20 Best Board Games for Travel for 2024 (+ Card Games!)
Want to know the best board games for travel? Here are some of the best travel board games for your upcoming adventures…
The joy of being on the road is often the major reason we go on road trips. Sometimes there’s no zeal to do anything – just enjoy the air and time away. But even a short journey can quickly become boring when there’s nothing to do, especially if you’re traveling with someone, in a group, or with family. That’s why a good travel board game makes for a great addition to any packing list. They’re also great to keep everyone away from the TV in the evenings.
The best travel board games are an excellent way to pass the time whether on a trip or at home. From travel delays, long journeys, sleepless nights, or bad weather, board games for travel help kill the boredom. With this list, you can choose some of the best board games for travel.
Best Board Games for Travelling
There are tons of travel board games you can take with you on a trip, but you have to be sure they are sturdy, compact and designed for the road. Ranging from cards, boards, to dice, these are all the best board games for travel, for both kids and adults.
1. Monopoly Deal Card Game
Monopoly is one of the most popular classic travel games you can enjoy with 2 to 5 players, but this is the portable version. It’ll keep you entertained for hours, whether at home or on the road. Collect three complete property sets of varying colours with the cards, and you’re the winner.
[amazon box=”B07MBKDPF2″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
With Monopoly Deal you can pick up more properties on the way and receive rent from your opponent. This card version of monopoly is the perfect card game to keep you and your travel companions busy for hours. It is great for camping trips, long journeys, vacations, sleepovers, and just about anywhere else.
Ben and I play this one a lot, or at least we did when we rented a VW campervan and went to rainy Wales. This is a great board games for travelling as it’s so compact.
2. Jax Sequence
Jax Sequence is both challenging and fun, making it the perfect family game. It’s a board game for both kids and adults and allows 2 to 12 players. Using a card with you, and then placing a chip on the matching space on the board, you can win if you’re the first player to meet 5 in a row.
All the while you’re trying to block your opponent or remove their chips, watch out for the jacks!
[amazon box=”B00000IVAK” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
This is one of those portable board games for travelling that offer fun for hours back at home and on the road. The game requires both strategy and a good amount of luck. It’s kid-friendly too.
3. Catan Traveler
Catan Traveler is another exciting board game for travel with a space-saving box that reveals the variable board. The game allows for 2 to 4 players, so you and other players can plan together to keep your settlements, cities, and roads safe. It’s handy and easy to set up in only seconds. It comes with six double-sided board pieces, to be arranged randomly so that each play will be completely different.
[amazon box=”B00U26V4VQ” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
The game was designed for convenient portability, with a hex-shaped dice shaker, making it difficult to lost or drop it on the move. The cards are also held securely in holder trays.
4. Skip-Bo Card Game
Skip-Bo, a sequencing card game perfect for camping trips and vacations, was designed by the famous UNO. You can create stacks of ascending cards, in sequence until there are no more cards left to play. The game can be played by 2 to 6 players.
[amazon box=”B0000205XI” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
The Skip-Bo ‘Wild’ cards will help you to break off a tight situation. What’s more, you can play it as any number, while putting on your strategic thinking hat to defeat your opponent. The game is designed with bright colours and is quite easy to play. Be the first player to deplete all your Skip-Bo stockpiles to win the game.
After a game of Skip-Bo, you can re-shuffle and start all over.
5. Loaded Questions On The Go Card Game
This is a must-have travel game for road trips, especially if you’re travelling in a group. It’s a simple but super fun card game that offers hours of fun on the road and at home. It contains over 500 personality-filled, fun questions, and you can be the first player to get to the WIN space by matching other player’s answers correctly to your turn, and then writing the ‘favourite’ answer on the starred area.
[amazon box=”B00ITIH2M4″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
There are no right or wrong answers, making it a fantastic way for the game to remain competitive while also getting to learn a little bit more about other players. This is the perfect travel game for passing the time on a long trip or during sleepovers. It requires 2 players.
6. Sorry! Game
This is one of those classic travel games where you drop manners to crush your opponent. Sorry! requires 2 to 4 players and as each player takes 1 to 2 cards, you can get 1 of your 4 pawns out of the start area and off around the game board.
[amazon box=”B00D8VHIMG” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
Like most of the travel board games on this list, you need strategies to win your opponents in this game of Sorry! You also need the luck to chase, slide, race, bump, and score your way around the board to end up as the first to move all your pawns home.
That said, this is an updated version of the game. It’s perfect for all family outings, picnics, long trips and sleepovers.
7. Spot It!
Spot It! is an award-winning game that requires visual perception to test your reflexes and observational skills. With a keen eye and quick hands, and to win you’ll have to find the 1 single match between the 2 cards and the symbol, usually leading to a frenzy of fun while you and your opponents try to find it.
[amazon box=”B076HFTXYB” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
The game requires 2 to 8 players. And to make the game more exciting for travellers, this version is a combination of 5 different ways to play. It comes neatly packaged in a handy grab ‘n’ go tin.
8. Qwirkle Board Game
This travel-size board game of Quirkle is easy to play and fun. For a long time now, Qwirkle has grown in popularity for a lot of board game lovers. You can set up the game in seconds and it’s relatively easy to play from age 5. Expect each round to take around 45 minutes.
[amazon box=”B085H2F2X7″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
While Qwirkle is great as a board game for travel, it’s also great for home use so you can practice your skills.
9. QuadPro Magnetic Travel Chess Set
This Quadpro version of the chessboard game was specially designed for chess lovers on the move. It’s a foldable, plastic chess set magnetically attached to the bottom of each of the pieces to prevent them from going missing on the road. It maintains the 64-square playing field with the complete chess pieces.
[amazon box=”B075JCW85S” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
This travel board game is a great way to pass the time in transit, camps, at school, or home. The QuadPro magnetic travel chess set is designed for compactness to keep it safe, so you don’t have to worry about it breaking either.
10. Magilano SKYJO
Magilano SKYJO requires 2 to 4 players and with a little bit of space in front of you, you can enjoy this travel card game. The game also requires strategies and with 2 face-up, 12 hidden cards, each player picks it, in turn, to take the top card from the draw or discard pile.
[amazon box=”B06XZ9K244″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
Exchange 1 card from your 12 cards display, and keep doing so until you or other players have only open cards. When the round ends, then it’s time to add your cards for scoring with the lowest number to win.
It’s easy to play with and also portable. The game is addictive and can be enjoyed on the floor, table, or anywhere else.
11. Connect 4 Grab and Go Game
Connect 4 Grab and Go is easy to play, and it’s all about lining up your counters in order to ensure 4 are arranged in a row. It could be up-down, left-to-right, or diagonal. As long as you have four counters sitting together in a direction, you’ve won.
[amazon box=”B08C478199″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
It’s a competitive travel game to play on a trip and is also a fun way to pass the time in a group.
12. Boggle
Boggle isn’t as popular as some of the other board games for travel on this list, and it can be a little challenging to get right the first time, especially for non native speakers. However, it is fun-filled and after the first few games, you’ll get it.
[amazon box=”B073SMSKZH” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
All you need to do is shake up the letters and flip the timer. After that, you then spot the words that appear as fast you can. It’s a competitive and fun game that tests your command of the English language as well as your ability to think fast.
13. Apples to Apples Party Box
Apple to Apples isn’t just exciting, but also hilarious and the perfect travelling board game to play away the time. It’s just as much fun to play at home as it is on the road. To win the game, you have to win the most rounds by playing a ‘red apple’ card to best match the round’s communal ‘green apple’ card, as selected by that round’s player.
[amazon box=”B00H4OKN48″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
With 63 Green Apple Cards and 441 Red Apple Cards, there are tons of crazy combinations you can find. Also, the game requires 4 to 8 players. Mattel is one of the most popular travel board games – and for a good reason.
14. Czech Games Codenames
This exciting spy game of Codenames requires teams to compete to find out who can make contact with all of their teammates (agents) first. With 1-word clues, you and your agents must try to discover (guess) the words of your team colour, at the same time avoiding the ones that belong to the opponents.
[amazon box=”B079354G36″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
To play this game, get your spy mode switched on and work as a team to win. It is a fun game you can play in a group and on trips. Another thing is to be on the lookout for double agents and any assassin trying to get you. Whether you lose or win, it’s still fun to pick up all the clues in this portable game. It’s for both kids and adults and requires 2 to 8 players.
15. Taco vs. Burrito
Taco vs. Burrito is a fun, crazy, and strategic game that involves a food fight. One of the major reasons the game is popular is because it was created by a 7-year-old and funded through Kickstarter.
If you enjoy card games and food combos, Taco vs. Burrito is the game for you. The game requires 2 to 4 players and you can use the cards dealt to start making any crazy food combinations you want. You can as well switch up the game with action cards for extra ingredients to win.
Also, remember to keep an eye out for Order Envy or Health Inspector that can ruin your appetite and meal. This is a great travel board game for kids.
READ MORE: Have a go at my Road Trip Quiz – see how high you can score!
16. Mattel Games UNO: Classic Tin Box
Like most Mattel games, this classic box UNO game is one of the most popular classic travel games out there. Race against 2 to 10 of your opponents to rid yourself of your hand as you try to match cards on the board by either number or colour.
[amazon box=”B08WKF5HZR” template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
You can use special cards like Reverses, Skips, Draw-2s, and even color-changing Wild Cards to boost your chances of becoming the winner. The game is perfect for camp trips, family outings, sleepovers, campervan trips, etc.
17. Smart Zone Games Hive Pocket
This is a very strategic game that only requires two players. It’s a board game (can be played on any flat surface) that comes with its own travel bag. You and your opponent can break open the 22 pieces from the Hive Pocket to form the patterns to be used as the playing surface.
[amazon box=”B074G1R4N4″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
The objective is to surround your opponent’s queen while keeping your queen safe. Anyone that surrounds their opponent’s queen first is the winner.
18. Blokus Game
Blokus is an exciting game that needs a strategy to win. The game requires only two players and can be enjoyed both at home and on the move. The rules are pretty easy to learn. Each player has to take turns to place their 21 pieces on the board to ensure that each piece touches another piece of similar colour – but it has to be at the corners.
[amazon box=”B074G1R4N4″ template=”horizontal” description_items=1]
You can protect your territory by blocking your opponent’s moves at every turn to win. The game is made with wipeable, sturdy materials, making it perfect for road trips.
19. Yahtzee
Yahtzee is one of the most timeless classic games, and for good reason – it’s portable, fun, and relies on a healthy dose of chance and skill!
In case you’re unfamiliar with the rules, Yahtzee is a game where the goal is to win the highest number of points by rolling three dice up to three times. Certain dice can be locked into place for the second and third rolls, so it’s important to plan your strategy accordingly.
This game’s player count is flexible depending on how many dice you have, and the best part is that it can be played online or physically. So if you’re stuck in the car and worried about little game pieces getting lost in the crevices, give the digital version of this game a try!
20. Solitaire
If you’re worn out and need to keep the kids quiet, why not have them try a game they can play by themselves?
That’s right – solitaire is the perfect game to try if you need that extra beauty rest on the road. The physical version of this game can be messy, what with all the cards and the order they need to be laid out in, but there are plenty of digital versions available.
The best board games for travel
Travelling is a great time to play a board/card game or two. You’re in a beautiful new location, but it’s fun to keep your mind and hands busy, especially with kids around. Step away from the screens and invest in one of these great travel games for your next trip.