20+ memorable, affordable NYC date ideas for Valentine’s Day (or any day)
Xanadu Roller Arts. Photo credit: Dave Jeffers
Official Valentine’s Day events can be overrated and often come with a decidedly un-lovable price tag. Skip the spendy seatings and contrived celebrations and take advantage of the many inspiring, exciting, offbeat, and romantic events the city has to offer.
Experience art and architecture after hours
Guggenheim New York, 1071 Fifth Avenue
Spend Valentine’s Day eve under Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic rotunda. The Guggenheim New York’s Late Shift lets visitors check out the museum’s current exhibitions and collection galleries after hours along with interactive experiences and refreshments. Create your own art at the museum’s Make Easy art-making workshop and get free entry to the event. Otherwise, it’s $15 for general admission, $10 for students, and free for members.
Hit the ice on skates–or in bumper cars
Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park, New York City’s largest free-admission ice-skating rink is open daily, offering skate sessions and rentals for kids and adults. Adjacent is the warm and cozy Lodge, where visitors can sip cocktails as they watch the skaters glide. While you’re there, give the bumper cars on ice a go! This year, the park is unveiling Rosy Igloos, a private igloo festively decorated and cozy for two.
For more skating options, here’s a list of the city’s top skating rinks.
Try some classic video game competition
Barcade, 148 West 24th Street
Arcade bar concept pioneer Barcade is a favorite spot for a fun night out. In addition to over 40 unique arcade games and pinball machines, Barcade offers a full bar with craft spirits, cocktails, more than 25 beers on tap, and classic pub fare. In addition to its Chelsea outpost, Barcade has another location at 6 St. Marks Place in the East Village.
Sharpen your archery skills
Gotham Archery, Brooklyn and Manhattan
Take a cue from Cupid and draw your bow at New York City’s premier archery range. Check out archery lane rental options (from $18) for some friendly competition, or join an introductory archery class ($45) to learn the basics from certified instructors. You can book a session online for the Manhattan or Brooklyn locations.
Visit the desert and the tropics without leaving Brooklyn
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
The Desert Pavilion and Tropical Pavilion at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens will surround you with exotic plant life, even in the middle of winter. The Desert Pavilion displays shrubs, trees, cacti, succulents, and wildflowers native to arid regions. Modeled after a tropical forest, the Tropical Pavilion is a 65-foot-tall oasis of trees, waterfalls, streams, and plants from the Amazon basin, African rainforest, and tropical eastern Asia.
Surround yourself with light and sound
Dream House light and sound environment, 275 Church Street, Third Floor
Composers/sound artists La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s “Dream House” creates a world of sound and light tucked away above a Tribeca restaurant. The exhibition, “a time installation
measured by a setting of continuous frequencies in sound and light,” is in its 31st season at the MELA foundation. The exhibition is open Wednesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. to midnight ($10).
Hit Thursday’s art gallery openings
Thursday is known as the unofficial opening day for gallery exhibitions throughout NYC. Check out resources like Thirsty Gallerina and @earlyburdz for listings, and wind your way through galleries in the Lower East Side, Soho, Chelsea, and more to sip refreshments and view what’s new.
Date night at White Castle
Cravers’ favorite White Castle offers table service at specific locations throughout the city; reservations for February 14-only seatings at the “Love Castle” can be made via Open Table.
Explore catacombs by candlelight
Catacombs by Candlelight, The Basilica of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral; check in at 266 Mulberry Street ($30-$36)
This 80-minute candlelight tour takes you into the catacombs beneath the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in Nolita, for a chance to explore two-centuries-old sacred cemetery spaces that are otherwise off-limits to the general public for an experience that promises to be equal parts eerie, romantic, and historic.
Play a few rounds of mini-golf
Swingers Crazy Golf, 35 West 29th Street
Mix mini-golf with cocktails, gourmet street food, and live DJs at Swingers Crazy Golf. The Nomad location has three courses, each with its own unique designs and obstacles. You can book tickets here (from $28 per person).
Roll away, retro style
Xanadu Roller Arts, 262 Starr Street
Bushwick’s new psychedelic roller rink Xanadu Roller Arts features New York City’s only year-round indoor roller rink surrounded by a massive nightclub, music venue, and all-around entertainment hub. Roll back the years on rented wheels surrounded by world-class sound and lighting systems and creative food and drinks. This year, join the Xanadu Love Roll Valentine’s Day R&B and Disco Skate Party (from $32.71).
Dinner, drinks, and a movie, all in one place
Modern-day film, food and drink venues like Alamo Drafthouse and Nitehawk Cinema offer a curated mix of cinematic offerings with tableside food and beverage service at locations throughout the city.
Have tea for two
Cozy tea rooms Brooklyn High Low and The Parlour offer traditional cream tea service and more–including private parties–at two locations (from $30 per guest). Reservations can be made via Open Table.
Bond over a board game
The Uncommons, 230 Thompson Street, Greenwich Village
Manhattan’s first board game cafe offers classic board games and some lesser-known favorites along with food and drink options that include over 25 craft beer selections. Duck into a cozy nostalgia oasis in a historic Greenwich Village building for some serious geeky fun for $10 per person, with a three-hour limit during peak times.
Get your aura photographed
Popular in the 1930s among the avant-garde, aura portraiture–like astrology and tarot–is enjoying a resurgence. Personalized aura photos often come with a reading that explains the colors visible in your portrait and what they mean for your life (or your love life) and future. Stop into metaphysical store Magic Jewelry locations in Manhattan’s Chinatown and Flushing; aura photography is offered in all three stores ($30; $40 with explanation).
Shoot some pool
Sharks Pool Club lets you pay online to book a pool table for as many hours as you’d like. Bring your own music and BYOB refreshments, and take your best shot at four locations throughout New York City, Williamsburg, Astoria, Two Bridges, and inside Rockefeller Center. Pricing starts at $20 per hour for up to four people.
Axe your ex
Kick Axe, 622 Degraw Street, Gowanus
While axe-throwing may not suggest romance, it might make for some unexpected friendly competition on date night. Kick Axe ensures proper safety measures are in place and guides the unskilled. A full bar offers a variety of drinks, classic bar bites, and a cozy spot to chill when you’re not chucking sharp objects. This year from February 13-16, upload and hang a photo of your un-Valentine and have at it during the “Axe your Ex” event. Book a range for $30 per person for 75 minutes.
Join a free downtown Valentine’s Day jam
Valentine’s Day Jam with DJ Stretch at Time Out Market at 55 Water Street, Brooklyn
From 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on February 14, dance and enjoy signature cocktails and tarot readings, duck into a photo booth…or toss your ex’s left-behinds in a specially designated “Exes Bin.”
If the bin doesn’t do the trick, try a voodoo doll-making workshop: Time Out Market and Brooklyn Craft Company have partnered up for this offbeat way to express your creativity (or your feelings about your ex) while enjoying complimentary Prosecco, a charcuterie spread and like-minded company. Classes ($35) will be held on Thursday, February 13 from 6 to 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, February 15 from 6-7 p.m. and 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Drink, dine, and dip with a runway view
Runway Chalet at the Pool Bar at JFK Airport
Conjure the cachet of international travel without the crowds or security lines. The Runway Chalet atop JFK Airport’s chic TWA Hotel is a heated Alpine-themed restaurant and bar with a “pool-cuzzi” set at 95 degrees; it’s open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily ($25 cover charge).
Say it with hothouse flowers
“The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism” at The New York Botanical Garden
The popular New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show enters its 22nd year, inspired by the work of Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán. The show will fill the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory in the Bronx with thousands of orchid plants and blooms from February 15 through April 27, with a members-only preview on February 14; $35 for adults (free for members/patrons).
Volunteer together
NYC Parks volunteer events
Keeping the city’s parks clean is a group effort, and there’s plenty of room for volunteers. A full list of park cleanup events offers a great way to get outdoors together and show your love for NYC’s green spaces. Upcoming volunteer events include trail work, forest restoration, produce distribution, and garden care.
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