10 Fun & Free Travel Games

Let's be real, long journeys can get a bit dull, like five hours in on your cross country road trip. Instead of scrolling our phones for the millionth time, let's make fun new memories together with some good ol' games! Here's a few we like to play on our trips!

10 Fun & Free Travel Game Ideas for Your Next Trip!

1. Hot Seat

This is my all time favorite game- well, right after our game 501 Questions: A Travel Game!

Hot Seat is asking one person in a group, rapid-fire questions for a specific duration of time. So, to play, choose one person to be in the hot seat. Then, choose how much time someone's in the hot seat.  It can be one, two, or three minutes. Then, set a timer for that amount of time. Once the timer starts, everyone asks the person in the hot seat questions until the timer buzzes. You can ask any question that comes to mind. Once the first person’s turn is over, then you pick the next person to be in the hot seat, set the timer, and everyone asks the next person questions until the timer buzzes. You repeat this until everyone in your group has had their turn in the hot seat. Then, you can start the next round by upping the time that each person is in the hot seat to five, ten, or even fifteen minutes. Longer times are fun for storytelling!

In college, a group of friends and I played this for hours on a road trip to Florida til we were at 20 minutes per person! This game tightened our friendships immensely!

2. Two Truths and a Lie

Ooo! I love this game, too! So, to play Two Truths and a Lie, one person shares three things about themselves; two things being true and one being a lie. Everyone has to guess which statement is the lie. If you guess the lie right, you get a point. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins. I love this game, because you learn surprising new things about everyone!

For example: Mine could be 1. I've scuba dived. 2. I've been to New Zealand. 3. I've eaten a cockroach. Which one's my lie?

3. 20 Questions 

20 Questions is tons of fun! So, one player picks a person, place, or thing and keeps it a secret. Then, everyone takes turns asking yes or no questions to try to guess what they're thinking of. The goal is to figure out what it is in 20 questions. 

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Have Fun, Laughter, and Good Conversation on Your Next Trip!

Unplug and get to know your travel pals better with our new game 501 Questions: A Travel Game! It’s perfect for long road trips and around the campfire with 750 entertaining questions and trivia for fun, laughter, and good conversation on your next trip! The game’s available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions here.

“…highly recommend for your next trip (and all trips!). It’s a fantastic way to start conversations while you’re driving, out on a hike, or hanging around the campground!”

-CAMPING WORLD

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4. Group Storytelling

This is a fun one and you never know which way the story will turn! The way it starts is one person in the group starts out with the first line of the story. Then, each person takes turns sharing the next sentence of the story. If you want to make it more interesting, you can create a rule that each sentence has to rhyme with the one said before it. Bring on the drama and mystery!

5. The Grocery Store Game or National Park Game

This one’s tradition!  My parents and I played this on our long trips for the holidays. The game is a memory game working with the alphabet. So, someone starts out, "I went to the grocery story and bought Apples. Then the next person repeats, “I went to the grocery store and bought Apples,” then adds, “and Bananas.” Then the next person repeats, “I went to the grocery story and bought Apples, Bananas…” then adds, “and Celery.” Each person keeps adding an item at the grocery store that starts with the next letter of the alphabet til you end at Z. It’s fun when everyone gets creative with the items and it’s hard to remember!

You can also do other fun concepts, “I went to the National Park and saw a …” or “I went on a picnic and brought a…”

6. The License Plate Competition

This is a fun game for some good competition in the car. See who can find license plates from the most states from cars driving by. Each state is one point. If you see plates from other countries, they count for two points! The person who gets the most points wins and gets to pick the dinner spot or pays for ice cream or any other creative ideas you have.

7. Rapid Fire Word Association

This one is easy to keep progressing, is hilarious, and can get competitive! So, someone says a word, and then the next person says a word associated to it, and so on until someone is stumped or takes too long to think of a word. The person who ended the round is out, and everyone competes until there's a winner. I just played this on a girl's road trip and this game had us rolling! It's fun to see where everyone's minds go associating words! For example: National Park, Arches, Desert, Cactus, Green, Grass, Spring, Easter Bunny, Marshmallows, Chubby Bunny

 8. Rumor Has It

This one can get funny! Everyone in your car chooses another car. Then everyone in your car looks at everyone in the other car closely. Now, don't get too creepy! Then, your car all comes up with a background story of the people, their lives, and relationships. Bring on the drama!

9. License Plate Funny Phrases

This one stretches your mind and takes some creativity! Someone picks out a license plate they see and creates a funny phrase with the letters in the order they see them. For example, if you see AJK 295, you could say Apple Jack’s King!

 

10. Fortunately/Unfortunately

This game goes back and forth between people sharing a “fortunate” statement, then an “unfortunate” statement. And, it can get pretty funny! For example:

• “Fortunately, we’re going to get to our hotel early!”

• “Unfortunately, our room isn’t clean.”

• “Fortunately, then we can go to the beach right away.”

• “Unfortunately, we don’t have a room to change into our bathing suits.”

• “Fortunately, we don’t need bathing suits for the beach!”:)

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BONUS: 3 MORE FUN GAMES!

Here’s three of our favorite travel games (that aren’t free), but are a blast and fun to play on the road!

11. 501 Questions: A Travel Game

If you haven’t gotten it yet, this is our absolute favorite game to play on our travels (and we created it)! We created it to stop scrolling, and connect with each other. It's loaded with 501 awesome conversation starters for ages 4-104!

Ask questions like:

• Would You Rather: Find yourself standing in a flock of butterflies or swimming in a bioluminescent bay?

• If You Could: Take a round-the-world trip, what would be the first country you'd visit on each continent?

• Tell Me About: One thing you're itching to do, you haven't done yet?

• Travel Trivia: What country is The Land of Smiles?

When conversation dwindles and you have the urge to pick up your phone, grab this book instead. Turn the dull moments of your travels into fun new memories! 

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12. Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers

If you love puns, this is your game! You pick two cards from the deck that have different statements and you have to make a pun merging the two ideas.

For example, one time we pulled the cards “Seeing Your Ex” and “Wild Animals.” Adam’s brother is brilliant at puns and said, “She’s always been straight lion.” He’s so good!

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13. Convers_(ate)

If you love intentional conversations Convers_(ate) is your game! Our friends Mollie and Taylor created this game to take a group through an intentional conversation with open ended questions. The topics are awesome like Community, Wealth, Food, Holidays, Generosity, etc.

Each topic card has an ice breaker question so on some trips, my family’s just played with the ice breaker questions. You go deep and learn a lot about family and friends with these!

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MAKE REMEMBERING THESE GAMES EASIER!

1. Pin this for later here.

2. And, download this game list to pull up on your trip.

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Have Fun, Laughter, and Good Conversation for Your Next Trip!

Unplug and connect on long road trips and around the campfire with fun conversation starters! With our new game 501 Questions: A Travel Game you get 750 entertaining questions and trivia to have fun, laughter, good conversation, and make the time fly!

“…highly recommend for your next trip (and all trips!). It’s a fantastic way to start conversations while you’re driving, out on a hike, or hanging around the campground!” -CAMPING WORLD

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What to Pack for a Day Trip on Your Travels: 16 Small Essentials We Always Carry

What should you remember to pack for day trips while you're out traveling? We've been traveling for over 3.5 years and boy do we have horror stories from forgetting things like wallets and keys. Forgetting one tiny essential can make for a very stressful day.

So, to help us remember and to help you prepare for your day trips, here's our checklist for what we carry on fun day trips while we're out traveling.

16 Essentials to Pack For Your Day Trips

1. Collapsable Backpack

Our friends gifted us this Chico collapsable backpack and it's been a game changer for us! We love it! It folds down into a small square to make it easy to fit in your carry on luggage bag for the plane and then you can pull it out on your trip and carry everything you need for your day trips. We even use it to carry our computers to coffee shops for work days.

Here's the one we use and love!

2. Water

Wherever you're headed, you always want to carry water on you. You never know how long your day trip may be and when/if you'll see your opportunity to get water and how much it will be. 

We always carry water with us when we take off on a day trip just to be certain we can stay happy and hydrated. 

Adam loves his Nalgene and I love any collapsable water bottle that decreases in size as I drink it. With my camera gear, I like the collapsable ones that can easily be stashed away and make my load lighter as I go. 

Adam's Choice:

Lindsey's Choice:

3. Snacks

We gotta keep that hangry monster at bay:) We've learned to always carry snacks.

We normally pack some fruit, a bar of some kind, and chocolate. Don't forget the chocolate:)

Lately, we’re digging Larabar’s peanut butter chocolate chip bars because they’re delicious and great to grab on the go!

4. Sunscreen

Getting burned on a trip is a major bummer. You end up in pain and having to stay out of the sun. No fun in that!

So we always keep sunscreen on us.

We're huge Beyond Coastal fans and have a box of these! This sunscreen is magic. It doesn't leave you feeling greasy like all the others. And, it comes in tiny travel sizes to carry with you so you can reapply on your shoulders and nose if needed throughout the day.

5. Chapstick

It's the worst when your lips are chapped and you have nothing to relieve them. Am I right? When my lips are burning I can't think of anything else, so having some chapstick with me is a must! It's the little things, isn't it?

We love the classic and simple Burt's Bees:)

6. Sunglasses

Remember your sunglasses. Adam gets in a funk if he's squinting, so sunglasses are a definite on our list!

Our friends gifted us fun sunglasses like these and we love 'em! When we wear them, we feel like we're off chilling on a tropical beach somewhere. Life feels more fun in these:) 

7. Journal and Pen

You never know when you need pen and paper to scribble down directions, or a new friend's email, or a brilliant idea that springs itself on you:)

We love Rite in the Rain's pocket size journal. It fits in Adam's back pocket and in my purse or the backpack easily. And, the pages wont be ruined if it rains or your coffee spills on them! I have so many pages of journals that are smudged with normal paper. We love these memo books!

8. Phone

And, don't forget your phone!

9. Extra Battery for your phone

And, an extra battery pack for extra charge!

We've learned to always carry an extra battery pack for our phones. Whenever something terrible is happening like we're lost and need Google maps, or our car was towed and we have to find where it is, our battery is about to die at 5%. ARG!

We were gifted this Enerplex power pack and it's been a life saver for us on our day trips when we're out and away from a power supply. 

10. Camera

If you carry a fun camera or GoPro, remember that too!

I carry a small DSLR, a Canon Rebel, and it fits in a small purse. I love the small size for day trips because it's light and I can keep it discrete by keeping it stashed away in a small purse or pull it out when needed. Check out the Rebel and the other camera gear I carry here. 

11. Tickets

Do you have tickets for your day trip? Remember those!

12. Wallet

And money.

13. Keys

Do you have your keys? Just checking!

14.  ID & Passport

I always have some sort of ID on me in my wallet, but for our passport it depends how we feel where we are. Sometimes we carry our passport and sometimes we don't. 

15. A good book

These are crucial for all the down moments during an adventure:)

Here's our favorite book right now about a couple traveling the world with their three kiddos! Amazing!

16. Light Jacket

And in case of rain and for all of us who tend to get cold, remember a light jacket just in case:)

I had a super light GoLite wind jacket I took on our round the world trip that I loved, but they've discontinued it. I just replaced it with this one from Land’s End. It’s super light and can fold down into the pocket and fits in a purse or backpack. It also has a hood, is wind resistant, and water repellent for spontaneous rain. Everything I need to keep me covered. 

When we're headed somewhere colder, I pack a fleece and slip my fleece under this jacket and stay cozy warm!

17. Fun Conversation Starters

Lastly, don’t forget fun conversation starters for the in-between moments - on the car ride, shuttle ride, waiting for a table for lunch, and any other downtime during your outing. I created this game to keep Adam and I engaged with one other during our adventures instead of turning to our phones.

Be prepared for fun, laughter, and good conversation with our game!

“…highly recommend for your next trip (and all trips!). It’s a fantastic way to start conversations while you’re driving, out on a hike, or hanging around the campground!” -CAMPING WORLD

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Make Remembering Easier! 

1. Pin this post to use later here.

2. And, download this packing list so you won't forget like us!

Yes! I want the packing list!

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What Books Should You Read When Going to Greece?

What books should you read for traveling to Greece? Here's our three recommendations. 

Two of these were suggested by friends from Athens, Greece while we were there and the other I found on my own. I suggest each one for you, too. Check 'em out!

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Three RECOMMENED books for traveling to Greece:

1. Greek Expectations: The Last Moussaka Standing

I totally recommend this book for a funny read and to get a glimpse of social and family expectations in Greece.

This is my favorite read because it was about the crazy journey of a woman from the UK marrying a Greek man. Drama and tension! 

The author is a comedian and takes the reader through her journey of figuring out how to balance her upbringing as a woman in the UK where she saw her parents both work and share household duties to now marrying into a Greek family where she's expected to do it all. What an adventure she was on and she takes you with her.

This type of story is my favorite to read when learning a new culture (where a foreigner marries a local), because you learn the intimacies of a culture through the lens of someone figuring it out themselves in the most intimate relationship you can have: marriage! You learn so many quarks of a culture that you'd never pick up on even befriending local folks. 

Totally recommend this one!

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2. The Island

I totally recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about Greece's history, Crete's culture, along with some self-discovery, and a little romance:)

The Island was suggested by my friend Evita from Athens. This was my second favorite read while in Greece.

It's historical fiction story. It's about a girl learning the dark past of her family being forced onto an island just off Crete that all lepers were sent to. And, it also includes a view into World War 2 from a Cretan's perspective.

It was fascinating to be sent to the past and learn how leprosy tore apart families and how World War 2 affected people in Greece. And, the story presents Crete's landscape so well. You feel like you're on the journey with the main character. 

I totally recommend this book for your trip, too!

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3. Zorba the Greek

You gotta read Zorba the Greek when you're going to Greece. It's a classic and this will be everyone's suggestion for you. 

We received Zorba the Greek as a gift from our friend Antonis for Adam's birthday. We both read this one.

Zorba will suck you in with his zeal for life and you'll be transported to tiny Greek villages and learn the culture. 

Read this one for sure!

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5 Reasons It's Okay to Take a Break from Your Travel Partner and Explore on Your Own

Should you take a break from your travel partner and explore on your own while you're on a trip? We can imagine you're either at a point where you need a break or you can't agree on how to spend your time. We've been there, too! 

One of the biggest questions we get as a traveling couple is, "Do you do everything together?" There's normally a lot of emphasis and drawing out of the word "everythinnngg." We laugh because, there's no way!

We're two different people with different interests, curiosities, and things that excite us.

Recently, we were in Athens, Greece home to the Acropolis and Parthenon. I kept asking Adam, "Would this be a good day to go? Or this one?" He was never committal when responding and I finally realized he doesn't care to see the Parthenon. "How can he not want to go see the Parthenon?!?" I thought. When I asked, he said he didn't want to spend 20 Euro on something he can see better pictures of on Google. WHAT?!? I was shocked, but hey, like I said we have different interests. But, my response to that? "Well I can't miss the Parthenon when I'm in Athens, Greece!" So I scheduled a date with myself and went without him. It was lovely! I packed my camera gear and took the Parthenon at my own pace. It was glorious! You can take the tour with me here through my photo journal:) 

Along our 3.5 years of traveling together, we've learned it's healthy and totally okay to take a break from each other and explore on our own while we're in new places. 

So, should you split from your travel partner? We say, "Totally! Do it!" Here's five reasons why. And if you're still in planning mode, maybe even plan for some solo time before the trip starts :)

5 reasons It's Okay to take a break from your travel buddy & Explore on your own

1. You Have Different Thing's You're Interested In.

It's natural that you and your travel buddy will be interested in two different things. For us, Adam loves mountain biking and tries to mountain bike every day. I'll go once in awhile, but I'm not a big fan. And, I love roaming around taking photos in new places and that bores Adam to tears. So, we've found it healthy to take time to do our own things. 

2. Don't Miss Out or Regret.

Since we all have our own interests, we'll all have things we want to do our we'll totally regret it. Like Adam would be totally bummed out if he never mountain biked when we were in Crete, Greece because I didn't want to go. He still talks about his bike trips as one of his favorite memories. And for me, I'd be totally bummed out if I never took an evening and simply walked the narrow cobble stone streets exploring and taking photos in Rethymno, Crete. That night's one of my favorite memories of our trip.

So, don't miss out on something you're curious about and dying to do even if you're buddy isn't interested. You're only there once. Go do it with or without your pal.

3. Quench your curiosity.

Curiosity is this anxious and lingering feeling for me. If I don't quench it, sometimes it feels like I'm going to burst and if I don't do it I'll be devastated.  So, quench that curiosity of yours, try something new, and go do it! If you don't you'll always be curious and never feel fully at rest.

4. Solo adventures are empowering. 

When you take off from your buddy and you're responsible for all the logistics, how to get where you want to go, how to pay for things, how to solve problems you come up against, enjoying and getting to take a new place at your pace, and then coming home with your own exciting experience, it's so rewarding. You stand up taller and you feel empowered with thoughts like, "Heck yeah I did that!"

5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

This is so cliche but so true in this situation. When you've been with someone for lots and lots of time, and then get a healthy break, you get a new perspective. You realize how nice it is to have your travel buddy with you and you realize how much you appreciate their company. And it's so nice to return home to your pal and swap your own stories from the day. 

So, how do you break the news to your travel buddy you want a solo adventure?

Be honest and transparent. 

Say something like, "Hey, I need some solo time today. I found this thing I want to do. So, I'm going to go try it. I should be back around this time." 

This gives them your reasoning, sets your boundaries (if you want them), and gives them a heads up for when they can expect to see you again. This way, they can figure out their timing of doing their own thing.

The funny thing is, most times whenever Adam and I have conflicting wants for a day and I share the solo adventure I've planned for myself, he changes his mind and wants to come. A lot of times he just didn't feel like planning something and when I handle that part he's in. And, most times, I'd prefer his company and I'm glad he changed his mind. Other times I say, "I want to do this one solo." 

Cheering you on to take your solo adventure! Have fun! 

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Stay Encouraged to Explore Solo

Pin this for later here.

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Use our Day Trip Packing List

to make sure you have everything you'll need before you head out. 

Yes! I want the packing list!

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Want to see more about the Parthenon and Acropolis?

And see what Adam missed out on:)