Monday, March 28, 2011

The best travel games for families

By Latham Jamal


However wonderful family holidays are the journey to and from your destination can be off putting. Whatever the mode of transport you are using, staving off boredom, or keeping your kids from climbing the walls can be no easy feat. Travel games are a good tool for this situation. Not only are they enjoyable, but they are small, light and convenient ways of passing time, sometimes not requiring equipment at all. Some of these games can be the opposite of what they are supposed to be - entertaining, that is - so what follows is an overview of the games that are guaranteed to make travelling a joy.

As with many things, the old ones are often the greatest, and you would be hard pushed to find one that is not available in special travel version. It is these games (chess, backgammon and checkers for example) that are most demanding in terms of attention span and strategic though, and so they make time pass quickly. They are conveniently sized, and are often magnetic which makes them perfect for any journey.

A simple deck of cards is probably the most versatile of travel games, and they always stay interesting because it is always possible to learn a new game. If you have very young children, then simple games like snap can be all that's needed to keep them entertained. For older children who require a bit more of a challenge, there are games like contract whist, or even poker to challenge them.

Some of the best games, however, are those that do not require apparatus. One such game is 'GHOST', and this can be extremely beneficial for children because it can help them be creative with words. First, one person says a letter from the alphabet, then going round clockwise each other player says a letter that goes some way to forming a word. Whoever says a letter that completes a word loses the round and gets the letter 'G' assigned to them, followed by 'H', 'O', 'S' and 'T' for every round they lose. Whoever gets all of the letters of 'GHOST' loses the game.

The really interesting thing about this game is that you can bluff. You can say a letter that does not contribute to forming a word, and if no one questions you, the next person to say a letter loses the round. If someone questions you, however, then you lose, but if someone questions you and you were not bluffing, they lose the round. There are a lot of options for keeping your family entertained while travelling, but sometimes the simplest are the best.




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