50+ Fun Romantic Long Distance Date Ideas That Make Miles Disappear

The experiences shared in this article are based on real emotional journeys, but all personal details are anonymized and used with the explicit written permission of the clients. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. We are committed to treating all client stories with the utmost confidentiality and respect.

Let’s be honest: long distance relationships are both a marvel and a challenge. If you’ve ever counted down days to a reunion, or pressed your phone to your ear just to catch the way their voice softens at night, you already know—the longing can be real, and it can be a lot. But here’s something I’ve learned, both from my own experiences and from guiding hundreds of women as a dating coach: across every timezone or campus or city skyline that keeps you apart, intimacy can absolutely thrive. You just need the right compass (and a splash of creativity).

You might be wondering, “So, Eden, can video chats really keep the spark alive?” These days, I get that question a lot. When I first became a professional dating coach, I thought my advice would mostly be about how to flirt on a first date or move on from bad breakups. I never imagined I’d spend so much time brainstorming ways for couples to feel close when they aren’t in the same room—yet here we are.

Whether your love is a thousand miles away or just a short flight, it’s entirely possible to create moments that matter. Let’s dive into over 50 long distance date ideas that are both fun and deeply, quietly romantic. Some are playful, some are tender, some I’ve suggested dozens of times because they simply work—and all are designed to help you build real memories, not just mark time until you’re together again.

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Movie Nights with a Twist

If you haven’t tried pressing play at the same time (and yelling “NOW!” through your AirPods like your entire relationship depends on it), you’re missing out on a signature LDR rite of passage. But you can take it up a notch:

• Pick a streaming service with watch-together features: Platforms like Teleparty or Discord let you sync your screens, so you laugh—and cringe—on cue.
• Themed Viewing: One couple I worked with had “nostalgia nights,” watching cartoons from each other’s childhoods, which led to hours of unexpected storytelling.
• Shared Snacks Challenge: Each of you tries to match the other’s favorite movie treat. So if he’s munching on Takis, you track some down, too.

Movie nights don’t make miles vanish, but when you finish a film and both have popcorn salt on your shirts? It’s a new kind of closeness.

Cook Together (Literally or Virtually)

Cooking across different kitchens can be a blend of chaos and intimacy. Decide on a recipe, shop for ingredients, and set your phones or laptops nearby.

• Cook-offs: Each of you riff on the same recipe, with a twist. (Who actually wins at choco-chip pancakes? Only you two decide.)
• Grandma’s Recipe Night: I once coached a couple who alternated weeks making family meals. By the third month, she was texting his mom for “the real way to make lasagna.”
• Takeout Taste Test: Both order the same type of food from local places, then rate them. Is Chicago sushi really better? You decide.

Making something—from scratch or from DoorDash—connects you with shared tastes and inside jokes.

Game On: Play Together Online

Games can be about competition, but also connection.

• Word Games & Trivia: If you love testing each other’s knowledge, try online trivia or crossword sites.
• Virtual Escape Rooms: These collaborative puzzles get your brains working on the same wavelength (great if you crave feeling like a team).
• Old-School Board Games Adapted Online: I’ve seen couples schedule weekly afternoons for online Catan or Uno.

A client once told me they kept a running score of who won more rounds. It turned into a six-month tournament—teasing, laughter, and a low-key way to have regular dates.

Explore New Worlds Together

Who says “travel dates” are off-limits just because you’re apart?

• Museum Tours Online: Plenty of major museums—from New York to Paris—offer free virtual walks. Visit one, and use your video chat to discuss favorite pieces.
• Google Earth Adventures: “Choose a random country and both virtually roam a city street.” I know it sounds niche, but sharing strange street views can be oddly intimate.
• YouTube Wanderlust: Learn about destinations together (“Tonight, let’s do Japan!”) and plan a dream trip for “one day”—travel isn’t just about someday, but what you dream up tonight.

Even when you can’t share an airline seat, you can still wander side-by-side.

Book Club for Two

Start a “book club” just for you and your partner.

• Pick a book to read together—maybe a favorite novel, maybe something one of you has been wanting to recommend.
• Set up weekly check-ins to talk about each section.
• Alternate between audiobooks and eBooks, if reading speeds are a factor.

One client shared that their joint book club helped her understand sides of her boyfriend she would never have seen otherwise—how seriously he took social justice themes, how lost he got in poetry, how he laughed at the quirkiest side characters. Sharing stories creates your own.

Share Your Daily Life in Mini-Slices

Closeness is in the details. Building habits that mimic the everyday “living together” moments, even from afar, can quietly strengthen your connection. Here’s how:

• Morning Coffee or Bedtime Tea: Start or end the day together, even with just 10 minutes on video.
• A Day in the Life Videos: Send each other short clips or pics about your regular routines—what you eat for breakfast, your cluttered work desk, the way your roommate’s cat tries to write your emails.
• Outfit of the Day Show-and-Tell: This may sound light, but one of my clients began every Saturday by showing each other their planned outfits. “We felt like we were getting ready for date night—just with a screen in the middle.”

Sometimes, it’s the shared mundanity that makes the eventual reunions feel less like picking up pieces, and more like continuing a story you both know by heart.

The Art of Surprise

Surprises aren’t just for Valentine’s Day (and, honestly, surprises can mean more when they’re just-because).

• Mail Something Small: Letters, doodles, a favorite chocolate bar. Old-school, but it works.
• Sudden-Call Lunch: Schedule an unannounced lunch break FaceTime. Or, text “Hang out in 5?” and see how the random check-in lightens an otherwise monotonous day.
• Surprise Playlists: Curate songs based on how you’re feeling this week. Music can sometimes say what words can’t.

One of my long-term clients used to think that “surprise romance” had to be extravagant. Months into her bicoastal relationship, it was a hand-written post-it note arriving unexpectedly that made her break into tears (the happy kind).

Creative Arts and Crafts—Apart, But Together

Get your hands and hearts working.

• Attend Virtual Art Classes: Watercolor, pottery, or even creative writing workshops hosted over Zoom.
• Paint or Draw Together: Hop onto a platform like Aggie.io and doodle live on the same canvas. You’d be surprised—awkward stick figures quickly turn into inside jokes.
• Craft Challenge: Each pick up supplies and attempt to craft the same item (think: origami, friendship bracelets…).

When you make something together, even imperfectly, you create souvenirs for your relationship.

Intimate Q&As: Deepening Connection

Physical distance can sometimes nudge you to talk about things you normally wouldn’t. Lean into it—vulnerably.

• Question Games: Share memories, fears, dreams (look up “36 Questions That Lead to Love” or make your own).
• Future-Planning Chats: Imagine “one year from now” dates, or a silly dream house blueprint conversation.
• Journal Swap: Write a journal entry to each other every week—send via email or snail mail.

One tip from my coaching files: make some of these Q&As low-pressure. If hard topics surface, let them sit there. The point is opening dialogue, not solving everything in one night.

Double Dates… Without Needing a Plus-One Each

Bonding doesn’t have to mean isolating yourselves.

• Group Game Night: Invite another couple or two (local or also long-distance) for a game of Jackbox, Among Us, or online trivia.
• Family/Friends Zooms: If you’re ready, try an intentional meet-and-greet—with set “icebreaker” questions so it’s less stilted.
• Shared Netflix/Disney+ Viewing: A movie with everyone. You can roast the film together, or just feel part of a lively “room.”

Letting your worlds overlap can gently ease the feeling that you need to “live in two separate universes.”

Date Night With Delivery

Why not have an intentional “restaurant night” at home?

• Order Each Other Dinner: One week you order for her, the next she handles yours—choose each other’s favorites, or toss in something totally new (Thai food roulette, anyone?).
• Set the Scene: Candles, music, and (yes) changing out of those pajama bottoms, even if no one’s around to see you but the cat.
• Create a Signature “Our Drink”: Try your hand at mixology. Invent a house cocktail (or mocktail), give it a name, and cheers to it through your screens.

Food brings people together. With a bit of intention, it’s far more than a take-out box.

Physical Connection When You Can’t Touch

I’ll be honest here—missing physical intimacy is one of the hardest parts. But closeness can mean more than hand holding or hugs.

• Handwritten Letters: The act of writing deepens your sense of someone’s presence. My experience? Ink doesn’t stutter the way texting does.
• Voice Notes: Sometimes just hearing the way they say your name has a comfort all its own.
• Shared Scent Game: Each wear a signature scent, then mail a shirt (or scarf, or pillowcase) to each other. Sounds a bit extra, but the sense memory it creates is surprisingly strong.
• Trust-Building Rituals: Swap “gratitude lists” or “rose and thorn of the week”—touch isn’t the only way to be vulnerable.

If you’re struggling with this, know that you’re not alone. Several of my clients, especially during isolated seasons, have come through the other side not by ignoring longing, but by honoring it together.

Special Occasion Celebrations Across the Miles

Marking milestones is doubly important in long distance partnerships.

• Shared Spotify Playlists for Anniversaries or Birthdays
• Virtual Candle Blowing: For birthdays, each have a cupcake and light a candle. Video the “blow out,” then make wishes out loud.
• Digital Scrapbooks: Collaborate on a digital photo book as you go—then print it for the next visit.

One couple I worked with both missed each other’s birthdays because of weather delays. They threw a “Half-Birthdays” Zoom complete with silly hats six months later. It became a tradition.

Playlists, Podcasts and Shared Media

Create a sense of “us” around shared media.

• Build a Playlist for Each Mood: Study time, lazy Sundays, first car ride after you reunite.
• Pick a Podcast: Listen to the same episode, then talk about it. (True crime and self-improvement always seem to stir debate!)
• Photo Scavenger Hunt: Pick a theme; send each other pics throughout the week (strangest mailbox, prettiest plant, “thing that reminds me of you”).

You make each other part of your week, even when it’s just five minutes at a time.

Fitness Together—Body and Mind

Stay healthy together, even from different zip codes.

• Workout Buddies: Use video chat for yoga, pilates, HIIT—you name it. Or share “proof” selfies after a workout to cheer each other on.
• Meditation & Deep Breathing: Plug into the same guided meditation (tons of apps, and TikTok accounts offer these now).
• Wellness Challenges: Pick a daily step goal, sleep challenge, or water intake goal and cheer each other’s progress.

Mutual motivation increases follow-through (and knowing someone notices if you skip leg day is sometimes motivation enough).

Build Something for the Future

Not every date needs to focus on now—sometimes, anticipation is the best glue.

• Plan Your Next Visit: Even if it’s hypothetical.
• Joint Bucket List: Create a shared doc for all the movies, restaurants, adventures you’ll check off someday.
• Future Apartment Mood Board: Pin images to a board—furniture, locations, color schemes, pets? Let yourselves flirt with someday.

Even the process of planning can bring hopeful joy, especially on tougher days.

Inside Jokes, Code Words, and Secret Languages

Every couple has their own private world. Distance can make it richer.

• Invent Meme Games: Share the meme-of-the-day, with a running ranking.
• Create a Codeword for ‘I Love You’: Silly, yes, but on those really hard days, sending a “Pineapple” (or whatever your word is) says more than a paragraph.
• Inside Joke Photo Edits: Edit your photos together—put your faces on celebrity red carpet pics, make fake movie posters.

A touch of lightness—a reminder: “We’re us, and that’s special.”

Couples’ Therapy Books and Growth Projects

If your relationship is strong, you want it to grow. Learning together can be healing, especially across distance.

• Read Relationship Books Together: I often suggest books about communication or love languages, but anything that gets you reflecting as a team works.
• Share Favorite Personal Growth Videos/Talks: TED talks, mini-documentaries, or even interviews with creators you admire. Discuss what sticks.

Even coaches (like me!) revisit these with partners, because learning together deepens respect.

Share Goals and Celebrate Progress

Make each other part of your life journey.

• Weekly Wins and Woes: On Sundays, share one thing you’re proud of and one you’re struggling with.
• Cheerleader Role: Be each other’s first “good-luck” text in the morning, or the “nice work!” at the end of a presentation.
• Long-Term Dream Jars: Each write out dreams (career, travel, family, creative). Read one out loud each week.

It’s vulnerable, but there’s nothing more romantic than truly being seen—even when things are messy, not perfect.

Support Each Other During The Hard Moments

Fact: Not all days are easy. Some are rough—missed calls, tech issues, tough news, or feeling like the distance might swallow you whole.

• Set Up ‘SOS’ Calls: If one of you has a bad day, have a pre-arranged way to drop in for extra support, even for five minutes. Sometimes being “there” matters more than fixing anything.
• Validate Feelings, Don’t Problem-Solve Right Away: Sometimes, just saying “Yeah, this is hard, and I miss you too” can feel grounding.
• Share Self-Compassion Practices: Remind each other—and yourselves—that struggling isn’t a sign a relationship is “failing.” It’s human.

As someone who’s supported women through breakups, reconciliations, and everything in between, I can promise you: The more you honor your (and their) feelings, the more resilient your love becomes.

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Final Words from The Darling Code

If you’ve made it to the end of this list (or even just scanned for bolded ideas while over-caffeinated on a Wednesday night), here’s what I hope you take away: love, across a distance, isn’t a “less than” version of love. It’s a different flavor, with its own bittersweet beauty and hard-earned joys. Temporary or permanent, long distance can clarify what matters most, create fresh rituals, and teach you both new ways to take care—of yourselves, and of each other.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Maybe tonight you just send a playlist. Maybe next Sunday you try a virtual dinner date. Look for ways that feel doable in your real life—not just what sounds impressive on social media.

And if your heart feels soft around the edges lately? That’s a sign you’re loving well, even when things aren’t simple. If you ever want more tailored ideas or support, know that as someone who’s been there—and who’s made it her daily work to support women like you—my inbox is open.

With heart,
The Darling Code

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PS: If this post sparked some ideas or gave you a smile, make sure to save it to Pinterest (or send it to a friend who might need it). Start with just one idea on this list this week—a movie night, a coffee date, or simply sending a song that makes you think of them. Even the smallest gesture is a step closer to feeling together, wherever you are.

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