The campfire is crackling away brilliantly, you’ve enjoyed a delicious meal cooked outdoors on the grill and the drinks are flowing… what’s next? A great way to enjoy a few hours around the campfire is with some fun and easy camping games and this is especially good if there is someone new to the group as it’s a great ice breaker when people are getting to know one another. I’ve listed my favorite adult camping games – some of these are lightweight travel games that you can purchase and others require no equipment. I guarantee you’ll have fun with these – I know we have! I’ve created a separate post for my favorite camping games to play with kids and kept this list as just adults camping games, but some of these can be played with older kids too – I’ll let you be the judge!
My Favourite 12 Adult Camping Games:
1. Bocce
Oh, the hours I’ve spend playing Bocce with friends! You may be familiar with this game – similar to lawn bowls, but where the player throws the heavy boules rather than rolls them. It’s simple and can provide endless entertainment. In its’ basic form, the jack (a small lightweight ball) is thrown and then players (or teams) take turns trying to get their boule to land closest to the jack in order to win. You can make it harder or more interesting by playing with a blind jack (where the jack is thrown with eyes closed and everyone else turned around), which is good fun in slightly longer grass as it is hard to find so players don’t even know what they’re aiming for! As an outdoors game, Bocce is a little weighty to be lugging around, so it’s a game I would bring only if it can be left in the car and brought out when I want it. It comes in a compact carry case, so easy to find a little space in the trunk to bring it along.
2. Card Games
The good old deck of standard playing cards is a must for any camping trip. So small and light, yet can add so much value to your time spent outdoors with friends. There are so many good card games to play – Poker, 21, Asshole, Go Fish to name a few of my favorites! The great thing about card games is that they can be played with as little as 2 people, but easily able to include larger groups as well. I highly recommend that a deck of playing cards forms part of your essential camping gear. Card games can be modified to accomodate kids and also to include gambling money or drinking shots depending on what’s appropriate!
3. Charades:
The age old game of charades still gets a run now and again and can be especially fun if you have a group of people who know each other well. Popular topics to use include Movie Titles, Song or Album Titles and Famous People. Everyone has their own variations on the rules with charades, so my advice is to make sure everyone is on board with what is and isn’t allowed to avoid arguments!
4. Beer Pong
Sometimes known as Beirut, Beer Pong is a drinking game where players (or teams of players) take turns at bouncing a ping pong ball and getting it in to a cup. Cups are usually arranged in a triangle formation, like skittles, but sometimes they are just lined up. If a player succeeds in getting the ball in, the opponent then has to take the cup away and have a drink. A lot of fun, but can get messy!
5. Cards Against Humanity
Quick heads up with this one – definitely not for kids! There is actually a kid friendly version of Cards Against Humanity out there, which provides plenty of giggles for the whole family, but the original (black box) version is strictly for adults, and if you’re easily offended, this probably isn’t the game for you either! A simple game with two decks of cards – one deck contain questions or the beginning of phrases and the other deck contains the answers or potential ends of phrases. Players compete to create the funniest combination of cards and political correctness goes completely out of the window.
6. Trivia
My hack for a good trivia or quiz night whilst camping is to simply take the deck of question cards from a Trivial Pursuit game along with you. Much more portable that carrying the whole board game and pieces around and you can simply score points on a pen and paper or in your heads. My friends and I are quite competitive at trivia and this will keep us entertained for hours, plus it’s easy to pause and pick up again later if you choose to take a break. The thing I love about Trivial Pursuit is that they have a range of speciality editions if you and your friends are particularly passionate about a topic, including 16+ and Adult Editions, Family Editions, Horror, The Beatles, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and even for diehard fans of TV Series such as Friends , Breaking Bad , The Golden Girls.
On a recent weekend away with friends, we played the HBO Game of Thrones Trivia game, which was excellent because everyone in the group had watched the entire series. It’s going on my Christmas wish list for sure. I’d also recommend the game Drunk Confidence to make things easy for you. Despite the name, alcohol isn’t necessary to play this game, but can definitely be incorporated if you choose to. There are over 250 challenges, ranging from trivia, singing and random acts. A good laugh guaranteed!
7. I Have Never
A popular drinking game, I Have Never involves someone in the group saying, “I have never…” and then completing the sentence with something they may or may not have actually done, such as “I have never had sex in a public place”. Anyone in the group who has in fact done that must drink. Generally, whoever has lead the most rambunctious life ends up drinking alot! The game relies on honesty and no one needs to divulge details unless they choose to, but if they do reveal more information, it can lead to some awesome fireside stories!
8. Cornhole
Did you know that there’s an American Cornhole Association? That’s how seriously some people take this activity. What I love about cornhole is that is can be played anywhere and with any ability level. There are some pretty epic cornhole kits that include LED lights to play at night and can be folded up and taken anywhere. What a great thing to bring out of the car to while away an evening with your camping buddies?
9. Truth or dare
Truth or dare is a fun classical game of passing the night at a campfire.
Surely I don’t need to explain how this one works. Best played with a bunch who know each other well and often resulting in nudity of some sort, Truth or Dare can provide a lot of laughs and plenty of stories for retelling on future camping trips!
Another variation of this which I enjoy is 2 Truths 1Lie. Basically each person tells the group three facts, two being true and one being a lie. The opponents who successfully guess the lie scores a point/chooses who has to drink/however you want to play it! This is actually a lot of fun when there are people in the group who don’t know each other well – the end result is getting to each other more!
10. Elimination
The host selects a category. Anything is fair game—car companies, brands of gum, words that start with “s.” The host gives every camper a pen and paper. Then he sets a timer for two minutes. In the time given, campers must write down as many items in the category as they can.
For example, if the category is “types of pasta,” one camper’s list might include rigatoni, angel hair, farfalle, spaghetti, penne and linguini. When the two minutes are up, the host selects one camper to read her list aloud. All players must listen carefully, crossing out answers that they share in common with the reader.
When, for instance, the first reader says, “spaghetti,” everyone who has also written “spaghetti” must cross out the item and then let the group know that she has done so. All participants take a turn reading their lists aloud. The objective is to earn the most points by listing items no one else has thought of. Each unique item is worth one point.
11. ABC named game
Everyone around the campfire claps in unison to a slow and steady beat. The first camper begins by saying the name of a famous person, dead or alive. The next camper, moving clockwise, must pick up where the first left off by naming a new celebrity whose first name begins with the last name of the celebrity just named.
The trick is, names must roll off tongues in this manner roughly in time with the beat held by the clapping. For example, if the first camper says, “Frank Sinatra,” the next camper could say, “Sally Field,” and the next could chime in with, “Fred Astaire,” and so on. In the advanced version, players must comply with a category chosen. For instance, celebrity names could be limited to baseball players or musicians.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed my favorite 11 Camping Games for Adults. If you have a great suggestion, please contact me or leave a comment. Some evenings around the campfire are just perfect with some stories, some chatter and even a few campfire songs, but if you’re looking for some giggles, a few games will definitely add to your camping experience!