Valentine's Day Ideas

Coming up with unique ideas for every Valentine's Day that you ever celebrate can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. The first fallacy is thinking that you have to come up with a different idea completely, and that is wrong. If you can, then great, but really, the most important objective is to come up with a different variation of the same ideas. When you think of it this way, the "task" becomes much less of a task, and becomes more like "date planning." Allow me to provide some ideas and examples.

Undoubtedly, this is the go to plan for Valentine's Day. Now you could try and come up with something different, but it is so much easier to come up with a different variation.

Dinner and Dancing: The same idea, dinner followed by entertainment. This is a more basic and obvious variation, but for people that don't dance often, this might be a fun change.

Dinner Cruise: This is a little less obvious of a variation. Often dinner cruises will include dinner and some form of entertainment whether it be dancing, comedy, or live performances. These can be a little pricey, but once again, they are the same idea: dinner followed by entertainment, it is just a little different.

Dinner and a Play/Concert: Another variation of the vanilla idea. Go to a nice dinner, then instead of the local Regal Cinema, take her to a live play, Orchestra, or concert that she may have wanted to see.

Choosing the Restaurant:  The key to making dinner fun is to avoid the usual places that you already go to. Now, I know you are probably thinking: what if the place ends up being a nightmare? Here are some tips:

• Avoid brand new places unless there are tons of recommendations
• Research restaurants thoroughly using tools like Yelp.com, Dine.com, and TripAdvisor.com
• Be sure to check the reviews at multiple web sites, not just one
• Test drive it, go have lunch on a weekday. If a restaurant is excellent in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday then it will probably be just as good if not better on a holiday night!

Many people can slam dunk the dinner portion of the date but fall flat on the entertainment part. I will provide some ideas here that many people might not think of. Also, I've included a bunch of ideas in the "Easy Chart" below.

Movies: This is the every basic idea that many first think of. You can put a little spin on it by going to a Drive-in theater, or a theater with a built in bar so you can enjoy some drinks while watching the movie.

Spa Treatments:This would be your basic spa treatments like soaks, couples massages, and the various other activities. Spas tend to set a very nice ambiance and this can really be a nice relaxing way to entertain.

Simple Romance: These are more simple but romantic ideas like a walk along the beach, watching the sunset with a bottle of wine, a visit to a nice park, a long scenic drive, and other things that will provide a beautiful view but allow for meaningful conversation.

Sporty Romance: If you both are sports fanatics then visiting a sporting event might be a fun surprise.

Outdoorsy Romance: Hiking to the top of a scenic place to watch the sunset is a nice way to include romance into your outdoorsy tendencies. Camping in a beautiful place will really help to set the mood.

Scenic Romance: For the less outdoorsy but those that love a good view you could consider going on a guided tour of a historic place, a helicopter tour, or a hot air balloon. All of these options will provide a beautiful view.

Below I am including a little chart for you to use. In column 1 there are a bunch of dinner ideas, in column 2 there are a bunch of entertainment ideas, and in column 3 are some nice little ways to cap off the night. If you choose one thing from each column it should help you come up with a nice Valentine's Day plan.