Fun games that liven up bus recreation activities
You know how people sometimes play bus games during fun field trips or journeys, right?
Long stretches on the road can get boring—not just for kids, but for adults too.
So in this article, we’ll introduce some fun games that are perfect for playing on the bus!
They’re all easy games that anyone can enjoy, from children to adults, making them great for class trips, family outings, and even adults-only travel.
If you’re looking for ways to make that often-dull bus ride a little more enjoyable, be sure to check these out!
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10 fun bus-activity games that will liven things up (1–10)
riddle
When it comes to games you can enjoy in a limited space, quizzes are essential.
Riddles that use things like paraphrasing, in particular, include many familiar questions, so they’re a type of quiz everyone can enjoy.
Since they’re a classic format, you can look them up on the spot and ask them, but preparing questions and hints in advance will likely make the game run more smoothly.
If the rule is that the first person who figures it out and answers correctly wins, it gets competitive and exciting.
Alternatively, if participants raise their hands as they figure it out and everyone announces their answers at once when the time limit is up, it could become a game that even more people can enjoy.
Portrait Relay Game
It’s a game where a subject is announced and players gradually complete a portrait of that person.
Each player has a time limit; within that time, they bring the portrait as close to completion as possible before passing it to the next person.
Splitting into teams and competing on the final completeness of the portrait may make for smoother rules.
It’s a game where you can also enjoy how rushing changes the drawing and how each team’s drawing style differs.
If you set a longer time limit, teams can compete on quality; if you set a shorter limit, they can compete on how well they capture key features.
So it’s important to tailor the rules to the situation.
Magical Banana
It’s a game where you take the word presented by the previous person, say a word you associate with it, and keep linking them together.
It originated from a TV variety show, and the way the answers connect rhythmically makes it really fun.
Having to answer in time with the rhythm adds a bit of pressure, which is an important element that livens up the game.
You can adjust the difficulty by changing the speed of the rhythm, so it’s good to start at a slow tempo and then increase the pace once everyone gets used to the game.
Funny games to liven up bus recreation (11–20)
Telephone game in the palm of your hand
Telephone is a classic recreation game.
Among its variations, the palm telephone game involves tracing characters with a finger on someone’s palm to pass along a message.
Because it’s written with a finger, it can be hard to understand or a bit ticklish, but that’s part of the fun.
Since you’re on a bus, the shaking might make it harder to convey the message, but that could actually make it even more exciting.
Will the message make it all the way to the last person correctly? It’s also fun to look back afterward and figure out where the mistake happened!
Time-Guessing Game
It’s a game where a target time is given, and players try to sense when that amount of time has passed without looking at a clock.
The respondent closes their eyes, and the proctor gives a start signal.
When a player feels the specified time has elapsed, they quietly raise their hand at that moment.
After a certain period, answers are closed, and the person whose timing is closest to the exact target time wins.
If you set the target to around 30 seconds to 1 minute, people can try multiple times and gradually enjoy getting a feel for time.
The longer the target time, the larger the deviations tend to be, which can also be interesting to focus on.
Constrained Shiritori
Shiritori is a game everyone knows where you take the last character of the previous person’s word and connect it to a new word that starts with that character.
To avoid situations where it goes on forever with no end in sight, it’s recommended to add some rules.
For example, you can set a theme and only use words that fit it, or limit words to a fixed number of characters—there are many possible rules.
Combining several rules can make the game even more challenging and enjoyable.
Even the stage of discussing which rules to add sounds like fun.
Time Bomb Game
Players answer something that fits a given theme and then pass the turn—and the balloon—to the next person.
Since no one knows when the balloon in their hands will pop, the fun comes from the speed and thrill of thinking up answers as quickly as possible.
On TV variety shows, the balloon is inflated until it bursts, but since that’s hard to recreate, we use a device that releases the air at a set time instead.
Because the balloon makes a loud noise when it pops, it might be a good idea to wear earplugs or headphones for safety.