You’re looking for guidance on how to long-distance date. You want to show your sweetheart that the distance has only given you the chance to show your love in new, creative ways. In this post, you’ll find 29 long-distance date ideas that will make date night worth looking forward to — and worth savoring hours afterward.
29 Long-Distance Date Ideas
Whether your dates happen during the day or at night, you’ll find creative, romantic, and budget-friendly ideas here to make your dates as memorable as when you’re together.
Long-Distance Date Night Ideas
1. Arrange for delivery of a favorite take-out meal.
If you know your significant other’s favorite comfort foods, why not order a full meal for them and have it delivered to their door (when you know they’ll be home to collect it)? Then invite them to a virtual dinner date — or send a love note to accompany the meal.
2. Take turns reading to each other.
Whether you talk over the phone or use video chat, you can take turns reading from a book you’ve chosen together. When you reach the end (over several reading dates), you can both post reviews online to support the author.
3. Buy a round of drinks and send each other pics.
Each of you can buy your favorite drinks and send pics of your prepared drinks next to the liquor, wine, or beer bottles. If you have a favorite drinking game, agree to a set limit on drinks, so neither of you spends the next day hung over.
4. Get crafty and work on a project together over video chat.
If there’s a craft you both enjoy, why not work on a new craft project together over video chat. Whether you’re making the same thing or something different, meet up virtually on a regular basis to check on each other’s progress and to chat while working.
5. Send each other on scavenger hunts.
You can use a scavenger hunt book and choose a list to work from. Or you can give each other your own scavenger hunt lists and check in regularly to see how far you’ve gotten with them.
6. Send each other care packages, and unbox them together.
Put together care packages for each other with little things your sweetie will find useful, as well as thoughtful gifts and favorite treats. Send these (by snail mail) and agree to unbox them together at your next date over web chat (Skype, Zoom, etc.)
7. Get a virtual tarot card reading.
Get a virtual tarot card reading — or psychic reading, if you’re both inclined — and share the reading with your partner, either by forwarding the results (via email) or by reading them during a video chat.
8. Play a two-person online game.
Sign up for a two-person online game and arrange a time to play together. You find a game on Gamesgames.com or Crazygames.com. Keep track of your winnings and celebrate when one of you sets a new record or reaches an important milestone in the game.
9. Learn a new skill together with a “homework date.”
Sign up for an online class to learn a new skill together — whether that’s a new language, a new programming code, or something else. Practice with each other or use your dates to study for an upcoming test or to work together on a class project.
Romantic Long-Distance Date Ideas
10. Dress up for a virtual dinner date.
Dress up as you would for a special date to a nice restaurant (the kind with cloth on the table), and enjoy a virtual dinner date together. This could be gourmet take-out or it could be regular comfort food washed down with something you both enjoy.
11. Send flowers and/or treats.
Send flowers or a favorite treat to each other with a brief love note. Or use the note to provide a clue for finding a hidden treasure. To express your appreciation, you can create and share private videos or thank each other at your next check-in date,
12. Arrange for regular deliveries of a favorite beverage.
This could be a wine membership, where you’d order the bottles and have them delivered to your partner’s address. Or it could be something else (tea, kombucha, etc.). Whatever helps your SO feel loved and cared for, find a service that will deliver it to them safely.
13. Share a secure online drive for love letters and poems to each other.
If one of you already uses DropBox, share the login information so you can both save love letters, poems, stories, and videos to the drive for the other to enjoy. When you’re able to spend more time together, that drive will hold good memories for you both.
14. Share “naughty” pics (in the most secure way possible).
Keep in mind, of course, that the internet is forever. Probably best to save those images to a thumb drive and send it by snail mail. Or save it to a password-protected drive you can both access.
15. Share a sunset or night sky.
Arrange to sit where you can both enjoy the sunset. Or you could each pick a spot where you can enjoy the night sky at the same time, choosing a specific star or constellation to focus on and communicating this either by voice over the phone or by text message. 31 First Date Tips For Men And Women 25 Rainy Day Date Ideas To Salvage Your Plans For Fun 115 Of The Best Love Messages For Your Wife
16. Share a diary and only open on date nights.
Share a diary you can send each other by snail mail and take turns adding to it. Or sign up for an online diary and share the login info, so you can read each other’s entries and add your own.
17. Make a mixtape or share a playlist.
Either create an old-school mixtape with a cassette tape or CD, or create a playlist on YouTube, Spotify, etc., and share it with the one you love and can’t be with. Invite them to a virtual dance off or just use the playlist as background music for your next virtual date.
18. Make YouTube videos for each other.
Create your own YouTube videos for a private channel and invite your partner to it. You can create YouTube videos with personal messages or with contributions from other family members or friends your loved one can’t visit with face to face.
19. Share an adult coloring book.
Pick out an adult coloring book to share and take turns coloring part of it. Send it back and forth by snail mail, along with a love note and something for your partner to enjoy while coloring.
Cheap Long-Distance Date Ideas
20. Watch a movie or stream a show together.
If you arrange to watch a specific movie or stream a show at the same time, you can text each other your thoughts and reactions and hop onto a webchat afterward. Or if that’s not a possibility, you can at least enjoy the show and a favorite snack together.
21. Play a game of 20 questions.
Over web chat or via text message, you can play a game of 20 questions — each of you taking turns asking the other a question after answering theirs. Make it more about the time spent, though, than about whether you get up to 20 questions.
22. Build a Pinterest board together.
Dream together with a new Pinterest board you can both add to — maybe for a renovation project, maybe for travel, or maybe for something only you two would get excited about. Whatever it is, you can build a Pinterest board for it.
23. Build a Tumblr blog together.
If you both prefer Tumblr, why not build a Tumblr blog together. Or you could build separate blogs and follow each other and comment on each other’s posts. Follow your favorite fandoms and reblog content with a note only your partner will understand.
24. Text each other daily gratitude messages.
Make it a priority to text each other three gratitude messages every day — at a specific time or as consistently as possible — to lift each other up and remind each other to focus on your blessings in the present moment, even if you can’t be in the same room together.
25. Start your own two-person book club.
Start a book club for just you two, and meet up regularly by video chat or texting to talk about the chapters you’ve read. You could also make video “reviews” for each other and save them to a shared drive. Or send each other links to your videos on YouTube.
26. Schedule daily check-in dates.
Set a time for daily check-in dates by phone, text, or video chat. Maybe most days you’ll text but on one or two nights a week, you’ll use Skype or Zoom to have a face-to-face talk about what’s been going on and how you’re both feeling.
27. Swap recipes and share results.
Swap recipes you love, so the other can make the recipe and share pics and personal reviews of the results. It doesn’t have to fit a specific type — breakfast food, soups, stir fry, burgers, etc. Choose something you know the other will enjoy (if all goes well).
28. Go on digital vacations together.
Find online 360 degree tours of places you both want to visit and check them out together, keeping in touch via phone talk or text. Enjoy the tour and then share a drink together as you picture yourselves sitting together and enjoying the view.
29. Send “open when” letters.
Send each other “open when” letters for those moments when you’d want to be there, but you can’t. Some ideas? “Open when you feel lonely,” “Open when you can’t sleep,” or “Open when your care package arrives.” Enclose these notes in a message they can enjoy now. Long-distance date ideas can keep your connection strong. Now that you’ve looked over these long-distance date ideas, which ones stood out for you the most? Which would you like to try today — or this week? As touch-starved as we can get when our loved ones have to be far from us, it’s still possible to show them our love in creative and memorable ways. And it’s still possible to get to know each other better and grow together as a couple. Proximity definitely makes things easier. But when you can’t have that, I hope the ideas in this post will help you make every day apart easier on you both.
