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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Funny games to liven up bus recreation (21–30)
Kōhaku Uta Gassen (NHK New Year’s Eve “Red and White Song Battle”)
Let’s hold a “Kohaku Uta Gassen” during the bus recreation time! It’s a classic year-end TV program, so I think everyone knows it.
If you have karaoke equipment with a scoring function, you can use that; or you can appoint judges to rate the performances and compete based on the total points.
If there are only a few participants, do it as an individual competition; if there are many, make it a team contest.
It’ll be even more exciting if you create multiple scoring categories—not just singing skill but also performance and more—so even those who aren’t confident in their singing can join in.
Tongue Twister Challenge
Prepare a tongue-twister script and challenge yourselves to see how many seconds it takes to read it! Announcers and voice actors use this as enunciation training, right? If you search for “tongue twisters,” you’ll find plenty, and you can also create your own.
Add furigana to the kanji so that even first-time readers can read it.
The person who reads it the fastest without stumbling wins! Tripping up, getting stuck, and struggling to say it will get everyone excited, and if you can say it smoothly, you’re sure to draw attention!
Interesting games (31–40) that liven up bus recreation
Price Guessing Quiz
Everyone, do you usually pay attention to the prices of everyday items? You probably have a rough idea of how much an onigiri, sandwich, or snack you pick up at a convenience store costs, but not down to the exact yen.
This is a simple game where you guess the prices of those everyday items all around us.
It could be fun not just with food, but also with household goods.
Try mixing in things around you with brand-name items, luxury goods you might never buy in your life, or rare curiosities.
You’ll be surprised by unexpected prices—and that’s part of the fun of the game.
Tourist Destination Quiz
It’s a simple concept where you present quizzes related to tourist attractions and think through the answers.
The idea is to deepen understanding of a location through quizzes about it.
The key is which questions you choose—gradually increasing the difficulty and designing content so everyone present can enjoy it is important.
It’s a good approach to set a theme and create questions, whether about famous tourist spots or more niche topics related to where you live.
During a bus recreation activity on the way to your destination, it could be fun to pose quizzes related to the place you’re heading to.
A game of who did what, when, and where
Each participant is assigned four categories—time, place, person, and action—and they line up the answers they come up with, then read the resulting sentence aloud.
Because it combines independent ideas, the sentence often doesn’t make sense, and that mismatched world is part of the fun.
It’s basically a game where you complete a sentence using four categories, but by adding more categories to flesh out the situation, the sentence can drift even further, potentially producing funnier results.
Sometimes the participants’ thoughts align and a coherent sentence emerges.
It might also be exciting to aim for that coherence rather than just funny sentences.
In conclusion
We’ve introduced some fun games to liven up bus activities—do you think they’ll help cure boredom? Even if you’re excited about the destination, the whole outing can feel unappealing if the journey itself isn’t enjoyable.
But if you can have fun on the way, you’re sure to love the outing even more! Be sure to give these a try for school field trips or bus tours.