25 long distance date ideas for couples: cozy movie nights, games you can play apart, creative dates and ideas for different time zones. Most are free.
By Mario Jankovic 10 min read The best long distance date ideas give you something to do together, not just something to talk about. Watch a movie at the same moment, cook the same meal, play a co-op game or build something side by side, and a video call starts to feel like an evening you spent together. Most of the 25 ideas below are free and need nothing more than a laptop or a phone.
We see this in Glint. When we looked at active rooms this September, almost 4 in 10 had exactly two people in them, and some of the people who answered our survey told us they use it for long distance dates. What they want is simple: a place to be together that isn’t just two faces on a screen.
A good long distance date has three things: a shared activity, a set time, and a little bit of effort. The activity gives you something to react to together, so the conversation doesn’t have to carry the whole evening. The set time makes it a date instead of a call that happened to run long. The effort (dressing up, the same snacks, a playlist) is what makes it feel like an occasion.
The ideas below are grouped by mood, so you can pick one for a tired Tuesday and save another for an anniversary.
| Date idea | Best for | Cost | What you need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watch a movie in sync | Relaxed nights | Your streaming plan | Teleparty or a synced player |
| Cook the same recipe | Weekends | Groceries | A video call and one recipe |
| Co-op video game | Gamers | Varies by game | A console or PC each |
| Online board games | Game nights | Free | Board Game Arena |
| Build a room together | Cozy, creative nights | Free | Glint in a browser |
| The 36 questions | Getting closer | Free | The list and an hour |
| Stargazing | Romantic nights | Free | Stellarium Web or a clear sky |
| Leave notes to find | Different time zones | Free | A shared space that stays |
Weeknight dates should cost almost no energy. These work when you’re both tired and just want to be near each other.
Press play at the same moment and talk through it the way you would on a couch. For Netflix and several other streaming services, Teleparty syncs playback and adds a chat. For YouTube videos, pick a player that syncs play, pause and skipping for both of you, so nobody has to shout “wait, pause it”. Glint does this for any video you put in a room.
Pick one recipe, buy the ingredients separately, and cook it together on video. Prop the phone against the backsplash, race each other through the chopping, then sit down and eat “together”. Easy crowd pleasers are pasta, dumplings, tacos and pancakes for a breakfast date.
Each of you secretly orders a meal to the other person’s address, then you eat on a call. It’s a small surprise, and it takes the cooking out of a weeknight.
Get on a call and each do your own thing: study, read, knit, draw, answer email. You don’t have to talk much. Hearing the other person turn a page is the whole point. It asks the least of you of any date here, and it still makes the distance feel smaller.
Bookend a day together. A ten minute coffee call before work, or leaving the call on while you both fall asleep, gives you the small daily moments that distance takes away.
Pick an album neither of you has heard and listen to it front to back at the same time. Spotify’s Jam lets you both add songs to one queue and hear it in sync (the host needs Premium). Rate every track, then argue about the ratings.
Go for a walk in your own neighborhoods while you’re on a call, and describe what you see. Point your camera at the dog you just passed or the sunset. It’s exercise, fresh air and a date in one.
Games are the easiest way to fill an evening with laughing instead of catching up. Here are ones that work across two homes.
Some games are built for two. It Takes Two and Split Fiction both have a Friend’s Pass, so only one of you needs to buy the game, and It Takes Two is literally about a couple. Stardew Valley and Minecraft are slower and cozier, and you each need your own copy. For puzzle lovers, The Past Within and We Were Here are escape rooms where each of you sees half the clues and has to talk the other through it.
Board Game Arena runs hundreds of board games in a browser tab, most of them free to play. Try Carcassonne, 7 Wonders Duel or Azul on a video call and keep a running score for the month.
Gartic Phone and skribbl.io are free drawing games that get funnier the worse you draw. They’re best with a group of friends, but they work for two as well.
GeoGuessr drops you into Google Street View somewhere on Earth and you guess where you are. Play duels against each other, or team up. Free clones like OpenGuessr work if you don’t want a subscription.
The 36 questions come from psychologist Arthur Aron’s 1997 study on how strangers grow close. They start light (“Would you like to be famous?”) and get deeper as you go. Even couples who’ve been together for years learn something new.
Not every date has to be an evening. Words With Friends, GamePigeon in iMessage, or comparing your Wordle and Connections results every morning gives you a small thing you share every day.
Creative dates leave you with something you made together, which is the closest thing to a memory you both have in the same place.
This is the one we built Glint for. You both open the same room in your browser, talk over voice or video, lay the floor tile by tile and press stickers into it from a sticker album: a bed, a lamp, a sleeping cat, a record player. Your avatars sit in the room with you while you decorate, and you can put a video in the room and watch it in sync.
The part couples like most is that the room stays. Next time you meet up, your place is still there, a little fuller every week. Glint is free, runs in a browser tab with nothing to install, and several sticker series are free to use. You can also grab the Autumn Cabin series as a free present. Full disclosure: I make Glint, so take this one with that in mind. There’s more on how building works in the rooms and stickers update.
Give each other a theme (“songs that remind me of you”, “our road trip”, “the summer we met”) and a week to build a playlist. Swap on your next date and listen to them together, with commentary.
Full episodes of The Joy of Painting are on the official Bob Ross YouTube channel. Get the same cheap paints, put an episode on in sync and paint the same happy little trees. Compare results at the end.
Open a shared map or doc and plan something real: the next time you’ll see each other, a weekend away, the city you’d move to. Having the next visit on the calendar gives every call something to count down to.
Go through your phones and build a shared album of your relationship so far, with a caption for each photo. It’s a good date for an anniversary, and a good one to come back to.
Mail each other real letters, then open and read them together on video. Add a pressed flower, a photo or a small gift.
For birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine’s Day, go a little further than a normal night.
Dress up like you’re going somewhere expensive, light a candle and cook something nice (or order it). Set the laptop at eye level and put the phone away. It sounds silly and it feels great.
Google Arts & Culture has free tours of museums around the world, from the Musée d’Orsay to the Rijksmuseum. Explore one together and each pick your favourite piece.
Find a clear night, go outside and look up at the same sky while you’re on the phone. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, Stellarium Web shows the night sky from anywhere, free in a browser.
Beyond games like The Past Within, lots of escape room companies run live online rooms with a real host. Book one for an anniversary and see how well you work as a team.
Send each other the same face masks, run a bath or light a candle, and do a slow, quiet self care evening on a call.
When your evenings don’t overlap, dates don’t have to be live.
Record voice notes, schedule an email for when they wake up, or keep a shared journal you both write in. In Glint, you can leave a note or a new sticker in your room while they’re asleep, and it’s there when they open it in the morning. A place you both keep adding to feels like a home, even when you’re never in it at the same time.
A few small things make a video call feel like a date:
| App | What it’s for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Teleparty | Watching streaming services in sync | Free, paid plan available |
| Spotify Jam | Listening to music together | Host needs Premium |
| Board Game Arena | Board games in the browser | Free, premium games extra |
| Gartic Phone | Drawing games | Free |
| Glint | Building a room together, watching videos in sync, hanging out | Free |
| Google Arts & Culture | Museum tours | Free |
| Stellarium Web | Stargazing | Free |
What can long distance couples do online for free? Plenty. You can cook the same recipe on a call, play board games on Board Game Arena, draw in Gartic Phone, stargaze, take a virtual museum tour or build a room together in Glint. None of these cost anything.
What are good virtual date night ideas? Watching a movie in sync, cooking the same meal, a dress up dinner, playing a co-op game and building something together all make good virtual date nights. Pick something you do together, not just something you talk about.
What games can long distance couples play? It Takes Two and Split Fiction (one copy with a Friend’s Pass), Stardew Valley, Minecraft, The Past Within, board games on Board Game Arena, GeoGuessr duels, and phone games like Words With Friends.
How do you watch a movie together long distance? Use Teleparty for Netflix and other streaming services, or a synced player for YouTube videos, so play and pause happen for both of you. Start a call next to it so you can react.
How often should long distance couples have a date? There’s no rule. Many couples set one proper date a week and fill the rest with small daily things, like a morning call or a game you both play every day.
What do you do on a long distance date with a big time difference? Make it asynchronous. Leave voice notes, write in a shared journal or add to a room you both keep, and save live dates for the hours when you’re both awake.
If you want a place that’s just yours, open Glint, make a room and send the link to your person.
Written by
Mario Jankovic
Mario makes Glint, a cozy browser app where friends build rooms together and hang out in them. He writes here about spending time with people you love online, and about everything new in Glint.
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