Looking for Ways to Make Your Camping Trip Even More Fun? These 17 Camping Games are Sure to Take it Up a Notch! (2020)

Looking for Ways to Make Your Camping Trip Even More Fun? These 17 Camping Games are Sure to Take it Up a Notch! (2020)

Taking a break from busy city life to go camping in the woods is never a bad idea. Camping can help people bond with each other. To make your time more memorable fun-filled, add exciting games to your schedule. In this post, we bring you seventeen interesting games for your next camping trip with your near and dear ones.

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Here's Why You Should Go Camping Every Once in a While!

  • For the Fresh Air of Nature:More oxygen for the body is an excellent way to let your body function with less strain. Camping includes getting exposure to a lot of oxygen from the trees. A few days spent in nature will not only take you away from the polluted cities but will also help in improving your blood pressure, digestion, and the immune system.

  • For Reducing Stress:Stress can create a lot of complications in people’s lives, both mentally and physically. Taking a few days off to camp is a good way to develop the ability to cope with stress in a better way. Doing something you enjoy will help you in one way, but the intake of oxygen and relaxation provided by camping can lead to uplifted metabolism, higher levels of serotonin, and balanced levels of melatonin. These effects are related to a reduction in the stress in the body.

  • Increase Bonding with Your Near & Dear OnesWhether you go camping with your family, friends, or classmates, spending time with these people can have a positive effect on your relationship with them. You will be spending time doing things, helping and communicating with each other a lot, which will help strengthen your bond with them.

  • Socialise with Others:Camping is a great way to become more social and improve your social skills. The children, especially, will learn a lot to enjoy their parent’s company during the camping. It can lead to a healthy and happy relationship between people.

  • Make New FriendshipsCamping is not just about parents taking their family to the woods. It can be between anyone - friends, classmates, community members. And, when camping involves people that you barely know or even people you know, getting a chance to interact with them can lead to new friendships.

  • Get to Rejuvenate Your Body Through ExerciseDoing a lot of physical activities while camping has beneficial effects on your health. Even if you are someone unconcerned with doing exercises on your own, activities in camping such as walking, hiking, or carrying things around will have a positive effect on your cardiovascular health, keeping your heart and lungs healthy.

Camping Games for Kids

Scavenger Hunt

Children love to find hidden things. Especially, the outdoor location makes the perfect backdrop to play scavenger hunt. It also provides them with a chance to explore the environment. Make a list of things that the hunters would have to find in their way. Ask the children to tick the findings. The one who finds all the hidden objects will be the one to win.

Camping Olympics

Organize several games that children enjoy. This way, a number of people will be playing different games simultaneously. Some of the games that you can include are bean bag toss,
jumping rope, water balloon toss, tug of war, relay races, and puzzles, among many others.

Camping Bingo

Take along with you printed pages of the challenges that you want your children to perform for the bingo game. By taking the help of clues, the children tick or mark the different boxes. Whoever makes the first vertical, diagonal or row down wins the game. Bingo can be a very pleasing game for older children.

Park Ranger

This game is played in a large area, and a boundary is set for the game. One of the players is chosen to become a park ranger, who will start from the centre of the boundary while the other players stand shoulder-to-shoulder facing the park ranger. Every player, except the park ranger, has to choose the animal they want to be. Now, the park ranger will speak of the feature that other players’ animals might have. If the features said by the ranger doesn't match with specific players, they have to run across the area before they are tagged. The tagged players have to stay still as a tree. The last person to not be tagged wins the game.

Knot Tying

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Kids need to know how to tie and untie the knot to play this game. One person has to check the time, while the participants compete against each other to tie and untie several knots on different objects. The first person to complete all the obstacles wins.

I Spy

It is a straightforward game that you can play anywhere in the camp. Every kid can take turns to play the game. For example, one can start describing one feature of what the kid sees within the eyesight and explaining, “I spy with my little eyes something red and round.” The person who can guess it first wins.

Telephone Game

All the kids sit shoulder to shoulder. One of the kids will think of a lengthy sentence and whisper it to another kid, sitting in one of the ends. This person will whisper it to the person adjacent to him. This way, the sentence is whispered until the other end. Now, this person, on the other end, has to say the sentence loudly to everyone. This game creates a lot of laughs because, most of the time, the sentence said at the beginning turns out different when the last person says it loudly.

Camping Games for Adults

Name that Song

Everyone enjoys listening to music. And when the game revolves around music, it becomes exciting automatically. If your camp has a musician and an instrument, then the person can play a song, and other people can try guessing the name of the song. Otherwise, you can also play the beginning of the song on your phone. When there are a lot of people playing the game, it is better to divide the participants into groups. However, don’t try playing too obscure songs that everyone finds hard to guess. The main idea, after all, is to have fun.

Two Truths and a Lie

Two truths and a lie is a good way to learn about each other in the group. Furthermore, if the group has strangers, then the game can serve as an icebreaker for better communication. Everyone has to tell three statements, two truths about themselves, and make one lie. Other people have to guess which statements are true and which one is false. The game works well when you are more open to sharing things about yourself with other people in the camp.

Murder by Winking

Murder by winking is a very easy game that doesn’t require any additional tools to play. One person is chosen as a godfather who is neutral in the game. Everyone closes their eyes, and the godfather chooses one murderer among the participants by placing his/her hand on one participant. Now, everyone opens their eyes and inspect each other eyes. The murderer can wink at you, and if you see the murderer, you die and will have to sit back. But if someone witnesses the murderer’s assassination, this person can call out the murderer. The main objective of the game is to find out the murderer before he/she kills every one.

The Voting Game

This game is an excellent way to pass your time in front of the fire. Also, it lets you develop friendships among other members and can act as an icebreaker. Each person takes a turn to asks a question. For example, “Who can do push-ups 50 times?” Each person votes the respective person who they think can perform the task of the question. After all the answers are collected, the person who asked the question announces the winner. This game leads to interesting perspectives on people’s thoughts.

Twenty Questions

To play this game, one of the participants in the group is chosen as an answerer. The work of other participants is to find out what the answerer has in his/her mind. Everyone gets to ask yes or no questions in turn. Either they find out the answer or run out of questions. If you are chosen as the answerer, don’t think of something too difficult for other people to guess, as such that they run out of questions. The main fun lies in finding the right answer.

Camping Games for Families

Cornhole

The whole family can play this tossing game. It is simple to play, as it only consists of bean bags and a wooden board. The board is placed at a distance of 27 feet from the place where the player is supposed to throw the bags. The board has a hole in it and is raised from the ground. A toss inside the hole will gain the player 3 points, and if the bag hits the board without entering the hole, it will gain 1 point. The first player to score 21 points wins the game. Even if you don’t have the board, you can play the game by digging a hole in the ground and toss pinecones in them.

Charades​

One of the classic games to play in camping is charades. The game can be modified for different age groups and can also be played in groups. Before playing the game, prepare the phrases that will be acted out during the game and put it in a jar. You can make different jars for children. To play the game, one of the participants picks the paper from the pot and act out the phrase written on the paper. Other participants will try guessing the act, and whoever guesses right will be in line to act next. To make the game more interesting, you can set a time limit and choose phrases that are more suitable for the location.

Campfire Storytelling​

Everyone enjoys a good story by the fire. Especially for children, they will enjoy the time listening to stories from their parents. Also, parents can motivate the children to tell a story on their own, which will develop their speaking skills. Everyone in the group can take turns to tell a story which can be real or made up. At the end of the storytelling, everyone can vote for the story that they like the most. Or, to make the story more interesting, if everyone knows the event, then one person can start the story, and each camper can add their part to the story.

Mölkky

Mölkky is a Finnish game that uses elements of bowling, billiards, and blackjack. The game consists of 12 wooden pins, which are numbered from 1-12 and a skittle. In the game, the person has to stand at least 12 feet from where the pins are placed and try to knock them with the skittle. The person scores the number of points written on the pins when it is knocked down. The first person to score exactly 50 points wins the game. If the points exceed 50, then the score is set back to 25. Another rule is that if the person misses hitting the target three times in a row, then the person is eliminated from the game.

Thumb Wrestling Tournament

Thumb wrestling is such a fun game to play. It only requires our thumb to play; you can play it with your family members or your children anytime you want. To play the game, the two persons need to clasp their hands together. Now on the count of three, both of them fight with their thumbs to pin down the opponent’s thumb. One has to pin down the thumb until the count of five. To make the game more interesting, you can organise a tournament in knockout fashion between the kids.

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You Can Definitely Include Some Adventure Activities!

Adrenaline lovers are always on the lookout for more adventure in their lives. Camping provides people with a sense of satisfaction. It is one of the ways to expose yourself to different challenges and adventures in the woods. Adventures such as rock climbing, bass fishing, ropes courses, and mountain biking can be a very pleasing experience to have. Including these activities on camping can prove to be an experience of a lifetime.