Roller Skating, art cafe at Happy Medium, escape rooms, libraries, opera, off Broadway/smaller theater shows, art shows (lots of events on partiful & Instagram), governors island, roosevelt island, park events, etc.

Go to a magic show! My personal recommendation is Urban Illusions in the East Village.

First dates, or date nights with a significant other? Big difference 

Tons of talks, live podcasts and lectures to check out - look at event programming at NYPL, 92Y, and museums. Often free. Eventbrite will also feature these.

The Lefrak center in prospect park had kayaks you can rent to go out into the lake, it’s fun and pretty reasonably priced, iirc.

Brooklyn cat cafe is a fun date, too!

What part of NY? There are no shortage of options. Are you working with a budget - if so provide it with real numbers as this will avoid some one recommending either Punjabi Deli (which is tasty) vs Daniel (which i$ ta$ty).

A couple easy ones

• picnic and bike ride on governors island
• paddle boats in Central Park
• do a baking or cooking class (tons of options)
• kayaking on the Hudson River (should be open by the time he arrives)
• taking the ferry to a couple stops (if you time it you can get a couple rides on one ticket before it expires)
• walking Bk bridge to south street (seaport walk/ stroll and a bunch of shops and places to hang out) or dumbo (doing a carousel ride)
• slow stroll or bike ride
• catch a broadway show in a whim by going to the tkts booth or seeing about rush tickets

Welcome to NYC! 🗽 A sunset stroll on the Brooklyn Bridge, rooftop drinks in Midtown, and a cozy dinner in the West Village would be perfect. Happy early anniversary! 💕

Sunset walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, picnic in Central Park, and maybe dinner at a rooftop spot, can’t go wrong with that vibe!

awwww you go girl! anywhere will be romantic as long as you two are together 🥰

Hang out on your roof at night

One that my husband and discovered when we moved to Astoria is the ferry. You can bring a cooler and have some drinks on the rooftop, ride it from east 90th to Wall Street and back (or however far you want to go), for $4 a person. It’s a great way to see the NY skyline, especially at sunset.

Oh my gosh, have I got the one for you, my friend! When I was dating around, I had a secret weapon locale that STILL has the guys I took there over a decade ago reminiscing about what a perfect afternoon and picture perfect first date that was. They were all practically writing their wedding vows on the walk home afterwards, and it is my pleasure to pass this information to you and everyone else on this thread. If you don’t know it already, allowme to introduce you to your new favorite NYC landmark:

The Little Red Lighthouse.

For maximum impact on your date, I advise familiarizing yourself at least a little with the lighthouse’s incredibly charming history. (Romanticizing this history as you tell it out loud on your adventure there together will most assuredly captivate your date’s attention as he taps into his childhood sense of wonder and imagining life’s endless possibilities.) In short, the lighthouse’s backstory involves many decades as an internationally beloved literary icon, portrayed as the hero of Hildegard H. Swift’s 1942 classic children’s book entitled The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. (There’s a free version of the book on YouTube, beautifully scored with music and narrated brilliantly if you want to check it out.) Anyway, the book was a hit back then, and remains popular to this day. In 1948, (this is real life, not a synopsis of the book) the lighthouse was no longer needed because of the newly constructed George Washington Bridge directly overhead, with lights 10x brighter than the lighthouse’s. So the lighthouse was decommissioned and was to be auctioned off for scrap metal. When word got out about this, there was an enormous outcry from, of all groups, children. Children everywhere revolted against the destruction of their favorite book’s hero. They wrote OpEd articles that made it all the way to the New York Times, some kids were interviewed on local and national radio shows, and thousands of kids sent literal pennies to the mayor of New York City in hopes that their donations could save the lighthouse from demolition. The mayor was so moved by this reaction from children all over the world that he cancelled the auction and donated the lighthouse to NYC Parks so the lighthouse could continue being a symbol of hope and strength for generations to come.

Plus; it’s situated on the rocky shoreline of the Hudson River (you can climb out there and sneak a kiss, leaning against the lighthouse if you’re feeling it) where George Washington led some of the most famous battles in the Revolutionary War. If you look around, you’ll find old pieces of metal drilled into the rocks that Washington used to tether boats to and to help transport war supplies across the Hudson. Very cool.

There’s something about the lighthouse defying all odds both in the book and in real life that resounds with our cultural identities as gay men, so you and your date are likely to remember your afternoon with Little Red for quite some time.

I saw that a gay couple became the first documented couple in history to get engaged up on top of the lighthouse back in 2020. It took 120 years for someone to be the first, and I love that it was the gays!

Best date location ever. Guaranteed to get you a second date whether you want it or not.

I’ve done the following stuff as dates and they all turned out great and were fun. These are NOT first date ideas, but date ideas for when you’ve already gone on several dates and a little more serious:

• Broadway shows, Off-Broadway, immersive shows (fun and you get to move around with your date).
• Museums: MET, MoMA, AMNH, Cloisters.
• Michelin star restaurant tour (also cookie tour, pizza tour, rooftop bar tour, etc.)
• Laps around Central Park on bikes.
• Bars with fancy af cocktails.
• Coney Island, riding the roller coasters, eating frog legs and hot dogs
• Mini golf, bouldering, table tennis, pickleball

There’s a new wine and paint place that opened in LES, it looked super popular the last time I walked by

Brooklyn Brainery has a lot of great classes. Not sure if they are transitioning back to in-person yet, but I took one of their virtual classes (DIY hot sauce) and enjoyed it.

r/visitNYC

Hi! If you’re looking for a more self guided wine experience date night I highly recommend going to Corkbuzz in Union Square. My boyfriend and I went a few weeks ago and ordered the “three blind wines” for both red and white. It’s $25 and you get three tasting glasses of different types of wine (we had 3 for white and 3 for red). They give you this awesome sheet that lets you review the wine and decide which ones you like- at the end they reveal which wine is which. It’s a fun intimate way to find out what kind of wine you like. It’s a sexy atmosphere and reservations aren’t competitive!

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I love going to greenpoint for bar hopping and dinner (we live in Manhattan). Our personal fave include: the hidden pearl, oxomoco, little rascal, love birds, ask for Janice, Paulie gee slice shop

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Mercer Labs in Fidi. Expected it to be overrated and kind of like the scam Van Gogh experience, but was proven wrong—super cool and quality visuals/sensory experiencs. Date and I took chocolate shrooms and just walked around doing all the little interactive activities lol.

Date Night at the Met, every Fri + Sat! https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/date-night

Ok it’s a bit pricey but we’re bitches with taste so… AIRE!!

The Met Cloisters/Fort Tryon Park The Ford Foundation Atrium The Morgan Library

Jazz clubs and french restaurants

Shakespeare in the Park https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2425/fsitp/twelfth-night/

We like to go out and see local bands, grab an inexpensive bite to eat, walk trails in the park, occasionally get tickets to a play, or a concert.

Any particular interests? What do you like to do? Anything you'd like to learn or experience?

Food tours- by country, tacos, dumplings, a slice, dessert, ice cream, or even picking out your favorite candies.

Neighborhood tours- Wander through different areas. Look up fun facts and things to share with one another. Find good food. You can pick a street and bounce around to different spots.

Food Roulette- Pick a country/food, pick a random spot, and go check it out.

Subway Roulette- Pick a random subway line and get off at a stop you’ve never explored — do a spontaneous adventure there. You can also do this with PATH, NJ Transit, SEPTA, Metro North, LIRR, Amtrak, etc.

Event Roulette- Go to a site, pick a random event and go.

Alphabet/Color/Item Photo Scavenger Hunt- Take a photo together with something that starts with every letter of the alphabet/color/item on a list.

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt- Pick a neighborhood you want to explore and try to find specific things together.

The park and a BYO food/drink hang out can be very nice. There are so many in every borough. You can eat, drink, explore, bring something to do, whatever appeals. There is often some entertainment. They have events as well: https://www.nycgovparks.org/events/

You can BYO food and drink on the ferry and enjoy the ride. And/or enjoy at your destination.

Or find a POPS and drink/eat there: https://apops.mas.org/find-a-pops/

I know museums are at the top of every single tourist list, but I still think you find something fun and interesting in a museum date depending on interests.

Show each other your favorite spots, like your favorite bookstore, gallery, view, park, bridge, historical spot, etc. And check it out together. Or find new ones to add to the list.

Or plan day of each other's favorite things from start to finish. You can curate a things each other would love to do all day long. You can add in notes. Or reflect on your relationship. You can take each other to places that have meaning to you or you'd like to make memories at. And you can write notes or love letters and explain to give her along the day.

Make some kind of challenge, like walk over every bridge, eat food from every country, hit every major park, walk the grid, walk the perimeter of Manhattan, etc.

The beach and boardwalk, year round. You can ride rides. You can also go down to the Jersey shore for boardwalk action as well.

Hit the roller rink or skate around the city. Ice skate in the winter.

There is a little arcade like place, Game Room in Industry City. It has limited hours. But I think it's 8 for 2.5 hours. https://www.yelp.com/biz/game-room-brooklyn There is also a board game place there. You can pay $12 hour 4 hours of play or borrow a game for the same price. Around there, there are many places to sit inside and out, where you can chill out and talk. You can technically BYOF and you could BYO drinks as well. But there are a number of places to eat.

Board game cafes in general can be fun.

You go could shoot arrows: https://www.got-archery.com/ Or some other physical activity like that.

Take a cheese class: https://classes.murrayscheese.com/ or https://rosciolinyc.com/cheese-classes/

Or an oyster class: https://www.regardingoysters.com/

Or any food or drink tasting that appeals: https://feverup.com/en/new-york/tasting

You can check out a distillery. Or do a brewery tour.

You could find a class of something else that interests you. Check out coursehorse.com

Check out an art experience, like sculpture without sight: https://www.unarthodox.com/ Or paint night: https://www.paintnite.com/us/ny/new-york

There are so many drawing sessions, you could find one that appeals.

Buy art supplies at the dollar store and have a home or park art night. Or get a hotel room and do an art night.

Comedy shows. Tiny Cupboard has a show, games to play before and after, and no 2 drink minimum. https://www.thetinycupboard.com/calendar Brooklyn Comedy Collective https://www.brooklyncc.com/show-schedule Eastville has shows https://www.eastvillecomedy.com/

Open mics.

There is a Catacombs by Candlelight tour that is pretty interesting: https://takeawalk.com/#catacombs-by-candlelight-tour

Hit up a bath house.

Couples massages/Spa day (can also do at your house/in a hotel room)

Bowling

Ping pong

Skee-ball or whatever game appeals

Sunset cruise: https://sail-nyc.com/sunset-cruises-in-nyc/ It may be touristy, but it can be fun.

Swingers: https://www.swingers.club/us/locations/nyc?

Cellar Dog: https://www.cellardog.net/

Chinatown Fair: http://www.mychinatownfair.com/

Tatiana is dinner and a show, but it's an interesting one: https://www.tatianarestaurantnyc.com/

Lucky Cheng's is dinner and a drag show: https://www.luckychengs.com/

Check out a jazz show- so many good ones. Or some other music. And/or dancing. There are a number of fun places. Bo Peep is one example: https://www.ragtradernyc.com/bo-peep/

Camping- there are glamping options if you prefer.

Go hiking upstate. Or hit the many miles of trails or waterfront in NYC. You can also bike or skate them. Pack sandwiches from the deli.

Eventbrite, skint, community calendars, etc.

Atlas Obscura has some great ideas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/new-york

Ask for your friends for their favorite spots.

EDIT: Added a few more idea. And Links? How do they work?

We have so many good bath houses here. Check one out. Book a massage to make your visit even more special. Here’s one i like:

QC Spa on Govornor's Island has an evening specific entry option.

Coffee and donuts at the Donut Pub counter.

sex.

Central Park after sunset is pretty magical. Grab some takeout and find a quiet spot near the reservoir or Bethesda Fountain.

If you're still looking for ideas, and you're a cat lover/history buff: www.catsabouttowntours.com