It’s summer, you’ve got some time off school, the world is your oyster, right? But what if you’re bored and you can’t think of anything fun to do? Here are some summer activities for teens that want to get away from screens, have some fun, and create some fun summer memories. Most of these things to do in the summer for teenagers are ideas of things to do without screens, but sometimes a phone can be a useful tool without becoming the main focus, too.
Fun Summer Activities for Teens
Here are some of the most fun things to do in the summer for teens. We’ve tried to include some ideas to appeal a lot of different interests and personalities, so there should be something for everyone here.
Photography is a Fun Summer Activity for Teenagers
Photography is a super fun hobby that is also very rewarding. You can instantly share your photos on social media to get feedback, or you can wait until you get home and edit them on your computer to really make them pop. There are even photo-editing apps for smartphones.
Learning about photography and then putting your knowledge into action by taking amazing photos is a great way to spend the summer since it keeps you outdoors, you have somewhat of a schedule as you try to capture different types of light and different times of day, and these are skills that you can eventually put towards starting a photography business to earn some extra money. Skilled photographers who market themselves smartly can earn a small fortune during wedding season, for example.
Try a New Sport
Sports are a great way to get some exercise while doing something fun and competitive, and there are sports to suit just about any activity level. There’s golf which is mostly a lot of walking or something like rock climbing that is very physical and engages the whole body.
Tennis is a fun sport with a low barrier to entry that you only need two people to play, and you can always kick a soccer ball around all by yourself if you don’t have a whole team of people to play with.
Just spending some time outside running around a bit, getting some fresh air, is a great way to improve your mood and feel good. If you’re not the sportiest person, that’s okay, but this is one where it can be very beneficial to push yourself into trying some different sports until you find something you really enjoy. From fencing, football, to mini-golf, to any number of other sports and activities – find what you enjoy the most and give yourself a chance to get good at it!
Birdwatching
This might sound boring, and for some people it certainly is, but once you start to learn some of your local birds and you’re able to spot them and ID them, and you start to learn some of the more rarely-sighted birds, it’s kind of like trying to find every Pokemon except you’re doing it IRL.
It’s an interesting interest to carry throughout life because anywhere you visit or travel will have their own sets of birds to look out for.
Gardening
Gardening is another hobby that seems like it appeals more to seniors than to teens, kind of like birdwatching, but these are some relatively chill and not-very-demanding ways to pass some time. Gardening can take up a lot of your free time, or it can take up next to no time – it just depends on how much you get into it.
Geocaching
Having a phone is useful for geocaching since there are websites where you can look up the coordinates of the caches that are hidden around your neighborhood. You can also take photos with your phone when you discover a cache, to save as a memory.
At Geocaching.com, you can create an account and keep track of your adventures while also finding coordinates and maps to get you to your next geocache.
You can even create your own geocache to hide somewhere and keep track of when other people find it! Make sure you follow all of the community guidelines to ensure that this stays fun for everyone, and isn’t harming any animals or nature.
Chillin’
There’s nothing wrong with deciding to just chill. How is that different than just sitting around, doing nothing, being bored? Well, it’s a mindset, really. It’s a vibe. Once you decide that you’re chillin’, instead of bored and doing nothing, you’re suddenly doing something. It’s just a way to shift your perspective and sometimes it’s okay to embrace doing nothing and just zoning out, daydreaming, and letting the day drift along.
You don’t always have to be doing something, learning something, or improving yourself. You don’t always have to be finding something super fun or adventurous to do, either. It’s okay to chill every now and then, so embrace it on your summer vacations when you’re looking for fun activities for teenagers.
Stargazing
Looking up at the sky at night is another fun thing you can do in the summer, especially if you can drive a bit outside of the city where there isn’t as much light pollution.
Find a Part-Time Job
If you’re really bored and you don’t have much spending money, finding a part-time job for the summer is a great way to keep a sense of structure to your weeks while also bringing in enough cash to have some fun with. A part-time summer job will give you more than enough money to do other fun stuff all summer, and some teens will even work full-time during the summer, have fun on the weekends, and then have spending money for the entire next school year as long as they budget it decently.
A summer job can help you save up for a car, vacations, or just so you can get whatever clothes you want. If your parents don’t buy most of your stuff for you, then saving up with a summer job is your ticket to fighting boredom and finding something to do in the summer.
Learn a New Skill
There are 1001 different skills and hobbies you can take up, and a lot of them will benefit you for the rest of your life. Your teenage years are a time when you can learn new things much more easily than when you’re older, and you have plenty of time to master anything you’d like to.
Cooking is an example of a very great skill for everyone to have. It helps in terms of being able to feed yourself better food when you’re a bit older and living on your own, not having to order food all the time, and gaining a true culinary mastery that will stick with you for life. Cooking a nice dinner for your crush is always a win, too.
Go Thrifting
Certain chains of thrift stores have lost their magic, with prices so inflated that it doesn’t even make sense to shop there anymore. But if you can find a smaller thrift store or an independent one, you can usually find some pretty cool stuff.
From weird and quirky t-shirts, designer clothes, video games, vinyl records, and more… you never know what you’ll find, and this can be a fun way to spend an afternoon, it’s kind of like treasure hunting.
Fitness Challenge
Can you do 100 pushups? Can you run for 30 minutes? Can you bench press an impressive amount for your age? Summer is a great time to set a fitness challenge and work towards it each day. You’ll feel great, you’ll do better in gym class, and this is a great time to put on some muscle and set a great foundation for fitness throughout your life.
Listen to Entire Albums
Does most of your music consumption come from TikTok or listening to singles on Spotify? Try looking up some of the top albums from past years and decades, and listen to the entire album from start to finish. There’s something special about listening to a very high-quality album in whatever genre you enjoy, that was designed to be listened to as a whole. It’s becoming less common for people to consume music this way, but it’s great.
You can stream in the backyard while you soak up some sun, or while doing chores, or whatever. Go find some favorite albums!
Play Some Board Games Outside
Setting up a board game at a picnic table is a perfect way to spend a summer day with some friends. We’re not necessarily talking about Monopoly here, either. There are a lot of great board games from Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Gloomhaven, and plenty more. Check out the hobby, see what you like, and enjoy your vacation!
Enjoy These Summer Activities for Teens Because Summer Doesn’t Last Forever!
Even if you don’t get up to a whole lot during the summer, you’ll look back fondly on the day or week that you spent learning a new hobby, learning to cook, learning to take great photos, chillin’, playing games with your friends, or maybe even birdwatching!
Whatever you decide to do, try to do some fun activities for teenagers that interest you because before you know it, you’ll be back in class, patiently waiting for the next summer vacation to arrive.
