Since you never know what weather the camper life will throw at you, we like to be prepared with space-saving camping games for the whole family. Here are our favorites:
- Catan Travel Edition: The mother of all “Eurogames” is the perfect entertainment for a rainy day. The travel edition comes in a neat plastic box with individual drawers that hold all the pieces. Why this is the perfect family game for your next camping trip: the mini-size landscape board fits on pretty much any table. 3-4 players, ages 10 and up (though younger kids can learn to play with some help).
Buy it on Amazon: CATAN Board Game Travel Edition - Qwirkle Travel Board Game: Our family loves to play Qwirkle because it’s super-easy to play for all ages yet challenging enough to keep everyone’s interest. We used to bring the full-size version on our trips, but the game pieces are so big that we usually quickly run out of room on our small dinette table. The pieces of the travel edition are much smaller, so they take up way less room on the table – and in the camper. Why this is the perfect family game for your next camping trip: the storage pouch is so much easier to store than the bulky box of the regular edition. 2-4 player, ages 6 and up.
Buy it on Amazon: MindWare Travel Qwirkle Board Game - Clue Card Game: This was a surprisingly successful impulse buy. We love playing clue, but the game is just too big to bring on camping trips. I stumbled over this one while researching card games and thought I’d give it a try. It was actually a lot of fun – it’s quick too, so even if you’ve got just 20 minutes to kill, this is a great choice. Why this is the perfect family game for your next camping trip: Super easy to pack, super quick to play. 3-4 player, ages 7 and up.
Buy it on Amazon: Clue Card Game - Scattergories Refill Sheets: Growing up in Germany we used to play a game with the very enticing name of “City, Country, River…”. You would get together with a group of friends, each gets a sheet of paper and then you come up with 5 categories (like “City”, “Country”, “River”, “Food”, “Animal”,… you get the point). One person would say “A” and keep counting down the letters of the alphabet until someone says “Stop”. Whatever letter they have stopped on is the letter for this round and now you have to find words that begin with this letter for each of the categories you chose. First person who completed their sheet yells stop and then you take score: 0 points for each empty category, 5 points if someone else came up with the same thing, 10 points if you came up with something nobody else had and 20 points if you are the only person to come up with something for that category. Sounds familiar? Apparently here in the US this is an actual game you buy and it’s called “Scattergories”. Why this is the perfect family game for your next camping trip: To be honest, all you really need is a couple of pieces of paper and some pencils, but the refill sheets do make it a little easier and neater. 2-99 player, ages 6 and up.
Buy it on Amazon: Scattergories Refill Sheets - Kids Against Maturity: This is such a fun game to brighten up everone’s mood. It’s basically the kid-friendly version of Cards against Humanity. Some families might find some of the cards inappropriate, so make sure you go through them before you play the game for the first time. Why this is the perfect family game for your next camping trip: If the gloomy weather brings everyone done, this is the perfect game to brighten up everone’s mood again. 4+ players, ages 10 and up (we play it with our 8 year old and she loves it too).
Buy it on Amazon: Kids Against Maturity
