Whether you are on your first date or you and your significant other do regular date nights, we all need a change to the routine. The old standby of dinner and movie is just that, the old stand-by. Sometimes you need to think out of the box. I have you covered.

Here are 11 Unique Date Ideas that are sure to keep it interesting.

11. Museum Date Night

Many of us remember the scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where Ferris and his girlfriend, Sloane, decide to skip school for some fun. They end up at the Chicago Museum of Art and walk around looking at the exhibits and generally being goofy.

Why not recreate that event.

Even with Covid safe distancing protocol in effect, many museums are still open to the public. Head on over and check out the free exhibits, take your pictures with the statues, and just have fun together. This one is great for the budget, too.

10. Couples Crafting Challenge

This is one that Karl and I have done on occasion. It’s simple to put together and, on a budget, works great too.

Decide on a craft that the two of you can do together, something like, painting, sculpting, or whatever comes to mind. Heck, take turns painting yourselves.  You could pick a theme for your challenge or let your imaginations guide you.

I would suggest that if you go for body painting, put down a cheap white sheet first. It severs a two-fold purpose. One, it prevents any accidental spilling of paint onto your floors. And two, it gives you a canvas to use all the paints you have covered each other with.

If you take the less naked route and opt for painting on a real canvas or some other craft idea, show each other what you painted. It gives you memories you can talk about later.

9. Visit An Escape Room

This one is good for seeing how well you can work together. I’m sure we all know how these little events work. You show up at the place, they lock you in a themed room, and you have to use clues to figure out how to get out of the room. Usually this one a predetermined amount of time.

The goal here is to work together to solve the problem, a thing that some people have a hard time doing. Remember that it is all for fun.

Living in the Cleveland area, there are many options, as I am sure there are in other parts of the country or world. One of the larger ones is Escapology, in Mentor, Ohio. They have several different events you can choose from.

One warning, their events are a party of six, so grab two other couples you know and make it a night.

8. Virtual Dinner Date Roulette

Were you and your dating planning something but had to cancel because of how the pandemic is causing restrictions? Maybe one of you ended up getting sick and the other didn’t. Your date doesn’t have to be canceled because of it.

Plan a Virtual Dinner Date using Zoom.

This sounds a little odd but if it’s the first date, it does give you a little security. Set up your virtual date on whatever platform you prefer or even FaceTime. You log into your food delivery service and choose a dinner for them and they do likewise for you. You could even send a bottle of wine to them.

Once the dinner arrives, you both get to watch how one another unbox their food and have your date.

7. Virtual Vacation

While we are on the subject of virtual dates, why not take it a different way.

The world is pretty much on lockdown. We cant take vacations as we did two years ago and that can make it difficult to have a fun date night, too. Why not put technology to good use.

You can plan your own virtual vacation.

We all have those wonderful smart TVs for streaming all our shows but they also make one heck of a monitor. Are there places that you both have wanted to go to? Have you wanted to see their childhood home town? Maybe you have thought about what it would be like to travel to space.

Good news, that all works with your living room tech easily

Just pull up Google Maps and enter your favorite locations. You could visit the Great Barrier Reef, the HIghlands of Scotland, or even visits the International Space Station. Best of all, you both get to do it in your PJs.

6. Visit A Park or Playground

Nothing takes the edge off of a date like reliving your childhood. This gives us a chance to just let go and be ourselves. Shed the trappings of being an adult and have fun.

And what’s not to like about a playground? Swings, slides, and teeter-totters, all the fun you can have for free.

Just stop and think about how you felt, as a kid, when you sat down in the swing and just pushed off that first time. Watching the world ebb and flow as you move. Your feet going higher. And best of all, your best friend beside you. These are precious memories and ones we can create without partners.

5. Progressive Dinner Date

If you aren’t familiar with the term, a progressive dinner is where you start at one restaurant and order one course and then move on to another.

This becomes an amazing way for you both to share places or types of food you love. You can start at one place for a cocktail, then move to a restaurant where one of you chooses the first course. The next stop is chosen by a different person.

It is a great way to learn the likes and dislikes of that special someone. It is also an even better way to experience things through their senses. You can make it a many or as few as you would like. The goal would be small plates or sampling, just not a full meal at each one.

4. Take A Walking City Tour

Whether it be the city you both live in or someplace you have picked at random, a walking tour can have a multitude of benefits. It allows you some time together, in the company of other people, and learning things you might not have known about the city. Plus, you are out on a walk together.

An added benefit of walking tours is that they let you see the city in a way that you normally wouldn’t and to find new places you both may want to visit. You get to see shops and restaurants that you may normally drive by without notice. You are meeting new people who could be a part of your circle of friends. And you both are learning something new, together.

3. Work On A Puzzle Together

You may be thinking that this one sounds a bit off for a date. A puzzle offers some unique challenges that you don’t get to experience as easily. Puzzles are a good and inexpensive way to build your relationship

A puzzle requires you to visualize a goal that you both can work on together. It requires dealing with small pieces that fit together to make a larger, whole. Teaching you how to work together to accomplish the desired end result.

Who knew that puzzles could teach us so much about working together as a couple. Just remember to keep the competitiveness out of it and enjoy the time working together.

2. Take Unique Day Trip

When most people think about planning dates, it always revolves around local places, things you know. That can be fun but eventually, you start to run out of places and things to do. That is where a day trip out of the area can help. Atlas Obscura can be a great place to start.

If you aren’t familiar with Atlas Obscura, it is a site that catalogs weird and interesting things in many cities across the United States. It is a great place to find things you may not have known about. They call themselves “the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders.”

You could visit the Magowan’s Infinite Mirror Maze in San Francisco. This is just one of over 8000 unique places you could visit together.

1. Go Back To Where It All Began

Whether this is your second date or you are celebrating your tenth anniversary, this can be a good way to remember the things that brought you together. Whether it be the first place you met or your first date. It is all about reminiscing.

What happens if that place doesn’t exist anymore? No worries, you can still visit where it was and talk about that particular moment in history. Relive it in your mind before heading out to a nice dinner. You may get lucky and the spot where you met is now a park and you can do a picnic date there.

Walking down memory lane can have a positive impact on re-cementing the bonds you both share. It can also show the person that you remember the little details that made you both fall in love with one another. This works especially well if you often have a hard time remembering events from your time together.

Why It’s Important

We all focus on trying to impress someone on our dates. You want to appear polished and proper, you don’t want them to know you may have bad habits just under the surface. So you struggle to impress

We forget that we all have those dents and dings. Being all buttoned up can have a different effect on the date than intended. Plus it shouldn’t be about how much money you can spend to impress a person. It is better to focus on a connection with someone. To have that person who will be there with you, having fun for the rest of your lives.

So get out there and have Unique Dates, you won’t be sorry.