
Open mic nights can be filled with interesting acts. From comedy to poetry readings, an open mic night is just how it sounds. The mic is open for anyone wanting to jump on. This can be a fun date as you go listen to all the different types get on the mic and share their own version of art.
Escape Room With Alexa
We were so excited when we learned that you can play Escape Rooms with Amazon’s Alexa! You can activate these free games on your account, and do Escape Rooms at home while you work together to solve the mystery. Free Date Ideas at it’s finest!
Go Star-Gazing
On a nice clear night, grab some blankets and pillows and lay outside on the ground to watch the stars. A stargazing date is so romantic!
You can even drive somewhere out of the city to get away from all the light pollution. If you have a truck, you can lay in the truck bed for this date and create your own star gazing room.
Try Geo-Cashing
Geo-cashing is actually still a thing! We tried it a couple times years ago, but its a fun way to enjoy some time outside of the house together.
You can google good geo-cashing sites in your area, but basically it’s a scavenger hunt around town, where other people can hide treasures for you to find.
Typically, you can take pictures of the item and then put it back for others to find.
5-Year Plan
Dream big together and come up with your 5-Year plan. You may think 5 years is a long time, but it goes by so fast.
Having a good plan together can help you make sure you are accomplishing your dreams and goals without wasting time.
Sometimes if you don’t figure out a plan, you’ll realize 5 years has come and gone, and you didn’t do anything you think you should have in that time.
Sit down one night and talk about all the things you want to accomplish in 5 years and set a plan to reach those goals together.
Dancing Date
Go out dancing together. Find a line dancing night, salsa dancing, or swing dancing.
There are lots of bars, restaurants and clubs who host dancing nights throughout the week. Head out to one and get your groove on.
Don’t want to dance in public? Dance at home!
Babysit Someones Kids
Offer to babysit someone else’s kids for an evening. If you don’t have kids of your own, this is a fun way to see how you do together and learn some things about having kids.
If you do have your own kids, this is a great way to make a play date for your kids, but can also give you a chance to swap nights and get a babysitter of your own.
Do A Puzzle
Each year at Christmas time, we do a puzzle together. It’s actually part of our Family Christmas Traditions.
And its something I look forward to every year, because it give my husband and I something new to do, and it’s always a peaceful and enjoyable time together.
It gives us a chance to sit down at the table together and chat, listen to music, and enjoy solving something together.
Walk Around Town At Night
Take a walk together at night. Around your neighborhood, or around your downtown area.
Enjoy the lights, the quiet, the sounds. We like doing this in any season.
Summer is great to enjoy more of a cool night after a hot day, and winter is fun to get ask bundled up and breathe in the fresh air.
Walk Down Memory Lane
Have a night where you both sit down together and go through your old photo books and pictures.
No days, its more scrolling through your phones or hard drives, but if you don’t have any physical books with photos, sit down together and make them.
We do one every year of the year we had, and include all of our favorite memories from that year.
Go To A Farmer’s Market
Walking around a farmers market, there’s always something fun to see. Check out all the booths of the crafts people make, sample the honeys and jams, and look at all the different fruits and veggies to find some you’ve never had before.
Make A Bucket List
Another fun one that we love is making a couples bucket list together. You can make a bucket list for each season, like a winter bucket list for couples, a yearly bucket list, or do a bucket list you can build on each year.
Think about travel, activities you want to try, places you want to go, things you want to experience, etc.
Outdoor Movie
See if your town hosts outdoor movies in the park during the summer that you can go to.
We’ve been to movies in the park, and movies at the beach that were free to attend.
Or, take your movie outside at home. Plug in your laptop, and use your projector if you have one, and enjoy a movie under the stars. It’s like making your own drive in movie date together!
Play Tennis At The Park
Lots of parks have tennis courts you can play at for free. Take your rackets and a few tennis balls and go have your own tournaments. If you don’t have your own tennis equipment, borrow some from your friends or family who do.
Tennis is such a fun sport for couples to play!
Build A Bon Fire For a Free Date Idea
Sitting around a bon fire together is always so romantic to me. It’s so fun to have a fire while you’re camping, making s’mores, or cuddling up in your backyard staying cozy by your fire pit.
It’s a great date to do in any season, since it will keep you warm in the winter, and on cool summer nights…and you can make s’mores too!
Have A Photo Shoot
When is the last time you got out and had some real photos done of the two of you…that wasn’t a selfie? Bust out your camera and learn to set a timer…set it up on a tripod and shoot some photos together.
You can do this at home, or outside somewhere else. Or you can even grab a friend to shoot some photos of you, and swap so they can get some photos too. Free Date Ideas for everyone!
Watch The Sunrise/Sunset
I personally prefer the sunset, maybe because we’re from the west coast! But if you’re a morning person who likes to get up before the sun, go enjoy the sunrise together.
On a weekend when you’re both home at the same time, take the time to go catch the sunset before the night comes.
Bonus points if you go somewhere with a beautiful view of each. Even more fun? Catch one of each on the same day!
Go For A Run For Free Date Ideas
If you are runners, try going for a run together. Even if one of you isn’t, it’s always fun to try something new together to see if you enjoy it. Just take it slow and find a pretty path where you’ll be able to see some nature on your way.
Camping Date
Go camping! It doesn’t even have to be for a long time, but go out and camp for the night.
Even if it ends up being in your backyard. This helps you get out of a routine and lets you do something new together. Try some of these couple camping ideas.
If you love the outdoors, you’ll probably want to adopt this date idea more. Fun free date ideas from this one!
Fishing
Have a fun day fishing together. If you have a fishing license for the year, this is a free date…but if you don’t, there are free fishing days in some states on certain days of the year, where you can fish without a license. Go catch your own dinner or catch and release.
Such a fun outdoor date!
Go To An Art Show
Art openings tend to be free, and its a good way to go find something you don’t typically see.
Enjoy an art gala and find the artist to chat with. Walk around and come up with fun conversations about each piece you see in the gallery.
Do A House Project That’s On Your List
Plan a date that gives you quality time together AND helps you cross a to-do off your list.
Have you been wanting to paint a room for a while? Maybe you’ve wanted to move the furniture around in your living room, or build a shelf to go in your bedroom?
Find something you can both do together and mark a house project off your list.
Dating doesn’t have to be expensive! With all these free date ideas, you can enjoy free dates all year ‘round. Find some of your favorites from the list and get started. Even pick a few you aren’t sure about and try them out. You never know if you’ll find your new favorite activity to do together. Get out of your comfort zone and start mixing things up!
Sara, a seasoned expert in wedding planning and date ideas, brings a wealth of experience to our couples blog. With a background in the television industry and hands-on involvement in a dozen weddings, including working as a wedding assistant on "My Fair Wedding with David Tutera," Sara has an innate understanding of the magic that makes weddings truly special. Growing up with four sisters has given her unique insights into the dating world, making her a go-to source for practical and heartfelt dating advice. Her knowledge and enthusiasm make her the perfect guide for couples seeking to infuse their relationships with creativity and love.