7 Outdoor Activities For People Who Hate Being Outdoors
The outdoors just aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. Not everyone enjoys the bugs, the heat, or the fact that there’s no Wi-Fi. There are so many outdoor activities you can do, though, that can help you forget that you’re even outside. If you don’t like the bugs, you can use bug spray or you can wear sweatshirts and long pants so they don’t bother you. If the heat is what you don’t like, have ice cold water with you and a personal fan if you need it. If the lack of Wi-Fi is what bothers you, try reconnecting with nature for a few hours. You won’t regret it.
1. Go to the Drive-In
This is one of my favorite outdoor activities to do. There aren’t many around anymore, but if you have a projector or access to a projector, you can make your own drive-in. Watching a movie outside when it gets dark is a fun experience. You can actually go to the drive-in, which is a lot more fun than staying in your backyard, but you don’t need to sit outside if you don’t want to. You can stay in your car and turn your radio on to the station the drive-in requires, or you can sit in chairs outside your car with a portable radio next to you.
Setting up your own drive-in theater at your house is easy to do if you have the equipment. Just plug the DVD player or your laptop into the projector, which is plugged into an outlet. We use a wall on our house as the screen, and you can enjoy the movies right on the wall. It’s a lot of fun to do it at your own house because you can watch whichever movies you want to, instead of the two movies the drive-in picks, and you can get whatever snacks you want from the store before you start. It saves you money, and you’d be more comfortable at your own house. But either way gets you outside, and you don’t even realize you’re outside most of the time.
2. Ride a Bicycle Around the Block
Riding a bicycle is difficult to do at first, but once you learn how to do it, riding a bicycle can be a lot of fun. If you live in a small town, like me, then riding your bike is a pretty popular thing to do. It’s pretty easy to get around town on a bike, and you don’t have to worry about crossing any busy intersections to get to the store. Riding your bike in the city is a little more complicated, not that it’s any less popular. I still see everyone riding their bikes around Boston and Cambridge, so it can be done. You just might have to look both ways before crossing to make sure no one is going to hit you.
You can see a lot more of nature when you ride your bike. You can hear all the sounds of the birds and squirrels. There’s a lot about nature that you don’t see when you’re in a car going 30 mph down a side street. It’s one of the easiest outdoor activities to enjoy once you get on the bike. Not many of the things that would normally bother you when you’re outdoors is noticeable on your bike. It’s also a really good way to get in some exercise when you don’t really want to do a lot. Riding a bicycle is one of those activities that doesn’t even seem like you’re doing anything when you’re actually doing a lot. I highly recommend riding a bicycle. You’ll enjoy it.
3. Go Swimming
Swimming is an activity that everyone loves. There are so many places where you could go, too, and some of them aren’t even outdoors. If you really don’t want to go outdoors and swim, then most Boys & Girls Clubs have public swimming pools indoors that you can use. That’s a little like doing an outdoor activity while still being outside. You might also have your own pool or there might be an outdoor public swimming pool near you that you can use. Swimming is really good exercise, so any way you want to swim is a good idea.
The ocean is also a fantastic place to go swimming. But saltwater might not be something you want to swim in, in which case a lake or pond would be a good choice for you. Lakes and ponds are everywhere, but some of them don’t allow public swimming. So just be careful to research where you want to go. There are also games you can play in the water if you don’t want to just swim around. There’s water volleyball, water polo, and a bunch of other games that will get you in the water spirit. You can enjoy going swimming even if you hate being outdoors because it never feels like you’re outside when you swim.
4. Play a Sport
This is another one of my favorite outdoor activities. I love playing soccer and baseball. My sister and I used to always be outside playing soccer when we were younger, and it was a lot of fun. If you have enough friends who like one specific sport, get them all together for a couple of hours. It’s a great way to get some exercise in and it’s a lot of fun. Make sure to have a lot of water and some snacks to keep yourself hydrated and full of energy. Running around can take a lot of energy, and you don’t want anything to happen to you.
Playing sports might not be for you, but you still might like watching them. You could go to a live sporting event. There are a couple of sports that are outdoors, so you could go see one of those with your friends. Most stadiums are good at keeping bugs away, so flies and bees shouldn’t bother you while trying to watch a game. You might still get hot at sporting events, but a lot of them are at night when it’s cooler anyway, and you can always buy ice cream and cold sodas. Many stadiums have Wi-Fi, too, so you’ll still be able to connect with the online world while at a game. I would highly recommend playing or watching a sporting event this summer.
5. Toast Some Marshmallows
Toasting marshmallows is my favorite summer activity. There are so many different ways to toast marshmallows that are so much fun. Making s’mores is my favorite way to toast marshmallows. The combination of graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate is amazing. You can also just toast them because they taste really good. It’s a fun dessert to have on cooler summer nights when you need something warm to eat. Or you can have them on the hot summer nights because they are really good on any night.
You can toast marshmallows over a fire or you can use a grill. It’s a really good activity to do when you go camping. You’re already going to have a fire, anyway, so you can just toast your marshmallows while the fire is going. The fire does attract insects, so if you don’t like bugs, you have to be careful. Use a lot of bug spray, and there is wood you can use for the fire that is designed to keep the bugs away, so that might be a good idea. If it’s already hot out, sitting in front of a fire might make you sweat, so that might also be something you want to look out for. But other than that, toasting marshmallows over a fire is a really fun outdoor activity.
6. Fly a Kite
I didn’t think this was going to be a fun thing to do until last summer when we had nothing else to do. My mom went to the dollar store and came back with a kite, so I spent the rest of the day outside. It’s actually a lot of fun to fly a kite. You need a lot of space away from trees, though, because the kite does get stuck in the trees a lot. And it takes a few tries to get the kite to stay up, especially if there is not a lot of wind around. It works best on fairly windy days, but you can get the kite to fly when there isn’t a lot of wind, too, you just have to keep trying.
You can make your own kite with a full sheet of newspaper, string, and 2 wooden dowels. Kites come in all shapes and sizes, so you can cut the newspaper however you want, just make sure the width and length are really close to the same size. The wooden dowels should be 24 inches and 20 inches. You need to cut notches on both ends of both dowels to make sure the string stays in place. Put the dowels in a ‘t’ shape, with the shorter one 6 inches from the top of the taller one. Attach them together with string, making sure you can put string around the frame of the kite, too. Put the frame on top of the newspaper and fold the edges over the string, taping them in place. Make pockets for the dowels with the tape, and poke the ends of the dowels in the pockets. Cut a piece of string 24 inches long. Tie one end to the top of the dowel, taping over it to keep it in place, and one end to the bottom of the dowel, taping it to keep it in place. Tie your string to fly the cut to that string you attached. You can attach ribbons to the string if you want, to make it look pretty.
7. Go Sight Seeing
If you like the city the most, take some time out of your day to go see all of the famous buildings in that city. It would be a nice way to go out into the outdoor world and see some of the places you might not have seen. Most cities have an historical building or two that you could check out. You won’t have to deal with anything that annoys you the most about being outside because you’ll still be in the same type of place you like being in the most. You’ll just be enjoying the same things you normally see but from a different perspective.
If you like a more rural area, go hiking. Everywhere has hiking paths that are not up mountains, so you’ll still enjoy being out there. You can also ride your bicycle along most of those paths, and there are some areas that allow you to bring your dog if that makes you feel more comfortable. You don’t even have to go hiking, you could just go to a park or an empty field somewhere and walk around there. Just to get out into the outside world would be a good thing, and you don’t have to be out there for long. This could be a way for you to get used to being outside, so you could be there for only a few minutes before you go back inside.
