Date ideas in Dallas: 16 dates from Deep Ellum to White Rock Lake

• Budgetfree to low
• Best forfirst date
• Time1 to 2 hours
• WhereBetween Pearl and St. Paul Streets, downtown

Klyde Warren Park is a strip of lawn, fountains and shade built on a deck over the sunken Woodall Rodgers Freeway. You'd never guess there's a freeway running under your picnic blanket. Food trucks often line the street next to the park and there's a stage in the middle with a busy events calendar.

For a first date it does the important things well. It's easy to find, there's always something to watch and you can stay 30 minutes or 3 hours.

Tip: Bring a blanket and sit near the fountains as the skyline lights up. If you're both still talking, the Nasher garden and the trolley are steps away.

• Budgetfree
• Best forfirst date, rainy or hot day
• Time1 to 2 hours
• WhereArts District

The Dallas Museum of Art introduced free general admission in 2013. Two things worth hunting down together: The Icebergs by Frederic Edwin Church, a huge 1861 painting that was lost for decades, and the Reves Collection, displayed in rooms that recreate a villa on the French Riviera. The museum has also run monthly Late Nights with music, talks and films.

Tip: Split up for 15 minutes, each pick one work the other has to see, then swap tours. Special exhibitions usually cost extra.

• Budgetlow
• Best forcalm, artsy
• Time1 hour
• WhereNext to the Dallas Museum of Art

The Nasher Sculpture Center was designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 2003. The real draw is the garden, which terraces down toward the building like an open-air theater. Big modern sculptures stand between the trees, so it feels more like a walk than a museum visit.

Tip: Go in the late afternoon when the light gets soft, then cross the street to Klyde Warren for dinner from a truck.

• Budgetmedium to splurge
• Best foranniversary, dress-up night
• Timeevening
• WhereMeyerson Symphony Center or Winspear Opera House

The Arts District has two halls made for a proper night out: the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, home of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House next to the Wyly Theatre. You don't need to be a classical music expert. Pick a program with one piece you've both heard of and let the rest surprise you.

Tip: Look for shorter concerts or film nights with a live orchestra if one of you isn't sure about three hours of opera.

• Budgetfree
• Best forfirst date, playful
• Time1 to 2 hours
• WhereUptown, along McKinney Avenue

The M-Line runs restored historic streetcars, the oldest built in 1909, from downtown and the Arts District up McKinney Avenue past West Village. It's free. Ride the whole line once, then hop off wherever a patio looks good and walk back along McKinney Avenue.

Tip: Sit by an open window and pick the stop together without looking at the map. Half the fun is landing somewhere random.

• Budgetfree
• Best foractive, cheap
• Time1 to 2 hours
• WhereFrom Victory Park to Mockingbird Station

The Katy Trail follows an old railroad line through Uptown and Oak Lawn for about 3.5 miles. There's a paved path for walking and biking and a soft running track next to it, with plenty of trees by Dallas standards. Do a stretch, turn around and end with a cold drink nearby.

Tip: Start early on summer weekends. By midday the concrete radiates heat like a pizza stone.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best fordate night, music lovers
• Timeevening
• WhereDeep Ellum, just east of downtown

Deep Ellum grew up around a railroad junction and in the 1920s and 30s it was a center of early Texas blues. Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lead Belly played on its streets and in its clubs. Today it's the city's best-known strip for live music, with venues like Trees and Club Dada and a lot of smaller rooms in between.

Check who's playing a few days before, buy tickets for a band neither of you knows and make it a game: whoever likes the opener more picks the late-night snack.

Tip: Arrive in daylight and walk the side streets first. The murals change often, so there's always something new on the walls.

• Budgetfree to medium
• Best forfirst or second date
• Time2 hours
• WhereNorth Oak Cliff, around Bishop Ave and Davis St

Bishop Arts is a few blocks of 1920s storefronts filled with independent shops, galleries, coffee and places to eat. In the 1930s a trolley stop on Davis Street here was the busiest in Dallas. Today you can get there by streetcar from Union Station again. It's walkable, a bit quirky and very good for a date where you just wander.

Tip: Give each other a small budget and ten minutes to buy the other one something odd from a different shop. Present the gifts over dinner.

• Budgetlow
• Best fordate night, film lovers
• Time2 to 3 hours
• WhereWest Jefferson Boulevard, Oak Cliff

The Texas Theatre opened in 1931 and is now an independent and repertory cinema with special screenings and events. It's also a piece of history: on November 22, 1963, police arrested Lee Harvey Oswald inside. A marker outside tells the story. Watching an old classic here feels very different from a mall multiplex.

Tip: Combine it with Bishop Arts: dinner first, then the short drive to Jefferson Boulevard for the film.

• Budgetfree to low
• Best foractive, daytime
• Time2 to 3 hours
• WhereEast Dallas

The trail around White Rock Lake is about 9 miles long, mostly flat and shared by bikes, runners and walkers. On the west side you get views across the water to the downtown skyline. You can also rent a kayak or a paddleboard and see the lake from the water. Swimming isn't allowed, so the paddle is as wet as this date gets.

Tip: If 9 miles sounds like a lot, bike it. At an easy pace it's a relaxed hour with lots of stops.

• Budgetmedium
• Best forromantic, day date
• Time2 to 3 hours
• WhereGarland Road, on the southeast shore of White Rock Lake

The Dallas Arboretum covers 66 acres on the shore of the lake, with formal gardens, a historic 1930s mansion called the DeGolyer House and big seasonal shows. In spring the garden is known for its tulip beds. Every fall, Autumn at the Arboretum fills the Pecan Grove with a "Pumpkin Village" of tens of thousands of pumpkins and gourds. During Holiday at the Arboretum the garden usually has evening hours too.

Tip: Pack a picnic and look out for the Cool Thursdays concert series on the lawn. Book timed tickets for the popular seasons.

• Budgetfree
• Best forromantic, cheap
• Time1 hour
• WhereBetween downtown and West Dallas

This old road bridge over the Trinity River was closed to cars and turned into a park for people on foot in 2014. There are lounge chairs, shade and oversized chess boards. Right next to it rises the white arch of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by Santiago Calatrava, and behind you is the skyline. At sunset it's one of the best views in the city.

Tip: Challenge your date to a round of giant chess. Loser picks up dinner in West Dallas at the end of the bridge.

• Budgetmedium
• Best forromantic, date night
• Time1 hour
• WhereReunion district, downtown

Locals call it "the Ball": a 561 foot tower with a lit-up globe on top. The GeO-Deck observation level has telescopes and wide views over downtown, the highways and the Trinity. After dark, the city turns into a map of moving lights.

Tip: Go just before sunset so you get daylight and night views in one visit.

• Budgetfree
• Best forquick stop, visitors
• Time30 minutes
• WhereConvention Center District, downtown

Forty-nine bronze steers and three trail riders "drive" down a hill and past a stream in this downtown park, a tribute to the cattle drives of the 1800s. Each steer is about six feet tall. It's short, very Texas and makes for the silliest photo of the evening.

Tip: Add it to a downtown walk with Reunion Tower or Dealey Plaza instead of making it the whole date.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forhot days, playful
• Time1 to 2 hours
• WhereNorth Dallas, near I-635 and the Dallas North Tollway

The Galleria mall has an indoor ice rink in the middle of its shopping levels. Skating in a T-shirt while it's blazing outside is a pleasantly absurd date. If neither of you can skate, even better: holding hands is suddenly a safety measure.

Tip: Weekday evenings are usually calmer than weekend afternoons.

• Budgetmedium
• Best forfun, fall
• Timehalf a day
• WhereFair Park

The State Fair of Texas runs for about three and a half weeks from the last Friday in September at Fair Park. Big Tex, a 55 foot cowboy who "talks", greets everyone at the gate. Ride the Texas Star Ferris wheel at dusk, try one deep-fried thing that sounds like a bad idea and share it.

Tip: Go on a weekday evening, when it's cooler and less crowded than a Saturday afternoon, and check the dates on the official site.