good first date ideas?
 

okay, we all know the ones of dinner and a movie, clubs..ect

anyone have some good first date ideas to share?

Wear a light jacket or long sleeve shirt that you can offer her if she gets cold in the theater. Wear some bad ass cologne. Let her pick either the movie or the resturant/club.

Asta!!

if you want to get to know a person, movies and clubs tend to be bad first date ideas because they really limit communication.

Bowling (but not if you are the overly competitive type), coffee house, batting cages are my personal favorites, mini golf, if you are over 21 - wine tasting event held somewhere.

Man I'm soooooooooooooo bad at bowling :|

Asta!!

Find a local indie band that is playing around town. Get there early so you can talk, then let the music flow and you can talk afterwards as well. I am a big fan of bowling. It also kind of depends on the person (which is a cop out but true). If you both into hiking, do that; symphony (Sundays are usually cheaper and less dressy), off roading, skiing (could be expensive unless both parties have passes/equipment), walk around a lake, go to a playground, art gallery, play in the snow and then go get a hot drink to talk and unwind. So just base it around the guy/gal who you are dating. :) Most of all, Have Fun!

Putt-putt! (spelling?1 T or 2?)

Not exactly a date, but... shopping. Tell her you're going shopping for a certain thing on a Saturday day (and you actually are, even if window shopping), and that she's welcome to come along and choose places to make a stop as well. Plan to have lunch or coffee and snacks in the middle. Wander into a theater if it seems like the right thing to do.

In other words, spend some time together the way you and your eventual long-term love are most likely to -- shopping, hanging, talking, watching, improvising. With the right person, it's fun as hell.

bowling is big for some reason. the girls i have dated have all loved bowling and they look so damn cute while doing it :)

From a girl's perspective, I agree with the whole movie/clubbing thing to be a bad first date idea. I personally enjoy walking in state parks and then going to some cozy coffee joint afterwards.

ALTHOUGH....I'd have to say for one of my best (and most random) dates I took my (now boyfriend of 11 months) to an abandoned mental hospital. The architecture is absolutely amazing and we are both into photography. He LOVED it and it really gave us a chance to get an in depth look at eachother's personalities. So my advice is maybe do something creative and off-beat. Go make pottery, take a dance class...do something out of the ordinary and that way she won't ever forget. Since the winter season is upon us...maybe...sledding? I realize it sounds corny and child-ish, BUT it's playful and at night can be EXTREMELY romantic :-D

You took EVERY SINGLE word out of my mouth!! All of those things I think are fun on dates(maybe except skiing since we don't have it here) - so still available? :P

Maybe they want a peek at how you handle your ball.


If you don't really know her that well maybe a weekend mall expedition? I prefer the quick hit first date. What I mean to say is, maybe meet her for lunch and if things go well, go shopping with her.

Lunch is much quicker than dinner. If you know you don't click, both of you will appreciate the quick getaway.

I like bowling. I like miniature golf, but it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do it with her. I once invited a girl to go shopping with me for my mother's Mother's Day gift. We hit all the stupid little knick-knacky stores, wasted a lot of time and we both had a lot of fun. Live music is good, but you have to make sure you're both fans. Otherwise one of you is having fun, the other is resenting the hell out of it.

Agree that you need a forum that will encourage casual conversation. Movies really don't do that very well. Even dinner can be tough because awkward pauses can make things feel forced.

I'd suggest viewing some type of art or architecture. It doesn't have to be formal, you could even try a local art show. That way you've got something else you can both focus on as well, and it just naturally leads to conversation. If that goes well, then at that point you will both be hungry and you can take it from there!

I have to agree! I did the same thing with my girlfriend and met a patient there with multiple personalities, and the three of us had a five-way. It was FANTASTIC!

Seriously, that's a classic! Thumbs up to you for creativity!!!!!!

Go to museum. Or see a play, rather than a movie. Or the walk in a state park is fun, or on the beach, though perhaps too intimate for a first date. Yeah, the more I think about it - do the museum.

thanks for the help everyone...there are some great ideas there. i like being outdoors but alas the weather. i have thought of the sledding idea before, and i like that one. going sledding for a bit, then going somewhere afterwards for some warm drinks and conversation...going to a coffee house or some type of art showing could be fun too.

don't forget ice skating, it's a classic! also my town still has roller skating (with 4 wheels and everything) that would be a fun "retro" date. i'm also a big fan of the shopping date. what about going to a hockey game and then making hot chocolate afterward to warm up?

amusement parks are good, if it's windy go buy a couple kites and take her to fly them, it's christmas time....take her to see the christmas light displays, ANYTHING but dinner and a movie!

salsa dancing lessons.

I think of good first date ideas as someplace where you can talk and get to know each other. Anyplace that interests you. If there's any kind of local land mark or place of interest you could walk around and chat for a bit, that would be great. Just make sure your personality shows through. If it's something you would never do normally, then pick something else.

Classes/lessons don't really seem to be a great idea for a first date, because you're listening to an instructor instread of talking to each other. But, that's just me.

Also, I know this show is really cheesy, but check out a couple of episodes of Blind Date. They've always got them doing something I never would have thought of as a "date". It also shows you what to avoid (getting drunk off your ass, especially while being filmed).

Something where you both get to hang out and it's quiet but not too crowded so you can talk easily. It's also good to have an activity that you are both supposedly engaged in that you can both fall back to if the conversation lulls.

I think bowling/disco bowling can be fun, also the shops where you can buy a piece of pottery or porcelain and then paint and get it glazed can be fun. Use your imagination to satisfy the above critera. Maybe try and find out what she likes.

A twist on the "dinner & movie" date is to go to the movie FIRST then to dinner where you can talk about the film.

why have structure on the first date? Thats how i decide if i'm really compatable with someone or not. Just choose a place to meet and wander until your find something. For example, i went on a first date with a girl a few years back with the same idea, and we found a really small marionette theater tucked away in an alley, definately a date that stands out in my mind now. All of that conventional movie/dinner/bowling/etc stuff has been done. Chances are she's been on dates like that a million times before. The cookie-cutter relationship thing just doesnt work for me, i've seen movies, but i want to live something else.

If you're on or near a college campus, an offer to chill out on the mall or quad is usually a good thing. Especially at night, it's very quiet and relaxing. The cold may cause problems this time of year, but during the spring it's a great place to just go and talk.

I took my girlfriend (who later became my wife) to a play on our first date. It was a nice idea, but the play was about an incestuous family, so that was kind of odd. But we did have a really nice romantic dinner before that.

As for suggestions, you can't go wrong with some pink popcorn and a porn flick...

Take her out for a new type of cuisine like Ethiopian or do something different like a horse carriage ride or take a beginners archery class... Expose each other to something new since you both are new to each other. ;)

local bands and concerts are good first dates...just make sure theres at least some kind of quiet time where you can both talk and get to know each other

Just make a fun day out of it. My boyfriend and I went to Subway, played a couple Nintendo games at my house, played guitar, listened to music and then saw the last LOTR in the theatre.

if there is a river near you then thats you're first point of call. A slow and gentle walk at the rivers edge chatting away has some affect and allows you to chat. Then after that whatever she wants to do which i my book means usally whatever you want to do, but always good to ask. This means do something fun (i like all the boweling suggestions) but there are some many things that are fun so you decide (museums can be good). Then a lunch dinner either out or cooked by you're own hands or with a little help from her. Then curl up on the sofa after dinner and watch a chick flick. Sounds like my ideal day.

Don't go too romantic on the first date, go for fun. Good first dates I've been on - playing pool, going to a toyshop, going to a playground (so much fun!), go-karting... and my favourite was when this guy didn't tell me where we were going, and took me to a karaoke bar! (we dated for a little while and are still friends)