Long-distance relationships don’t always refer to romantic interests. Long-distance sometimes means friendships as well. Maybe it’s your college roommate or your childhood bestie. Whether they moved away or is the one who was left, it can sometimes be challenging to find ways to have fun even though there may be hundreds of miles between you.
But no need to worry!
Our team at Lovebox has researched 19 of the best ways to have a blast with your long-distance bestie! Of course, sometimes you must be a little more creative (and stay up past your bedtime if you’re in different time zones!), but it’s well worth the effort when you get to spend quality time having fun with your favorite person.
Keep reading to discover the 19 best ways to have fun with your long-distance bestie!
1. Have a Set Schedule
It’s not always possible to have a set time to connect due to conflicting work schedules and time differences. Unfortunately, if you don’t have a scheduled time to video chat, it’s harder to make time for your long-distance buddy because it’s tempting to cancel or postpone.
It could even be for just a couple of minutes, as long as you find ways to stay connected. You can even bond over watching your favorite TV show every week, work out together, or set up a long-distance book club. Find a time that works best for both of you and try to keep up. You’ll be glad you did!
2. Randomly Send Small Gifts
Who doesn’t like receiving small tokens of friendship in the mail? Of course, it’s fun receiving gifts on your birthday and holidays. However, it says a lot to your cross-country pal when you randomly send a gift just because something caught your eye that reminded you of them or you wanted to say, “I’m thinking about you.”
Whether it's snacks, a board game you can play together, or something you know is their favorite thing, this reminder of how much you care can help take your long-distance friendship offline and back into the real world. Whatever the case may by long-distance friendship gifts go a long way.
3. Plan Movie Nights Via Netflix Party
Time to get the blankets and popcorn! Thanks to a Google Chrome browser extension, you can Netflix party your favorite rom-com, thriller, or binge your favorite sitcom. With the Netflix party feature, you can simultaneously watch a movie or show with someone anywhere in the world.
Then, simply create a “party” and invite your pal! You can even chat during the film in the chatbox, sharing ongoing commentary of what’s happening. You don't need Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime to make this virtual reunion happen, so it's great for a group chat with a ton of pals.
4. Throw a Themed Party Over Zoom
Throw a virtual themed party over Zoom and invite other friends to join! Pick a theme such as a superhero theme or TV sitcom and find a time that works for everyone’s time zone to hang out. You could just chat or add fun activities that go along with your themes such as trivia questions or classic board games like Clue.
As long as your friends and family all have a stable WiFi connection that can support a video call on their smartphone or laptop, you’re good to go. A fun addition would be to create a custom backdrop for your theme!
5. Play Video Games Together
If you’re both gamers, one of the best ways to have fun over long-distance is playing video games together. But, even if you aren’t a gamer, it’s a super fun hobby that keeps you connected (and having fun!) with your long-distance friend. A little healthy competition now and then helps keep your friendship alive and healthy!
6. Host Virtual Game Nights
On that note, thanks to modern technology, there are endless options for competitive virtual game nights. Everything from trivia games, card games, and mystery games, there’s even virtual Monopoly—whatever game you and your pal prefer, it’s most likely available online or in your app store! Host a semi-regularly (schedules allowing) game night to keep up your friendly competition. Sometimes, it would also be fun to ask other friends to join in and mix things up!
7. Take Full Advantage of Social Media
As annoying as social media can sometimes be, it’s a perfect way for you and your long-distance bestie to have fun together and still be oceans away from each other. Find ways to connect, such as sending each other funny memes or tagging each other in posts that remind you of each other.
Stories help you keep up with the day-to-day activities of each other and help you have something to talk about when your conversation may lag due to the distance. You can even listen to Spotify together, collaborate on Google Docs, or set up a shared Pinterest board.
Thankfully, there's no end to the random things online that can help bring us closer together—don't limit yourself to text-based apps like iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
8. Snapchat Isn’t Just for the Kids Anymore
It may seem weird still using Snapchat as you get older, but it’s one of the best social media tools to stay connected with friends over long-distance. Snapchat is a perfect way to let each other be real and not just what they share on Instagram or Facebook.
Share secrets that you know will disappear after you send them, show off your favorite spots in your new neighborhood, or just send snaps from your daily life to keep your BFF connected. Send pictures of your morning coffee or the cute outfit you’re wearing on date night. It’s fun to see what’s going on in the lives of your long-distance friends!
9. Start a Book Club
Start a virtual book club with either just the two of you or invite other long-distance friends to join. Have a poll at the beginning of the month to see what book everyone wants to read.
Then at the end of the month, host a book club meeting over Zoom and chat about your reading selection. Listening to audiobooks is a great way to get your reading in if you don’t have time to sit down with a book.
10. Become Pen Pals
Old fashioned pen and paper snail mail will never completely go out of style. It’s always a fun surprise to get a handwritten letter from a friend from far away. It doesn’t matter what you write. Just dropping them a note that says you’re thinking about them or that you’re looking forward to the next time you get to each other goes a long way in long-distance friendship.
Pro tip: Purchase some cool stationery and pens just to send your long-distance pal. And don’t forget the stamps!
11. Send Postcards When You Travel
Who doesn’t like getting postcards? A great way to keep updated with all the fun you have on vacation is to make it a habit to always mail each other postcards from your travels. It could be from a week-long vacation or just a weekend visit home. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy; just drop a quick note to show them something fun you did while away.
12. Start Writing a Story Together
Do you both love to write and tell stories? A super fun way to get creative is to develop a story idea together. Then, one of you starts writing a few pages of the story in a notebook. After writing your story section, mail the notebook to your friend and write the following few pages.
Eventually, you will have a complete story that you wrote together! If you are both super creative, you could even start a screenplay together or the pilot to a TV show. Whatever you both find inspiring. The choice is up to you!
13. Mail Each Other Friendship Care Packages
Is your long-distance friend going through a difficult time? Sometimes it’s a good idea to send a little something more than a token gift. Maybe your friend is deployed overseas, or perhaps in medical school in another state, and it’s exam week. Whatever the case may be, sending a few essentials is a fantastic way to show you’re thinking about them.
Stumped on what to send? Here are a few of our top suggestions:
Their favorite candy.
- A T-shirt or sweatshirt that reminds you of them.
- Your famous homemade chocolate chip cookies.
- A framed picture of the two of you together.
- Their favorite coffee or energy drink.
- A new game you can play the next time you see each other.
Your friend will love and appreciate anything you took the time to put a friend care package together.
14. Plan Annual Epic Friendship Trips
Pack your bags! Planning annual friendship trips is a super fantastic way to have a blast with your long-distance pal! Modern technology is phenomenal for having fun while you must be a part, but nothing beats spending time together doing fun stuff you both enjoy.
For example, you could take turns visiting each other in the city you live in, or you could plan epic trips to places you’ve both been wanting to go. Do you both love to ski or surf or something else adventurous? Plan a trip to an adventurous destination for you to have fun and spend quality time reconnecting.
Pro Tip: Check into frequent flyer mileage programs or other beneficial ways to earn flying points and rewards for both of you to take advantage of and visit more often!
15. Practice Active Listening
It’s easy in long-distance friendships to get in a rut of randomly texting or chatting every so often but not focusing on intentional, active conversations. Deep conversations are rare and require time and effort, but it’s essential to talk about how you feel and what’s truly going on in each other’s lives. It’s necessary to set aside time to listen to each other and spend time emotionally connecting.
16. Surprise Each Other
One way to keep the fun in a long-distance friendship is to do the unexpected! It could be as simple as randomly calling each other when you usually don’t chat or something as unpredictable as surprising them with a short visit when they least expected it. For example, you could have their favorite food delivered through DoorDash.
Or you could Venmo their coffee money for their morning cup of joe at their all-time favorite coffee shop. Anything unique or surprising that’ll make their day ultra-fun because you were thinking of them!
17.Create a One-of-a-Kind Friendship Playlist
Make a shared playlist of both of your favorite songs and the songs you used to sing together over long car rides and study sessions in college. A shared playlist is super simple to make. First, simply create a new playlist on almost any music streaming service app you and your long-distance BFF have. Then, collaborate on what genre of music to include. Creating a playlist you can share is a perfect way for you both to listen whenever possible and think of each other!
18. Share Your Favorite Recipes
Do you have a few favorite recipes that you love to cook? Your long-distance BFF probably does as well. So, for fun, start sharing your favorite recipes and learn to cook each other’s favorite foods. Maybe one of you tried a new dish and loved it, then added it to your recipe collection.
It’s super simple to start a shared recipe collection. Handwrite your recipes and mail them to each other to add to their recipe box. It would be super fun and memorable to eventually have a sweet recipe box of all the recipes you’ve shared over the years!
Pro Tip: One of the gifts you send each other could be a cute recipe box to store the accumulating recipe cards you send to each other!
19. Up Your Communication With Lovebox Original Color & Photo!
Are you getting bored of text messages and Facetime? Go beyond your go-to communication by sending your long-distance bestie quirky messages and drawings with our fully customizable messaging device that pairs with our free app to send one-of-a-kind expressions of affection. Simply send photos or colored messages, and the heart spinny on the Lovebox will spin when they receive the message. Then your bestie can spin the heart to send you back a waterfall of hearts on the app!
Summary
Suffice it to say, finding ways to have fun in a long-distance friendship is easy with a bit of creativity and flexibility. Thanks to modern technology, it’s now a breeze to play games, watch movies, or just have a wine night with your friend that is many miles away. If you choose the old-fashioned route of snail mail and gift packages, your long-distance pal is sure to be ecstatic getting a surprise in the mail from you!
It doesn’t matter how you choose to have fun over long-distance. To effectively keep your long-distance friendship alive, the most crucial part is that you are both having fun and spending quality time together, no matter how that looks!
Here’s to many more years of friendship to you and your long-distance BFF!
Sources:
Long Distance Friendship Tips: How To Stay Good Friends | Refinery29
19 Simple Ways To Maintain A Long-Distance Relationship With Your Best Friend | HuffPost
Five ways to maintain long-distance friendships | Friendship | The Guardian
16 Long Distance Friendship Gifts – The Loveteam | Lovebox
What Google Chrome Is and How to Set It As Your Default | Business Insider
Netflix Party Allows for Watch Parties While Quarantined — How to Use | Business Insider
