Five Romantic Brisbane Date Ideas for This Week From Budget to Blowout

Tired of the classic movie and dinner date night combo? Us too. That's why we're always on the hunt for new things to do, scouring the city for not-boring Brisbane activities — ones that are guaranteed to take your next date way beyond done-before beers at the pub.

Whether you're taking someone on a second date or doing your 100th with your significant other, we've got some killer (and, yes, cute) ideas for dates to go on this week, no matter how much money you've got to spend.

Just think of us as your cultural wingman. You're welcome.

Under $20

Find Secondhand Threads at Portside's Latest Market

Help the environment, save money, restock your wardrobe: buying secondhand fashion ticks all three boxes. Are you and your other half tired of your old threads? Want to save perfectly good textiles from landfill? Feeling a budget crunch? Then plan a trip to the Portside Wharf Love Me Again Markets.

The broader Love Me Again Markets aren't new, but this excuse to turn someone else's unwanted outfits into your next favourites is now hitting up Hamilton's riverside precinct in 2024. It'll enjoy its second stint in its new home on Saturday, April 13, near Rise Bakery. You'll be indoors, too, and with change rooms on hand.

Each month — because this event is returning on the second Saturday of each month its Portside debut — you'll have more than 20 stalls to peruse. Clothes, shoes, accessories: they'll all be on offer. Among them, so will designer wares and popular labels, and a range of shapes and sizes.

The market runs from 8am–12pm, so you'll want to roll out of bed early to head along. Live tunes will provide a soundtrack, and entry costs $3 — and you'll need your card to pay.

Under $100

Remco Jansen

Wander Through the Mona Lisa and Other Italian Renaissance Works

Every great exhibition should make you and your favourite person feel like you're surrounded by the artist's work, whether or not it includes giant fairy tale forests or a towering spider. Melbourne-based outfit Grande Experiences takes that idea to heart, turning peering at masterpieces into an immersive 360-degree experience. Fancy seeing Italian Renaissance works, including the Mona Lisa, get the multi-sensory treatment? That's on the company's list in southeast Queensland right now.

When you've ushered the world into Vincent van Gogh's art — getting them not just peering at it but stepping through it — and Claude Monet's as well, what follows? Showcasing Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Titian, Veronese and their peers. Van Gogh Alive proved a smash hit when it toured the country, even hitting up some cities multiple times. Monet in Paris dazzled Brisbane in 2023. Now,, Italian Renaissance Alive is everyone's current new reason to visit HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast.

The idea remains the same as Grande Experiences' other art must-sees, but the works being splashed across the walls, floors and ceilings now hail from Italy from around the 15th and 16th centuries. And yes, that includes some of the big ones. The Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, The Birth of Venus: they're all part of Italian Renaissance Alive in a huge way. Given the large-than-life manner in which they're presented, we really do mean huge, too.

Until Sunday, August 4, 2024, you'll mosey around, spy iconic art surrounding you everywhere you look, and be part of not just a showcase but an experience. So, there'll be light and colour, obviously, but also sound and scents. Providing the soundtrack: Puccini, Verdi and other Italian operatic tunes.

Explore a Three-Day Dessert Wonderland

Forget finding a golden ticket — while scoring a free pass to a chocolate factory was everyone's fantasy as a kid (and, let's face it, is still a fantasy now), there are other ways to indulge your Wonka dreams. Cakes as far as the eye can see, classes on how to make them and a dedicated sweet zone aren't just things that floated through your head while you and your plus one were asleep. They're real, and they're part of the returning International Cake Show at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

From Friday, April 12–Sunday, April 14, the South Brisbane venue becomes the sweetest place in the city, so prepare your tastebuds and stomach accordingly. The three-day show will feature a mixing bowl worth of live cake-making and decorating sessions, 100-plus how-to demonstrations, hands-on classes and a two-day cake sculpture challenge — as well as hosting the Australasian Cake Oscars, the tastiest awards you're ever likely to come across.

Other highlights include 60-plus stalls and shops, which'll help you bake up a storm at home, and plenty of tasty fare to devour. Basically, when you're not learning how to make sweet treats, you'll be eating them.

Oh, and you'll be looking at them, too — and not just your regular old desserts. This year's event will feature a life-sized Bumblebee Transformer made out of sugar cake, a Sweet House of Horror that you can walk through, an attempt to build the world's tallest cookie tower and an edible sugar rainforest. And on Sunday, expect to see plenty of pink, with Barbie in the spotlight.

Spend a Few Hours Watching Movies About the Ocean

There's something oh-so-relaxing about staring at the sea, even if you're feasting your eyes on the water via the big screen. That's the concept behind the Ocean Film Festival Australia. You and your significant other can't always spend all your time at the beach, by the river or in a pool — but you can spend an evening peering at the next best thing in a cinema.

For four nights, the festival will unleash a cinematic feast of water-focused wonders onto the silver screen at Brisbane Powerhouse. This is the event's 11th year, and it's heading by from Wednesday, April 10–Saturday, April 13. Sessions screen at 7pm each night.

Film-wise, viewers will spend time both above and below the ocean's surface thanks to a compilation of shorts from around the world. Expect to chase big waves, explore a range of sea life and get a hefty ocean rush, plus a heap of other sea adventures.

The full program is united by a love of the ocean, an appreciation of the creatures who dwell in its waters and a curiosity to explore the substance that comprises more than two-thirds of the earth. It's the next best thing to diving in, all without getting wet.

One Big Blowout

Extend Your Easter Fun with a Japanese-Themed Chocolate-Heavy High Tea

Have you and your special someone been wishing that you were spending chocolate season not merely feasting on sweet treats in Brisbane, but pairing Easter with a trip to Japan? Haven't we all. Thankfully, Indigo Isuta Soirée: A High Tea Affair is here to provide consolation for everyone still in the River City, and also to get you celebrating even now that Easter is over.

Here, the occasion has been getting a Japanese spin, complete with yuzu custard bunny teacups, green tea yuzu tiramisu and matcha macarons, plus a cherry- and chilli chocolate-infused umeshu cocktail. The high-tea menu also includes green apple mousse flourless tartlets that come flecked with gold flakes, tamago sandos, mini wagyu burgers and, of course, both hot cross buns and Easter eggs.

You'll pay $89 per person, with a minimum of two people needed, to get feasting from 11am–3pm until Sunday, April 14 at Bar 1603 inside Hotel Indigo on Turbot Street.

From 11am each day, you can also just stop by for a cocktail — but only within Indigo Isuta Soirée: A High Tea Affair's run.

Top image: Remco Jansen.