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21 Summer Bucket List Ideas

Let’s beef up your summer 2022 plans with our ultimate summer bucket list below! 

Have a Lake Day

Days by the water are the best days. Grab the fam or your pals, bring a picnic or grill out at the lake, throw around a frisbee, have a swim, and enjoy the serene beauty around you. 

Rent Kayaks or Canoes

A great way to spend the day doing something active and relaxing in the great outdoors!

Go On A Road Trip

Take a day or a weekend, and explore another city or outdoor recreation area you’ve never been to! Road tripping is the chillest form of travel, that allows spontaneity and spur-of-the-moment decisions. Just make sure to have your road trip essentials!

Attend an Outdoor Movie

A classic way to spend a beautiful summer evening is at an outdoor movie theatre, either from the comfort of your own car or from a lawn chair set closer to the gigantic screen. You could also invest in your own private projector for about $60-120, and prop it up outside (or inside), using a blank wall or ceiling as your movie screen, to make a private and mobile cinema! 

Go Mini Golfing

A cute date idea or a casual outing with friends, mini golfing always makes the cut for popular summertime activities.

Tie-Dye T-shirts

Round up your old tees or buy one for just a few dollars at Dollar Tree or Hobby Lobby (both places should have dye as well). All ages can have a blast just making a mess, or being crafty and artsy, with this! For fun design inspiration, look here.

Have a Bonfire

Kids and adults alike love sitting by a roaring, cozy bonfire in the evening, roasting marshmallows and telling stories. Bonfires foster quality time!

Rent a Pontoon Boat

Make Saturday a party by getting a group together to split the cost of a pontoon boat for an afternoon. With enough people, it can be pretty affordable and makes for an amazing summer memory!

Camp Outside

Camping out is a great, relaxing adventure that really brings people together. (No tent? Check out our checklist for successful car camping here!) And if you don’t want to venture out into any wilderness, why not camp out in the backyard? 

In Austin? Try this list of campsite ideas!

Make Root Beer Floats

A perfect ending to a summer day spent under the sun, try whipping up some classic root beer floats at home!

Go Fruit-Picking

An activity that could quickly become a family tradition, it is rejuvenating and fun to pick seasonal fruit as a summer activity. Pretty soon you’ll be apple picking in the fall, because it is just special to pick your own fresh produce from the earth. It is also important to support local farmers.

Have a Homemade Pizza Party

Making homemade pizza is a super easy and fun process. You don’t need any complicated ingredients (besides yeast, which in many recipes, is not complicated at all), and you can create a buffet style set up for all the yummy toppings so everyone can pick out their favorites!

Plan Picnics

Assemble your favorite assortment of finger foods and picnic must-haves for an afternoon at your local park! Summer days spent on a picnic blanket in the grass are simply the best. Throw the ball around, organize kick ball, or just lounge and read in the sun!

Grow Your Own Garden

Pick a small plot of land on your property and turn ‘er over! Gardening is a rewarding, refreshing hobby that takes you outside, gets your hands dirty in the earth, and rejuvenates your soul. If you’re not sure how to start gardening, take a look at this beautiful guide!

Go Fishing

Maybe you’ve gone once or twice, but not for a really long while, so try giving this sport another whirl this summer. Even if you don’t catch anything, It’s chill and peaceful sitting by the water.

Go to a Baseball Game

Days at the stadium are always a blast! Grab your loved ones for a fun game day.

Have a Water Balloon Fight

Declare war on your friends or family unexpectedly and go to town! Or heck, make it water guns.

Plan a Great BBQ at Home

A backyard cook-out or barbecue is the quintessential summer activity. Have your loved ones over for a fun night of yard games, grilling all the meats, and drinking refreshing beverages or cool beers.

Sip Cool Summer Cocktails

Brush up your cocktail-making skills this summer by learning how to whip up cool and breezy refreshers on a hot summer’s day.

Try out Homemade Ice Cream

Having an ice cream maker at home is definitely a fun way to perk up your summer dessert game. Made from scratch, homemade ice cream tastes very different than store-bought and is so delicious. If you don’t want to invest in an ice cream maker, we can confirm that ice cream in a bag is a real thing!

Water Color Painting

Something about spending a lazy and quiet afternoon on the porch playing around with watercolor sounds very soul-enriching and ideal.

Hopefully this bucket list makes you even more pumped for summer fun and all the possibilities that come with the warm weather and free time.

What makes your bucket list that isn’t on ours?