Bad signs include being late, poorly or inappropriately dressed, or rude. If your date is putting his or her best foot forward, that's a good sign. If he or she doesn't care enough to clean up and use their company manners, the rest of the night will probably not be fun.



Second, do something that gives you and your date a chance to talk to each other. A bar crawl or a concert aren't good first-date plans, because you might as well be alone if you can't get to know each other. Something lower-key, such as an art gallery opening, coffee at a shop on an interesting street, canoeing, or visiting a park or nature spot all give you something fun to do and let you and your date get to know each other. Dinner, especially at a restaurant you know you like, is a good opening. Have a follow-up plan like a desert cafe or a good area for a walk in mind so you can suggest it afterwards if things are going well.

If a sit-down dinner seems too formal or too high-pressure, plan an activity that gives you something to think about other than how you're holding your fork but still gives you chances to talk and joke around. Do you bowl? Perfect if you both do; sometimes even more fun if you don't. Same goes for beginners' night dance lessons, mini-golf, or the grownup version of arcades. If it would be fun with your friends, suggest it to your date.

What kind of conversation you have will probably determine if you have a good time. Discussing politics and religion is generally thought of as a bad idea. Getting into the abortion debate on a date would not be fun. On the other hand, if you get into the "deep" subjects and you agree,you may have found some great common ground.

It may be smart to delicately discuss you and your date's general desires and expectations for a potential relationship. This doesn't need to be too detailed: you're not setting a plan, just getting to know each other. However, if one of you hopes to be married within the next couple of years and the other wants to find several flirtatious friends for occasional outings, it's better to know that what you want from a relationship is incompatible early on.

On that note, I would not go and start planning your wedding, how many kids you will have or picking out china patterns just yet. That is not the point. The point really is just to make sure you have similar plans and ideas. If one of you plans to move to Russia in the next two weeks and the other hates Russia, well it may not be a love match.

What Makes a Good First Date? It really does depend on the people, but communication, sanity, good manners and cleanliness are probably all indicators of an outing that was not terribly unsuccessful. There is probably no such thing as a perfect date, but at least you can try to have fun and get to know someone while doing so!