Long Distance Relationships: Romantic Ideas to Keep it Alive

Every relationship needs a little romance to keep the fire burning. The same holds true for long distance relationships, probably even more so. The unfortunate part about long distance relationships is that there is often a decent amount of time that goes by in between seeing each other. The good part about being in a long distance relationship is that the time plus the distance gives you useful planning sessions! Here are some tips on how to make the most of that time and enjoy the romance with your long distance love.

Romantic Idea #1: Prepare a nice, quiet dinner for your long distance love.

I know it sounds cliche and it's been done a million times throughout the history of mankind, but that's just because it's tried and true. Your partner will definitely enjoy this especially if they have just come in from a long plane ride, train ride, car ride, whatever way they got there. So dim the lights and light the candles, whip out your best three course recipe (or have it delivered if you can't cook like me!),and have romantic music playing in the background. Present your best table settings and get some fresh flowers for the table. When your love walks in the door, it will all be there ready and waiting. Voila, instant romance. After dinner, cozy up on the couch and watch some romantic movies (which you can rent, get from Netflix, or find on HBO), or take a bubble bath together (complete with candles and dim lighting), or a nice long walk around the neighborhood.

Romantic Idea #2: Surprise! Visit your long distance love unexpectedly.

This will take a bit of planning particularly because you don't want your long distance partner to be busy with a work conference that weekend, or have a big party to go to or something. To avoid that, you can work with one of their friends to plan out a good time for you to visit. Have a friend of theirs make "plans" with them for that weekend. When everything is all set and confirmed, go ahead and book your travel arrangements. Then you can show up on their doorstep, arms wide open, and a big "Surprise!", explain that the plans they made with their friend was a decoy and now you have that time to spend together.

If you really want to go the (long) distance, you can get a nice hotel room when you fly into their city and order a bottle of wine, dress up the room with flowers and candles if you have time. Have your partner's friend make up an excuse to go to the hotel. Here's one that works "Hey, my cousins are here this weekend and are going to come out with us tonight. Can you meet me at this hotel? They are in room xx." Your long distance love gets to the room and what do they find there? Voila, instance romance. Floored, shocked, so unbelievably excited to see you, and amazed at how much trouble you went through.

Romantic Idea #3: Visit a new place together. Have your long distance love meet you there.

Because one of you is always visiting the other, it will always feel just like that. Your partner flies in to see you in your city, your neighborhood, your apartment, you hang out with your friends, and go out to eat at your favorite restaurants, etc. And vice versa. The tough part of long-distance relationships is that it is hard to just feel "at home" together. If you start to fall into this little rut, a good way to break out of it is for you and your sweetie to go visit a new place together. Maybe meet somewhere halfway in between, or go to a fun vacation spot you have both been wanting to visit. That way, everything will be new to both of you. You can explore together, discover likes and dislikes together, argue about directions together, etc. Regardless of what happens, you will both be tourists together instead of just one of you being the tourist, and that makes it double fun.

Romantic Idea #4: Surprise your long distance love with a ticket to their favorite sporting event or show.

Long distance relationship or not, who doesn't love this? First off your partner will be ecstatic that they get to go see something they love. Secondly, if sports or shows aren't your thing, it means that you're interested in what they enjoy and want to share in that with them. That goes a long way and means a lot to someone. So the next time your sweetie is coming into town, find out what events are going on then and get yourselves some tickets. Or if the sports team or show is playing in some other city, that's a great way to combine romantic idea #3 with this.

Romantic Idea #5: Share your passions with your long distance love.

You know that favorite sporting event you just went to see, or that show you just watched? Now instead of watching it, just do it together. He loves baseball? Play baseball together. She loves cooking? Make a meal together. One time my now husband, then boyfriend was visiting me in New York from London. Being from England he is totally into soccer (or football). We went to Kmart, bought a $5 soccer ball and spent hours kicking it around in the park. He taught me cool tricks and how to dribble the ball. It was a blast! I personally love to dance, so we've done ballet leaps in the middle of the night across the London Bridge, he's learned how to salsa dance in the middle of my living room, and for our first dance at our wedding, he totally amazed everyone with his dance moves. Instant Romance.

These are just a few ideas to keep the romance alive in your long distance relationship. There are plenty of things in the world that you can do. Here are some other 'Sweet Gestures and Romantic Ideas to Express Your Love' by Kathryn D'Imperio. Planning something for someone you love should be fun and not feel like work. So let your love inspire you, be creative, and keep the spark alive! For more tips on how to make long-distance relationships work, check out A Guide to Surviving a Long Distance Relationship.

Source: Personal experience