Valentine’s Day has a bit of a reputation. For couples who live in the same city, it’s a high-stakes race for the best rooftop reservation or the perfect bouquet. But for those of us in long-distance relationships (LDRs), the holiday can feel a little bit rude. While the rest of the world is posting heart-eye selfies over candlelit dinners, you’re staring at a screen, calculating time zones, and dealing with the very annoying reality of not being able to hug your person.
At 21, we know that distance doesn’t cancel out romance, it just requires a more creative playbook. Being apart actually offers a unique opportunity to strip away the minutiae of daily life and focus on the building blocks of your connection: communication, intentionality, and shared dreams. Whether you’re separated by a six-hour drive or an entire continent, you can still make February 14th feel like more than just another Tuesday on FaceTime. Seriously, you don’t need to be in the same room as your partner to create a God When moment.
Here are 21 intentional, fun, and deeply romantic ideas to celebrate Valentine’s Day when your heart is in one place and your partner is in another.
1. Read A Book Together
There is a reason the tradition of storytelling has outlived almost every other form of romance—there is a primal, grounding comfort in simply being told a story. In a long-distance relationship, your partner’s voice is your most prized possession, so why not turn it into a private, serialized sanctuary? Pick a book you’ve both been eyeing—perhaps the lush, romantic retellings of Bolu Babalola or a gripping psychological thriller—and take turns reading chapters aloud over FaceTime. As a pro-tip, don’t just read, narrate— pause for effect, soften your accent for the appropriate words, dramatize plot twists— it’s a good way to inhabit the same imaginary world when the physical one refuses to let you sit in the same room.
2. Synchronize Your Glow-Up
True intimacy is often found in the unpolished moments, like seeing your partner covered in a charcoal face mask while wearing a matching silk robe. Since you can’t physically visit a spa together, curate a “Self-Care Kit” for each other: think high-end sheet masks, silk robes, your favourite skin-care, a scented candle that smells like a five-star hotel, and a bottle of something chilled. On your call, dim the lights, put on some lo-fi Afrobeats, and walk through your skincare routines together. There is something incredibly vulnerable and sweet about laughing through the stiffness of a drying clay mask or comparing your glow under bright lights. It’s a sensory bridge; as you both inhale the same fragrance notes and lean into the ritual, the distance feels less like a barrier and more like a quiet, shared evening at home.
3. Present A Living Gift
Standard bouquets are lovely, but in the world of long-distance, they can feel a bit too much like a countdown—beautiful for five days, then a wilting reminder of time passing. Instead, gift them a “living” piece of your affection: a resilient Monstera, a sleek Snake Plant, or a stubborn succulent. This plant represents a shared responsibility that demands the same thing your relationship does: intentionality. Include a note that says, “Like us, this just needs a little light and a lot of care to thrive.”
4. Culinary Choreography
There is an unparalleled intimacy in the domestic chaos of a shared kitchen: the clinking of spoons, the debates over seasoning, and those “taste this” moments that happen between the steam and the laughter. When distance steals that physical space, recreate it through a synchronized gastronomic adventure. Choose a recipe that challenges you both, whether it’s the high-stakes perfection of a “Party Jollof” or a complex, creamy pasta dish that feels like a five-star date. Prop your phone against a spice jar, pour a glass of your favorite wine, and hit “start” on your timers together. Between the chopping and the stirring, you’ll find that navigating a recipe across two different continents feels a lot like navigating a long-distance relationship: it requires patience, constant communication, and a little bit of heat.
5. Present The “Open When” Letter Series
The “Open When” series can serve as survival kit in a long distance relationship. Write a stack of letters and seal them with specific instructions: “Open when you’ve had a rough day at work,” “Open when you’re craving home,” or “Open when you need a reminder of why we started this.” These envelopes act as a physical proxy for your presence, tucked away for the moments when the time zone difference feels like a canyon. One of our favourite things about this gift is that it stretches far beyond February 14th, the ultimate proof that while your bodies are apart, your words are always within their reach.
6. Curate A Local Snack Box
If food is the universal language of love, then a curated snack box is its most heartfelt dialect. For the Nigerian couple separated by japa borders,: if you’re the one at home, pack a box that screams nostalgia—proper crunchy Chin-Chin, spicy Kilishi, a pack of small-batch plantain chips, or that specific Suya pepper they can’t find in a London supermarket. Opening that box and inhaling the familiar scent of home is a visceral experience that a FaceTime call simply cannot replicate. Call it a gastronomic hug, a way to say, “I know exactly what you’re craving,” and a reminder that even if you can’t share a plate right now, you can still share the same flavor profile from five thousand miles away.
7. Go For A Movie Night With A Twist
Elevate your virtual cinema with boo into a full-blown event. Use a tool like Teleparty to ensure your screens are frame-synced. Then dress up like you’re actually heading to Filmhouse or Genesis; light a scented candle, and ensure you both have a matching spread of snacks. Stay on the call after the credits roll to dissect the plot and debate the characters’ choices.
9. A Virtual Museum or Gallery Tour
Who says you need a visa to spend the afternoon at the Louvre? Transform your screens into a portal to the world’s most prestigious halls by embarking on a virtual gallery tour. Screen-share your way through curated exhibits, playing the role of high-brow art critics as you go. It’s the perfect opportunity to move beyond the daily “How was work?” routine and tap into your shared aesthetic. Debate the meaning of a bold abstract piece or point out the traditional Nigerian motifs that remind you of home. More importantly, use the tour to build your future vision—discuss which paintings would suit the living room of your first shared apartment or which sculptures reflect the life you’re building together. It’s a sophisticated, intellectual detour that reminds you that even while apart, you are still exploring the beauty of the world side-by-side.
10. Have A Deep Conversation
In a long-distance relationship, it is dangerously easy for your daily conversation to fall into a predictable rhythm of work updates, weather complaints, and the repetitive Nigerian anthem of “Have you eaten?” This Valentine’s Day, break the cycle of surface-level “gist” and go intentionally deep. Use a deck of digital conversation starters—like We’re Not Really Strangers—or play a high-stakes, honest game of “21 Questions.”
11. Build A Digital Scrapbook
In a long-distance relationship, your most precious moments often exist as a scattering of screenshots, saved voice notes, and grainy FaceTime selfies buried in your camera roll. This Valentine’s Day, take those fragmented pieces of your history and turn them into something architectural. Spend the evening co-creating a “Year in Review” or a digital scrapbook using a collaborative Canva board or a shared Google Photos album. As you drag and drop, talk through the memories: the story behind that specific smile in a random selfie, the gist you were sharing during that 3 a.m. call, or the exact moment you realized the distance was worth the wait. Think of it as a way of looking at the evidence and saying, “We are real, we are building something, and look how far we’ve come.” In the absence of a shared physical shelf for your photos, this digital archive becomes the home for your history, proving that while you may be miles apart, your story is beautifully and undeniably intertwined.
12. Turn‘Someday’ into a Date
The hardest part of a long-distance relationship isn’t always the distance itself; it’s the uncertainty of when it will end. The “missing you” feels manageable when there is a countdown, but it feels infinite when there isn’t. This Valentine’s Day, take the power back by transforming your date night into a high-stakes ‘reunion blueprint.’ Stop sending DMs of places, saying “we should go here” and start pinning down the “when” and “where.” Open a shared document and get granular: scroll through those aesthetic, Pinterest-worthy Airbnbs, debate the must-eat spots and cross-reference your leave days. If the budget allows, let this be the night you hit “confirm” on those flight tickets. There is a profound psychological shift that happens when a dream becomes a booking confirmation. By the time you say goodnight, you’ll be counting down to them.
13. Share A Subscription
In a long-distance relationship, it’s easy to feel like you are evolving in two separate directions, but a shared subscription is a way to ensure your growth remains somewhat parallel. Think of it as a weekly joint investment in your collective soft life. It can be a MasterClass pass to learn interior design for your future home, a Showmax subscription to binge Nollywood epics simultaneously, or a shared Coursera course as you both level up your skills for a fufilling career, these digital keys give you something fresh to talk about that is mutual and isn’t just a recap of your individual days.
14. Design Your Future Home Vision Board
For the couple that has survived the japa distance and is finally eyeing the finish line, this is the ultimate act of manifestation. Spend the evening pinning the specifics: that sleek, modern kitchen with the perfect island for Saturday morning breakfast, the cozy balcony where you’ll share evening tea, or the exact shade of velvet for your future living room. It’s an exercise in compromise and discovery: you get to find out if you both love minimalist decor or you have completely different styles. Beyond the pixels, every pin is a quiet, powerful declaration: “I don’t just see a future; I am actively designing it with you.” It’s a way to turn the frustration of being apart into the excitement of what’s coming next.
15. Connect Together With The Sunrise/Sunset
There is a quiet, cosmic comfort in the realization that while your coordinates are thousands of miles apart, the sky remains your only shared ceiling. If your time zones allow for that rare, golden overlap, coordinate a video call to watch the sunrise or sunset together. Let it be a moment to stop the daily hustle and just breathe together, acknowledging that the same sun warming your face is the one setting on theirs. Let it be a reminder that as you both look up at the exact same world, the day you can finally watch the sky from the same window will surely come.
16. Shoot A Love Note Montage
This Valentine’s Day, become a director of your own romantic short film. Throughout your day, record five-second snippets of your reality: the steam rising from your morning tea, the chaotic blur of your commute, the specific way the sunlight hits your desk, or a quick shot of a street vendor selling their favorite street snack. Edit these “boring” moments into a two-minute “POV: You’re here with me” montage. It doesn’t need high-end production, just the raw, unfiltered gist of your life. When they wake up to that video on Valentine’s morning, you let them step into your shoes.
17. Curate A “Lover” Playlist
We miss the days when the ultimate romantic gesture was the hand-recorded mixtape—a physical labor of love that captured a mood in 60 minutes of tape. Reclaim that vintage magic by curating a digital sonic history of your relationship. Seriously, be intentional about picking songs that represent a narrative arc of your life together. Start with the songs that were playing during the period you started getting butterflies for them, add songs you both term as ‘our song’, add songs that show how they make you feel, then finish with ballads that defines your God When future. To make it truly intimate, use Spotify’s voice note feature or record short audio memos to transition between tracks, explaining exactly why a certain beat or lyric reminds you of them. It turns a simple playlist into a private radio station where they are the only listener and you are the superstar DJ.
18. Recreate Your First Date
Every love story has its genesis: that first nervous gist over ice cream at Nosta or that first late-night call that changed everything. This Valentine’s Day, reclaim the magic of your “How it Started” by virtually re-creating that first encounter. If you first met at an icecream shop, both of you should head to a local creamery at the same time; if you watched a specific movie, sync it up for a private screening. The real power of this date is in the “remember when” dialogue. Reminisce about the awkwardness, the bomb outfit they were wearing, and that specific moment you realized this could be something more. Revisiting your origin story is the ultimate cure for LDR burnout; it reminds you that the only reason you’re enduring this distance today is that what you found back then was far too rare to let go.
19. Get Artsy
Sometimes, the best way to connect is to shift the focus from the screen to your hands. Since you can’t physically attend one of those trendy sip and paint sessions at a garden in VI or a rooftop in Abuja, bring the studio to your respective desks. Whether it’s a canvas and some acrylics, a DIY tie-dye (Adire) kit, or even a simple adult coloring book, the goal is to create something while the gist flows naturally in the background. If you’re not feeling the solo creative energy, sign up for a virtual ceramics or painting class where an instructor guides you both through the process over Zoom. By the time you say good bye, you’ll have more than just a memory; you’ll have a physical reminder that even while separated by borders, you are still perfectly capable of building something beautiful together
20. Send Them Money
In this clime, the sound of a bank notification is a love song in its own right. When you can’t be there to pull out a chair at a five-star restaurant or hand-deliver a bouquet in person, funds of affirmation becomes your most powerful proxy. It’s a practical, high-impact way to say, “I may be thousands of miles away, but I am still the one making sure you are pampered, protected, and prioritized.”
21. Surprise Them With A Visit
No amount of high-definition FaceTime can compete with the actual weight of their hand in yours. If your schedule and budget allow for a naira-heavy move, nothing beats the ultimate romantic plot twist—showing up unexpectedly. Whether it’s a last-minute flight to their new city, or a surprise weekend at a luxury staycation spot, spending the day in the same time zone is the gold standard of Valentine’s gestures. Imagine the shock on their face when they open the door, the shared laughter over the logistics of your “operational secrecy,” and the sheer luxury of finally eating across a real table instead of a screen. This, no matter how short the stay is, can break the exhausting loop of “I miss you” and replace it with a memory that will fuel your connection for the next six months (at least)
A Note for the Solo Moments
Valentine’s Day in an LDR can be bittersweet. It’s okay to feel the ache of the empty seat next to you. But remember: your relationship isn’t less than because it’s digital right now. In fact, the effort you’re putting in today is the foundation for the life you’ll build when the distance is finally gone. So, put on your favorite outfit, charge your laptop, and celebrate the fact that you’ve found someone worth the wait. Distance is just a test to see how far love can travel and today, you’re winning!
