35+ Best Games For Travel This Summer
I always take games when we travel. For our most recent trip, I think I packed 10 different games! We love playing games together no matter where we are, so it just makes sense to incorporate games into our family trips.
Games are an excellent way to learn! Plus, they help foster connection and create family memories. We always have fun with a deck of trivia cards in the car.
Over the years, we have discovered so many amazing travel games. Keep reading to get the scoop on the best games to travel with this summer, including games for your purse, dice games, and card games.
Why We Love Travel Games
I always take games when we travel. I probably packed 10 different games for our most recent trip. Playing games together as a family is one of our favorite ways to connect and learn.
Taking games with you when you travel is an excellent way to encourage connection. These days, it’s easy to get sucked into screens on a long car trip or while waiting for flights. Travel games can cut down on extra time spent scrolling and replace it with quality time together.
Games are a great way to fill time when technology isn’t available too. Whether you’re traveling through a wi-fi dead zone or just trying to avoid hours of screen time, travel games can be something fun to do without a screen.
Travel games are also a great way to keep “Are we there yet?” questions at bay and lend an old-school road trip feel to your next family vacation. For example, a round of trivia in the car has become one of our favorite travel pastimes!
How to Choose the Best Travel Games
Some games don’t travel well and not all travel games are created equal. So how can you choose the best travel games for your family? Here are some of the criteria I look for in a great travel game:
- Small enough to fit in a purse or bag.
- Doesn’t need lots of play space.
- Contained, so pieces are unlikely to be lost.
Some of our favorite travel games include trivia, card games, dice games, and single-player logic games. Keep reading to discover 35 of the best games for traveling with your family.
35+ Best Games for Travel
Discover classic favorites you can take on your next trip and exciting new games everyone will enjoy in our list of the 35 best games for travel. All of these games will foster connection, hours of fun, and lots of memory-making opportunities no matter where you are when you play.
Card Games
Card games are compact, easy to take with you, so versatile, and some of our favorite travel games. There are so many awesome card games for the whole family! Our favorite travel card games include:
Dice Games
Dice games usually don’t require lots of space to play. They’re easy to transport in your purse or luggage and work well in tight spaces. We play dice games while waiting at restaurants or inside a box lid as we ride in the car.
Mini-Favorites
Some of our favorite games have smaller, more compact versions that are ideal for travel. These games often come with magnetic pieces or carrying cases that make it easy to grab and play these travel games while camping and in hotel rooms. Discover some of our mini-favorites:
Single-Player
Single-player games are an excellent choice for travel too. These games can occupy your child while you’re busy driving, navigating, or resting. They’re often packaged for travel in compact cases or handheld.
Discover the best single-player games for your homeschool in our list with dozens of great single-player games. Here are some of our favorite single-player travel games:
ThinkFun magnetic travel games are perfect for entertaining kids on the go. If you love the game Rush Hour, try ThinkFun’s Rush Hour World Tour magnetic travel game. Fans of Minecraft will enjoy ThinkFun’s Minecraft Magnetic Game.
Smart Games makes engaging logic games for kids of all ages. Their best single-player travel games include Noah’s Ark Magnetic Puzzle Game and the Coral Reef Magnetic Puzzle Game. Smart Games also makes a line of exciting logic games called IQ games including Arrows, Circuit, Gears, Puzzler Pro, Stixx, Waves, and XOXO.
Purse Games
The travel games I love the most are often games I can fit in my purse. These are games that won’t get damaged in the bottom of a canvas tote and don’t take up lots of space or have many pieces.
The Purple Cow makes 30 different magnetic travel games, so there’s lots to choose from when you’re searching for purse games. There are word games like Magnetic Magic Word and Magnetic Hangman. You can play classics like Backgammon, Ludo, and Peg Solitaire too. Plus, there are lots of puzzle games you can play together or independently to boost critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
More Ways to Learn on the Go
Gameschooling is definitely one of our favorite ways to learn on the go, but there are lots of other fun activities, books, and resources you can use to learn and have fun while you travel. Check out more of our favorite ways to learn on the go below.
Carschooling
One of the easiest ways to practice carschooling is by listening to audiobooks and podcasts. We love listening to books together as a family. We usually have at least one audiobook going at a time.
Apps like Hoopla, Libby, and Audible make it easy to listen in the car while you’re running errands or traveling. Discover our favorite resources for carschooling including a desk you can use in the car and our favorite audiobooks in our guide, Carschooling: How to Homeschool on the Go.
Discovery Decks
Our most recent learn on the go favorite is printable and interest-led! Discovery Decks for Curious Kids answer all the questions your kids are asking and some they haven’t thought about with short educational videos they will love watching.
We have so many different categories of Discovery Decks, including space, animals, presidents, the ocean, weather, inventions, landmarks, mythical creatures, and sports! With these cards, you can feel good about screen time as you travel.
Embracing Screens
I want to encourage you not to be afraid of technology. Embracing screens as a way to have fun learning as you travel this summer can be a game changer. Screens can transport us to places we have only imagined, presenting new narratives and helping us to understand the world we live in.
Embracing screens in moderation as you travel can help to break up a long car ride. Educational apps, carefully curated YouTube playlists, and online games encourage kids to keep learning even while they travel.
Learning on Location
Travel games, screentime, and carschooling hacks can make traveling to and from your destination easier and more fun. Once you’ve arrived, embrace learning on location as a way to make memories and embrace lifelong learning as a family.
This year, we have traveled to 8 national parks and embraced learning on location together with our Traveling the Parks Unit Study. It’s just one of our interest-led unit studies to encourage learning as you travel this summer. If you’re planning a summer camping adventure or a trip to the beach, you might want to check out our flexible Survival Unit Study or the Ocean Unit Study to learn more while you travel.
Do you travel with games and learning activities too? Share your favorite games to travel with and ways to keep learning on vacation in the comments. I can’t wait to read them!