The Best Cheap Date Ideas in Houston

Spend a few hours at the Menil Collection in Montrose, where naturally lit galleries sit among green spaces in a residential neighborhood. The smaller scale of the rooms makes the museum easy to explore at an unhurried pace.

Admission is always free. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11am to 7pm and closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

See changing contemporary exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, a free museum in the Museum District. Its two galleries hold early-career solo shows, group exhibitions and surveys.

Thursday is the late night, with the museum open until 9pm. Other days it is open from 11am to 6pm, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, and it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Street parking nearby is free.

Wander Discovery Green, a 12-acre downtown park with a one-acre lake open for kayaking, two restaurants, an amphitheater and an event lawn.

The park is free to enter and open daily from 6am to 11pm. Over 600 free events fill its calendar each year.

Head to Twilight Epiphany Skyspace on the Rice University campus for the free sunset light sequence. Inside the James Turrell installation, a square opening in the roof of a grass-bermed pyramid frames the changing twilight sky against LED light.

Public entry costs nothing. Walk up for the sunset light sequence, and arrive 10 to 15 minutes early. The skyspace is open daily from 6am to 10pm.

Take an easy walk through the trails at Houston Arboretum & Nature Center near Memorial Park. Use the trail map to choose a route based on how long you want to stay out.

Admission is free, and the grounds are open daily from 7am to 7:30pm. Parking is free on Thursdays and the second Sunday of each month.

Bring a blanket and a picnic cooler to the open hillside at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park, and watch a free live performance.

The hillside needs no ticket. Free covered-pavilion seats are reserved at 10am the day before. Performances are free, and contributions help keep them that way.

Take the free brewery tour at Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Near Northside, then stay for a beer in the garden afterward.

Public tours run Monday and Thursday at 1:30pm and 6pm, and Friday through Sunday at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm. Wear shoes that cover your toes, as the brewery requires them during production. Both the beer garden and restaurant open every day.

Play more than 275 arcade games at Cidercade Houston in East Downtown, from retro to modern, with skee-ball and rhythm dance among them. Cider and craft beer are on tap.

The games inside are free to play with no game card. The room is strictly 18+ from 9pm. Buy tickets online ahead, since it can hit capacity. It is open daily from 10am to midnight.

Walk the paths at Houston Botanic Garden along Sims Bayou, past desert succulents, coastal prairie grasses and subtropical flower displays. The grounds give you plenty of space for a quieter daytime outing.

Hours are 9am to 5pm daily, and the last entry is at 4:30pm.

Grab a swing chair or hammock at Axelrad Beer Garden, a Midtown spot that is mostly patio with picnic tables on a sprawling lawn. An indoor bar has more than 25 beers on tap.

Weekday happy hour runs 12pm to 7pm, with mimosas, wells, small frozens and house wines on special. Walk in anytime, since reservations are not required. The garden switches to 21+ after 9pm Sunday through Thursday and after 8pm Friday and Saturday.