Winter days are upon us, and you’re no doubt feeling the unassailable urge to live your life in cozy flannel jammies. It’s getting dark early. The bitter winter wind is biting, and getting dressed up for a Friday night out just isn’t in the cards. While cold weather does tend to drive us inside, that doesn’t mean we can’t keep the love flowing. We have gathered all the best indoor winter date ideas for you and your boo to make sure your red-hot romance doesn’t freeze over this winter.
We have included date night ideas for every kind of relationship and personality, and have forgone the normal “dinner and a movie.” While movie night is certainly an option, we want to look outside the normal here, so if one date sounds dumb or too out there for you, just scroll on down. We have included DIY dates that take some planning, easy virtual ideas, and even group date options. Most of the dates are free or cost very little, since, if you’re like us, you probably just spent all your money on Christmas gifts.
Writer Note: My hubs and I are normally world travelers, in a different city every month, and live a pretty wild life. However, for the last six months, we have been visiting family in my tiny hometown in Arkansas. The weather is awful. It’s dark at 5 pm. It’s a dry county, and there’s literally nothing to do, so we have had to get pretty creative over the last few months to entertain ourselves. Some of these date nights are from my own recent experience, and I can vouch that they are awesome!
A Date For Every Week With Adventures From Scratch
Adventures From Scratch: Date Edition is your go-to for creative and unexpected date ideas. Our dating adventure book was crafted as a joint effort between our travel and relationship experts, and it features more than 50 innovative dates. In addition to the scratch-off adventures, you’ll have access to our conversation starters, love-note templates, and much more! Adventures From Scratch is perfect for couples who are bored with their normal movie dates or for someone looking for a first date idea to impress a new love interest. Whether you have been with your significant others for 50 years, or you’re just starting out, these dates are adaptable to fit your situation. Check out Adventures From Scratch: Date Edition and get the sparks flying this winter!
The Best Winter Date Ideas for Active Couples
Date night should be a time to reconnect with your loved one. When thinking of date ideas, keep in mind the important elements of deep conversation opportunities, laughter, a little friendly competition, and opportunities to snuggle up with a little physical contact. Each date may not include all of these, but it should incorporate a couple of them. These are the cornerstones that we have built our list around. Think of these ideas as your starting point, and adapt them to fit your budget, situation, or personality. Here we go!
1. Indoor Couple’s Scavenger Hunt
At Let’s Roam, we are passionate about nurturing relationships. Our indoor couple’s scavenger hunts are strategically crafted to provide laughter, deep conversation opportunities, and tons of fun. We’ll have you drawing, cooking, crafting, and dancing your way to a stronger relationship in no time! Our date-night packages and all of our other hunts, including urban art walks, haunted ghost tours, and bar crawls are available through the Let’s Roam Scavenger Hunt App!
2. Winter Hike
Did you know that you can take a virtual hike through many of the U.S. National Parks and many other incredible areas on YouTube? Yep, you can hop on the treadmill, walk in one place, or just cuddle up on the couch and enjoy the trek with a cup of hot cocoa.
Whether you decide to actually walk as your wander the trail or cozy up on the couch, you can get lost in the beauty of a summer trail or pretend you’re snowshoeing through a Finnish winter wonderland. It’s a fun way to experience the outdoors without braving those brutal winter nights.
Just hop on to YouTube, type in “virtual hike” in the search bar, and stream it to your largest screen. For a little help with your hike conversation, check out our gigantic list of “150 Riveting and Relateable Road Trip Conversation Starters.”
3. Indoor Rock Climbing
Okay, unless you have an absolutely gigantic rock fireplace, you’re going to need to go outside for a minute for this one, but it will be worth it. Pack up your partner and head for the nearest rock climbing facility. This is a fun activity for a date night that gets your body moving, challenges your skills, and provides a little laughter too. Most indoor climbing facilities provide all the gear, a little bit of instruction, and all the adequate safety precautions.
Love Challenge: If the facility isn’t busy, most instructors will allow adults to climb in tandem. Challenge your partner to a little friendly race. Use your imagination for the winner’s prize!
4. Ice Skating
Like rock climbing, if you choose to go ice skating, you’ll have to get to the rink, but once you’re inside, it will be nice and warm. Most larger cities have an ice skating rink of some sort. You may have to organize your date around ice hockey games or figure skating events, but there are normally public skate hours on the weekends.
Most facilities have a concession stand, so plan a cheap meal of corn dogs and french fries. Then, burn off those calories with a little skating hand in hand with your love. Show off your spin moves. Have a couples race, or if you dare, attempt a couple’s figure skating lift. Just don’t end up in the ER. That is certainly not how you want to spend Friday night.
If ice skating is not your thing, or not available in your area, then go nostalgic and join a themed night at your local roller skating rink! They often have disco nights, 1920s-themed evenings, or special holiday events. It’s a challenging date that will remind you of your childhood and spark some interesting conversation.
5. Obstacle Course Challenge
For a competitive couple, there’s no better date night idea than competing in a household obstacle course. We love this idea because it allows you to plan and create a course, putting your heads together to come up with ideas. Once your ideas are set, you get to compete in your own creation, which is hilarious and fun.
Challenge yourself to create your course out of only household items that you don’t need to purchase. Get creative. Include food challenges, physical challenges, and mental endeavors. Tailor it to your interests and level of physicality. Make sure you have an agreed-upon scoring system and a prize for the winner. It’s a wild and wacky date, but we promise you’ll laugh a lot!
Here are a few ideas to get you started. Line up your dining chairs in the hallway and challenge each other to an “over and under” race. You go over one chair and under the next. See who can make it down and back the fastest. You may need a stopwatch. Go old school with an egg and spoon race. Grab two sponges and fill the kitchen sink with water. At the other end of the room place two buckets, and see who can fill their bucket the fastest. Play hot lava and see who can make it around the perimeter of the living room by hopping from furniture piece to furniture piece, not touching the floor.
6. Workout Challenge
It’s not a secret that it’s harder to stay in shape in the winter months. This time of year, most of us tend to come home from work, change into comfy pajamas and not leave the couch all evening, which wreaks havoc on the physique. Challenge each other to fight the winter bulge with some loving competition.
Challenge your significant other to a burnout competition. You can include pushups, squats, chair dips, balance activities, stretching exercises, and handstands. See who can hold the pose the longest or complete the highest number of the particular exercise.
Bonus Points: To increase the love points, the loser of each event sheds an article of clothing. By the end of your workout, you’ll be ready to start the next one.
The Best Winter Date Ideas for a Chill Night at Home
In this section, we focus on date ideas for those evenings when you just want to enjoy each other’s company in a low-key environment. You might have to put a little forethought into these and buy some supplies, but nothing too extravagant.
7. Living Room Camping
If you’re longing for a getaway in the wild, but don’t want to camp in the cold, pop a tent or build your own fort in the living room. Pull out the blankets and dining chairs like you did as children and construct your shelter. Bring in the air mattress though, because you’re not seven anymore, and sleeping on the floor is a bad idea. Throw on a holiday movie on your laptop. Better yet, avoid screens and try your hand at telling ghost stories!
Bust open a bottle of wine or some spiked hot chocolate. Bring in some board games or roast hot dogs or s’mores in your fireplace. Pretty much every activity you do in a normal campground can be adapted for an indoor camping adventure!
8. Cooking Class
Cooking together is a romantic dinner date idea that works for pretty much everyone because you end the date with an awesome meal… or you start making out during the process, burn the food, and end up eating takeout on the floor. Either way, it’s a fun evening.
There are several options for making this one work. You can either pull up a YouTube video for a recipe that sounds interesting and follow along at your own pace, or you can join a virtual cooking class on a forum like CozyMeal. If the date is something that you both love, then you could even join a Masterclass for cooking together and make it a weekly thing!
Bonus Points: Want a great group date idea? Let’s Roam offers an Italian Pasta Making class on our teambuilding site that is perfect for a large group of friends. You can all join from your homes with our glitch-free streaming platform and our engaging host will teach you the history of pasta making and allow you to choose which traditional pasta your group makes. You’ll get your own event coordinator and personalized trivia. While you’ll need to sign up in advance and answer a few questions, our coordinator will take care of most of the details, and you and your crew can just enjoy the evening!
9. Virtual Wine Tasting
Spend your evening with Cameron Diaz, Mark Oldman, or Sarah Jessica Parker in a virtual wine tasting with Wine.com. The process is pretty simple. You order your choice of wine package, which will ship within 24 hours. Once you receive your package, you can download a wine-tasting mat and charcuterie board shopping list from the site. Purchase the necessary items and log into the platform to complete your date. The engaging host will lead you through a proper tasting and provide education on the wine you’re drinking. Plus, you’ll get entertaining interaction with celebrity guests. When it’s cold outside, this date is a fun way to warm up and get a little tipsy with your partner. It’s the perfect date for Valentine’s Day or an at-home anniversary night!
10. Gingerbread Houses
Start a new holiday tradition with your partner and spend the evening creating a gingerbread house. During the holiday season, they are easy to find at any grocery or hobby store. It’s a fun date that doesn’t cost much and allows you to delve into deep conversations as you put your craft skills to work. Put on a romantic playlist or a Christmas list. Open a carton of egg nog. Utilize some of the conversation starters from your Adventures From Scratch date book!
11. Fondue Night
Fondue is just fun! You might have to order a cheap fondue set from Amazon before you can have this date, but it’s worth the price. Set up an indoor picnic in front of the fireplace or a cozy nook in your house. Pick your favorite version of meltable cheese, and fill a charcuterie board with fancy bread, pretzels, or meats. Everything is better dipped in cheese! Once you have your fill of cheesy goodness, wash out the pot and switch over to melted chocolate! Now, it gets really romantic as you feed each other chocolate-dipped marshmallows and strawberries… or more than likely, you drop hot chocolate on your partner’s chest and try not to giggle when they scream like a little girl (oops).
12. Music and Dance
Spend some time creating a playlist of your favorite songs together. Include fun dance tunes, romantic slow dance options, or your favorites from your teenage years. Spend the evening listening to your list as you cook dinner or play a card game. The songs will spark memories and allow you to share personal stories with your partner that you may never have thought to tell them before. Share a slow dance to your wedding song, or practice your twerking with a hip-hop hit from your glory days. Challenge one another to complete popular dances from different eras like The Twist, The Mashed Potato, or the Macarena. You might end your list with a few of your favorite R&B jams and hope for the best!
13. Strip Chess
Who says board games are boring? You can spice up almost any game by just adding a little strip tease. Chess is a long and competitive game. If you lose an article of clothing for every chess piece that your partner takes, it can set up an environment of anticipation for the after-game festivities.
Here are a few of our favorite board games that you can easily adapt to fit your sexy date night!
14. Visit a Museum
Thanks to the pandemic, you can now visit almost every major museum in the world virtually. Cozy up with your boo and take a guided tour of the Denon Wing of the Louvre. Travel to Washington, D.C., and take a tour of the National Gallery of Art. Explore the incredible collection at the Guggenheim in New York or The British Museum in London. All of these fabulous museums offer virtual tours on their official websites.
Bonus Points: Make a list of all the famous art pieces that you can think of, then go on a virtual hunt to find them!
The Best Winter Daytime Date Ideas
When it’s too cold outside, weekends can seem to drag on. Add some flair to your weekend indoors with a few date day time date ideas!
15. Create a Photo Scrapbook
Head to the attic or the garage. Grab those boxes of old photos from your childhood, or print out some favorites from your phone. Get together at the dining room table with a few of your favorite snacks and an old-fashioned photo album or scrapbook kit. Spend the day labeling your photos together and documenting your relationship. Reminisce over your best memories and document your feelings for posterity. This is the date that keeps on giving, as you can sit down every month or year and add to your album, creating a lifetime memorial of your relationship! Scrapbook kits can easily be found at any hobby store or Walmart. You can also make a virtual scrapbook on Canva if you don’t want to mess with printing.
16. New Hobby
Learning something new together is a wonderful way to spend a winter day. Perhaps, you learn to knit and make scarves for each other. Maybe, you take a virtual painting class by following along with a video on YouTube. Maybe you take this time to teach your partner your favorite hobby like woodworking, candy-making, or photography.
17. DIY Spa Day
Pamper your spouse with a day of self-care. A hot bubble bath together, a long massage complete with oils, candlelight, and soothing music. Prepare a home facial with items you have in the fridge. You can easily make a homemade mask with avocado and honey, or whip up an egg white until frothy and add in some Greek yogurt for a skin-tightening and brightening mask. Spend some time pampering each other without the high prices of a professional spa.
18. Holiday Shopping
Holiday shopping can seem like a chore, but it’s better with company! Whether you head for the local mall together or cozy up and peruse Amazon, use your cold day indoors to pick out the perfect gifts for your loved ones. It’s a great time for you to talk about family members and friends, what you love about them, why you’re thankful for them, etc! You may find that with a little extra sentimentality, the gift-buying and giving process becomes a lot more enjoyable.
19. New Space
The winter months are the perfect time to spruce up your home. If you have a space that is underutilized or needs a makeover, put your heads together and design a space that works for your family. Spend some time looking at inspiration together online. Pick out your favorites, and try your hand at creating a space that has a similar feel. If you’re DIY gurus, then hit up the Home Depot, buy those boards, and get to building. If not, you may just decide to repaint, create a new art piece, or even just rearrange the furniture to create a new feel in your space.
20. Nostalgic Video Games
Bust out the Nintendo console and challenge one another to a game of Duck Hunting, Mario Kart, or Donkey Kong. If Sega was your jam, then have a Sonic the Hedgehog competition. Busting out these old games brings back fun memories from your childhood, and allows you to share something simple and joyful with your partner.
21. Snowman Cake Bake
Creating a traditional snowman requires wearing gloves, putting on boots, and braving the wind. Save yourself from the cold, and create one in the kitchen instead. You’ll need some Rice Krispie Treats, white icing, and a few decorative elements. Crank up the Christmas tunes and put on your aprons (underclothing is optional). Mold the rice treats into balls, and stack them to create your snowman. You can create two small ones or one large one. The choice is yours. Once you have your sculpture, cover it with icing and decorate it. Raisins for eyes, peppermint sticks for arms, a carrot for a nose. Make sure to take some photos and videos to document the process!
22. Holiday Decorations
Holidays are a special time in most homes. If your relationship is new, then you’re probably creating your own traditions. Take away the drudgery of decorating your home by doing it together as a day date. Hang the holiday lights, decorate your Christmas tree, carve a pumpkin with your initials, or decorate your kitchen with reds and pinks for Valentine’s Day. Your home is your castle, and it belongs to you both (assuming you live together), take some time to make it a space that celebrates your love and your favorite holiday traditions. This is a great time to gather your ornaments from childhood or incorporate a tradition from each other’s background!
23. Antiquing
Antiquing is a great way to spend the day with your love. Most antique markets not only boast interesting furniture, funny art, and vintage clothing to trial, but they also have homemade samples and tasty treats to try! Try on funny hats for a photo shoot, or spend some time guessing what the old tools were used for. Go on a scavenger hunt for random items and see who can find them all first, documenting each find with a photo. Decide on one vintage item to take home to your place in remembrance of your day!
The Best Group Date Ideas
Sometimes you just need to see your friends in the lonely winter months! Here are a few easy-to-accomplish group date ideas!
24. Virtual Game Night
Let’s Roam’s Virtual Game Night is an easy way to gather your besties for a night of laughter and fun. Our interactive platform is easy to use, or you can choose to use your favorite like Zoom. One player will purchase the package be the host. The rest can join in from home. Our games range from intriguing trivia to Pictionary, geography games, and even an emoji decoder. You can host a different game every weekend and never get bored!
25. Indoor Snowball Fight
Gather your friends in person, and have each couple wear a matching-colored top and bring a couple of bags of cotton balls or stuffing. You’ll create large balls with cotton and some tape if you want. Each player gets a set number of “bullets,” and you proceed to a friendly competition, following the rules of laser tag. The last couple standing wins a prize! To make the game last longer, you can add an element of laser tag to the mix. When a person gets hit, they are frozen, and only a kiss from their partner can revive them.
26. Last Couple Standing
Turn your group date into a massive competition with a host of nostalgic games. Offer a point for each game won, and have a fun prize for the couple with the most points at the end of the evening. Make sure that your games are varied so that each couple stands a chance to win. They should not all be athletic endeavors for instance.
Play board games. Have a dart-throwing contest. Bust out the old-school birthday games like the egg and spoon race or Simon Says. Play Twister. See who can write the best poem with a 3-minute time limit. Have a dance-off. See who can decorate the best cookie or cake. Which couple can create the best-tasting 5-minute cocktail? The options are endless!
For a little help, turn to our list of “25 Fantastic Party Games to Play With Friends.”
Closing Thoughts
Cold Winter days and nights certainly have the potential to give us all seasonal depressive disorder, but with a little creativity and some action, we can combat the effects of dark, rainy days and turn our homes into romantic and fun zones! We hope you found your next date night here. Remember, all these date ideas are made to be flexible. Adjust them as you see fit! The big thing is to put in the effort for your relationship. Couch sitting and Netflix every night is not a date. Surprise your love by planning a few of these spontaneous date nights to keep those sparks flying!
Have you had good luck with an indoor date idea? Drop your knowledge on us in the comments!
Is your dating life hampered by little ones? Dating when you have small kiddos is hard, but so important. Check out our list of the perfect “30 Date Night Ideas for Parents.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Warm up with a fun indoor date like taking a virtual cooking class, learning a new hobby, or creating a scrapbook documenting your romance.
Home is the perfect place for a romantic evening. Challenge your partner to an indoor obstacle course, do a virtual wine tasting, or cozy up for a virtual museum tour!
Fun indoor dates include organized scavenger hunts, virtual game nights with other couples, and indoor camping adventures!