Looking for great long distance date ideas to keep your LDR alive?
Being in a relationship always poses challenges in figuring out ways to keep the fire alive, the enthusiasm sparked and both parties happy, engaged and excited to be with their partner.
The Challenges of a Long Distance Relationship
Take that normal, everyday work needed for regular relationships and add in distance. It could be a few hours away or a few states in between or maybe an entire expanse of an ocean separating the two of you.
The long distance relationship, I believe, takes even more effort, even more patience and even more trust and understanding to make it work out in the long run.
I do also think that if you can make it work with the distance factor added in, the moment you come together permanently, you’ll have an intensely strong bond that can survive any of the tough moments you may one day be faced with.
Using Long Distance Relationship Date Ideas to Keep the Spark Alive!
Time together is very valuable in this type of relationship. Each one of you still has a life to live outside being in that long distance relationship so finding creative expressions of love and spending quality time, when you can come together, is paramount.
Do not lose faith if you feel you are not a creative person you don’t have to be ridiculously creative to have a fabulous long distance relationship date night plus we are helping you out with a list of fun-loving, enjoyable, entertaining activities to use to start building that solid relationship foundation between you and your long distance partner.
An important factor when starting to work with this list; space them out. Try not to overload the other person with tons of activities and gifts which may make you appear needy or clingy.
If you were in a relationship that does not have a distance factor added in, you would not spend every day going on dates so let us not expect that in a long distance relationship either. We all need a comfortable space to move within a relationship for both personal and couple growth.
Here we go, let’s delve into the world of long distance dating activities! With these fabulous romantic things to do in a long distance relationship you will never get bored again!
Note: You might also like to check out the best long distance gift ideas for him.
35+ Long Distance Date Ideas to Keep a LDR Flourishing
Start a journal together
Going back to old timey snail mail and getting excited over letters (love letters are the best!) or packages arriving in the mail, start a journal containing letters you each write back and forth to one another then send through the mail. Sure you might talk on the phone or text everyday but sometimes there are words that are better expressed in writing.
Plus, you can have a sweet type of documentation on the progression of your relationship and one day you can look back and reminisce. Here is a link to a great couples journal.
Play APG (Ambiguous Painting Game)
I’ll get to the rules of APG in a second, but first there’s a reason why you should try a painting date.
Just because you may be 1000 miles away from your loved one, doesn’t mean you can’t get your paintbrush wet and create some art!
For a laugh try APG (Ambiguous Painting Game)
Painting is a great date idea because it allows you to express yourselves creatively, while also providing a chance to bond and share a unique experience.
Practically speaking you’ll want to do this via Skype or Zoom if you want to see each other’s artwork in real time.
APG Rules
If you want to get even more funky you can try painting without showing the other as you go along.
To make things even more interesting you can create unique subjects like “paint a fair game”.
Now, that could be taken multiple different ways depending on your interpretation of the word “fair”.
On the one hand you could draw a carnival game like Ring Toss or Shooting Ducks.
On the other hand it could be an interpretation of a sportsman-like game of football or basketball.
Need inspiration for your own APG game? Try a list like this one of words which are spelled the same but have different meanings.
Let’s be honest – one of you is probably better than the other – which presents the opportunity to help you communicate (how to get better) and be vulnerable with your partner if you suck at art like me (Mike here).
Plus, it’s a fun activity and you’ll have a present to give each other next time you catch up.
Future Trips Folder
In long distance relationships, it is always nice to have a trip to look forward to when you get to see each other next. One night, get on the phone or Skype one another, sit down and cut pictures and articles out of magazines of places you want to visit together.
Glue and tape onto pages that you can gather together into one folder or spiraled binder then pick and choose from it when planning time comes.
Morning Coffee and Donuts
Are you both morning people in the same time zone or maybe an hour or so off?
Go to a coffee shop, set up a web cam while starting off your days with a perfect cup of coffee, donuts and your sweetie.
One of the very best creative skype date ideas to try!
Grow Together
Literally, grow a garden together. It could be a big garden or pots out on your apartment deck. Gather all the seeds and necessary items for planting, plan a date together to get on your webcams, plant the same kind of seeds, on the same day at your respective houses.
Then each find joy in nurturing and caring for these gardens throughout the season.
Exchanging pictures of their progress. Once the fruits of your labor ripen you can plan a date to cook meals using all those freshly grown ingredients.
Book Club Night
Do this a little bit differently from a normal book club where members read the book then, weekly or monthly, come together to discuss it.
Agree upon a book that both of you might be interested in, decide on a time that works, pick the book up and read to each other. Just hearing the sound of your significant other’s voice is a great connection but then you have this book involved and can have stimulating, intellectual conversation about what’s going on in it each night you read together.
Additionally, it can help to improve communication and understanding between the two of you, and it’s a great way to show your partner how much you care.
Take Compatibility Tests
Probably a great date idea to do right in the very beginning of the relationship so you can decide right away if you can even be in a type of relationship that is going to ask even more from you that a normal one.
Just enter in Compatibility Tests in google search and you are sure to find so many options that you two can take multiple tests just to be sure.
Message in a Bottle
How exciting would it be to open up your mailbox to the discovery of a message in a bottle “floating” within from your Love from afar? Pretty easy to achieve by making a run to any craft store.
They have bottles of all shapes and sizes for you to choose from. You can even get creative with the paper and burn the edges or stain the paper with tea to give it an antiqued look.
If you don’t want to create your own, here is a message in a bottle you can buy online. A great long distance valentines date idea!
Deliver a Date Box
Take turns putting together date boxes for one another. You can decide on a theme, for example, wine tasting/pairing. Go buy some of those small bottles of wine, put in dried fruits, sausages or candies that you feel pair with the wine.
Make sure to get your pairing items too because when the box is received you two can then make a date and discuss the wines and pairings together.
A great way to get to know your partner’s likes and dislikes. Create a date box however you’d like and even use this as a way to get your partner involved in things you are interested in.
If you don’t feel like doing a DIY date box, here is a post of our favorite date night boxes you can buy online.
Communicate Through the Lips
Get your Skype up and running while one of you puts your side on mute. As your partner keeps talking, you have to try and figure out what they are saying by trying to read their lips.
Make sure you are ready to laugh and have a good time because what is read and what is said may not always match up.
Create Digital E-cards
There are great websites out there, if you would rather not wait for snail mail, which will allow you to create many different kinds of cards for different occasions for your sweetie. Jib Jab is one of many sites that allow you to make and email a card any time you want.
Touch Even Over Distance.
Touch, one of the greatest part of being in a relationship. In a long distance relationship touch is also an aspect of dating that must be highly anticipated for the next time you get to be together in one place.
Enter, Touch Bond Bracelets that can be touched at any time of day, by either one of you and the other’s bracelet will light up and gently vibrate to let your significant other you are thinking of them.
Pick Out Special Ringtones.
You can both decide on the same tone to download so it’s the same for both of your phones, like your special song, or come up with ones that just remind you of something special about the other person and set it for only their texts and calls.
Create a Future House Together
It could be that you have been doing this long distance relationship thing for a while now, see the end game of being able to finally be together permanently and are planning a new life together. Does that new future include a house?
Make a date around creating your new home. Here at Sweet Home 3D the two of you can start thinking of the home you want with one another as you design floor plans and do some interior decorating.
Scavenger Hunt
Each of you makes a list of about 15 items and emails or texts it to the other. Over a span of a few days go to the store and find these items that your partner has listed for you.
Ask for things that relate to love, dating or have some meaning to you both. Once you have found all the items, package them up and send them to your partner.
Save For a Couples Trip
Remember there is one huge thing that really keeps a long distance relationship alive; it is being able to get excited about seeing one another.
To be able to do that, though, you need to have money to get you there. Sit with each other one night and create little piggy banks (they can take whatever shape you desire, not just a pig).
Put it in a very noticeable place so that every time you pass it you can throw in change or extra dollars. Watch the money add up and feel accomplished as you cash it in for that most anticipated trip to one another’s arms.
Play Charades
Games are such a good way to connect with each other, laugh, be comfortable and just be. Getting off the couch and acting silly through a webcam date will make for a very memorable evening.
One of the very best games for long distance couples to play over skype! See more of our virtual date ideas!
Create Your Own Love Language.
Hearing “I love you” is one of the most heartwarming expressions your significant other can declare, if you are to that point in your relationship.
If your partner says it a lot to you, soak it in because it means they are expressing, out loud, that their thoughts are filled with you.
For some, hearing the same love expressions over and over might make it seem less and less authentic.
If this is the case for you then think about creating your own love language to mix things up and keep the freshness in how you communicate loving words to one another. It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else but the two of you. You can completely make up words, too, that only you two understand.
In creating your own love language you might like to consider each others love language.
Create Keepsake Boxes
Obviously, sending date boxes back and forth, mailing letters and messages in a bottle means that you have now collected many keepsakes.
Let’s create a keepsake box to store all of these wonderful items that bring you such great memories. Decorate however you wish.
Add jewels, glitter, silly photos of each other or photos of past trips together or items that warm your heart with thoughts of this awesome relationship you are in.
Create Your Own Couple’s Website
If you are both tech savvy, here’s an idea that puts a scrapbook or photo album onto the computer. Write your love story, create travel blogs about your trips together, publish love poems, post pictures, etc.
Anything relating to your Love Story can be made into your personal Couple’s website.
If you are thinking of starting your own website here are some resources that you will need:
- Find a Couples Name
- Hosting of your website: BlueHost or Siteground
Jar of Happy Reminders
Unfortunately, there will be some hard days when you are really missing your lady/man, you want to find comfort in their arms or words because you had a bad day.
This idea takes some effort but will be well worth it on those hard days for your partner.
Cut up 365 pieces of paper and write happy, uplifting, loving messages or reminders that can be pulled daily to be read for comfort and support from a hand decorated jar or box.
Here is a super cute date ideas jar for you to use.
Scent in the Mail
Scent can evoke powerful, solid emotions that can drop you back into beautiful memories. If you have a signature scent like a favorite cologne or perfume, spray some on a piece of paper, preferably with some loving words written upon it and mail it to your partner so they can hold onto that scent and pull you close to them with a simple breath in.
One cool idea is to hang some clothes in the closet of your significant others house. That way, when your SO is looking for an outfit they can have a whiff of your scent and they can feel close to you.
Birthday Boxes
Prepare something special for each others birthdays.
One cool idea is to have 10 simple gifts wrapped in a box. Ship them to your partner so they have 10 presents to open leading up to their birthday when they get to unwrap their big gift.
Write to Each Other in The Future
Futureme allows you to write letters now to be received 1, 3 or 5 years in the future or at a specific date.
What a wonderful way to relive past memories and refresh your minds on events you may have forgotten that you two had. You can also send yourself a letter to your future self.
Playing Games
Just because you are in a long distance relationship does not mean you can’t play games together!
Challenge each other to games and then text throughout so we are interacting and connecting on multiple levels. With so many app download choices out there playing games should never become a boring date option.
Here are some great games for couples that you can play on webcam or skype.
Love Letters
The art of letter writing and sending it through the mail seems as though it could be becoming a thing of the past but you can keep it alive. Write words down in a love letter, story or poem that might be harder for you to express in person.
Then your significant other can have something to keep, PLUS, who doesn’t love getting something in the mail that isn’t bills?!
“Open When” Letters
Making moments special while letting your sweetie feel some of your presence, even if it isn’t physically, can still be a great source of connection and togetherness.
Plan ahead, for any kind of special events coming up over the next month to few months to the next year, write out letters of love, encouragement and support that could brighten up your loved one’s day.
Seal your letters all individually and write on the outside when they are to be opened. These letters can provide that little bit of anticipation in knowing that they have something to look forward to opening.
Watch a Show Together
A fun facetime date idea!
Netflix, Hulu, Vudu are all wonderful sources to pick from for old, new & unique series when the two of you decide to watch a show series together.
They can be watched by both of you on your own time or together on the same nights. Obviously, then, you will have more subject matters to talk about and discuss as you really get into the stories.
Looking for a new show? Here are our favorite travel shows on netflix right now.
Tour Your City
Even if you have both been to the city that your partner currently lives in, it is still fun and exciting to get out with your smartphone’s webcam and explore with them. You could discover updated, fresh aspects about your city too as both of you engage in a walking tour around town.
Use this idea if one of you needs to travel for work to another new town. This will give you a chance to share new places and cultures while making new memories with your Love.
Random Funny, Loving, Sexy Texts
Yes, it is nice to have planned, set events to look forward to with your partner but remember the art of surprise can keep things fresh and interesting.
Random texts at all hours of the day can bring a smile to their faces because it lets them know you are always thinking about them. Always keep them guessing, Mix up the type of texts too be it funny, cute, loving, inspirational or even sexy.
Looking for some new questions to ask via text? Here are some of our favorite flirty questions to ask a guy.
Game of Freeze
Another great way to mix up the texting idea is to play a game of “Freeze”. The moment you receive the text “Freeze” from your partner, you have to instantly stop and take a picture of what is are doing.
It could be a selfie, or a picture of the place you are at or even some object related to what is happening in that very moment for them.
Such a fun way to experience what they are experiencing in the moment and feel as if you are a part of it too.
Adult Coloring Books
Now a days there are some pretty intricate, artsy, gorgeous adult coloring books out there. It has even been researched that coloring is an incredible source of stress reduction. Use this activity as a theme for a previously mentioned date box.
Buy the coloring book, some crayons, markers or colored pencils, plan a date time to sit down and partake in some good ‘ol fashioned coloring time. Let the day go and just be with one another.
Work Out Together
Options for workouts online are abundant. No matter what type of class you or your partner likes to take, you can find it online.
Be open and switch off with who gets to pick the workout for the day. One of you could discover a new liking for yoga, weight lifting, kick boxing, HIIT classes, or learning jujitsu. It is also nice to know that you both have an interest in staying healthy and in shape.
Use a Long Distance App
The great news is in the digital world, there are so many awesome long distance relationship apps that you can use to communicate together.
One of our favorites is KOYA, which you can use to send thoughtful, timely gifts and video messages to one another which is super fun!
Bike Ride
Another healthy activity for seeing the sights is bike riding with each other OR maybe just one of you bikes while the other tags along through a helmet cam.
The bike ride could also end in a picnic date too in some beautiful mountain valley or under the canopy of a pine tree forest.
Get Deep into Conversation
Look through the internet or Pinterest and you are sure to find lists of questions to get you into deeper conversation with the person you are in relationship with.
Communication, in all forms, is your main type of interaction when distance separates you. If you do talk or text everyday it may get difficult finding things to talk about.
Use these lists of questions to find out more about each other and spark more meaningful conversations to find out things that maybe you would never have thought to ask but that helps you understand the other person that much more.
Want some inspo? Here are some questions we thought of for ya:
Begin and End the Day Together
If you were physically together you would roll over in the morning to say good morning and crawl into bed at night for a good night wish and kiss.
Since you are in separate places it is key to start the day with a good morning and seal the day with a good night.
Don’t let one person always be the instigator of these texts or calls. When you wake up do it first thing and same with bedtime, if you are headed to bed say good night first if that is how it happens.
What did you think of these long distance date ideas?
Get creative, be open to trying out new things and learning about your significant other in these times of separation.
Make those dates with one another to stay connected but also remember that a healthy long distance relationship means that you are still living your life outside your partner too.
You both can still go out with friends, take part in activities on your own and be the person that your partner chose and came to like in the first place.
Establish trust in one another and remind them that they are always there with you, in spirit, no matter what. If you want it to work out and you put in the effort, the journey is going to be quite memorable.
Looking for More Date Ideas?
Want more Date Ideas to try? We have you covered:
- Virtual Date Ideas
- Chill date ideas
- Date Ideas for Married Couples
- At Home Date Ideas
- Teen date ideas
- High School Date Ideas
- Double Date Ideas
- Free Date Ideas
- What to text your boyfriend when you miss him
- Long distance relationship texts for him
Save LDR Date Ideas to Pinterest so you can find it again later!
