Our Tiny Planet
Guide
Long-distance date night ideas
A good long-distance date has a start time, a plan and one thing you both do at once, so it feels different from an ordinary call. Below are practical date night ideas, grouped by mood and effort: cooking the same recipe, film nights, virtual museum visits, stargazing at the same moment, dates that arrive in the post, and more.
Pick one that suits the week you are both having. Not every date needs to be a big one.
What turns a call into a date
You probably talk most days already. A date needs to feel different, and small things do most of the work.
- Put it in the diary. A fixed time gives you both something to look forward to, and stops it being squeezed out.
- Get ready for it. Change out of work clothes. Light a candle. Tidy the bit of room the camera sees.
- Set the phone down. Prop it up or use a laptop, so your hands are free and you are not holding a screen at arm's length for two hours.
- Do one shared thing. Cook, watch, play or make something. Talking is easier when there is something else going on.
- Close other apps. It is hard to feel like someone's date when you can hear them typing.
Food and drink dates
Cook the same recipe
This is the classic for a reason. Choose a recipe together a few days before, so you both have time to shop. Pick something with steps you can do side by side, like a curry, homemade pasta or tacos. Start cooking at the same time on a video call, and eat together at the end.
A few things help. Check that both of you can find the ingredients locally, and agree on a swap if not. If one of you uses cups and the other grams, convert the recipe before the night. If you are in different time zones, one of you might be eating breakfast food at dinner time. That is fine, and often the funniest part.
Order each other's dinner
Use a delivery app in your partner's city to send them a meal as a surprise, timed for your date. Ask a friend of theirs for the address and their usual order if you want it to be a real surprise.
A tasting night
Buy the same few things and try them together: three chocolate bars, a few teas, crisps from the supermarket, or cheeses. Score each one. Or each send the other a box of snacks from where you live, and taste them on a call.
A bake-off
Both bake the same thing from the same recipe and judge each other's on camera. Nobody wins on looks alone.
Film, TV and music dates
Film night
Choose the film in advance, so the night is not lost to scrolling. Then either press play at the same moment on a countdown, or use something that keeps you in step, such as Teleparty in a browser or SharePlay on FaceTime. Get snacks in and dim the lights.
Themes make it more of an occasion. Watch a film set in the city your partner lives in. Watch the film you saw on your first date. Take turns introducing a favourite the other has never seen.
A series that is only yours
Start a show you only watch together. The rule is simple: no watching ahead. It gives you a standing date each week.
An album, start to finish
Each pick an album the other has never heard. Listen at the same time, all the way through, without talking, then talk about it. Or make each other a playlist with a theme: songs from the year you met, songs for the train home.
Karaoke
Find karaoke versions of songs on a video site, take turns, and score each other kindly.
Museums, tours and learning together
A virtual museum visit
Google Arts & Culture has virtual tours and close-up images from museums and galleries around the world. Many museums also put their own collections online. Share a screen, pick one gallery, and wander it together, stopping when something catches either of your eyes.
A tour of your town
Take your partner on a video call walk round where you live. Your street, your café, the view from the bus stop, the shop with the odd window. It helps them picture your days when you describe them later.
Learn something together
Take the same online class, learn a few words of each other's language, or follow the same drawing tutorial and compare. Learning side by side gives you a shared project that lasts beyond one night.
A book club of two
Read the same book and talk about a few chapters each week. Or read aloud to each other at bedtime, one chapter a night.
Outdoor dates at the same time
Stargazing
Wherever you both are, you see the same Moon in the same phase on the same night, so it is a lovely thing to look at together on a call. Meteor showers are even better: the Perseids peak in mid-August and the Geminids in mid-December. Look up the best viewing time where each of you lives, go somewhere dark, and count shooting stars together.
You can also look for the International Space Station. NASA's Spot the Station service tells you when it will pass over your town, and it is bright enough to see without a telescope.
Walk and talk
Both go for a walk at the same time with earphones in. Describe what you see. It feels much more like being together than sitting still, and it gets you both outside.
Sunrise and sunset
If you are far apart in time, one of you may see the sunset while the other sees the sunrise. Send a photo of each, every day for a week.
A picnic in two parks
Pack the same lunch, go to a park near you, and eat together on a call. Swap photos of the view.
Playful and creative dates
- Game night: pick two or three from our list of games for long-distance couples and make an evening of it.
- Paint the same picture: follow the same painting tutorial and reveal at the end.
- Build the same set: a small model or puzzle each, built at the same pace over a call.
- A quiz about you: each write ten questions about yourselves and your time together.
- Dress-up dinner: choose a theme, like a 1920s supper club, and dress for it, however roughly.
- Online escape room: several are built for players who are not in the same place.
Dates that arrive in the post
A parcel makes a date feel real in a way a screen cannot. Send a date in a box: a candle, a snack, a drink, a card with the film you have chosen, and a note on the outside saying "open on Friday at eight". Post it in good time, because parcels abroad can take a while.
Letters work too. A set of open when letters gives your partner something from you for the evenings you cannot be there.
Date nights across time zones
If your evenings do not overlap, move the date rather than skip it. A breakfast and dinner date works well: one of you has coffee and toast while the other has dinner. Take turns being the one who stays up late or gets up early, so it is not always the same person. Weekends usually give you the widest window.
Our guide to making time zones work goes into this, and the time zone planner shows your shared hours at a glance.
Use a date to plan the next visit
Planning your next time together is a date in itself. Look at flights, make a list of things to do, and choose one place to eat. If you are both travelling, the halfway point finder can suggest somewhere in the middle. Then set a countdown so you can both watch the days fall.
How Our Tiny Planet helps with date night
Our Tiny Planet is an app for couples, coming soon. It has a date-night planner for putting ideas in your diary, a film-night swipe match where you each swipe through films and see the ones you both liked, and more than twenty two-player games. A shared calendar keeps countdowns to your visits, and alarms you set in your time ring at the right moment in theirs.
It is not out yet. Leave your email to hear the day it is.
Questions people ask
How do you make a long-distance date feel special?
Give it a fixed time, get ready as you would for a real date, prop the phone up so your hands are free, and do one shared thing together, such as cooking, watching a film or playing a game. Closing other apps helps more than you would think.
What can we do on a long-distance date night?
Cook the same recipe on a video call, watch a film in sync, visit a museum online, go stargazing at the same time, play a game, take an online class together or open a date-in-a-box parcel that one of you posted to the other.
How do you watch a film together long distance?
Choose the film beforehand, then count down and press play at the same moment, or use a tool that keeps you in step, such as Teleparty in a browser or SharePlay on FaceTime. Keep a call or chat open so you can react together.
How often should long-distance couples have a date night?
There is no right number. One planned date a week, on top of everyday calls and messages, is a good place to start: enough to look forward to without becoming a chore. Agree what works for both of your weeks.
What if our evenings do not overlap because of time zones?
Have a breakfast and dinner date, where one of you eats breakfast while the other has dinner, use the weekend when your free hours overlap more, and take turns being the one who stays up late or gets up early.
