Best Places to Meet or Find Someone to Date

You have decided that you are ready to get back into the dating pool in order to find that person that you want to swim with for awhile. Unfortunately, you're having trouble finding the right pool. Everywhere that you try to meet someone turns out to be a place that's either too cliché (bars just aren't the best place) or too unique (hiking trails don't have too many people to meet on them most of the time). So where do you go to find someone that you might be interested in dating.

You have two basic options for selecting a place that you want to meet someone at:

1. Head to places where there are single people looking to date. This would include singles networking groups, online sites for singles and singles mixers. The benefit here is that you know that everyone is single and interested in dating. The drawback is that this might be all you have in common with a lot of the people that you meet.

2. Go to places you enjoy and see if there are single people there. This involves joining clubs and attending events that interest you. This is a better way to meet people that you'll have things in common with because they are already attending something that you wanted to attend. However, they won't necessarily all be single, looking to date or even the same sexual orientation as you.

Either of these options may work for you when you're trying to start dating. The best method of finding dates is probably to use a combination of these two methods. Here are some of the types of places that you might choose to go if you're trying to find interesting people to date:

• Planned group events. There are all kinds of different groups that form so that strangers can meet up with each other. Join a site like Meetup.com where you can find events that interest you and which other people will be going to. These naturally lead to conversations with others in the group and have the potential to lead to relationships. Even if you don't find that special someone, you'll probably make some friends.
• Trivia nights. Events that are held in social places like bars but which aren't solely about the drinking can be a great icebreaker for meeting people. You can show up at a bar's trivia night and ask to join a group there for game play ... look for the group with the most cuties!
• Open mic poetry / music / comedy events. These are events where creative people get up on a stage and do their thing. You can do the same or you can just watch the other talented people who are up there and have a good time. Many of these people are single and looking.
• Sports teams. If you are an athletic person then you might find that it's easy to meet people with similar interest by joining a co-ed sports team in your area. Check out the local gyms or parks and rec lists to see if there's a baseball, soccer or basketball team in your area that you can join up with.
• Parks and libraries. Public spaces can be great places to meet people although the process tends to be slower at these kinds of places than at places like sports events where you are already in a group. If there is a park near you that you can hang out at regularly then you might find that there are others who are doing the same - and one of them might interest you.
• Clubs. Pursue your own interests with a group and you should find that there are some people in the group that you get along with well enough to consider dating. Book clubs, wine clubs and travel clubs are examples of clubs that tend to get the attention of single people who are interesting to talk to.
• Speed dating events/ singles mixers and other planned events for singles looking to date. At these events, you know that everyone there is on the dating market. There are a wide range of different events that are suited to singles so you might want to take your time finding the one that is right for you. For example, you may be completely turned off by the idea of doing speed dating but you might find yourself open to the idea of a cooking class and dinner for singles. Choosing the singles events that are best suited to your interests and personalities will make it much more likely that you are going to feel successful in doing this kind of meeting / dating.
• Coffee shops, bookstores and bars. These are really cliché places to try to meet someone to date but the truth is that they work for some people. The trick seems to be that you have to actually really like hanging out at these places or else you are probably not going to like the people that you meet hanging out at these places. If you don't truly enjoying sitting at the coffee shop all day with your laptop and a book then you aren't going to like the type of people you converse with there.
• The Internet. It's no longer taboo to meet someone on the Internet so if you're finding that you have trouble locating people to date in the real world then you might want to head online. There are so many different sites to choose from that it's wise to make sure that you do your research and figure out which ones are really best for you. For some people, it's the free post option at Craigslist and for others its niche websites that are costly to set up a profile on but which offer matchmaking services for specific groups of people.

Ultimately that old saying about "love happens when you aren't looking" is probably true. But you can put yourself into a position where you are more likely to find love as you look for it. And you can have a good time throughout the process by choosing to spend your days at places and events that interest you and provide you with experiences that you are going to enjoy whether or not you end up meeting the love of your life.