First Date Ideas According To Your Chinese Zodiac Sign
Struggling to come up with good date ideas for Valentine's Day? Why not draw inspiration from the other holiday coming up soon: Namely, Chinese New Year.
After all, it's not every year that Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year happen so closely to each other, making it the perfect excuse to tailor your plans to your date's interests based on their Chinese zodiac sign.
Here's what we suggest:
If your date is a: Rat
He or she is: Adaptable, outgoing and creative, but also timid and loves to gossip
First date idea: Art jamming. You don’t want anything too adrenaline-pumping to scare off your rat date. Plus, sitting beside each other for a couple of hours lets you two chat a lot and kaypoh other couples around you.
Try: Wildflower Studio takes art jamming to the next level by combining it with another popular concept: Cat cafes. As you relax and unleash your creative juices, the studio's friendly rescue cats roam freely, observing your creations and occasionally demanding attention. It's also a fun way to break the ice with your date by doting on your favourite kitties together.
Wildflower Studio, Enabling Village, UOB Ability Hub, 20 Lengkok Bahru Rd, #01-19C, Singapore 159053
Find out more here
If your date is an: Ox
He or she is: Patient and courageous, but also not open to change and thinks too much
First date idea: Board games at a games café. This person will love the long hours of strategising and mulling over a musty-smelling board that 3,521 other gamers have pawed at.
Try: King And The Pawn. They have an extensive food and drinks menu, which includes locally-roasted coffee and signature cocktails, so you won’t have to moo-ve to another place for a meal later. As an added bonus, the cafe has a reopening promo from now till end February, offering $10 off your total bill with a minimum spend of $50.
17 Purvis St, #01-01, Singapore 188596
Find out more here
If your date is a: Tiger
He or she is: Charming, brave and competitive, but also irritable and boastful
First date idea: Go-karting. Your date loves a good (engine) roar, and be sure to impress him or her by letting him or her win. It’s okay – you can reverse the situation once you go steady.
Try:For a simple, no frills experience, check out KF1 Karting Circuit, which offers a fun kart option for novices with a speed limit of 30km/h. You can also try the 50km/h karts if you're craving a bigger adrenaline rush. Do note that a valid driver's license is required for the 50km/h karts.
Another place to consider is HyperDrive, a relatively newer karting experience located at The Palawan on Sentosa. While somewhat pricier than KF1 Karting Circuit, HyperDrive is well worth the price if you're looking for a more elaborate experience.
Boasting an impressive 3-level indoor racetrack with 14 thrilling turns, HyperDrive has not just the classic karting experience, but also the option to try a gamified experience that essentially lets you live out your Need for Speed fantasies with an actual kart.
Aptly titled Game of Karts, this mode pits you against other drivers in a real-life version of racing games where you can collect "weapons" to sabotage the competition or "boosts" to speed yourself up, complete with special lighting and sound effects for a truly immersive experience.
KF1 Karting Circuit, 1 Turf Club Ave, Singapore 738078
Find out more here
HyperDrive, 54 Palawan Beach Walk, The Palawan @ Sentosa, Singapore 098233
Find out more here
If your date is a: Rabbit
He or she is: Kind-hearted, friendly and domesticated, but also non-confrontational
First date idea: Culinary class. It’s a social enough activity, but not too loud and rowdy for the homebody bunny.
Try: ABC Cooking Studio offers long-term baking and cooking courses, but they also have two-hour trial lessons for first-time customers. Want to make your own Japanese Hamburg Steak? How about the seasonal CNY Imperial Bliss orange sponge cake? And, of course, the best part is noshing on the fruits of your labour after class.
ABC Cooking Studio, 107 North Bridge Road #02-29, Funan, Singapore 179105
Find out more here
If your date is a: Dragon
He or she is: Energetic and a born leader, but also over-confident and tactless
First date idea: Escape room. If you prefer to be led than to lead, let your overachieving dragon date decipher the clues, search around for hidden exits and assure you that you’ll be out of the room within five minutes.
Try: Lost SG Escape Room has five distinctive game rooms to choose from. For instance, "Castiglione 2.0: A Journey Beyond Canvas" challenges you to uncover secrets and hidden layers within the masterpieces of an enigmatic artist, while "Mausoleum 2.0: Trapped in the Terracotta Labyrinth" is a race against the clock to escape Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army mausoleum before you join him in the afterlife.
Want to try some of the larger rooms? Make it a double date, and team up with another couple.
Lost SG Escape Room, 1 Selegie Road, #B1-03/04, GR.iD, Singapore 188306
Find out more here
If your date is a: Snake
He or she is: Wise, sensitive and perceptive, but also jealous and insecure
First date idea: Explore one of Singapore's many National Monuments. Your snake date is sure to appreciate the rich history and heritage of these storied buildings that have shaped Singapore as we know it.
Try: Kill two birds with one stone and arrange a dinner date at Lau Pa Sat, aka one of Singapore's most iconic food havens, and the 4th building to be gazetted as a National Monument out of 75.
You and your date can get to know each other as you feast on delicious hawker centre food, set against the backdrop of Lau Pa Sat's distinctive and elegant cast-iron columns, adorned with intricate fretwork (decorative open patterns). Good food, and a good background to snap photos together afterwards... What more could you need?
Lau Pa Sat, 18 Raffles Quay, Singapore 048582
If your date is a: Horse
He or she is: Positive, free-spirited and open-minded, but also half-hearted about finishing up a task
First date idea: Quad bike riding. This is definitely a yay and also neigh for the horse date.
Try: Besides renting the usual bicycles and tandem bikes, Coastline Leisure's kiosks at East Coast Park also have family quad bikes.
These are two- or four-seater, partly-covered rides that require one person to steer but both riders to pedal furiously away up steep slopes and past rollerbladers and cyclists who may weave into your path. It’s a fun way to show off (or test) your quadricep power.
Various outlets
Find out more here
If your date is a: Sheep
He or she is: Mild-mannered, imaginative and calm, but also shy and slow-moving, and likes to be alone
First date idea: Going to the movies. Predictable, yes, but this suits the sheep’s preference for quiet environments and activities that do not require much energy.
Try: Although indie cinema The Projector closed down last year, a new independent cinema, Filmhouse, had its soft launch at The Projector's former location just earlier this week, making this a great opportunity for you and your date to visit a brand new yet familiar haunt.
Promising a curated mix of arthouse darlings, indie foreign films, and homegrown favourites, this second coming of Singapore's indie cinema scene is sure to appeal to the sheep date’s artistic streak.
Filmhouse, Golden Mile Tower, 6001 Beach Road, #05-00, Singapore 199589
Find out more here
If your date is a: Monkey
He or she is: Confident, energetic and fun-loving, but are heart-breakers and get restless easily
First date idea: Virtual reality gaming. Your date loves monkeying around and will appreciate anything high-energy and F.U.N.
Try: Singapore has plenty of VR gaming places, but if you're looking for something to really wow your date, Sandbox VR is the way to go. Unlike most VR places, which simply use VR headsets, Sandbox hooks you up with a full-body rig. This means more gear to equip, but it also gives you a wider range of motion in-game for a truly immersive experience that even lets you use your legs to climb and kick.
Whether you want to blast zombies in Deadwood Mansion, journey through a world of fantasy in Seekers of the Shard: Dragonfire, or embark upon a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas with Curse of Davy Jones, you'll be spoiled for choice with the games available.
Sandbox VR, 181 Orchard Road, #05-31, Orchard Central, Singapore 238896
Find out more here
If your date is a: Rooster
He or she is: Neat, observant and practical, but also vain and conscious of appearances
First date idea: Book-binding or notebook-making workshop. The rooster date won’t be crowing happily about a date activity that requires a lot of ugly perspiring or senseless clowning around. Ugh. Something genteel, intellectual and hipster – preferably done in a neat, decent, air-conditioned space – will put you at the top of their pecking order.
Try: Aside from selling bespoke paper and leather accessories, Bynd Artisan also offers various book-binding or even notebook-making workshops. For instance, you can custom-make your own atas notebook (not the $2 ones from Daiso) using natural-grained leather. You can even deboss your name on it (just not something like “Mary loves John” on your first date, please).
Psst: There's a Valentine's Day discount of 12% off when you book 2 or more workshop slots!
Bynd Artisan, 252 North Bridge Road, #03-24, Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore 179103
Find out more here
If your date is a: Dog
He or she is: Friendly and responsible, but also self-righteous and not good with social gatherings
First date idea: A walking tour of Singapore, preferably related to something “righteous” like a nature or history trail.
Try: Jane’s SG Tours conducts a myriad walking tours with themes like “Wartime Singapore”, “Naturally Singapore” and “Architectural Singapore”. The “Black and White Houses” tour is especially popular so book early if your date is a history and architecture geek.
For more walking tours, you can also check out the various SG Culture Pass partners hosting heritge trails, food tours, nature walks and more.
Jane's SG Tours: Find out more here
SG Culture Pass: Find out more here
If your date is a: Pig
He or she is: Happy, patient and carefree, but also self-indulgent and fearful of what others think of them
First date idea: Foot massage. Those born in the year of the pig have a snout for relaxing, shiok activities like going to a spa. But being butt-naked with each other on a first date is a little boar-ish for most people. So a foot reflexology session is perfect.
Try: Natureland. This chain offers affordable foot reflexology treatments that even our high SES friends rave about. They are also open from 9am to 3am, making this ideal for unwinding after a late supper.
Various outlets islandwide
Find out more here
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