Fall Day Date Ideas

Couple kissing in a park along a path with fall changing leaves all around them

The fall season can be full of activities for your children, family, and friends. And man can it get super busy!! With all the chaos of the season though, don’t forget to carve out a little time for yourself to enjoy this time of year. And even better, plan a day that you can enjoy with your partner doing some fun fall activities. I’ve compiled a list of fall day date ideas for you and your partner that are sure to help you reconnect, relax and spend a little time enjoying all the fun the fall season has to offer.

Why During the Day?

It’s not always easy to get an overnight babysitter, so I’ve compiled a list of fun day dates to enjoy. If you can snag a night away as well, just expand upon one of these dates at a fun hotel or bed and breakfast. However, where we live in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, the hotel prices go through the roof for the fall peak season. Like, insane prices. So, we don’t plan overnight dates anywhere near home for the fall season. Plus, a fun day date can be a nice change of pace too!

Plan Your Day

First, it’s a good idea to plan your day ahead of time. If you just decide on a day and then don’t have a plan, you may wander around not sure what to do and waste a lot of your time together. And also, if anything required a reservation ahead of time, you’ll have missed out on that for sure! It’s important to plan ahead and get your schedule for the day at least somewhat mapped out.

Do you want to do something active? Something relaxing? Go driving to look at the fall foliage? Decide together what your goal is for your day together and then get to researching!

I’ve compiled a big list of ideas for you to get you started.

Fall Day Date Ideas

Fall foliage with a brown hike sign in the foreground

Heavy Activity Dates:

If you are really feeling like being active for your day together, I’ve got some great suggestions for you!

Go on a hike

Find some trails that meet your fitness level and go for it! You will see some amazing fall colors and get in some exercise along the way too. Grab your backpack, binoculars and pack a picnic lunch and you’ve got an awesome fall day spent outdoors in nature.

ATV Rental/4-Wheeling

Before we had kids, my husband had an ATV and it was always fun to take it out for the day on the trails in the fall. You can enjoy the lovely fall weather, have some fun on the trails and take in a day outdoors with nature. There are lots of places that you can rent ATV’s and 4 Wheelers for the day. You can find them with a simple internet search. Lots of the rental places provide tours if you feel safer going in a group. That’s what I’d suggest! Safety in numbers!

Horseback Riding

Unless you have a stable at your disposal, this will definitely require a reservation and planning ahead. Find a local stable wherever you want to go riding and find out pricing, ride details and if there is any equipment needed.

Corn Maze

Corn mazes are all over the place during the fall season. They may even be around a pumpkin patch that you can wander through as well. These can be great family day activities, but also how fun to take your partner and go find your way out of a corn maze with just the two of you?

Apple Picking

There are apple orchards all over the country that you can go and lose yourself for a day in apple picking activities. Tons of the orchards have little restaurants and some even have a winery or cider brewery/house these days! Plus, when all is said and done, you have delicious apples to take home and have for snacking or to put into your favorite apple recipes. Warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream is my all-time most beloved dessert, so I’m all for having a stash of apples at my disposal!

Try “The Apple Cookbook” for ideas on what to do with all your apples you pick!

Bike Ride

A bike ride can be a fun day any time, but in the fall it’s got especially great scenery. If you don’t have a bike, you can surely rent one. And your local bike shop employees probably have great suggestions on where to ride for whatever type of day you are looking to have. They will know where to send you based on your skill level. For example, my skill level is slightly above need training wheels, while my husband is just south of Lance Armstrong. So, we need a good path that is a compromise. Enter the bike guy at the shop. He knows all the answers!

Fall leaves on the ground with a plaid picnic blanket and picnic basket with thermos and books to read

Light Activity Dates:

Go to the local farmers market

Attend a local farmers market and get some delicious fall produce. Our local farmers market has all the great fall vegetables, plus they add a lot of booths with arts and crafts, baked goods and ciders for the fall season.

If you go, take your reusable produce bags! I discovered these and I’m obsessed with how cool and cute and useful they are!! Or here is a great set with small and large bags for your trip to the farmer’s market.

Attend your alma mater’s homecoming football game

It doesn’t have to be your alma mater. It can just be a football game. It’s so fun to tailgate before the game and then go watch your team play for a few hours on a crisp fall day. Lots of schools have homecoming festivities where you could even have the chance to see old friends.

We live in East Tennessee. Not only do people take their football insanely serious here, if you attend a game at The University of Tennessee, you are attending the game with around 100,000 of your closest friends. To that end, it may require some pre-planning on your part about where to park, tailgate, etc.

Hot air balloon ride

I’ve always wanted to take a hot air balloon ride. But I’m also terrified to take a hot air balloon ride. I mean, you are blowing hot air into a parachute and hoping for the best. (I’m sure it’s a very scientific explanation for how they float and rise… but seriously… hot air in a parachute.) Just know if I do this, I require a tremendous amount of booze first.

If you don’t want to go on a full flight, lots of places will offer a tethered option where you just go up in the balloon and then back down.

Be Warned:

Ballooning is a weather sensitive activity, so just know that if the weather is bad, you will not be able to go. It’s also a REALLY expensive activity. Like $200-$300 a person minimum. So be prepared for that too!

Go to a haunted house

A good and well done haunted house can be a ton of fun. If your idea of fun is knowingly and purposefully scaring the bejesus out of yourself. Some people dig that. Me, not so much.

However, there are haunted houses that pop up all over when it gets close to Halloween holidays, so have at it! Some of them are amazingly well done too! To reach the full effect, I’m thinking you’d want to go a night time. You wouldn’t want to halfway scare yourself. We are aiming for night terrors for weeks to come, right? :o)

Not for ME!

I’m a wimp and I don’t like scary stuff. So, this activity isn’t for me. If I have a free afternoon with my husband, there’s no chance I’m going to a haunted house to watch someone pretend to saw someone’s head off via chainsaw. No thanks, I’d literally rather stab myself with a fork.

But it is a fun activity for lots of people! So check one out if that’s your thing! Don’t let me crap on your haunted house joy!

Cider Tasting, Wine Tasting and Brewery Tours

There are so many local breweries, cider house’s and wine vineyards these days. And lots of them do special flavors or brews for the fall. What a nice way to spend an afternoon trying out local offerings!

Attend a fall festival

Fall festivals pop up all over during the fall season. Usually, they have crafts and food and fun activities. They would probably be a fun family activity as well, but sometimes it’s fun to be able to walk around without the kids and enjoy what a festival has to offer.

Go see a scary movie at the theaters

There are always new scary Halloween movies during the fall. And usually most theaters also play a few classics around this time too. So check your local listings and go take in a good scary movie with popcorn and snacks!

And if scary movies aren’t your thing, just go see the new movie that’s out that you have been wanting to see! (Shocker – scary movies aren’t my thing either! But I’ll definitely see one before going to a haunted house!)

Have a picnic

Lots of my previous ideas involved packing a picnic to go with the day you had planned. But don’t lose sight that it’s ok for a picnic to be the activity for the day. Go pick up food from your favorite local restaurant, or pack a home made picnic and go to your favorite spots outdoor and have a nice and relaxing lunch.

Bring some wine or champagne and take your time lingering over your picnic and enjoying the scenery. You can bring a game to play, books to read or even plan on taking a nap in the fall sun together.

Picnic Supplies:

I just love a picnic. I’ve found a few picnic baskets that you might want to take on your picnic!

Driving Activity Dates:

Drive around to take in the fall foliage

I love the changing colors of the fall and I really love to take a long afternoon drive and look at all the fall colors. It’s truly an amazing time of year and the beauty is everywhere.

We are lucky. We live really close to the mountains, so truly breathtaking fall beauty is quite literally around the corner from us.

Pack a picnic or snacks for an extra fun part of the day.

Drive to the next town and play tourist for the day

I love this idea. Pick a town that’s close by and drive over and be a tourist for the day. Walk around their downtown area and go in all the shops. Try lunch at one of their local restaurants. I think that would be a super fun way to spend a free day in the fall.

Relaxing Home Date Ideas:

Make tailgate food and watch football

Make all the wonderful food you need while watching a football game. Order up some wings and pizza for an easy meal while you take in the game.

Light a fire and watch movies all day

I love this idea! Take a whole day and just snuggle up on the couch, watch movies, nap, have snacks, binge pizza and nachos. Whatever you want. The plan for the day is no plan and all the relaxing.

Don’t be productive. Don’t do laundry. No dishes. Nothing like that. Just be home and relax!

Couple sitting on bench with backs to camera with fall foliage overlooking a riverboat on the river

My ideal fall day date idea:

Now that I’ve given you so many suggestions, I thought it would only be fair to share what I’d do if I had a whole date for a fall day date!

First

First, we’d grab a coffee and a bagel or pastry at a coffee shop and then take it on a drive up to the mountains to see the fall foliage. We would find a place to do a short and easy hike (but still have great views!!) and after the hike we would have a picnic lunch. You could pack the lunch ahead of time or go pick up lunch and bring it back to your picnic location. Where we live, there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken right before you enter the National Park, so somehow, to me, fried chicken has always equaled picnic.

Then

After a nice lunch, I’d spend the afternoon being a tourist in the area and going to some local shops and just spend time shopping and exploring. I’m going to need taffy or fudge to take home. And I’ll probably get an afternoon sweet treat of some kind for sure. And then we’d pick up dinner on the way back and get home to the kids.

That might sound like a dorky day to some, but that’s my idea of a perfect day for a fall date with my husband!

Fall Day Date Idea Wrap Up

There are so many ideas for what you could do for a fall day date with your significant other. It’s so important to slow down every once in a while and reconnect and spend some time together. Life can get really hectic sometimes and it’s hard to slow down if you don’t actively plan to take a day TO slow down.

I hope some of these ideas are a helpful starting point to plan your perfect day out in the fall this year! All you have to do is find the childcare for the day and then get planning! Let me know what your ideal fall day date is! Just keep shuffling!

Fall Day Date Ideas

Why During the Day?

Plan Your Day