Travel Games for Couples

How to play

1. 1One of you reads. Nothing here needs both screens.
2. 2Take your time — you are not going anywhere.
3. 3The people-watching card is worth several rounds on its own.
4. 4Skip anything you would not want the next seat to hear.
5. 5Save the "where next" card for the way home.

Why couples love this game

Travel time is dead time that couples usually spend on separate screens six inches apart. It is also, unusually, uninterrupted — no chores, no notifications worth answering, nowhere either of you has to be — which makes it some of the best conversational time you get all year.

Travelling as a couple is mostly waiting. Airports, connections, delayed trains, and the stretch on a plane where the film has finished and there are still two hours left.

These are for that. Nothing needs a table, a signal, or space to move, and every one works with a stranger sitting six inches away who can hear everything.

Some are about the trip you are on. Most are just good ways to spend an hour when neither of you can go anywhere.

Example questions

• Pick a stranger in view. Invent their entire life.
• Where would you go if this flight was to anywhere?
• What is the best trip you have ever taken, and why that one?
• What is the worst travel experience you have had?
• What do you always pack that you never use?
• What did you forget this time?

The full game has 22 of these, shuffled every time you play.

Who this game is best for

• —Airports and departure lounges
• —Long flights and train journeys
• —Delays and cancellations
• —The transfer at the other end

Tips to make it better

• ✦The invent-a-stranger card is the best one and never runs out.
• ✦Do the "where should we go next" card on the way home, not the way out.
• ✦Mind who can hear you. Aeroplanes have no privacy.
• ✦Road Trip Games is the driving version.

Frequently asked questions