After a consecutive 10-day span of Netflix and Uber Eats, I began to worry that this could be the beginning of the dimming of our romantic flame. I didn’t want our relationship to lose its exciting energy. We were both such active people when we first met, but the stresses and demands of everyday life left us exhausted and it was starting to seem like we’d stopped putting as much energy into ourselves and our relationship as we used to.
I decided it was time to make a change, so we got in the car and hit the road. We decided to approach the day like we were at summer camp — we rented bikes, went swimming in the lake, and played boccie ball at a local tavern.
This action-packed day left us feeling excited, alive and more connected to one another than we’d been in ages (or the past few weeks, anyway). That day we made a pact to break free of our lazy routine every weekend and be more active together through shared hobbies.
Engaging in an activity with your spouse can strengthen your bond and help you create unforgettable memories. To keep things fun and fresh in your relationship, try some of these activities together:
Explore the Great Outdoors
Take the weekend to get into nature and enjoy the serene sounds and sprawling vistas. Spending time together without distractions allows for moments of open communication and opportunities to bring out your adventurous side. Going on biking or backpacking trips can bring you closer together since you have to rely on teamwork to navigate the trails and set up your tent.
If you live near NYC and you’d rather opt for a two or four-hour hike, we love the Storm King Mountain trail, which is about an hour north of NYC, but you can choose your adventure here.
Play a Sport
If you both enjoy being athletically active, take up a sport you can play together. Golf is one you can play together until you’re 90 years old (or so the sales pitch from my golf-loving husband goes).
Tennis is another excellent activity for couples to enjoy, as it can vary in intensity and can be played with just the two of you. Or, if you want to put your tennis skills to the test, play against another couple for a fun challenge. Find couples looking for friendly competition on the USTA site.
For an extra challenge, learn an unusual sport together like kayaking, archery, fencing, or sailing.
If you and your spouse love living on the wild side, try a more extreme hobby like white water rafting, skydiving, rock climbing or drag racing. Drag racing is an exhilarating sport that helps relieve pent-up stress. Around the country, there are weekend drag races happening where cars race at speeds up to 115 mph. To equip your car, make sure it has the proper safety features and high-quality equipment. Then, fulfill your need for speed and some healthy competition by racing against each other.
Find Your Zen
Practicing yoga or meditation with your spouse is an effective way to center yourselves and find your calm. Many yoga studios offer classes for couples yoga, which increase the communication and sensitivity in your relationship.
Couples meditation is a powerful way to relax together on a daily-basis and can also come in handy during times of conflict. If you are new to meditating, there are several mobile apps that provide you with guided meditation sessions that you can practice with your loved one.
Take a Mini-Vacation
Not feeling the road tripping vibe? There are loads of last-minute vacation discounts online. Find one and go somewhere really spectacular. Traveling together is a great bonding experience.
Google Flights and Skyscanner have handy map tools that can help you find the cheapest flight. If your destination is open-ended — i.e., “anywhere with a beach” — use the map to pick the most economical locale.
A travel app I love is Very Chic, which offers curated last-minute deals if you need a romantic place to stay tonight, tomorrow or within the next couple of months. While some deals – especially in the US – are not so good, it can deliver deep discounts in Europe and the UK. BluByn is a new app with a personal concierge that will help you find the best travel deals from across the internet. Here’s a list of more great travel apps.
So take your adventurous spirit, your active lifestyle, and your insatiable curiosity and use those traits to explore and revamp your relationship. Ready. Set. Go!
My husband and I read this together but we didn’t find anything that excites us. I don’t know, but mainly because these options require traveling quite far just so we can do them. Our date nights aren’t fancy dinner dates but we cook together, set the table together and even buy flowers for the table. We eat together with no cellphones anywhere near us and we just allow each other to talk and share our thoughts and feelings. I hope that this doesn’t get misinterpreted by people.
It’s not a requirement for everything to be fancy. As long as you two are enjoying the moment, don’t be ashamed of it!
I love how chatty cute and real you are girl! You are definitely someone I would love to meet in real life and to be my close friend. I really enjoy your article, you are so inspiring and very brave. I know you have been through a lot, but I’m so glad to see you happy with your man Mike.
When I’m out around town, I scan my surroundings looking for interesting places. Used book stores, cool pizza joints, etc. but I’ll also come across places I’d like to take my boyfriend. This way there’s always something new to do. Also adapting to current circumstances can drastically alter what you’d normally consider as date activities. If your SO is stressed out stop thinking dinner and drinks where they have to get all prettied up, think nature walks with a picnic.
For me, the most important thing in my relationship after mutual love/respect is sexual compatibility. But I think it’s worth finding excitement from other things too – your friends or hobbies.
Prank a mutual friend. It’s fun to cause mischief together and people don’t get mad because they think it’s cute. ??
Stay at a hotel in/near the city where you live. Explore parts of your city you don’t often see by walking around. This works best if you live in the suburbs / outskirts of a fairly decent sized city… like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Denver, etc…
My wife and I have been together 15 years and we still go out and have dates as a couple (in addition to having a set of solo activities we do). I go the lazy route and buy a couple of subscriptions, a summer concert series and our local equity theater for fall/winter. These two things give us about a date a month and we bought the tickets so we are going. Try a new place for dinner several of those times. We also have a hockey game we go to every year. It also helps for you to be aware of where your relationship is and keep yourself moving ahead and developing.
Paintball … we loved it! Team up together or … even better tam up against each other … PS: This goes only for healthy couples that know what they are doing! Dont give Bonus balls to your SO if she/he is already pissed…
I have to agree, doing new things is one of the best ways to keep things fresh. It’s easy to fall into a rut and new experiences help break the monotony and give you new things to talk about.
When on long car rides together, listen to podcasts that teach you something or which discuss some sort of controversial topic. My SO and I will listen to things like Radio Lab, 99% Invisible or This American Life while on long car rides. Quite often we will pause the show to discuss our thoughts on the show’s topic. This has led to many great hours of interesting, intelligent conversation between us where we have gotten to learn a lot about each other and the point of view we have on many things in the world. It’s a great bonding tool, plus you learn some nifty cool shit along the way.