Romantic date ideas can cement a new relationship or put the passion back into an old one. They can heal the wounds of recent arguments and take away the stresses of your day.
So we've taken all the date ideas we've heard of and after fierce debate we've cut it down to the top 10 soppy and romantic date ideas. Expect candles and roses for every one! (what? candles and roses are romantic!)
Coming in at number 10 is:
10. Cuddling up with a book together on a cold day
Sometimes the simple things are the most romantic, on a freezing cold day then snuggling up in each others arms on the sofa in front of the fire with a good book can be very intimate and romantic evening.
Enjoy the closeness of each other bodies, the warmth, their perfume/aftershave, savour the quiet and the peace of just being there with the one you love. Grab some warm drinks and either read parts of a book out to each other or just read page by page silently together, just make sure to turn the page over before your partner has finished to wind them up and start a play fight ;)
9. Candlelit dinner and bathtub recollections
Spend the night getting all wrinkly! Have a nice candlelit dinner together, then head up to the bathroom, go for the full monty, candles everywhere, superhot bath, a whole bottle of bubblebath, maybe some relaxing music (battery radio - nothing in the mains please!).
Then grab yourself some red wine and both of you get into the bath together, go for the 'debating' style double-bath where you are on either end of the tub, or the 'lovers embrace' (my fave) where one of you sits in between the legs of the other and leans back into their loving embrace.
Then spend a few hours (yes hours, top up the hot water as you need to) reminiscing about your old dates, maybe about how you met as well. Try to remember good and bad dates and try to remember ones you partner has forgotten about.
You will have a laugh and joke and remind each other of all the good times you have had together, by the end of the bath you'll be all loved up, definitely relaxed, and you'll have strengthened your bond together.
8. Star gazing
There is something romantic about looking at the stars, whether seeing the infinite size of the cold and dark universe around us makes us more appreciative of the people we love, or whether we just enjoy them because they look like little sparkling sky diamonds, either way, they ARE romantic.
So grab yourself a blanket and the duvet off your bed. Head out into your backyard, put the blanket on the ground as a groundsheet, then climb onto it under the duvet.
While you're out there try to get some candles going for added effect ;)
Then lie back with the one you love and look at the stars together while entwined in each others arms. Open your minds and start to take in the sheer scale of what you are looking at, light that is billions of years old hitting your retina from a far away galaxy, stars that dwarf our sun, infinite variety and wonders just out of our reach.
Then snuggle up closer and appreciate you managed to find your perfect shining star (awwwww - tell them that for added brownie points).
Competition is getting more fierce now, we're looking for date ideas that capture the imagination or bring your closer together, so coming up the inside to position number 7 is:
7. A wine and good times special
Simple but effective, grab yourself a bottle of wine and all your photo albums, you know - the ones you have so painstakingly crafted over the years but never 'had the time' to look at again. Preferably if you can then dredge up childhood photo albums of you and your partner as well.
Then put some soft music on, grab some of that wine for each of you, snuggle up on the sofa and go through the albums slowly by candlelight. Savour the moments you have enjoyed together and laugh at the awful photos that are a part of every photo album!
6. Capture the moment
Ok, we've spoken a lot about going over all the good times you've had in your relationship so far. Well this date takes it a step further. During the day dig a hole in the backyard...
Then in the evening grab some wine again (I'm not addicted to wine, honest...) and make items for a time capsule of your relationship. Put in a newspaper clipping of the paper for that day to show the date and current news of the day you did it. Write letters to each other that you do or don't read to each other before they go in (my preference would be not to).
Draw pictures for each other, takes photos to put in there, put little keepsake items in there, anything you want ,write poems to each other. Please bear in mind that it needs to be an airtight container, airtight tupperware will do it, but you can buy inexpensive time capsule kits to do it as well - anything else means in a year or two the contents will be mush.
The when you're both slightly tipsy from the wine go out with your sealed capsule (make sure it's sealed!) and bury it together and go back in and watch a soppy film (by candelight to make it romantic... getting sick on candles yet??!)
Then in the future you can either uncover it after say 5 years, or 50 years, or you might uncover it accidentally one day if you have forgotten about it.
Just try to remember it if you are going to move house...
We're getting more adventurous now for number 5:
5. Champagne hot air balloon trip
Hot air balloon trips are just another of those things that are instantly romantic, maybe it is the pageantry of them setting up this huge contraption just for you two, or the silent ascent into the heavens? and effortlessly gliding over the landscape below?
Well turn it into a sunset trip with champagne then you have a really memorable romantic experience! Until you have experienced your first balloon ride then you don't know what you are missing!
Now we're into the top 4 romantic date ideas, expect sunsets, candles, the works!
4. Romantic camping
Alright, camping is not everybody's idea of romantic, so you can substitute the camping part for a swanky hotel near a beach if you want!
The idea is that your head off away from your local area to find a spot near a nice beach that not a lot of people visit (touristy beaches are just going to be full of noisy people even at night). Camp somewhere nearby (or get a swanky hotel) and then at sunset go down to the beach and sit there together watching the sun set over the ocean as the last rays of sunshine melt into the distance...
Then head back to your camp/hotel for a night of telling ghost stories round the campfire/ordering room service and telling ghost stories in bed with the lights off!
3. Private dining room
A candlelit dinner at a restaurant is ok, but we've all done it right? That means it loses its effectiveness, you can't make it to number 3 with just a normal candlelit dinner out somewhere. Instead find a restaurant that has a conference/meeting room for hire, now on a Friday/Saturday night not many people want meetings so it will be free...
Phone up the restaurant and ask them if they are willing to let you hire it for a meal, they just need to clear the room and put a tabel for two in the middle of it and put some candles around the room for you. It is important if you are going to do this that you go to check out the room before you agree to anything, it will show you are serious when you turn up in person as well. You want a room that will be romantic when lit by candles and emptied of all the meeting stuff, not something with whiteboards on the wall etc!
Trust me there are plenty of places out there that have something perfect for this - or find one that has a private dining room, but do it during the week when not many people want to use it so you get it cheap, I had a private dining room all to myself midweek with a swanky 3 course meal and more candles than you can shake a stick at for $100!
Go out for a few drinks first, and then arrive for the best meal ever! (I mentioned roses at the start, as I haven't included them anywhere yet then get some put on the table for this date!)
Try this for an anniversary for added effect.
A cheaper but even more potent version follows later, but at number 2 is:
2. Sunset picnic
Sunsets are romantic right? They are like giant candles and candles are romantic ;) Picnics are also romantic... so combine the two!
Grab yourself a picnic, all your and your partner's favourites, then look up the sunset time online, most weather sites will tell you. You need to have scouted out a hill near you first that has a good view all round and is quiet :) Try one on a local footpath like I did, so you have permission to be there!
Then knowing how long it takes you to get there... set out at the correct time to get to the hill 10 minutes before the sunset time. Set up your picnic and enjoy a glass of champagne together along with the picnic while watching the sun go down.
Don't worry about finding the west, that is why you need a hill with clear view all around, so you can find the sunset when you get up there!
(You also need a clear sky preferably, hence why this is number 2 as it can be fiddly!)
And finally...
1. Recreate your first date
The sheer soppiness of this date makes it shoot to number 1, even though the actual places you go might not be that romantic.
There are two options here, either recreate the first date exactly, or recreate it how it was meant to go... like if one of you was late, then do you turn up late again to make it authentic? If you ended up going for a walk in the park instead of that drink in the bar as one of you was turned away for having the wrong dress code, do you turn up properly dressed and have the drink you were supposed to have instead? The choice is yours!
There are also two ways to act, you can act like you are both on your first date, a bit of roleplay to give it an exciting edge... get to know each other all over again and one of you try to steal that first nervous kiss...
Or you can go into it as you are and laugh and talk about the parts of the date you are on at that moment and what happened and how you felt on the night. This can be a great bonding experience as when you went on that first date you wouldn't have discussed all your fears and all the things that went wrong that the other person didn't notice - you get to reveal them now and see the first date from a fresh perspective, what went well and what didn't!
There you go - the top romantic date ideas for you to enjoy!
(Source: www.myromanticdateideas.com)
