Whenever we go away as a family, we always take a collection of games with us. It has been this way for as long as I can remember and has been a way of creating many fun (albeit competitive) memories over the years.

Uno

Uno is a game that has withstood the test of time with my family. I can remember the early holidays in the tent playing this game when it was raining or late into the night before going to bed and having to remind ourselves to keep quiet so as not to disturb the “neighbours” (we failed spectacularly at this, so sorry!).

It was a game that we could all play together once we were old enough to understand the rules. Even before that though, I can remember my youngest sister “playing on Dad’s team” and chanting “uno” from her spot on his knee.

If you are looking for a travel game that is the portable and great for large numbers, this is the best option. As a card game Uno doesn’t take up a lot of space in your luggage. Also, given how the game works you can have a large number of players, meaning that if normally you have to split up into teams or onto different games so that everyone can play, you won’t have to with Uno.

Frustration

Even when we aren’t on holiday this game is one of our favourites. Although this is another one where we can get very loud and competitive (there aren’t many games where we don’t!).

Left completely up to chance and with the die inside a plastic dome there is little anyone can do to cheat (even if there’s the odd accusation!).

We couldn’t really play this very well when we were younger as it needed a firm, stable surface which wasn’t always possible in a tent. Also, there are only four players, so unless we played in teams (which wasn’t as fun) we couldn’t play as a whole family.

Backgammon

This game has become more common as we’ve got older and is now a great opportunity to spend some quality time with Dad.

I don’t remember when we started learning to play Backgammon (it feels like I’ve always known), but it only became a regular in our games night rota when we were a bit older though. This is possibly because we began to do separate activities instead of the same one when we were teenagers.

I feel like this is one of the best travel games because it is easy to transport and very easy to set up.

Draughts/Chess

Ok, so this may come across as a little bit of a cheat as it’s two games, not one, but let me explain.

A lot of the travel versions of these two come in the same box, because you are able to do what we used to do and use the same board, simply switching out the pieces.

Draughts was a lot easier to play when we were younger (and none of my sisters used to play chess), so it was always one of our rainy-day games. Or we’d use the board and chess pieces in imaginary games (at least I did, and I think my oldest little sister used to join in sometimes).

When she was older, I tried to teach my youngest sister how to play chess one afternoon, but she didn’t really enjoy it. So now chess is reserved almost solely for mine and Harry’s adventures.

Rummikub

The travel version of this game is great. It is compact and uses the stands to create the case for the tiles. It would easily fit in hand luggage if you don’t have a lot of space.

Rummikub can be a rather frustrating game in the beginning but sometimes that frustration can lead to you winning!

The are only four stands provided; however, we found that you could have additional players as long as there’s a way to prop up their tiles so that the other players can’t see them.

Honourable Mentions

It was too hard to choose just five of my favourite games, so I decided to add two others that mean a lot to me.

A pack of cards

This is ideal if you have little space in your luggage and still want a way to play multiple games. Nana taught me most of the card games that I know when I was really little, she used it to teach me numbers and slowly added more games to our repertoire, beginning with games like Snap and Old Maid.

In fact, you can use these for fun without playing a specific game. I got very good at card houses over the years!

Top Trumps

I recently found out that not everyone played Top Trumps as a kid, or even know what they are. That truly baffled me as we had a wide variety of packs growing up (a regular in our Christmas stockings!), to find out that this wasn’t a common game for everyone was a surprise.

So, if you don’t know what Top Trumps is, it’s a card game, each card has statistics in various categories. The player will decide which category they read out and whoever’s character (card) has the highest number in that category wins the round.

Conclusion

Some of my fondest memories from our holidays over the years are when we were winding down for the evening and playing some of these games.

Are there any games that you think should have made this list?