Not sure where to take your special someone? Planning a group date and not sure what to do? Don’t worry, we can help! Try one of these 10 excellent date ideas:

1. Pick apples from your local orchard. Wandering through an orchard with your special someone is relaxing and fun. It also gives you time to talk and get to know each other better, while providing an easy distraction (apples) if you run into any awkward lulls in conversation. Not sure where your local orchard is? Visit LocalHarvest to find farms and orchards in your area. Bonus tip: For a great follow-up date, get enough apples to make a homemade apple pie together!
2. Carve pumpkins. Carving pumpkins is a great activity for a couple or a group, especially if you pick out your pumpkins together. All you need is a few knives, a few pumpkins, and you are good to go!
3. Find your way through a corn maze. Check your local newspaper to find a corn maze in your area. Wandering through a corn maze is a great opportunity to talk and, if it is a bit chilly out, to get a little closer to stay warm. For a group date, see which couple can get through the maze the fastest.
4. Visit a haunted house. Many schools and churches create haunted houses in October and November. If your special someone can handle the frights, a haunted house can be a blast. To make it extra special, visit the local Dairy Queen afterwards to laugh about the haunted house over a banana split.
5. Take a stroll to enjoy the fall leaves. Fall weather and red, orange, and yellow leaves make a perfect combination for taking a stroll with your special someone. Be sure to bring a jacket so your lovely walk doesn’t turn into a shiverfest.
6. Rake some leaves, then jump in them! Whether you are 15 or 35, playing in the leaves can be a lot of fun. Grab your date, grab a rake, and jump in!
7. Go for a horseback ride. With a bit of planning, a horseback ride can provide hours of fun and a very memorable date experience. Visit Horse Rentals to find a local stable that provides trail riding rentals. Be sure to pack some water and a few snacks to share.
8. Plan a picnic. By itself or in combination with a horseback ride, a picnic is a thoroughly enjoyable date. Unless you are an experienced picnicer, keep it simple. Some great meal items include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sodas, and baby carrots. Don’t forget silverware and napkins!
9. Take a hike. Even relatively flat regions and cities have hiking trails or walking paths. Put on a pair of sturdy shoes or boots and enjoy the hike!
10. Check out a fall festival or concert. Low on cash but still want to have a blast with your date? Check out a local fall festival or fall concert. In addition to providing great food, great music, and a pile of fun activities, most of them have free admission.

Image source: ‘Me & Somayeh – Inside the Road‘

In no particular order, here is our list of 20 fun love songs:

1. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1 by The Flaming Lips
2. Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette
3. Here In Your Arms by Hellogoodbye
4. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
5. Somebody Loved by The Weepies
6. Sugarcube by Yo La Tengo
7. Dreams by The Cranberries
8. Honey And The Moon by Joseph Arthur
9. Red Right Ankle by The Decemberists
10. Here Comes My Girl by Tom Petty
11. You Can Have It All by Yo La Tengo
12. First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes
13. All I Want Is You by U2
14. All I Need by Radiohead
15. Somebody by Depeche Mode
16. Love You Madly by Cake
17. Into Your Arms by The Lemonheads
18. Northern Sky by Nick Drake
19. Flood of Sunshine by The Posies
20. I Know I Know I Know by Tegan and Sara

Did we miss your favorite love song? Leave a comment!

Image source: L♥ve

Materials needed:

• Overhead power lines that you can walk under (the bigger the better). Most areas have large overhead power lines, so this should be easy to find.
• A fluorescent tube light for each participant. These are the long tube lights you see in office buildings and schools. You can get these at Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Home Depot, or any other store that sells light bulbs. It doesn’t really matter which model or brand, so long as it is fluorescent and several feet long.

What To Do:

Take your date and lights to the overhead power lines you found. Hold the light like a lightsaber, and point it to the sky. It will light up! You’ll get a better effect if there are lots of low-hanging power lines. You’ll also have brighter lights if the humidity is low.

Play around with holding the light in different places, having multiple people holding one light, holding the light at different angles, etc. You can also have some fun having a lightsaber fight (careful! the lights are fragile and you don’t want to break them..).

How It Works:

Those overhead power lines flood the surrounding area with an electromagnetic field. Holding the tube light allows one end to be grounded to the earth, and the other end collects wasted electricity from the power lines.

If you want to use an easy method to think of a creative date idea, just ask yourself what is unique about your relationship with your sweetheart. You can figure out the theme of your date and where it could take place based on the answer to that question.

A successful romantic date is usually the combination of good planning and play-it-by- ear spontaneity. There are unlimited ways that you can be innovative and create dating ideas for wooing the one you love. Here are a few of them.

1) Outdoor activities: If you are a couple that enjoys the great outdoors, take a hike in the mountains. After that, pitch a tent for the night and cook some food outdoors. Nothing is more romantic than snuggling with your honey while you are on a mountain top looking at a starlit sky.

If you live near an ocean or lake, take a sightseeing cruise or rent a house boat and spend some quality time together. Wake up to the gentle lapping of the waves and head off to an island close by.

2) Surprise date: Everyone loves surprises and nothing works better than a surprise date. How well you are able to plan the date is the real surprise. Does he love sports? Buy front row tickets to a sporting event. Does she like flying? Take her for a helicopter ride. The element of surprise is always a winner.

3) Romantic evening at home: Plan a romantic evening at home. Make an exotic meal and play his or her favorite songs. Decorate the interiors with fresh flowers and pastels. Feed each other strawberries and chocolates.

4) Blindfold date: Blindfold your partner and take him or her out for the evening. Select a romantic spot maybe even the place where you first met! Have a candlelight dinner and pamper the love of your life. Take along some sparkling cider.

I had the most amazing first date with my girlfriend several months ago.

We started off by attending a talent show given by children with mental disabilities. The kids were hilarious and they put on a heartwarming show. I think my girlfriend was impressed that I was willing to support her in a cause she believes in very deeply.

After the talent show, we went to the Las Vegas strip and caught a show at one of the casinos. It was dazzling and exciting… the perfect kind of experience to have on a first date.

We topped the evening off by going to a quaint little restaurant not far from the strip. It was cozy and quiet which gave us the chance to talk and get to know each other better. A great way to finish a perfect date.

Romance is where you find it! Use some of these creative dating ideas and bring the fun back into your dating.

Guys, do you think your lady is hot?

Then let’s compromise!  Walking around the mall can be a really fun and relaxing date night.  Sometimes this can even start out as a group date and then you can split up when interests diverge.  But whether it is hitting up the candy store, sharing a slice of pizza, or listening to the newest CD releases in your malls music store, the mall can be a fun place.

One of my favorite activities in the mall is shopping for clothes.  There are so many fun styles.  Even if you know you would never buy an article of clothing it can be fun to try on if you have friends to go with, or your significant other.

I really enjoyed this kind of date because it let me know what kind of stuff my S.O. liked on my body.  Plus, I like attention; so I got to feel like a model and he got to ogle.  Now, be warned, a guy in a lady’s section dressing room can come off as a bit odd.  But most men will not give up this opportunity even if it involves receiving those looks from older ladies.

There are so many fun things to try on.  My personal favorite is prom dresses.  My significant other has never seen me in a fun dress like that since we started dating after we had both graduated high school.  What’s more, I got to feel very pretty, all dressed up.  But in general, guys like skirts, I would always compliment any shirt you want to show him with a skirt.  You should to let him be a part of the shopping process, if he wants!  Beware: some men might take this too far and only pick out the skankiest stuff imaginable, so remember it is still your body, you are the one who needs to feel comfortable.

This is just one part of a fun mall date, but it is one that can really be fun for both of you.  Relax, get goofy, and do not worry about what others think.  This is a great opportunity to connect and communicate.

A scrapbook can be as easy as pasting pictures onto colorful, or not, printer paper and sliding them into sheet protectors. Also, with one of those craft store coupons we all get weekly you might purchase a scrapbook you both like for 40% off. There are many different styles, and no your scrapbook doesn’t have to (and in my eyes, shouldn’t) look like any magazine about the craft. It should be about the two of you, make it personal. I love stickers, my pages are covered in silly stickers. I also like to write quotes I remember, or journal-type entries on the page. My significant other put one of my stickers next to me at the beach, it was a whale…he was teasing me about looking like a beached whale when I was buried in sand. That is who we are, we laugh about things (guys, that is not a suggestion, just an example of our personalization!), we tease and it is who we are. Let your book shine with your personality.

There are many possibilities for a page. If you only have one picture from an event, or one good one anyway, maybe a journal-type comment would help fill the page. Or maybe you two just have a ton of random pictures of you two, cut them up so they really are just the two of you and fill a whole page so you cannot even see the page they were pasted on. My companion is not a fan of his handwriting so he likes to print out comments, and titles on vellum and tack them on the page with brads. The possibilities really are endless, and you can do this without ever setting a foot inside a craft store, if you men have issues with that. But, honestly, us girls really adore you trying to be interested in our interests. So if she is an avid scrapbooker, offer to help with a page, or ask to start your own couple’s book. (I apologize if that sounds sexist, but I have yet to find a guy that is into scrapbooking without a woman catalyst yet.) If you both are new to the craft, then by all means explore together, learn together, and have fun laughing at both your own and your companion’s mistakes.

Remember:

• Be willing to try, just one time might get you hooked.
• Keep it personal, let it be soaked in your inside jokes and personal memories.
• And it is ok if the book is light and fluffy, or all black and white and coffee table ready, as long as it matches your style.

It can be a really great way to get to know someone. You can learn what they treasure by the things they pick up and by listening to what they cannot stop talking about. This date can also really let you know what they think of as trash. If they see an old mechanical bank and start talking about what a piece of junk it is, maybe this isn’t the day, or week, to show them your awesome piggy bank collection.

However, going to yard sales and flea markets can be a fun way to start your own traditions. You can start building up your own awkward coffee table book collection by purchasing that hilarious “How to drink your own urine” book that you found, or keep adding to your 99 cent movie collection after flipping through all the VHS tapes and finding “Top Gun”. Another trait you can learn about your companion is their mental price checker. One can’t help but say “man, that is too expensive” if they feel it.

But by all means, don’t just stare at your companion the whole time! Look around, find something that you might treasure. Or look for a piece of furniture that would just finish off your living room. Be sure to chat it up with the vendors. They sure are bored sitting there and the older ones usually have a good story or two that they just want to share with everyone. Be sure to do this in enjoyable (not too cold or too hot) weather, and really enjoy yourself. Scavenging is not all about buying stuff, it is partially about the journey. You two are on a date, point out crazy things, laugh at old books, let her put on old jewelry and feel pretty or let her laugh at how ridiculous it looks.

There are usually a plethora of places to find second hand sales. Sometimes these are advertised by balloons and signs hung up on a Saturday morning. Some towns have a permanent flea market that is populated every weekend (the best stuff will be found early on a Saturday morning). We live near a town that has a monthly flea market in a local parking garage, so some planning is involved. You can open your local paper or even check out some online sites, including Craig’s List, for local events in your area.

Unfortunately, the rain came with it. What do you do now? You can’t go to the beach during a thunderstorm, and hiking in the rain can be miserable. The solution: Choose Your Own Adventure.

Choose Your Own Adventure books, often abbreviated CYOA, is a series of books written from 1979 to 1998 comprising 185 titles. Although these books are written for children, they can be a blast to read with a date.

What makes CYOA books unique is that you choose how the story unfolds. Throughout the book you are given different decisions to make, and depending on what you choose, you can end up turning into a whale, getting killed by aliens, or becoming rich and famous.

Don’t have any CYOA books? Head to your local used bookstores or shop online at eBay. You can generally get them for $1-$3 per book online, and they are well worth the investment.

Bonus tips: Try reading the story using voices as if you were reading to a child, or change the character names to your friends’ names.

Pick up your date and head to a local thrift store. Nearly all of them sell old VHS movies for a dollar or two a tape. If you don’t have a VHS player, most thrift stores sell them, too!

Pick out a few classics that you and your date would enjoy, head home, pop some popcorn, and enjoy a nostalgic movie night!