The Best Travel Games For Long Journeys

The Best Card Games for Travel

UNO

Perhaps the most popular card game in the world, UNO can offer hours of fun whether you’re playing with one person or a group. It’s super easy to learn how to play and is recommended for ages 7+, so it can keep your family entertained during a long journey. It can be the perfect game to play on an aeroplane, train or in the car.

Snap

First published by John Jaques & Son Ltd in 1866, Snap was a family card game described on the box as “sixty-four cards of Grotesque Characters”. This competitive card game involved matching the cards after placing them down one at a time. This game is now most commonly played with a regular deck of playing cards. It provides great hours of fun for any form of long transport.

Top Trumps

This card game involves a themed selection of cards that are split among the players. There are many types of themed cards including Harry Potter, Marvel and WWE. Each card contains a list of numerical data with the aim of comparing one of the values with another player. If your numerical stat is greater than theirs then you win the card. The game ends when your opponent has zero cards remaining.

Cards Against Humanity

One of the best travel games for adults, Cards Against Humanity is a fill-in-the-blank style game that focuses on edgy and politically incorrect jokes where the main aim is to make the other players laugh. Each player will take turns to be the Card Czar and choose which card pairing is the funniest. This continues for however many rounds the players want. It can create hours of hilarious fun.

The Best Strategy Games for Travel

Connect 4

Otherwise known as Four in a Row, Connect 4 is a very popular game where players insert one checker at a time in an attempt to get four of their colours in a row. There are travel kits of Connect 4 available to purchase for ease of use when travelling. These are smaller than the normal versions of the game and are the ultimate travel.

Battleships

The aim of Battleship is to try and sink all of the other players before they sink all of your ships. It’s the ultimate strategy game, as you have to try to predict where your opponent has placed their battleships. You can purchase this game from many retail stores, or if you want a cheap version you can simply get a pen and paper to play it.

Tic-Tac-Toe

One of the simplest but best travel games to play is tac-tac-toe. All you need is a pen and paper to play this and it can provide hours of fun for people of all ages. It’s super simple to learn the key strategies and can be a great opportunity to teach your children the basics of this popular game.

Boggle

Boggle is a word-making game where you have to find as many words as possible within a time limit from a randomly generated pool of letters. Each round, these letters will be jumbled up to help with creating new words. While it can provide hours of fun, it’s one of the best travel games for the family as it can help improve your child’s literacy and problem solving skills.

The Best Video Game Devices for Travel

Nintendo Switch

This gaming console is ideal for travel, as it has a large screen to help you feel more immersed. You can play some of the most popular games in the world on a Nintendo Switch including Fortnite, Minecraft and Super Mario. The battery life ranges depending on which model you have with the average being 4 to 8 hours. Make sure the battery is fully charged before embarking on a long journey.

Playstation Portable (PSP)

Whether it’s the classic PSP that took the gaming world by storm in 2005 or the new PS5 remote player that was released in 2024, this will give hours of fun to people of all ages. With the original PSP, there is a huge variety of games to choose from and the PS5 remote player allows you to play all your PS5 games on the go.

Game Boy

This classic handheld video game console has a variety of different models with a large collection of games for each one. The Gameboy Advance is the most popular model, selling over 80 million units which is around 70% of all total Gameboy console sales. If you want hours of fun playing classic games, there is no better option than this.

Mobile Phone

Mobile phone gaming has made huge strides in the past few years, with smartphones trying to implement as many console games as possible to get more users on their devices. Young people can happily spend hours on their phones scrolling through social media, so having more games on these devices gives them the ultimate media hub to keep them entertained for long journeys.

The Best Board Games for Travel

Chess

The most popular board game of all time, Chess, has been played by people all over the world since the current version of the game was released in 1475. It is played both casually and competitively by players with the skill level ceiling being very high for this game. You can enjoy countless hours either having fun or honing your skills.

Draughts

Draughts, also known as Checkers, is a strategy board game that involves chess-style movements in an attempt to steal the other player’s pieces. It’s very easy to learn and can be played by ages 4+. It’s a perfect type of game to play during long journeys, as you can play for fun or spice things up by adding some money to play for if you’re an adult.

Backgammon

Originating in 1646, backgammon is a two-player game with the goal to move the fifteen pieces around the board and be first to bear off, which means remove them from the board. It is recommended for ages 5+ and can be a great way to get your children into playing more advanced board games.

Scrabble

This word game can be played by two to four players, as they place tiled letters bearing a single letter in an attempt to make the highest scoring words. Each letter has a different score associated with it and some spaces on the board can double or triple your points. The game ends when all tiles have been used. It can create hours of fun during your long journey.