At long last, it’s spring. The birds are chirping, people are laughing, and you can actually see what someone looks like walking down the street because they’re not all bundled up in a winter coat. The parks are finally becoming green again and joggers are showing up outside instead of in the gyms.

Beautiful weather and greenery give off a lovely vibe of leisure and peace.

So you meet a prospect and want to go on a date- and, you actually are looking to get to know the person, not just to sleep with them. In winter, it is natural to suggest a restaurant or indoor activity. But for spring and summer, make it an outdoor date- and make it during the day. Even better is to plan the date on a Saturday or Sunday, where neither of you have to be anywhere.

Great daytime dates typically start around 1 or 2:00 in the afternoon with lunch and conversation- if the weather is nice, make it a picnic. And it doesn’t have to be in Central Park- New York has parks all over the place, and although some might be nicer than others, just sitting in the sun near some trees has a pretty magical effect.

After lunch, walk around- no purpose necessary. However, it is always nice to walk towards a romantic destination- so that when your sandals start digging into your toes, there is actually a bench or some grass to sit down on, and an environment to set the mood.

The endorphins provided by the exercise of walking and the happiness engendered by the sun will put you both in a good mood- setting you up for a lovely time with one another. And resist the urge to make plans with a friend for later in the day or to provide yourself with an out. Just enjoy the weather and the company and let yourself get to know that person. A really awesome daytime date won’t end until after the sun sets:  as my lovely date yesterday said as we waited for homemade pasta at a little Italian bistro tucked away on Suffolk Street -”It’s like we’ve had three dates in one- (and three great dates, at that).”

Great ideas for beautiful daytime dates:

Picnics- Whole Foods and the City Bakery (18^th bet 5^th and 6^th), are both places great to get picnic-esque food

Parks (Central, Madison, Gramercy (if you can sneak your way in- just be prepared to sneak out also!), Bryant, Riverside)

*The Reservoir and the Pond at Central Park are both gorgeous

The Water – There is a beautiful new esplanade between East Houston Street to 20^th st., and then all the way from 59^th st. up on the East Side, and the West Side has places to chill all the way up to Harlem)

Bike Riding- Most places let you rent bikes as cheap as 10 dollars for two hours

Roof Top restaurants, gardens, and bars- Most of these are hotel bars- Gramercy Park Hotel, the Soho Grand, the Hudson Hotel, The Standard Hotel

Canoeing- Central Park anyone?

Kayaking- Kayaking starts in the middle of May at spots up and down the Hudson  http://www.downtownboathouse.org/kayaking.html, and bonus, it’s free!!!

The Driving Range- Chelsea Piers, anyone?

Hiking- take the subway up to Inwood- and hello, hiking!

Ice Cream- my personal fave is Emack and Bolio’s

The Ferry- The Ferry to Staten Island is 100 percent free

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island- intellectual, interesting, and ancestral oriented, ferry is awesome

This entry was posted on Monday, April 5th, 2010 at 11:57 am and is filed under NYC, advice, dating, economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.