20 Unique and Fun Date Ideas around Pittsburgh
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Looking for a fun date night idea in Pittsburgh? This guide to unique and fun date night ideas in Pittsburgh has you covered!
Pittsburgh is full of so many fun things to do so we have compiled some of our favorite date night ideas to help you and your loved one decide what to do tonight! Here are some ways to have the best date night in Pittsburgh!
20 Fun Date Night Ideas In and Around Pittsburgh
1. Get Crafty or Artsy
Getting crafty or artsy with your partner is always fun! From BYOB paint nights to pottery to making your own glass pieces, Pittsburgh has plenty of creative date night spots! So if you’re looking to get arty on your date night in Pittsburgh consider visiting one of these places!
- Color Me Mine
- The Candle Lab
- Pittsburgh Glassworks Center
- Painting With a Twist
- Paint Monkey
- Kiln in Time
2. Get Boozy at a Museum’s 21+ Nights
Many of the museums in Pittsburgh offer 21 and over event nights! These adult-only events give adults a different perspective by opening up the site for drinking and themes activities. The Carnegie Science Center has hosted a range of these events featuring themes such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, True Crime, and 90’s night. Check out the following event pages to see if one of these events is coming up soon!
- Phipps Conservatory
- National Aviary
- Natural History Museum
- Carnegie Science Center
- Heinz History Center
- Pittsburgh Zoo
Read more about Pittsburgh’s awesome museums!
3. Visit the Food Truck Park
At this time the Millvale Food Truck Park is closed.
If you’re looking for a unique place to go eat during the spring or summer in Pittsburgh, consider going to the Millville Food Truck Park. This food truck park along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail features local food trucks so you can eat outside while enjoying the river views. Throughout the spring and summer, the park features themed events such as taco weekends. If you’re looking to make visiting the food truck park an afternoon date, consider renting bikes and biking along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail and then stop at the food truck park for lunch.
4. Rent Bikes (or Kayaks) and Explore the City
If you’re looking to go on an outside date this weekend in Pittsburgh consider renting bikes or kayaks and explore the city! Pittsburgh has the Healthy Ride bike share system where you can pick up a bike at one of the many docking stations throughout the city. To rent a bike all you have to do a small activation fee and run and then rent a bike by the hour. You can easily pick up the bike at one location and drop it off at another. While the bike lanes might be a local meme, they certainly are plentiful in the city, and getting around by bike is a great way to do some sightseeing and get some exercise.
During the summer, the Open Streets program blocks off different neighborhoods so you can bike and enjoy the neighborhood without cars! If you want to view Pittsburgh from a completely different perspective and center rent a kayak by Venture Outdoors. you can easily pick up your kayak along the North Shore and you can kayak along with three rivers.
5. Explore Pittsburgh’s Unique Places
If you’re looking to do something really different as a date in Pittsburgh, consider visiting one of Pittsburgh’s most unique places! We created this list of some of Pittsburgh’s unique places so check them out and pick one to explore. Just to name a few of these places, you can either explore Randyland is it one of Pittsburgh‘s wooden streets, or explore decades worth of bikes and bicycle heaven.
Read more about Pittsburgh’s unique attractions!
6. Laugh at the Arcade Comedy Club or Pittsburgh Improv
One of our favorite date night ideas is going to the Arcade Comedy Club. This comedy club also serves as a comedy school, so all the shows you’ll see are with people learning! Even though they’re amateurs, they put on fantastic shows! And Aracde is BYOB!
The Pittsburgh Improv in the Waterfront is another place to see comedy shows. Here, you can see traveling comedians and headliners or the local comics.
7. See a Musical or Orchestra Show
Pittsburgh Cultural District is a great place to go on a date if you’re looking to experience the theater! The Pittsburgh Ballet, Pittsburgh Symphony, and traveling Broadway shows are always entertaining the city! So browse what shows are available, pick one that suits your fancy, then consider grabbing dinner or a happy hour before your show to complete your date plans.
8. Be Touristy and Go on A Gateway Clipper Cruise
Even if you’re from Pittsburgh or the surrounding suburbs, being a tourist for a day can be a lot of fun! The Gateway Clipper cruises are a fun way to see the city without breaking the bank. And they’re a great way to refresh yourself on our Pittsburgh history. The Gateway Clipper offers seasonal and themed cruises too! After your sightseeing cruise, have dinner at Station Square, then ride the Incline up to Mount Washington to finish your night off with a beautiful view of the city.
9. Go See a Classic Movie in Theaters
Sometimes movies are better on the big screen, right? Multiple movie theaters throughout the city regularly screen older movies on the big screen! Row House Cinema and the Rangos Theater both offer special screenings.
The AMC Waterfront theater offers Classic Movie Nights on Wednesday events every month. In the summer months, the Pittsburgh parks system offers outdoor movies in the park!
10. Enjoy and Explore the Outdoors
Pittsburgh is full of urban and suburban parks for hiking and walking! We love spending time outdoors in Pittsburgh because there are so many beautiful hiking and walking trails to explore. One of our favorite places to walk within city limits is Panther Hollow in Schenley Park, while our favorite state park is Raccoon Creek (which is great for picnics!)
11. Trivia Nights
For those weeknight date nights, consider going to trivia at one of the many locations in Pittsburgh.
12. Have a Classic Date Night with Bowling or Mini Golf Places
In this list of date night ideas in Pittsburgh, we’ve been suggesting some more unique date ideas in Pittsburgh, but we can’t ignore the classic date night ideas like bowling or mini-golfing. Pittsburgh is full of local and non-chain bowling alleys that also happened to double as bars! Some of our favorite places include Arsenal Bowling.
One summer we made it a mission to visit every mini golf course within 40 minutes of Pittsburgh. Here is a list of all of the mini-golf places possible in the Pittsburgh area. Our favorite place is Kneiss mini-golf course which features two different courses that have some really fun designs and moving parts. TopGolf is also another option for those looking to swing a club.
- Kniess
- RMU Sports Complex Mini Golf
- Forsythe Mini Golf
- North Park Mini Golf
- Cool Springs Mini Golf
- Sunset Mini Golf
Don’t want to bowl or golf but want to do a sporty activity? Ax throwing has become huge among young people. So if you’re looking to do something kind of trendy and very hipster Millvale is home to Lumberjaxes where you can do ax throwing and curling!
13. Visit Phipps Conservatory
One of our favorite places to visit in Pittsburgh is Phipps Conservatory we feel like it deserves a spot on this date night in Pittsburgh list. Phipps Conservatory is an indoor botanic garden features themed exhibits throughout the year. This is great to visit during any time of year whether warm up in the winter or enjoy the outdoor gardens in the summer. Phipps Conservatory also has numerous events throughout the year that are aimed toward adults. These 21 and over events feature booze, food, and themed activities all while enjoying the beautiful flowers at Phipps Conservatory.
14. Explore a Museum
While we mentioned earlier that the museums in Pittsburgh offered adult-themed events, visiting the museums during regular open hours is a great way to spend time with your significant other in Pittsburgh. The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are some of the most popular in the city. At the Natural History Museum, you can walk them on dinosaurs or explore the mirrored geology hall or learn about human anthropology. While at the Carnegie Museum of Art you can gaze at Monets and modern art. Pittsburgh is also home to some pretty unique museums such as Bicycle Heaven, The Heinz History Center, and the Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning.
15. Tailgate and Watch a Sporting Event
Pittsburgh is home to some of the best sports fans in the country. We might be biased but we love going to Pittsburgh sporting events because of the black and gold and the Hometown pride. No matter what season it is you’ll be able to enjoy Pittsburgh sports! Going to a sporting event it’s an easy date night idea. Consider pregaming at one of the bars in the southside or on the north shore and then get to the game!
16. Visit the Zoo or the Aviary
For our animal-loving couples, Pittsburgh is home to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, and the National Aviary. We love going to the Pittsburgh zoo so much that we ended up getting a zoo membership it was incredibly worth it. The Pittsburgh zoo with some amazing animals in elephants, tigers, clouded leopards, cheaters, polar bears, and sea lions just to name a few. If you’re looking to visit somewhere a little smaller than the zoo the National Aviary it’s a great place to visit if you want to see exotic birds and African penguins.
17. Games n’at, Coupe de Ville, or Dave and Busters
What’s better than playing arcade games? Playing arcade games with booze! Games n’at is a locally owned old-school arcade in the Southside with pinball machines, duckpin bowling, and it’s BYOB! Games n’at is now. closed as of 2022 🙁 However, if you want the vintage game night vibe, consider going to Coupe de Ville, which features a modern twist on some of your favorite classic arcade games!
Dave and Busters makes for a great date night if you’re looking to play more modern games in a sports bar setting. Make your way to Homestead and grab dinner at the Waterfront, then head to Dave and Buster’s for a night of friendly competition! Tip: Head to Dave and Buster’s on a weeknight for one of their specials where you can get half-off games or discounted gameplay!
18. Get Boozy at a Local Winery, Distillery, Brewery or Ciderhouse
Yinzers know how to drink, so it’s only appropriate that we add some drinks to our date night in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh and its surrounding neighborhoods are full of quirky and unique places to drink.
- Courtyard Winery in the Strip District
- Pittsburgh Winery
- Threadbare Ciderhouse
- Arsenal Ciderhouse
- Full Pint Brewery
- Wigle Whiskey
- Grist House
19. Pick Your Own Fruit and Flowers
Simmon’s Farm, located 25 minutes south of Pittsburgh, is an Instagram-worthy place to visit with your partner. Throughout the year at Simmon’s Farm, you can pick your own fruits and flowers depending on what is in season!
20. Relive Your Childhood at Kennywood
If you’re from the Pittsburgh area, you probably have some dear childhood memories at Kennywood! Relive some of those memories with your partner on a trip to Kennywood. During the summer Kennywood is your classic amusement park, but in the fall it turns into a haunted world and in the winter it is dazzled with Christmas lights! Visiting Kennywood makes for a fun date in Pittsburgh for any time of the year.
Don’t Forget to Check Out Pittsburgh’s Seasonal Festivals and Events
Pittsburgh is full of seasonal activities that are worth making it on this date night in Pittsburgh list! In the fall, you visit a local pumpkin patch and in the winter you can enjoy winter sports and inside activities
Annual Events in Pittsburgh
- Three Rivers Regatta
- Pittsburgh Pride
- Three Rivers Arts Festival
- Open Streets
- Pittsburgh Wine Festival
- Pittsburgh Pierogi Festival
- Picklesburgh
- Pittsburgh Marathon
- Pittsburgh Irish Festival
- Pittsburgh Beerfest
- Pittsburgh Restaurant Week
- Little Italy Days
- Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival
- Pittsburgh Grand Prix
- Kennywood Fright Nights
- Kennywood Christmas Light Show
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