10 Fun & Unique Date Night Ideas For Busy Couples
Are you running out of date night ideas and feeling like you need to spice things up? Or maybe you’re a super busy couple who doesn’t have a ton of time for date nights, but still wants to prioritize that intentional time together? In this blog post, we’re sharing 10 fun and unique date night ideas for busy couples to help you add some excitement and joy to your quality time together.
What Is and Isn’t Important On a Date Night?
Before we jump into the date night ideas, it’s important to think about what is and isn’t important on a date night.
What Is Important?
On a date night, it’s super important that you’re NOT distracted and you’re 100% focused on your partner. Put your phone away and make this time about you as a couple!
Make sure you have committed time to set aside to spend together, whether that’s an entire evening or just 15-20 minutes at home at the end of the day.
It’s also important that you are actually enjoying each other’s company. This should not be a stressful, rushed time, but a time to relax and just enjoy being together.
That’s it! That’s all that’s truly important on a date night. Let the rest go!
What Is NOT Important?
What’s not important on a date night is that it’s a lengthy, drawn out, planned, super romantic evening that you put a ton of time and effort into. A successful, fun date night can be super quick and easy, even just 10 minutes if that’s all you can commit to right now. This isn’t about quantity time, it’s about quality time!
What you’re doing is also not important. As long as you’re spending time together and enjoying each other’s company, that’s all that matters!
Lastly, it doesn’t matter who plans the date night. Maybe one of you plans most of the date nights and thrives in that role without holding resentment. Amazing - keep it up! If there’s no joy and that person is having some resentment that they always plan date nights, there’s a simple solution… take turns! Alternate who plans date nights.
10 Date Night Ideas
If you were to Google great date night ideas for couples, a ton would pop up. However, we’re putting our own spin on them to make them more unique and doable for busy couples!
#1: Tailgate OR Living Room Picnic
If you’re a couple with a busy schedule, a traditional picnic in a park, stargazing might not fit into your reality. However, you can grab your favourite snacks and drinks and have a super fun tailgate picnic while you’re waiting for your kids’ soccer practice or after-school events to wrap up.
If you have a bit more time while the kids are out, throw a blanket on your living room floor, make a charcuterie board, grab your favourite beverage, and have a living room picnic together. This is a quick and easy way to enjoy each other’s company and spend quality time together.
#2: Cooking Competition
Our spin on the typical at-home dinner date is to turn it into a cooking competition! Each person selects an ingredient, sets a timer for 10-15 minutes, and sees who can whip up the best dish! This is a fun, light-hearted way to add some laughter and fun to your evening.
To make it extra fun, make the ingredient something ridiculous or challenging, like eggplant, or challenge each other to make the best of your favourite dish, like a Caesar salad or a chili cook-off.
Want to make it even spicier (pun intended)? Blindfold each other while you eat so you have to really focus on your senses!
#3: DIY Spa Date
Instead of going on an expensive, lengthy spa date, create your own spa experience at home. Give each other massages by YouTubing the best couples massage techniques and grabbing some massage oil or coconut oil from the pantry. This is different, spontaneous, and makes for great conversation.
#4: Movie Night with a Twist
Skip the standard movie night experience and plan to either go to the theater or have a movie marathon at home, complete with your favourite movie snacks, themed costumes, and role-playing your favourite scenes and characters! Just imagine how hilarious this could be!
#5: Paint Party
You’ve probably heard of those paint nights that couples can go on where they do directed paintings in a studio or cafe. If you want a fun twist on this, go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of paint supplies. Go home, give each other 20-30 minutes, and have a paint party of your own!
You can challenge each other to see who can paint something better, or really spice it up and get naked and have your partner paint a full-body picture of you. You can even do a paint splatter party and paint a wall in your house that you know needs to be repainted anyway!
This could also be a functional date night if you want to take it seriously and knock out a DIY project you’ve been meaning to tackle, but haven’t made the time for yet.
#6: Plan a Dream Trip
While some couples may just set off on a date night to San Francisco or Paris, it may be more realistic for you and your partner to spend a date night planning a dream trip for you to take in the future. You can do a virtual getaway or tour of a place you’d love to go and dream up all the details of your future vacation. This is an exciting, romantic way to connect. Want to take it up a notch? Order takeout in that cuisine to inspire your future travels!
#7: Bookstore Book Swap
Another fun date night idea is to visit a bookstore and pick out books for each other to read. It could be a book you know they’ll love or a spicy book that you read together to get you inspired! This adds an element of surprise and can lead to interesting conversations about your favourite books and genres.
#8: Culinary Scavenger Hunt
If you both share a love for a particular type of food or drink, like coffee, whiskey, wine, beer, chocolate, etc, plan a date night scavenger hunt around the city to find and sample the best of it. It's a simple, fun way to explore your local area and enjoy your favourite treats.
#9: Dance Party Playlist
Some couples like to go to the bar or the club and dance, but if you’re short on time or want to stay in, make your own playlists and have a dance party at home. Turn up the music, turn down the lights, and have fun together!
#10: Game Night
Our final date night idea is to bust out a board or card game, it can even be an adult-only one, and have a fun game night together. Some games come with prompts, challenges, or dares, which can be extra fun and spicy!
There are so many fun and unique things you can do on a date night. Remember, it’s all about spending quality, committed, focused time together, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company.
Looking for even more ideas to add to your date night line-up? Our challenge to you is to go out and try something different than you’ve ever done before for your next date night (or date day!).
Here’s a few more ideas to add to your date night line-up:
Photography nature walk.
Scenic drive.
Hike.
Bike.
Take a class together (cooking, dancing, language, etc.).
Volunteer together.
Do a wine, beer, or scotch tasting.
Recreate your first date.
Visit something unique to your city that you normally wouldn’t (museum, art gallery, farmer’s market, etc.).
Do karaoke.
Attend a sporting event (or watch it at your favourite bar or restaurant).
Take a drive and look at homes for inspiration.
Leave us a comment below and let us know what you try first!
If you’re looking for relationship support so you can feel more connected to your partner, reach out to learn more about our 1:1 coaching and how we can help you transform your relationship and start thriving together!