67 Fun (and Free!) Things to Do This Summer, No Matter the Weather

It’s never too early to break out the calendar and start filling up my summer schedule. But on the days when I don’t have much going on, or I just want to chill on the cheap, I love having a list at the ready of fun things to do in the summer for little to no money. 

From planting a summer garden to game nights with friends, there are way more things to do in the summer beyond going on a big vacation than you might realize. After scouring the Apartment Therapy archives — which are filled with all kinds of ways to make the most of your time in and around your home — I pulled together this great big list of 67 free or nearly free activities that will ensure your summer is top-notch.

The sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, and the pressure to take advantage of the perfect summer weather is high. Don’t let your lack of plans stress you out, though — from flying a kite to looking up at the stars, here are some ways to get outside for free.

If you’re lucky enough to have a backyard that gets some decent sun, planting a garden is one of the best, low-cost things to do in the summer. It’ll keep you busy all season long, and (bonus!) you’ll enjoy fresh, delicious produce too! No backyard? No problem! Use containers to create a balcony garden. Tons of herbs and veggies — like tomatoes, peppers, carrots, and basil — do really well in containers. 

When’s the last time you enjoyed a game of pickleball? Badminton? Volleyball? Take what gear you’ve got and set it up in your backyard (or make use of the equipment at your local park) to compete against your friends. 

Have some camping supplies in a closet somewhere that barely get any use? You don’t have to trek to a far-off wilderness location to have any fun in nature. Use your own backyard to pitch a tent, drag out a mattress, and make s’mores. Absolutely no judgment if you sneak back into the house to sleep the rest of the night.

To be fair, this is only free if you already own a kite (though you can find plenty of options for under $20 online) — but can you imagine a more wholesome outdoor summer activity? Bonus points if you make the kite from scratch using things you already have on hand, like garbage bags and sticks. 

Even if you don’t have a garden, there may be free food within your reach. Look online for foraging maps of your city or ask friends if they know of any places to grab free fruit, nuts, herbs, and more (legally, of course) — and then search for a recipe to experiment.

Few things scream “summer” like a good old-fashioned picnic. Just pack a basket full of your favorite foods and throw down a blanket in your very own backyard for the quintessential seasonal experience.

As far as things to do in the summer go, climbing a tree is perhaps the most nostalgic. Whether you find a good branch and read a book or see how high you can go, is there any better way to embrace your inner child?

If your town will have a 5K fun run this spring or summer, why not train for it and participate? Even the most hesitant runners can succeed using approaches like the Couch to 5K program, which slowly builds from no running to running a 5K in just six to 12 weeks. 

If you’ve got the gear, take your kayak, raft, or canoe out for a spin. If you don’t own any kind of watercraft, finding a local swimming hole or lazy river to go for a quick dip is equally as fun.

Most cities have some kind of free walking tour available to download, and if you can’t find one, you can easily map out some landmarks and interesting spots around your area with interesting history that you can visit. Even the tiniest towns have little-known unique spots — just grab a friend and start wandering. 

Walking is free, and walking in nature is freeing. In Japan, they have something called a Shinrin-yoku, which is a “forest bathing trip,” or a quick walk in the woods. Take as many of these as you can. Head to national and state parks or even just the local trail — be sure to take any trash you create with you when you leave.

Is there anything more humbling than gazing up at the sky? Pick a clear night, find a quiet spot away from city lights, and bring a telescope or even just a blanket to look at the stars. Check out Constellation Guide to find what stars (or planets) to pick out of your night sky. Or time your stargazing for a night when there’s a meteor shower for a spectacular show.

A portmanteau of the Swedish word plocka (meaning “to pick”) and jogging, plogging is the concept of picking up litter while exercising outside. You can do it by yourself, with your running club, or with your kids — the more the merrier, really, when it comes to cleaning up the community while getting some fresh air.

It’s slated to be a very hot summer, with extra rain in some states, too. When it’s just too steamy to stay outside, there are still so many fun things to do in the summer indoors — many of them right inside your own home.

Does your town have any notable former residents? Any structures built by famous architects? Any battlefields? Any “largest in the world” things? Do a little research to find out and then put the items on a potential future walking tour.

If you live in an old home and don’t know much about who lived there in the decades before you, a rainy (or superhot) day is the perfect excuse to play detective and find out what you can. From checking public records to consulting your local historical society, there are several ways to find out the history of your home. 

Whether you’re using the “didn’t know” rule to clear out a corner of your office or the “1, 2, 3, 4, 5” method to organize your counters, there are so many ways to declutter your home — and turn it into a fun challenge. If you’re up for a longer organizing effort, Apartment Therapy’s Decluttering Cure delivers daily motivation and expert organization tips straight to your inbox. This curated content will help you conquer clutter room by room for a clutter-free home come fall.

Come up with different ways to mix and match some of your favorite tried-and-true clothing items. If you have the time, take an inventory of your wardrobe to really home in on what you wear the most, and which clothes you could donate or sell. 

Want to grow your indoor or outdoor garden without spending any money at all? By learning how to propagate, you can easily multiply your favorite plants (like lavender, spider plants, or tomatoes) without spending a dime.

Did you know regularly rearranging furniture can have mental health benefits? Well, it can! If you’re someone who absolutely loves making your home look fresh and new on the regular, spend a day wildly rearranging not just furniture and accessories, but also whole rooms and art on the walls.

A museum is a perfect place to spend a sweltering summer day, and visiting a free museum is one of the best things to do in the summer. Odds are there’s a free museum in your area, so take the opportunity to check it out. 

Seek refuge from the summer heat in the public library. Whether you’re there to browse books or take part in community events, there’s never been a better time to support your local library and librarians. 

When you don’t have the budget for new home things, the tendency to stay away from home design stores makes sense — but curbing your spending doesn’t have to be sad! Leave the credit cards in your wallet and go online window shopping for ideas and inspiration.

YouTube is a gold mine of free videos showing you how to do and make all kinds of things. Why not spend a rainy afternoon trying to master some small trick you can whip out to impress your friends? (Or just entertain yourself.)

Do you have furniture, art, frames, or other pieces of decor lying around that could use an upgrade? Now is a brilliant time to scavenge for cool found objects around your home and revamp them through DIY projects. 

Try learning how to make something from scratch — especially something you like to have a lot of, like mastering a hummus recipe or making your own throw pillows. You might have to spend a bit of money on supplies to start, but then you’ll be saving money the whole summer long making items instead of buying them.

If you’ve never heard of the Buy Nothing movement, a conglomeration of community-based groups that encourages giving and sharing products instead of engaging in consumerism, it’s time to look it up. There are worse ways to spend a summer Saturday than getting and giving free stuff while making community connections!

When your smartphone notification saying you’re running low on storage keeps popping up, you know it’s time to do something about it. Try using the “one-touch rule” to organize your screenshots into folders and delete the ones you don’t need anymore. If you have some time left when you’re done, make one of those fun recipes you screenshotted months ago and forgot about! 

School’s out and you’re trying to put together a calendar full of things to do in the summer with your kids. Running low on ideas? Try one of these low-key activities, from a simple drive into the town next door to a refreshing afternoon of making homemade popsicles. 

It goes without saying that building a sandcastle is one of the very best things to do in the summer. If you’re near any beaches (or even sandboxes), spend an afternoon building a truly impressive sandcastle.

Do you have some board games you never play somewhere in your home? Grab some snacks, your roommates, or your kids and plan to hunker down in the living room until you’ve played each and every one.

You can find tons of scavenger hunt ideas online (or you can craft your own). Grab your kids, your friends, set up some prizes, and spend an afternoon seeing whose hunting skills are the strongest.

Yes, it’s still a thing! The old-school way to geocache involved a GPS unit, but now there are apps that make it easy to get started — you can sign up for a geocache account and go for a hunt. Not only is it free, but you might also get something out of it if you find a particularly good treasure cache.

Explore outside your city’s limits and visit the next town or city over. It’s easier and cheaper than a vacation (or even a staycation, if you play your cards right). Plus, you’ll get to feel like a tourist in your own backyard. 

Fireworks are a summertime entertainment staple, particularly around Independence Day. Since pyrotechnics are traditionally displayed against the night sky, you don’t necessarily need tickets to take them in. Just scope out a good spot and enjoy the show!

When those long, hot summer days start getting you down, break out some fun ingredients and make your own popsicles. You can either buy a cheap popsicle mold or try one of these ways to make a popsicle without a mold. Then, fill up the receptacles with things like fruit juice, fresh fruit, yogurt, or use one of these popsicle recipes to make your own yummy frozen treats. 

Channel that inner wild child and create your very own slip ‘n’ slide, one of the most classic outdoor toys. Simply throw down a couple of tarps, stake them down at the sides, then run your sprinkler over the tarps for a wet, slippery ride. Bonus points if you set it up on a downward slope. 

Looking for things to do in the summer that will also level up your home? Spend an afternoon collecting pieces of nature with your kids, like seashells, flowers, branches, or stones. You can then turn them into decor for your home, by pressing the flowers or leaves to make art you can hang on the wall or using seashells to lean into a coastal aesthetic. 

Visiting the playground is a great way to play with your kids on a sunny day. And you can get in on the fun, too! Slide with abandon. Swing like you don’t have motion sickness. See if you can cross to the other side of the monkey bars without falling.

For some water fun that doesn’t involve paying for a pool membership, set up a sprinkler in your yard. Put on bathing suits and run through it with your kids for an instant cool-off. 

You don’t have to plan a group vacation to have a blast this summer with your friends. Save your money and make some sweet new memories with one of these summertime hangs, from hosting a yard sale together to throwing a mocktail party. 

You don’t have to spend tons of dough buying food or special “picnic” things — just grab some snacks from the pantry and an old blanket and go sit and enjoy nature at a favorite park with friends. 

For those overcast and rainy summer days, call up your friends and challenge them to a bake-off. Turn it into a friendly competition where you can only use the ingredients you already have on hand or allow everyone to make a quick grocery run. No matter if you win or lose, you’ll get a delicious treat out of it.

Take a vote on which movie, make sure everyone dresses in pajamas, have all the drinks and snacks prepared, and enjoy your night together.

Declutter your house and make a little extra money at the same time with a yard sale. Though you can totally do this on your own, a group yard sale could draw a bigger crowd, and even if it doesn’t, you can still have a fun day with friends. You don’t even have to splurge on advertisements: Some simple homemade signs and a few strategic social media posts should be all you’ll need to attract a crowd. 

You can finally start on those books you’ve been meaning to read. Call up some friends and see if they’d be interested in reading the same novel and meet up once a week or month to discuss. 

Another one of those things to do in summer that’s free to do and benefits people in need! You can set up a dance marathon, a charity night with talented friends who can sing or do comedy, or even a craft night where you can sew or make items that can be donated.

Some comedy clubs and coffee shops offer open mic nights for free. The comedy might be cringeworthy, or you could stumble on someone pretty funny! Perhaps even sign yourself up for next month’s stand-up if you’re feeling brave. 

Love to take shots for decorating your walls or your Instagram feed? Taking pictures is a great thing to do in summer. Instead of just randomly snapping photos, give yourself a challenge for a day. You can make up your own or search online for popular ideas.

If you haven’t found your “color season” yet, it’s essentially a way to categorize which tones best suit your physical features. While you’re likely to get the most accurate results by paying for a professional color consultation, you can also try using a TikTok filter or ChatGPT to do an AI color analysis — or, you can also gather some friends, drape pieces of clothing around each other, and take your best shot at finding each others’ power colors. While you’re all gathered, why not do a clothing swap with the items you haven’t been wearing?

Though not completely free, a taste test with friends is a pretty cheap and fun thing to do this summer. The subject in question can be whatever you want — from lemonade to canned wine to potato chips — but something like a seltzer taste test is a low-cost and refreshing option. Pick up a few contenders from the grocery story and take them to the park or your kitchen table, then take turns trying them and ranking your favorites to find your personal best. 

Not only are mocktails cheaper to make than cocktails, they’re hangover-free and perfectly thirst-quenching for a hot summer night. Choose a mocktail recipe or two, gather or crowdsource the ingredients, and enjoy an alcohol-free cocktail party. 

A solo day in the summer is such a gift. Enjoy your own company and cross something off your summer bucket list by taking a color walk, walking around the farmers market, or curling up in a hammock for an afternoon of reading.

Enjoy your city from a fresh perspective on your bike, or find a local trail to zoom around on.

Treat your pet to a day of perks: Hit the beach, the dog park, or anywhere they can run around and get the zoomies out. Chances are high you’ll have a great time, too.

If you’ve got your own hammock, put it up in your backyard or at a local park, grab a great summer novel, and enjoy a few hours swinging and reading.

When it’s framed, just about anything looks good. So don’t be shy to grab whatever art supplies you have on hand (even just a pencil and paper) to go outside and sketch/watercolor/pencil color/oil paint nature. You could get some pretty good art out of it!

Use the longer days to your advantage by setting a daily step goal. You don’t need a fancy watch or even a pedometer to count your steps — most modern cell phones will do that for you. If 10,000 steps a day is too much, start slow and work your way up. 

While waking up before dawn doesn’t scream “fun,” watching the sunrise by yourself or with your family is about as peaceful and life-affirming as it gets. It also sets the tone for the rest of the day, so you’ll be ready for all the other free activities on your summer bucket list. 

Volunteer work is free and makes you feel good. Try delivering meals to older folks, organizing a cleanup around your neighborhood, restocking your local community fridge, and more. 

Open houses aren’t just for prospective homebuyers. Well, maybe they are — but don’t let that stop you from crashing the next one in your neighborhood. Not only will attending an open house satisfy your inner snoop, it’s a great way to get home decor and design inspiration.

While it’s wonderful to support local farmers and artisans, you don’t necessarily have to spend a ton of money at your nearest farmers market. Outdoor marketplaces are perfect for people watching, and they often feature free live music and entertainment. 

Make your leisurely stroll a little more interesting by turning it into a color walk, where you choose one color to keep an eye out for and follow around your neighborhood. You might discover a new street you’ve never turned down, take a photo of a lovely flower, or realize just how full of color your community really is. 

Like, on an actual phone. Send a text first to ask if you can call if you’re phone-shy.

You don’t need to spend a ton of money or go anywhere to enjoy a spa day — just spend a little time transforming your own bathroom into a place where you can pamper yourself and give yourself an at-home manicure for free.

Grab your best stationery (or make your own) and send some dear friends a good old-fashioned letter in the mail. Try slipping pressed flowers from your yard into the envelope to send a piece of your home to them.

Many favorite authors with recently released titles have book tours. Check them out to learn more about your favorite author and their newest masterpiece.

Meetup is meant to get people hanging out, and it’s free to join. So whether you pick a hiking group, book club, or whatever else sparks your interest, you can have plenty of fun without necessarily spending money. 

There are plenty of names for the phenomenon (like a pantry challenge or … just a typical weekday night), but check out what you have on hand — maybe even those ingredients you’ve had in the back of your pantry for a while. See if you can get creative by creating a cool meal without going to the store.

Do you have any older relatives that live near you? See if you can swing by with goodies and have a visit. Ask them for fun stories from when they were growing up; you might be surprised.

Can you remember the last time you ever just sat and watched the world go by, instead of staring at your phone? When you consider things to do in the summer, you might not think of people watching — but just try it! If it feels funny, bring a book out with you to make you feel a bit less awkward.