HeatherWhy would you take up such valuable space in your luggage for a silly game?
The answer is simple: games bring people together like travel does! It is easier to get to know people when you have a shared experience and playing games with others create these experiences.
Over the last 20 years, we have road tested many games. We have taken board games backpacking (into the woods), canoe camping, and around the world.
To help you choose the best game for your next adventure, we have divided the information up into the following categories:
- Best Travel Board Games For Two
- Best Adult Travel Board Games
- Best Party Travel Board Games
- Best Travel Board Games for Multi-lingual Groups
- Best Card and Dice Games for Travel
- Our picks for the best choice in each category
You can use the Quick Navigation below to jump to the category that fits you the best. For each game, we have included a link to more information about that game on Board Game Geek - a FANTASTIC resource for all things related to board games.
Monopoly photo by Mike Flemming shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) License
Considerations For Choosing the Best Travel Board Games
We always consider how many people we will be playing with and what their level of board game literacy might be. If we are going on a tour we will focus on games for larger groups, whereas if it is just the two of us we will pack games for 2 people.
The best games don’t take up too much space in our luggage and they don’t have a lot of loose parts that are easily lost.
What is the level of English the people we are playing with likely to have? How much will they know about the popular culture of the game? These are important questions we ask ourselves when choosing games to pack. I don't know anything about Bollywood, so I would not likely enjoy a game that required this skill!
Now that you know the considerations we use to select board games to pack, let’s look at our recommendations in each category.
Best Travel Board Games for Two
This category is one we focus on a great deal since we always have each other to play with. We like games that involve some strategy and interaction.
An older version of Rival of Catan. Being played in India!
Backgammon
Why we like it
There is some strategy involved in the game, but it is easy to learn and it doesn’t take long to play. This game is also well known around the planet so it is quite easy to find others to play. The case makes it packable and we store many other games inside it.
How we adjust it for travel
When we are backpacking (the hiking kind) we only take the dice and checker pieces with us. We have drawn a backgammon board, and checkerboard onto our sleeping pads and use the pieces to play.
Cribbage
Why we like it
You don’t need a large playing surface for it, and there is a degree of skill involved in playing it. We use the cards for many other games too.
How we adjust it for travel
We like the feel of the crib board to play with. The board is optional, as paper/pen can be used to track to 121 points. When we play the game outside we use rocks to make sure the cards don’t fly away.
Jaipur
Why we like it
You can play this game after a few drinks, but it still involves your brain. It is small and compact and doesn’t take up a lot of space. It is also easy to teach to others and you don’t need to be able to read English to play.
How we adjust it for travel
We keep all the game pieces together in a nice ziplock bag stored inside our backgammon board. You do need a relatively flat surface to play this game, so it often doesn’t make the cut on our trips into the woods.
Rivals for Catan (Settlers of Catan 2 player game)
Why we like it
This game is a fantastic strategy game. It is not a quick play, but it can turn an evening into a good dose of strategy and bartering. The “board” is just a bunch of cards so it is perfect for travel (you do need a large table and no wind to play it).
How we adjust it for travel
We leave the expansion set at home.
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Cards Against Humanity photo by Sam T shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) License
Best Adult Travel Board Games
This category includes those games that need a bit more strategy or skill than some others. There may also be some content that might not be the most appropriate for a younger audience!
Cards Against Humanity
Why we like it
This is a laugh out loud funny game best played with people that aren’t easily offended. It is great for travel because it is just cards, but it can be played with a rather large group.
How we adjust it for travel
We carefully choose our audience (it’s perfect in a hostel, not so great on a high-end cruise).
Code Names
Why we like it
So much skill involved in this game! It interesting to see how people associate things together and the thought patterns. There are not a lot of parts to this game and you can play it with a group of 4 up to 20.
How we adjust it for travel
Leave some of the clue cards at home. Use your watch/phone instead of the sand timer. Depending on the length of our trip, we also leave some of the word cards at home too.
Exploding Kittens
Why we like it
This game was easy to learn, and fun to play with people that we just met. There is some backstabbing involved, but in the right atmosphere, it can lead to laughs and a fun shared experience.
How we adjust it for travel
None needed -it is a small deck of cards and a rule book. (Ultralight backpacking freaks could memorize the rules and use them for fire starter!)
Settlers of Catan
Why we like it
This game is very popular for a reason! We like that you never know what you are going to get in relation to resources. There is a lot of strategy involved, and ganging up on the other players to get what you need to win.
How we adjust it for travel
This is not the best game for travel because of the number of pieces but the game is too much fun to leave at home. The board is a set of tiles so it doesn’t take up as much space as a traditional board game. We store our game in a ziplock bag so it’s easy to bring wherever we go.
Best Party Travel Board Games
Games are best played with a lot of people. These games involve maximum interaction and usually not a lot of skill. They almost always result in a whole lot of laughter!
Times Up
Why we like it
This game has caused many laugh out loud moments. You can play with a group as small as 3, but it is better in a larger group especially with a multi-range of ages. There are not a lot of parts needed so it’s perfect for travel.
How to adjust it for travel
Leave some of the cards at home. You can also use your phone as the timer and any scrap of paper will do to keep score.
Backpack Bocce
Why we like it
Any game that is active and can be played with a beer in your hand is a good one in our books!
How we adjust it for travel
The backpack version is the right weight and size for travel! Great fun with local kids on the beaches of Mexico.
Banana Grams
Why we like it
This is a high-speed game that really tests your language skills. We also like how a group can decide if a word is a word and the discussion that ensues when a word is challenged. It is small, compact and easy to throw into a bag.
How we adjust it for travel
None needed.
Catch Phrase
Why we like it
We have had numerous evenings of hilarity with this game with both small and large groups. It’s easy to divide any size group into two teams (men vs. ladies for example) and let the chaos ensue!
How we adjust it for travel
If the button gets hit in your suitcase the device starts to make a countdown sound. This is important for the game play, but not the best thing for your luggage in an airport. We always remove the battery when packing it!
Coup
Why we like it
So much deception and trickery involved! You quickly learn who is and isn’t a good liar and it is fun to see how people handle deception. There are only a few cards and tokens to pack so it lends itself really well to being packed in a bag.
How we adjust it for travel
None needed (I am not lying - I promise!)
Best Travel Board Games for Multi-Lingual groups
If you will be playing games with people you have met from around the world then this is the category for you. These games rely on images rather than text so your opponents don’t need to be bilingual or speak the same languages as everyone else.
Ticket to Ride
Why we like it
We like that this game relies on a map and it is fun to play if you are in the same area of the game you are playing with. On one occasion we ended up taking a train route in Europe because we had played the Europe game so much!
How to adjust it for travel
We photocopied the board on to a heavyish cardstock and taped them together. The board and small bags of trains and cards were then stored in one large ziplock and kept at the bottom of our luggage.
Carcassonne
Why we like it
This is another favourite at home as well as on the road. Each game is different and there is a good deal of strategy involved. The scoring system can be hard to explain to someone with a different first language. The actual gameplay does not need any English skills and you can also find multiple language versions of the rules online.
How we adjust it for travel
The tiles and meeples are relatively small enough to not require much adaptation. A friend of ours did photocopy an entire set onto card stock to reduce the weight for his trip!
Set
Why we like it
This is a good quick game that stretches your brain. It is small and compact so lends itself really well to travel. It is also a good way to give your brain a workout. You don’t need any language skills to play, however, I suspect it would be a challenge for someone who is colourblind!
How we adjust it for travel
None needed.
Best Card and Dice Games For Travel
The best thing about a deck or two of cards, or a set of dice is the sheer number of games you can play. Here are the “rules” to our favourite card and dice games we play on the road.
www.freepik.com
The Single Best Travel Game In All 6 Categories
Each of the games we have listed above are great to play, but we do have our favourites.
Click on each category to see which single game we have selected and why
Best Travel Board Game for Two: Rivals of Catan
This is our pick for best game for two because it involves so much strategy and no two games are ever alike. The gameplay is similar to our favourite strategy games that need a minimum of 4 to play - and that is often hard to find in a 2 player game. It takes a while to play which makes it a great source of entertainment in the evening.
Best Adult Travel Board Game: Cards Against Humanity
This is our pick for the best adult game because it is just so darn funny - if a lot offensive. We like that you can play it with a really large group but it doesn't require 100% focus 100% of the time. We are often giggling with the people we have played it with for days after.
Best Party Travel Board Game: Catch Phrase
We chose Catch Phrase as our favourite in this category because it is an easy game to teach, and play. Large groups make this game super fun and it works well to play in many different environments. If we are travelling with a large group of friends we always pack this game and we always end up playing it!
Best Multi-Lingual Travel Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is our choice in this category because it is easy to teach and play. It is also really cool to play a game about travel whilst you are travelling!
Best Card Game: President (A**hole)
We like President because it is one of those card games you learned as a kid and everyone has their own variation of the rules. There are always lots of laughs and it is a great game to play in the evening with your new friends.
Best Dice Game: Gonzo
Our pick for the best dice game is without a doubt Gonzo (also known as 5,000! Like many of the others, it is easy to teach to new folks. It doesn't require a lot of concentration so it is a good game to play in a pub or common room of a hostel. We like the variation where you yell GONZO when you roll 5 of a kind - maybe yelling Gonzo is the reason this is our favourite?!
Final Thoughts On The Best Games For Travel
It was hard for us to decide on one single best game in many of these categories as each travelling situation requires a different type of game.
We always pack backgammon and crib with the accompanying dice and cards in our bags. There is usually another game or two thrown in as well. (Head over to our resource page to see a list of other items that also make their way into our luggage.)
Some of you might think that spending money on games is a silly expense. Our friend once said, “For the price of dinner and a movie, you can buy a board game that can be used multiple times.” This is a really good point since you can’t do that with a movie and a plate of Spaghetti!
Board game geek is a great source of information on board games in general. Their forum also has some great info on rule variations. Most of the images in this post link to the appropriate page on board game geek.
What else do Matt and Heather recommend you pack?
Head over to the Resource Page to find out!
