Fun date ideas: 34 playful plans that make you laugh

• Budgetlow
• Best forfirst date, summer afternoons
• Time1 to 3 hours

Lots of beer gardens, breweries and bigger pubs have giant Jenga, cornhole boards or a ring toss out on the lawn. You get drinks, sunshine and a game that's easy to learn and hard to take seriously. When the tower falls, it falls loudly, and everyone around you cheers.

Tip: Play first to three and switch games after each round. That keeps it moving and gives the person who's losing a fair chance to come back.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forfirst or second date, evenings
• Time1 to 2 hours

Shuffleboard looks easy until you send your puck flying off the end of the table. Some bars have long wooden tables, others have floor courts with painted triangles. Either way, you're standing side by side, there's a drink nearby and the rules fit on a napkin.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forsecond date, playful people
• Timeabout 1 hour

Fog, neon and a vest that beeps when you get hit. Laser tag is pure childhood joy, and it's even funnier if you end up on teams with a kid's birthday party. Play on the same team first, then against each other in round two, and compare scorecards over fries afterward.

• Budgetlow
• Best forfirst date, any season
• Timeabout 2 hours

Bingo has quietly become a great night out. Look for drag bingo, music bingo (you mark song titles as the DJ plays them) or a classic bingo hall where the regulars are very serious and very kind. There's a lot of waiting and a lot of shouting, which leaves plenty of room to chat.

Tip: Share one card. If it wins, you both get to yell. If it doesn't, nobody has to lose alone.

• Budgetmedium to splurge
• Best forthird date and later
• Timea full day

The rule: you take turns choosing rides for each other, and nobody can say no more than once. One of you will end up on the scariest coaster in the park, the other on the teacups. Theme park days are long, so save this for when you already enjoy a whole day together.

• Budgetlow
• Best forfirst date, road trips
• Timeabout 1 hour

Each of you gets five dollars and five minutes in a gas station, corner shop or convenience store. Buy the best (or strangest) snack lineup you can. Then find a bench, take turns doing blind tastings and score each other's picks out of ten. It's cheap, chaotic and tells you a lot about someone's taste.

Tip: Add one wild card rule: each lineup must include one snack you've never tried before.

• Budgetlow
• Best forsecond date, adventurous eaters
• Timeabout 1 hour

Buy four or five hot sauces from mild to very hot, a bag of tortilla chips and plenty of milk. Taste them in order and see who taps out first. Keep it fun, not a contest of pride: the moment someone's eyes start watering is the moment you both start laughing.

Tip: Put yogurt, milk or ice cream within reach. Water won't help much.

• Budgetlow
• Best forany date
• Time2 to 3 hours

Cricket, curling, water polo, rugby or a minor league hockey game: pick something neither of you understands and figure out the rules together by watching. Pick a team at random, cheer like you've loved them for years and invent your own explanations for what's going on.

• Budgetlow
• Best forsecond date and later
• Time2 to 3 hours

Many cities have amateur roller derby leagues that play in local gyms and rinks. The skaters are fast, the crowd is loud and friendly and the team names alone are worth the ticket. Ask someone in the stands to explain the rules. People love doing that.

• Budgetfree
• Best forfirst date, daytime
• Time1 to 2 hours

Before you meet, write a bingo card with 16 things to photograph on a walk: a dog in a sweater, a door painted red, someone reading a real newspaper, a misspelled sign, a heart shape that isn't meant to be one. First to get a full row wins. You'll walk further than you planned and notice more of your own city.

• Budgetfree
• Best forfirst or second date, walkers
• Time1 to 3 hours

Open a map and plan a walking route through the streets that traces a shape: a heart, a star, a very wobbly cat. Record the walk with a fitness or running app. The fun is in the planning, the wrong turns and the reveal when you look at the finished line on the map together.

Tip: Start with a simple shape in a neighborhood where the streets form a grid. In curvy old towns, hearts tend to look like potatoes.

• Budgetfree
• Best forany date
• Timeabout 1 hour

Bring a stack of paper, look up two or three folding designs and hold a contest in a park or on a hill: longest flight, longest time in the air and best crash. Write a tiny message inside your best plane and hand it over at the end. Pick up every plane before you leave.

• Budgetfree
• Best forcouples, at home
• Time1 to 2 hours

Each of you picks two songs in secret, raids the closet for a costume and performs in the living room. Hairbrush microphones are allowed, dramatic slides across the floor are encouraged. Way less pressure than karaoke, because nobody has to hit a single note.

• Budgetfree
• Best forthird date and later, couples
• Time1 to 2 hours

Dig out a few of your most awkward childhood photos (the bowl cut, the oversized T-shirt, the proud face next to a sandcastle). Then recreate them as closely as you can: same pose, same expression, similar outfit. Put the old and new versions side by side. Both of you will want to keep the result.

• Budgetfree
• Best forcouples, cozy nights
• Time2 to 3 hours

Pick a movie that's famous for being bad and make bingo cards with things that will surely happen: a slow-motion walk, a terrible one-liner, an explosion nobody reacts to, a villain monologue. Mark them as you watch. A good bad movie is more fun than an average good one.

• Budgetlow
• Best forfirst or second date
• Timeabout 1 hour

Go to a big toy store and each pick the toy your eight-year-old self would have wanted most. Explain why. Then test every button on the display models. You'll learn about each other's childhoods without asking a single serious question.

Tip: Set a small budget and buy each other one tiny thing, like a bouncy ball or a yo-yo, as a souvenir.

• Budgetlow
• Best forsummer, playful couples
• Timeabout 1 hour

A bag of balloons, a hose and a hot afternoon. Fill a bucket each, set up base camps in a backyard or a quiet park corner and go. Nobody stays dry and nobody stays serious. Pick up every scrap of balloon afterward, because they're a hazard for birds and pets.

• Budgetfree
• Best forbeach days, any stage
• Time1 to 2 hours

Each of you gets 30 minutes, one bucket and whatever you find on the beach. Build the best castle you can, then ask a stranger (or a kid nearby, they're tough judges) to pick the winner. Moats, shell windows and seaweed flags all count. Go near low tide, when the sand is damp and firm.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forfirst or second date, evenings
• Time2 to 3 hours

Two pianists, two pianos and a room full of people shouting requests. The players swap songs, roast the crowd and turn every request into a sing-along. You don't need to sing well. Nobody in the room does, and that's exactly why it's so much fun.

Tip: Write a request on a napkin with a funny dedication to your date. Most players read them out.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forfirst date, evenings
• Timeabout 2 hours

Small magic shows in bars and little theaters are intimate and surprisingly funny. You'll spend half the evening whispering "how did he do that" and the walk home building wild theories. Sit near the front if you're happy to be picked as a volunteer, further back if you're not.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forsecond date and later
• Time2 to 3 hours

Everyone wears wireless headphones with a few channels, each playing different music. You dance to one song while the person next to you is dancing to something else entirely. Take one headphone off for a second and the room is just people singing in silence. Funny, freeing and easy to talk during.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forany date
• Time2 to 3 hours

Big costumes, sharp jokes and a crowd that's there to have a great time. A drag brunch adds mimosas and pancakes to the mix, an evening show is more of a party. Bring small bills to tip the performers, it's part of the fun and part of the etiquette.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forsecond date and later, brave people
• Time2 to 3 hours

Many improv theaters run drop-in or one-off beginner classes. You'll play silly warm-up games with strangers, invent scenes on the spot and say "yes, and" more times than you can count. It's awkward for about ten minutes and then it's one of the most freeing things you can do with another person.

• Budgetlow
• Best forsecond date and later
• Time2 to 3 hours

Some independent cinemas show cult classics where the audience shouts lines, throws (allowed) props and dresses up as the characters. Check what's on near you, find out the rules for props and go in costume if you're brave. Even if you don't know the film, the crowd will teach you.

• Budgetlow to medium
• Best forsecond date and later
• Time2 to 4 hours

Pick a silly rule for which bars count: only bars with an animal in the name, only places with a jukebox, only the oldest bars in town. Have one drink (or one soda) in each and rate them on a card. Walk between stops, drink water and call it after three if that's enough.

• Budgetlow
• Best forany date, groups welcome
• Time2 to 3 hours

At a Scottish or Irish ceilidh, or an American barn or contra dance, a caller explains every step right before you dance it. Nobody needs experience. You'll swap partners, spin too fast, bump into strangers and laugh through all of it. Look for community halls, folk clubs and universities that host them.

• Budgetfree
• Best forcouples, at home
• Time2 to 3 hours

Collect boxes, tape, paper cups and books. Each of you builds three holes somewhere in the apartment: a ramp off the sofa, a tunnel under a chair, a cup at the end of the hallway. Use a real ball or a crumpled sock and any stick as a club. Building is half the fun, playing is the other half.

• Budgetlow
• Best forcouples, playful people
• Time1 to 2 hours

Buy printable temporary tattoo paper online or at a craft store. Each of you designs a tattoo for the other in secret, the more absurd the better. Print, apply and wear them to brunch the next morning. Bonus points for a matching pair.

• Budgetlow
• Best forcouples, quiet competitors
• Time1 to 2 hours

Buy two identical small puzzles, around 100 to 300 pieces. Start at the same time on opposite ends of the table. Whoever finishes first chooses dessert. It sounds calm and it is, right up until the last five pieces.

• Budgetlow
• Best forcouples, patient people
• Time2 to 3 hours

Build a chain reaction across the floor with dominoes, books, toy cars and a marble or two. The rule: if it collapses early, nobody is allowed to blame anyone. Film the final run in slow motion on your phone. Watching it back is the best part.

• Budgetfree
• Best fortalkative couples
• Time1 to 2 hours

Pick a ridiculous topic ("the best sandwich of all time, ranked"), invent a show name and record 20 minutes on your phone. Add fake ad breaks for products that don't exist. You'll talk more and laugh more than on a regular night, and you'll have a funny recording to listen to later.

• Budgetfree
• Best forcouples, creative people
• Time2 to 3 hours

Choose a song you both love, plan five or six shots (the kitchen, the stairs, the bathtub with no water) and film it in one evening. Use whatever you have as props. Cut it together with a free app. It will be terrible and you will rewatch it many times.

• Budgetfree
• Best forthird date and later, couples
• Timeabout 1 hour

Each of you prepares three acts: a weird skill (touching your nose with your tongue counts), a short performance and one thing you learned from a video that afternoon. Score each other with homemade cards. The prize is a trophy you make from tinfoil.

• Budgetlow
• Best forcouples, at home
• Time1 to 2 hours

One of you wears a blindfold and makes the food, the other can only give directions. No touching allowed. Pick something that needs no heat and no knives, like sandwiches, a sundae or a fruit salad with pre-cut fruit, then swap roles for round two. The mess is guaranteed and so is the laughing.