Have Family Fun With These 16 Camping Games
Camping games are an excellent way to enjoy downtime in the outdoors. After spending most of your time hiking, observing majestic wildlife, and exploring the beautiful surroundings, you need some campsite activities to keep everyone engaged when there isn’t much else to do.
Of course, RV camping activities aren’t just a way to chase boredom away. They encourage healthy competition, test our fitness and spatial awareness, and allow us to bond with our loved ones. In addition, games give us the opportunity to step away from electronic devices and make memories that last a lifetime.
Below is our selection of fun camping games for families. Even the most reluctant campers will love them. And if you are looking for an inexpensive way to travel, rent an RV for summer vacation. You’ll save between 20% to 60% in travel expenses renting a rig over staying in a hotel.
Fun Camping Games for All Family Members
These games are suitable for campers of all ages, plus they’ll make adults and kids enjoy hanging out together.
Cornhole
Players of all ages will enjoy tossing bean bags and getting them to slide up the gameboard. Here, two teams, each with a board with a hole cut into it, throw beanbags across 27 feet, attempting to get the bags on the board or, even better, through the hole. Indeed, if you don’t have the boards, you can make yours or even draw a goal in the dirt and try tossing pine cones.
Charades
This iconic camping game can be played by all ages, abilities, and skill levels, and it doesn’t require any equipment other than your active imagination. The objective of charades is to use hand gestures and movements alone to guess more words or phrases than the other team. First, each person should write some common words on a small piece of paper and throw it in a jar. Next, two teams alternate choosing a word out of the jar, then act out the word for the group to guess.
Active Camping Games to get Everyone Moving
These games will require you to explore, move, and get a little more dirty than the other games listed. They are perfect for your energetic campers.
Capture the Flag
Capture the flag is a favorite camping game for many families as it combines fast-paced action, brains, and some good old-fashioned courage. Split up into two groups of equal players, then divide the playfield into two parts, called territories. Each team proceeds to hide a flag in their own territory. The game ends when one team grabs the other’s flag and brings it back to their own base.
Water Relay
Water relay races are great summer camping games when you need to cool off on a hot day. There are many versions of this game. For younger kids, let them stand in a line and start rolling their water balloons across the grass. The one who goes the longest distance without popping it wins. For older kids, teens, and adults, create two teams, then have two opposing players race with their balloons to two separate chairs and sit on their balloons until they burst. The first group to pop all their balloons wins.
Camping Games for Kids
The best camping games for kids are the ones that will keep them happy and busy so you can have time to enjoy your leisure time and soak in the scenery. Try the following:
Outdoor Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt allows your kids to bring out the explorer in them, be one with nature, and burn some energy. Before you begin, create a list of outdoor-related items to search for at the campground or on a nature trail nearby. Items to find can include smooth or colorful rocks, pine cones, feathers, leaves, or flowers. The kids can collect the finds, or you can have an adult verify before an item is ticked off their list.
Sleeping Bag Race
Relay races often top the list of outdoor camping games for kids. One race activity that will surely excite and amuse the kids is the sleeping bag relay. It’s like a potato sack race, except you will use your sleeping bags. Have racers line up in their sleeping bags and hop towards the finish line. Another version is to have the kids crawl like a worm to the finish line. Of course, if you don’t want to soil the bags, use your plastic trash bags.
Fun Camping Activities for Adults
When your kids are swinging and sliding at the playground, these classic camp games will keep the grown-ups thoroughly entertained. Moreover, they are also spot-on for family reunion campouts.
Horseshoes
Horseshoes is a classic tossing game that offers a rustic charm. Here, you take turns throwing horseshoes towards a stake that has been driven into the ground. If a horseshoe wraps around the stake, you earn three points. Horseshoes that land within six inches of the stake earn a single point. It’s a nice way for adults to test their accuracy and patience as they enjoy each other’s company.
Two Truths and a Lie
For camping games without equipment, play two truths and a lie. It allows a group of campers to get to know a few things about each other. Here, each participant shares three ‘facts’ about themselves—two of which are true and one which is a lie. Then the rest of the players have to figure out which one is not true. The person who guesses right is allocated one point. Once every player has had a turn, the person who scores the most points wins.
Night Camping Games
After sunset, the fun doesn’t have to stop. Night and campfire games are an amazing way to wrap up a long day of adventuring.
Flashlight Tag
Flashlight tag is similar to hide-and-seek, but in the dark. Look for a spot that isn’t well lit, with lots of hiding places and safe to run around. To play the game, first choose who is “It”—the person who will have the flashlight and use it to tag people. The rest of the players will try to evade the tagger. When a hider is “hit” with the light, they’ve been found.
Add to the Story
Add to the story is a chance is another of the fun camping games for families. It’s a chance to let your kids’ story-telling abilities shine. Teenagers, parents, and grandparents will also love gathering around the blaze and spinning out their best tales. To play this game, one person will think of a single sentence to start the story, and then the next person adds to it, and so on, with each player adding a new line. In the end, the story is a crazy, comical mess, with funny, startling, sad, and scary excerpts.
Indoor Camping Games
Sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, so you can’t get outside. Try these indoor RV camping activities to keep everyone engaged while stuck inside the rig during a rainstorm.
Jenga
Indeed, Jenga is one of those rare games that are just as fun with your youngsters as they are with your older family members. This portable camping game is an excellent time-killer and equally fun and addictive. Here, you alternate removing a single block at a time from a tower made of 54 wooden blocks. Each block is carefully removed from any level below the highest completed one, and then cautiously laid on top of the tower, ensuring the tower doesn’t crumble.
Puzzle
Without a doubt, Puzzle is one of the popular RV camping games to combat boredom and keep the brain juices flowing. Whether you prefer playing jigsaw, trivia, riddle, sudoku, or word puzzles, just make sure you pick one that matches the age and abilities of your kids. For youngsters, get something that has a camping or outdoor theme.
Have Fun and Strengthen Family Bonds With Camping Games
No matter where you’re camped with your wheeled home or how many outdoor activities you need to check off your bucket list, no camping experience is complete without a game or two. This list of camping games will help you keep the whole group entertained and amused, whether they are little children, teens, or adults.
