Who doesn’t love the great outdoors? Nothing is more relaxing than getting away from our hectic lives and decompressing in nature for a few days. Camping is an excellent way for families and friends to come together, take a break from the screens, and enjoy each other’s company.
Whether you are camping with a couple of close friends or a large group of people, it is always a good idea to have some activities planned. In this article, we will outline some of our favorite outdoor games and activities.
Scavenger Hunt
This is a classic game that we all have probably played once or twice as kids, whether it be with the family or in a summer camp. A scavenger hunt is a fun active game that can get a bit competitive!
What You Need
- Designated area for the hunt
- 5-10 objects to hide
- Paper
- Prizes
- Tape
- Scissors
- Pen
How To Play
To start off, the organizer of the scavenger hunt will need to hide the items and write clues to scatter around the designated area. A creative tip is to be clever with the clues, making them riddles or puzzles to solve. Depending on the age demographic of the group, the organizer can make the scavenger hunt more difficult.
Once the clues are spread around and the objects are hidden, the organizer will give each team one clue to start off. This clue can either lead them to another clue or to an object. The players will run around, looking for hidden objects until all of the objects are found. The team who finds all of the objects first is the winner and receives a prize. This can be anything from a candy bar to a handmade trophy.
Geocaching
Geocaching is a new phenomenon that has been gaining popularity worldwide. It is a community-driven app where individuals hide items in random locations and then put the location of the item on the app along with a clue.
What You Need
- Smartphone with Geocaching downloaded
- Pen
- Hiking gear (optional)
How To Play
Set your Geocaching app to your current location and you will see the pinned locations of the hidden objects in your area. To help you find these “caches”, you will also usually find a clue written in the description. And for some, they will even tell you what the object you’re looking for looks like.
The object will usually be a small pill bottle or film capsule with a bit of paper in it. The paper is for you to write your name and the date that you found the cache. Once you have logged your find, you simply put the object back where you found it and move on to the next cache.
Catch or Don’t Catch
Catch or Don’t Catch is an incredibly simple game that is deceptively confusing. Who knew a game that involves throwing and catching a ball could be this fun? With this game, the faster you play, the better.
What You Need
- 1 ball
How To Play
One player stands with the ball and everyone else stands in a circle around the player. The player in the middle goes around the circle and says “catch” or “don’t catch” while tossing the ball to a player. Depending on what the player in the middle says, the player to whom the ball is thrown must either catch it or leave it. If the player in the middle says “don’t catch”, but the player catches it, they are out. The last person standing is the new player in the middle.
Wink Murder
Wink murder is a great game for all ages. The more players you have for this game, the better. In this game, everyone sits in a circle and awaits their impending doom of being “killed” by the murderer.
What You Need
- Designated area for the game
- 1 deck of cards
How To Play
To start off, all players sit in a large circle formation. Designate a particular card as the detective card and another as the murderer card. Once everyone draws, each player is assigned the role of detective, murderer, or citizen. During play, the murderer winks at the players in the circle to “murder” them. When a player is “murdered”, they count to five then fall onto the ground and pretend to die. For an added effect, you can dramatically act out your death!
The detective stands in the middle of the circle and tries to guess who the murderer is. The detective needs to guess the murderer before everyone else is dead. If they are unable to so, the detective loses and must play detective again. If the detective guesses correctly, the murderer will act as the next detective.
In the Nature of the Adverb
This game is fun for adults and a great way to teach the kids some new vocabulary. The guesser asks players to act out certain actions or gestures “in the nature of the adverb”, and the guesser tries to guess the adverb.
What You Need
- Designated area for the game
How To Play
One player leaves the area and walks far enough away so that they cannot hear what the other players are saying. The other players then decide on an adverb for the game. Once they have decided on an adverb, they call back the guesser. The guesser then proceeds to ask the other players to do something “in the nature of the adverb”.
For example, if the guesser asks a player to do a pushup in the nature of the adverb and the adverb is “horribly”, the player should do a pushup “horribly”.
After a player has done action, the guesser can either try and guess the adverb or call on another player to do something. The guesser is allowed 3 guesses before the other players announce the adverb and send another player away to be the guesser. If the guesser guesses the adverb correctly, the last player to do an action “in the nature of the adverb” is sent away as the new guesser.
Personal Preferences
This is a hilarious icebreaker game that is a great way to get to know new friends and old friends alike. This is a simple game that is likely to produce some laughs along the way!
What You Need
- 5 slips of paper per player
- 1 pen per team
- 1 sheet of paper per team
- 1 hat or bowl
How To Play
All of the players are given 5 slips of paper each. On these slips of paper, each player writes 5 things, fold them up, and put them all into a hat or bowl. There are no rules for what these things need to be. In fact, the more random the things are, the more fun the game will be. You can write anything from “the color blue” to “sunscreen” to “Oprah”. One player then reads out 5 random slips of paper out loud.
Every team, including the player’s own team (minus the player of course!), then guesses how the player would rank these 5 things from most to least favorite. Once done, the player announces the order of these random items in terms of their personal preferences, from least favorite to most favorite. Each team gets one point for every preference they get correct. After everyone has had their turn announcing their preferences, the team with the most points wins.
Paper Telephone
Paper telephone is a great ice breaker and an even better camping game. A mix between telephone and Pictionary, this game is sure to make everyone laugh. When it comes to this game, the more creative the better. So, get your creative gears turning!
What You Need
- Pen
- Paper
How To Play
Each player writes a sentence on a piece of paper. This sentence can be as silly or abstract as you like! Then each player passes their paper along to the player on their right who will then attempt to draw a picture of the sentence. Once that’s done, each player should fold over the sentence so only the drawing is shown, and this piece of paper is passed down to the player on the right once again. Each player will then try to guess and write down the original sentence using the drawing.
The pieces of paper keep getting folded and passed on until a predetermined number or when the pieces of paper return to their original owners. Read the final sentences out loud and get ready to laugh out loud when comparing the pictures and sentences from the start to bottom.
What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?
What time is it, Mr. Wolf? is a childhood classic that anyone can enjoy – no matter their age! There are no supplies needed for this game, so this can be a fun camping game to play if you don’t have anything on hand. All you need are some basic counting and running skills.
What You Need
- Designated area for the game
How To Play
One person is chosen as “Mr. Wolf” at the start of the game. Mr. Wolf stands at one end of the designated playing field and turns their back to the rest of the players who stand at the designated safe zone. At the starting line, the remaining players must chant: “What time is it, Mr. Wolf?” Mr. Wolf then answers saying “It’s something o’clock”. The hour called determines the number of steps the players take toward Mr. Wolf. So, for example, if Mr. Wolf says it’s 3 o’clock, each player must take 3 steps forward.
At any point in the game, instead of answering with an actual time, Mr. Wolf can yell out: “It’s lunchtime!” When it’s lunchtime, Mr. Wolf turns around and chases the remaining players in an attempt to tag someone to become the next wolf. The players must try to get to the designated safe zone before Mr. Wolf can catch them.
Werewolf Tag
Werewolf tag is a fun, dark spin on a classic game. The main difference between normal tag and werewolf tag is that werewolf tag is played in the dark. Make sure you find a nice open space to play this game to avoid tripping over rocks or falling in creeks!
What You Need
- Pen
- Paper
- Designated area for the game
How To Play
There are three types of players in a game of werewolf tag: the werewolf, the hunter, and the villager. To begin with, there is just one werewolf and one hunter, while everyone else plays a villager.
Write down the types of players on slips of paper and hand them out to each player to determine their role. Then the werewolf reveals themself by counting down from 20, giving each player time to hide. After the countdown, the werewolf goes around the designated playing area, trying to infect everybody in the game by tagging, turning them into werewolves too. In the meantime, the hunter tries to untag the werewolves. The game ends once there are either no more werewolves or villagers.
Celebrity
Celebrity is a fun camping game that is a twist on the classic charades game. A game that consists of three rounds, celebrity is a fun game that anyone can join in on!
What You Need
- 1 pen per player
- 5 slips of paper per player
- 1 hat or bowl
- 1 timer
How To Play
To play this game, give everyone five slips of paper to write a celebrity name on each slip. Then fold them up and put them all into a hat or bowl to be mixed up. All players should be divided into two teams.
In round one, a player from any team picks a name from the hat and uses as many words as they want to clue in their team members to guess the name. The clue cannot be a direct reference to the celebrity. The team has one minute to guess as many celebrities as possible or runs out of names. The guessing team gets one point per correctly guessed name. Then the second team picks a clue-giver and does the same as the first team until the time is up or there are no more names in the hat. The round continues until there are no more names in the hat.
For the next round, put all the names back into the hat. In round two, the clue-giver is limited to a single word. The clue-giver from each team has one minute to try to get their teammates to guess the celebrity.
In round three, absolutely no words are allowed – only gestures.
The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!
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