10 Date Ideas for Long Distance Relationships
Struggling with virtual dates that fall flat? Here are 10 date ideas for long distance relationships that create real connection from online games to surprise deliveries and stargazing calls.
Long distance is hard. But a bad virtual date makes it harder. Here are 10 date ideas for long distance relationships that create real connection, not just screen time. No fluff, no filler. Just the ones worth trying.
Before you dive in, if you're looking for the full toolkit on making distance work, check out our tips for long distance relationships: a practical guide to everything from communication habits to surviving the tough days.
1. Cook the Same Meal Together
Pick a recipe neither of you has tried, buy the same ingredients, and cook side by side on video. It's messy, funny, and you end up with something you genuinely made together. Pasta, homemade pizza, or a dish from the city you're planning to visit next (all good options).
2. Play Online Games Together
This is one of the best date ideas for long distance relationships because it creates realtime interaction and inside jokes. Free options that actually work well for couples: Skribbl.io (online Pictionary), Gartic Phone (telephone game meets drawing, endlessly funny), Codenames Online (strategic word game), and Chess.com for the cerebral types.
3. Try a Virtual Escape Room
Several platforms now offer two-player online escape rooms. You work through puzzles together in real time, collaborative, immersive, and genuinely exciting. Search "virtual escape room for couples." Many run under €15.
4. Build a Shared Playlist
Open Spotify, start a collaborative playlist, and take turns adding songs on call (one rule: you have to explain why you chose each one). You'll learn things about each other that a hundred regular conversations wouldn't surface.
5. Tour a Museum Together
Google Arts & Culture lets you walk through hundreds of world-class museums in 360°. The Louvre, MoMA, the Uffizi, all free. Share your screen, move through it together, and debate what you like. Surprisingly good date energy.
6. Watch-Along Movie Night
Use Teleparty, Kast, or Disney+ GroupWatch to sync a film perfectly and chat in real time. The key upgrade from "both watching the same thing separately": you're actually reacting together.
7. Online Wine or Cocktail Tasting
Order the same bottle or the same spirits and taste together on video. Make up tasting notes. Pretend you know what you're talking about. You don't need to be experts. The shared ritual is what makes it feel like a real occasion.
8. Go Stargazing Together
If your time zones are close enough, go outside with your phones and look at the same sky. Use the Sky Map app to identify what you're both seeing. Knowing you're under the same stars at the same moment is quietly romantic in a way most date ideas aren't.
9. Send a Surprise Delivery Mid-Call
Order a meal, flowers, or a small gift to your partner's address timed for your video call, without telling them. The moment they answer the door while you're watching is worth every bit of the logistics.
10. Play the Question Game
Take turns asking each other something you've never asked before. Use a deck of We're Not Really Strangers cards, or make the questions up. "What's something you've never told anyone?" goes surprisingly far.
The One Thing That Makes Any of These Work
The date idea matters less than showing up consistently. Some of the best LDR moments aren't elaborate — they're a 20-minute call where you're both genuinely present.
Pick one idea from this list and try it this week. Not next month. This week.
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