10 Cheap Date Ideas (Tampa Edition)
For those who are currently in a relationship, I understand the struggle of wanting to have fun without breaking the bank. Rayan and I are definitely the adventurous types who like to explore new places and things, but we also had to be financially-conscious of every tiny purchase. Now that the regulations for the p*ndemic are lessening, there are thankfully lots more opportunities to go out! I’ve attempted to compile a list of some of my favorite cheap (or free) dates. All of these took place in the Tampa area, but I hope this can be helpful wherever you are.
1. Bookstore and Coffee
If you enjoy reading, this is obviously for you. I’ve discovered a few bookstores in my area that I like frequenting with Rayan. Sometimes we’ll pick up coffee or maybe a small box of Krispy Kreme donuts and bring it with us to the a bookstore. We’ll each walk around and pick out a book, then find a quiet corner to sit and read while sharing our snack. This can also apply to a local library if they allow snacks inside. If you want to take this a step further, you and your partner/friend can have an exclusive book club where you both pick the same book to read and discuss your thoughts about it.
For Tampa locals, these are my top two favorite bookstores to go to:
Mojo Books and Records on Fowler Ave: an indie bookstore that has coffee, tea, snacks, and plenty of new/used books to browse. They also sell new/used records.
Barnes and Noble in Carrollwood: a pretty basic bookstore chain, but somehow I still feel excited to go in and check out the newest releases.
Oxford Exchange: my opinion is that it’s a place to mainly just look around because it is DEFINITELY not cheap! Nevertheless it has a beautiful interior with a bookstore and restaurant inside.
Haslam’s Bookstore in St Petersburg: a bit of a ways from Tampa, but a great excuse to drive through on a beautiful day and hit the beach afterwards. The bookstore also has adorable cats that frequent inside.
2. Park Picnic
Tampa has a large winding river cutting through the city and many small parks border this river. I was surprised to find out that there are several less-frequented parks near my apartment. Rayan and I have enjoyed pulling up google maps and exploring new ones. We usually pick up some burritos or wings and have an impromptu picnic. When we finish eating we take walks and scope out the hidden views. Sometimes we have photoshoots or I bring my painting materials to work on outside, especially in cooler weather. For date ideas, I recommend bringing food (even if it’s just homemade sandwiches and juice boxes) and heading to a park near you for a picnic. Have tree-climbing contests, take selfies, paint or color while sitting on the grass, feed turtles in the pond, watch kids play- there’s a lot of interesting things to do outside.
For Tampa locals, here are some of my favorite parks to explore:
Rowlett Park
Lowry Park
Flatwoods
Lettuce Lake
Riverhills Park
Hillsborough State Park (this one has a $6 entry fee, but it’s definitely one of the nicest local parks)
3. Kayaking
If you’re a university student, your school may offer discounts on kayaking or canoeing in certain parks. For USF, there’s $5 kayaking right across the school at Riverfront Park. All you have to do is present your USF ID and you can kayak for two hours. You can even bring a friend who doesn’t attend the university to tag along (or a date). If you don’t attend a university you can always check for local parks that offer kayak/canoe rental services. It may not be as cheap as $5, but they’re usually not that costly. Rayan and I just went kayaking with a tour group company in St Pete (https://tampabackwater.com/). We used a groupon and paid $28 for a tandem kayak (one kayak for two people) for 4 hours. We rowed in a bayou and explored the narrow pathways offered by the mangroves along the border. We even saw a few abandoned boats up close. It’s definitely a fun date on the more adventurous (but not too thrilling or risky) side.
4. Boba and Board Games
Personally, I’m a huge fan of boba drinks. I love going to boba cafe’s and reading manga on the shelf or playing board games (or a hostile- ahem, I mean competitive- game of Uno). You can spend hours there just drinking and entertaining yourself. These are the most popular places in Tampa:
Chewy - can’t go wrong with Taro or Thai milk tea
NagaTea- MY FAVORITE. I highly recommend their ice cream black tea (with boba topping and at 100% sweetness), OR their mango ice cream black tea
Quickly Boba- this one is actually within walking distance from where I used to live. Their chocolate mudslide is pretty good.
Boba House- pretty sure this is the original boba cafe in Tampa before all of the other ones started popping up. They have the most creative cafe atmosphere with plenty of colors and art on their walls.
Ding Tea- this is one of the newer cafes I’ve seen and they had two locations before one shut down. It was a bummer, but we enjoyed getting their brown sugar milk tea.
5. Tuesday Nights- Pizookie’s and UNO
This is a long-standing tradition I have with Rayan and we love it. Every Tuesday BJ’s Restaurant offers pizookie’s (for those who don’t know, this is a freshly baked cookie skillet served with vanilla ice cream on top) for HALF-OFF. That’s around 3 bucks for a big dessert that can be split between two people. Almost every Tuesday Rayan and I go to BJ’s just for their pizookie, and I always bring my UNO deck with me. We play several rounds while waiting for our dessert. As a young broke couple, this consistent date night makes us always look forward to Tuesday’s.
6. Dinner on a Garage Rooftop/ Movie Night in the Car
Now that Rayan and I live together, we usually eat dinner at home. Back when we did our kitb kitab (Islamic marriage) and hadn’t moved in together yet (this was a 6-month period), I still lived with Muslim roommates and he still lived with his parents. We would have to be creative and find places to hang out alone or eat together. Sometimes, we’d opt to takeout dinner and eat it on our university garage rooftop. We’d either pop the trunk and sit there, or sit outside on top of the car. We’d watch the sunset from our high place, and reflect on all of the things we wanted to accomplish in the future.
Another variation of this is parking the car anywhere with a nice view and eating dinner while watching a pre-downloaded movie. Rayan has a hatchback car so we were able to have several date nights in his trunk. For Valentine’s day we drove to a scenic causeway on the gulf coast and decorated the trunk with comfy pillows, blankets, and cute desserts. After a simple dinner of pizza and breadsticks we brought out his laptop and watched a movie as the sun set.
7. Beach Day
I’m not that big of a fan of swimming, but I love being at the beach. My favorite things to do are go on long walks, take pictures, and have picnics. For Tampa folks, I highly recommend Clearwater beach at sunset or even sunrise (it’s practically empty at dawn). Of course, almost any beach would do for a sunrise/sunset watch. A couple of times Rayan and I ventured at 4 in the morning and sat with our breakfast to watch the sunrise. It’s quiet and almost completely empty, and even though the sun doesn’t rise from the west coast, the sky’s changing colors of pink and orange are worth going anyway. The low tide in the morning also enables you to see beautiful large seashells to collect. When we go during the day, we always stop by King’s Pizza across the street for amazing halal and cheap pizza.
8. Swimming with the Manatees
This idea is for the adventurous couples. There’s a lot of Groupons out there for excursion tours in the Crystal River area, costing about $20-25 per person depending on the season (https://www.groupon.com/deals/manatee-tour-and-dive-26). It’s probably one of the priciest dates on this list, but it’s absolutely worth it. I’ve gone twice before, once as a middle school field trip and once with Rayan. We arrived bright and early and spent the whole morning being led to different spots by boat to swim with manatees and other wildlife. Some areas we snorkeled in had super clear water with lots of fish swimming around. I wish I had pictures to show you, but I can attest to how fun and beautiful the experience is.
9. Wat Mongkolratanaram Buddhist Temple
There’s a beautiful Thai temple considered as one of Tampa’s hidden gems (although it’s not so hidden anymore as the crowd grows). Every Sunday there’s an open market from 11 am-2 pm which includes tropical fauna and an abundance of amazingly cheap Thai food made fresh every market day. They even have an exotic nursery selling variations of orchids and even carnivorous pitcher plants. Every once in a while when the weather is nice Rayan and I take a trip there for a Sunday morning date. We walk around, share delicious fried sweet plantains and red chicken with sticky rice, and sit at the dock. I’ve seen lots of fish gather in those waters, which would make for a great opportunity to fish there as well if you’re into the activity. Sometimes we’ll have spontaneous photoshoots there as well. Note: the market takes cash only.
If you live outside of Tampa and don’t have a beautiful Thai temple to frequent on market days, another variation of this is visiting a local farmer’s market. Rayan and I sometimes drive by them and we occasionally stop to look around and buy fresh produce or herb plants for our garden at home. Some markets also have vendors selling homegrown meals or street food. Check online for any weekly markets and go! Depending on the season (like fall or christmas time), they may even have special events or festivals.
10. The $5 Target Date
I actually got this idea from Pinterest and I loved it. The rule is that you go to Target with your partner and you each have 30 minutes to find a gift for each other for $5 or less. Both of you decide who found the better gift, and the winner chooses the activity for the night. When Rayan and I did this, I got him a deck of Dos cards (it’s the sequel to the Uno deck), and he got me a cute faux succulent. I don’t remember who won the contest, nor do I even remember what we did afterwards (maybe we watched a movie?), but I do remember how fun it was to run around the store and hide our gifts from each other at the cash register until it was time to exchange.
Your Turn!
So those are my top 10 ideas in Tampa. Like I said at the beginning, many of these can be applied anywhere you are. Getting married so young forced us to be creative with how we spent time with each other in order to stay within our budgets, but I’m glad we found so many options to do so. I hope these ideas can work for you. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these ideas or if you have additional recommendations!