Need a cheap date? How about a free date? Romance doesn’t have to be expensive. I met my boyfriend last year when we were both unemployed. Since we were both in the business of watching our finances, we had to get creative with dates. We quickly found that budding love didn’t have a price. And Cleveland provided the perfect backdrop for not only a wallet friendly date, but a free romantic day or evening. Here are my top five suggestions for a free time in Cleveland with your new (or established) love.
1. Cleveland
Cultural Gardens
Featuring gardens that represent over 20 cultures from all over the world, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens provide a great icebreaker on a first date. There are so many plants, flowers, and statutes to comment on, it’d be tough not to keep conversation going. You can prepare ahead of time for this by printing off a self-guided tour of the gardens at http://culturalgardens.org. You’ll not only look like a cultural connoisseur, but like you put a lot of time into the date, which just happens to also be free.
Free tours of Cleveland’s most respected brewery are available every hour from 5-9 on Fridays and from 1-8 on Saturdays. You can now register for tour tickets online at www.greatlakesbrewing.com. My boyfriend and I are suckers for a local breweries, so having the opportunity to tour one of our favorites was not only fun, but meant we’d saved enough to splurge on a pint afterwords, because of course the tour, our activity for the evening, was free.
Take your guy or girl to a free concert in Wade Oval Park on any Wednesday night from June to August. Relax or ask your date to dance. You can also check out the rest of University Circle, which can include a romantic walk around the pond in front of the Cleveland Art Museum. Wade Oval Wednesdays (or WOW!) also holds movie nights once a month for free! Visit www.universitycircle.org for a schedule of bands and movies for 2011.
Daily admission to the Cleveland Art Museum is free and also a great way to learn if you and your date have compatible tastes. My boyfriend and I went through every room pointing to which paintings we’d put in our own personal art collection, if we were ever rich enough to have one. It’s a nice quiet space that’s just quant enough for a hand held walk and maybe even a little kiss.
5. Have
a Picnic! Anywhere!
Northeast Ohio is very picnic friendly. Grab a basket, make up some sandwiches and some cookies, and head just about anywhere for a quiet meal. The Metroparks are a good choice. There’s also the lovely scenery of Edgewater Park. If you really want to be unique, head out to Richmond Heights for a picnic and a rugby match. It’s free to watch the matches and isn’t something that every couple will do. Whether you know the rules of rugby or not, it will definitely leave an impression.
