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They can work if you put the effort in and take it in turns to travel the distance. My husbands in the Navy and we had a long distance relationship for 3 years before moving in together. Try not to put too much pressure on yourselves to have the best time when you meet up. The excitement builds up to the weekend/when u meet and if things don't go perfectly can lead to disappointment. Better to try and go with the flow and relax when u meet. If you like one another enough it will work. My husband still goes away regularly, I think it helps keep our relationship alive!

I met DH on holiday, fell in love and then didn't see him for 6 months as work schedules and money didn't allow it. He was on the other side of the world but we spoke every day. Most people thought we were daft at the time but 15 years and 3 children later I think it has all paid off.

I was living in London & in one of those 'gotta sort out my life' phases. Started doing Internet dating at the same time as job applications. I went for a blind date with a guy, set up by a mutual friend & we hit it off - then the following morning I heard I'd got a job abroad. Cue a slightly awkward conversation, 'thanks for a wonderful evening but I'm now leaving the country...'

So we had a long distance relationship for a year, which was actually the best thing that could have happened to us. It was exciting, lots of fun exploring & anticipation. & frankly he was a complete bachelor & needed the space at first. I don't think we would have worked out if I'd stayed in London. As it was, I moved back after a year & ended up marrying him

Met a guy from California many years ago in a bar. The days of no mobiles, no internet etc. We kept in touch via fax (!) then email, then Skype- as technology moved, so did our platform for comms:) I'm so excited he is bringing his family over to meet me and the DC this summer!

My best friend from when I was 16 lives in Texas. We tracked each other down! And now we drink wine on Skype and have the most fun. Haven't seen her for many years in person and probably never will. She lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and neither of us have any money.

I met a chap at a ball, he was posted overseas and wrote all the time. I still have his letters. I've googled him and he is quite senior now. I often wonder if I should give him the letters because they are all about his life in the army ( not romance) and his family might like them.

My DH & I met at university, got together in our final term after which I went to Japan & he went on to further study in the north west of England.

We sort of limped through that year (Dh visited me once, it was a bit of a disaster tbh). We wrote to each other (pre Internet) but he got slower to reply and as I flew back into Heathrow he flew out to Ireland. So bit of a lack of effort really on his part.

I then moved to the North East for some postgrad study & we started to see each other most weeks again. But tbh a lot of the spark had gone & I finished it. (I was a bit cross with myself for coming home from Japan).

DH went travelling for a year. We both had other relationships. When he came home we eventually got around to meeting up (after 6 months) & found the spark still there. Soon after I moved to London & into a flat with him & we were engaged/married soon after.

I think the Internet must make long term long distance relationships a lot easier as you can maintain regular contact.

I met my Dh in a chat room on yahoo Shows you how long ago that was. It wasnt even a dating chatroom. I lived in the USA he lived in England. We chatted on and off for a couple of years before we admitted feelings. We met when he flew out for a long weekend and had a long distance thing for a year before he got a visa and flew out to marry me we have been wed for 13 years now.

This was the days before skype, we used instant messenger in either yahoo or msn. Whichever one we could get the webcam and microphone working in.

My 18 year marriage is the result of a long distance relationship - Brixton in London, to a remote corner of Scotland. We had to plan weekends and holidays with care, enlist the help of friends and, ultimately, decide to marry or not bother. In fact, it made it exciting and was manageable, even with just a telephone (no texting or fancy apps). Luckily, as a teacher, I had longer holidays and his self-employment, at least initially, helped. But, it was tough. We were together - apart for 2 years. Oddly, the last 48 hours were the hardest. We had been married 6 months by then but driving to finally be together permanently seemed to take forever and I abandoned a gathering half way through (a friend's birthday) because I couldn't wait a few more hours. Now, oddly, we both live and work together and are rarely apart - perhaps because it was how we got together - apart.

After my husband lost someone close it became all too real that life is short. He had always dreamed of being in the armed forces and so I supported him to apply and thankfully he got in :) we then spent the next 18 months apart whilst he went through various forms of training and settling at his first base before I joined him. Two children, two tours of duty and two moves later we couldn't be happier and it certainly made us stronger :)

I met an amazing man on holiday, he walked into a bar and I just said to a friend "i'm going to marry that man" I was sober, she was shocked as I was as I'd always been anti marriage as my parents had a particularly messy divorce.

We chatted, spent a few nights out together and with friends over the course of the holiday.

He was an Essex boy, I was from Kent but neither of us drove so it was a good few hours to meet up, eventually we moved in together and did marry. We were together for 10 yrs.

I had an 18 month long distance relationship with my oh. It was a 340 mile journey which we did once a month to see each other but the rest was chatting on the phone. It was a good way to get to know each other and when we moved back to where I lived we moved in together and have now been married 8 years with 3 kids!

I met Dh through a friend on girls weekend away to his home city. He offered to show us around. Had a great night with him. Something clicked and we spent the year travelling between two cities 150 miles apart. This was pre FaceTime and Skype so we just talked for hours in between visits. We got married 2 years later. I moved to be with him and 2 ds's and 15 years later it's all worked out well.

My husband and I have been long distance a few times over paths years. He had a year in industry after we had been together for about a year. We survived with lots of phone calls and we visited once month. Luckily it was in a beautiful area of the country so we had lots of day trips and romantic walks. I then had 6 months abroad and that was hell as Internet was crap so we only had about fortnightly contact. He then went off to do a PhD, we gave up in the end and I moved to live with him!

I had a long distance relationship when my boyfriend and I went to different universities. It was harder back then, no mobile phones and the first uni flat I lived in just had payphones in a communal area. That payphone served all 4 flats in the building so other students would get annoyed with me if I stayed on the phone too long I didn't even have my own computer and had to use the computing labs on campus to send him an email.

We stayed together for the first couple of years, but we drifted apart over time and eventually things fizzled out. It must be easier now with more ways to stay in touch.

My husband and I had been friends for a while, but waited until we were at different universities (at opposite ends of the country), before we got together (sigh). We made it through a couple of years before going travelling together and as they say the rest is history!

I had a long distance relationship with dh before we were married as I lived abroad for some time while he was here. We phoned every day but it was stressful and almost broke us up. I'm so glad we managed to get through it and we have stayed in the same country ever since! Maybe it's easier now with Facebook and Skype, we didn't have that and it cost us a fortune to keep in contact

I met my partner 8 years ago online. He lived in London and I'm in Derby and we talked and emailed everyday. I was in a relationship at the time and his relationship had just ended. We met up eventually after 3 months of communication and he made the move to derby 13 months later. It was hard and expensive seeing each other only at weekend's but we managed. We talked about ending it because his ex was being difficult and living so far away from each other didn't really feel like proper relationship but we're still together 8 years later and couldn't be happier. And his family and friends said it wouldn't last!

I met someone on a night out in my hometown in the Midlands 7.5 years ago. He was from Northern Ireland and was only over for one day and night for a football match.
We swapped numbers and spoke for hours on end for a few months before deciding we would quite like to meet up again. ( something about him , probably the accent!).
Two years later he moved over here, 2.5 years after that we tied the knot back in NI as my parents refused to acknowledge him.
Two years later I'm sat on the sofa with our 18 month old DD in my lap

I have been in two long distance relationships. The first he lived in London and I lived in Edinburgh, we traveled up and down every second weekend but it only lasted about a year.

My current relationship was long-ish distance for the first year before I got a new job and moved into DP's flat. We were about 1.5 hours away from each other (on public transport) but due clashing work schedules, it was only really feasible to see each other at the weekend. We saw each other every single weekend without fail for 364 days then I moved in with him the day before our first anniversary. That was three years ago and we're getting married next week

I met my DH online when we were 15. I was living in America and he was living near Manchester. We met for the first time in person when we were 17 when he flew over to spend part of the Christmas holidays with me. He continued to fly over every major holiday pretty much and then after I graduated from High School, he spent Christmas with us right before my 19th birthday and then we went to England together. It was my first time ever being away from parents and my first time on an airplane. I celebrated most of my "firsts" with him, he was my first boyfriend, first kiss, etc. We moved back and forth between England and America, pretty much spending three months in each place, which is the maximum you can stay without a visa. We then got engaged on my birthday when I was 20 and married in April when I was 21 after we got a K3 fiancée visa for him to live in America. His mother's health took a turn for the worse and DH was finding it difficult coping in America, especially as he had no outside help with his disability and so we then decided to move to England and have been living here since. We just celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary.

I met my husband at university and we lived together for the 3 years of our degree, having to separate during the long university summer as neither of us had the cash to travel to see each other (he lived 4 hours away from me). When we graduated, we went back to our respective counties and continued our relationship through phone, email and texts. It was really hard as we'd both got so used to living together. We met up once a month but it wasn't always possible as I worked a weekday job and he worked weekends and nights. After just over a year, he made the bold decision to move down here, leaving his friends and family behind. We lived with my parents while we saved to buy a house. Long distance definitely tested our relationship and made us both pretty miserable but it was necessary while we tried to save money and make some big decisions. Now, 11 years after meeting at uni, we have our own house, are happily married and have our first baby on the way!

DP and I met when he worked in the city and I lived a few hours away in his hometown. I had my DS already by that point. He would come to me every weekend that he could as he shared a house in the city so taking DS there wasn't always an option. It started very casual. Eventually we ended up on the phone every single night and telling each other how much we missed each other and what we had been up to. I worked evenings and weekends most of the time so that ate into a lot of the free time he had to come and see us.
One night I had a break down and he told me he wanted to stay on the phone with me until I fell asleep. I agreed and kept one earphone in. I woke up the next morning to him saying he had to go to work and he would miss me and it was very very comforting. We ended up doing that every night from then on. It was handy because one night I woke up crying due to a nightmare and he immediately woke up, calmed me down and we both went back to sleep. I found I slept much better knowing he was as close as he could be.
We moved in together after almost 2 years of being together and not much has changed really. I thought it would be easier but we still have to actually put a lot of effort in to spend quality time together due to work.
I definitely love the fact that I don't have an earphone in my ear to hear him snoring now though. I can cuddle up as much as I want. It definitely makes me far more appreciative of having him next to me at night.

When I was a student I had a long distant relationship. We would talk on the phone daily (there was no texting / Facebook etc!) and meet up most weekends. He'd also write to me which is quite romantic I guess!
It didn't last though - not because of the distance but because he was a childish git!!!!

I fell in love with a guy from the country where I was travelling after uni. We had an amazing summer together and then I had to come back to the UK to do a further uni course. He came to visit.Then he had to finish his degree in his country (4 years). I went to visit. Then we got married. Then he had to do military service (2 years) and I went to visit again when his army allowed. (This was all in the days befor internet and cheap phone calls. I still have all the letters he sent me)

After seven years we managed to stay in the same country with each other for long enough to conceive ds1.

Twenty five years later we are still in the same country, house and currently sitting on the same sofa and we haven't been apart for longer than a week since then.

All my relationships were long distance - oh dear.

Eventually I settled but e worked away a lot. I actually prefer it to having someone living on top of me.

I met my partner through work and we have been together for 4 years this year. We have survived a year of long distance relationship through university while we were at other ends of the country, 4 months of travelling and currently he is in Brazil for a year honing his spanish. I'm hoping that when he comes back that will be it for a while and we can enjoy just being with each other. I miss him terribly at times and it's frustrating, but I wouldn't want to be without him, he's my rock and makes me a better person