Planning a Road Trip? Don't Forget These Games for the Long Drive

Road trips are usually fun. Nine out of ten times, they comprise equal parts laughing at each other’s jokes, playing cards, enjoying group meals at roadside dhabas and those precious moments of silent reflection when, headphones in ears, you stare out the window and deal with your latest existential crisis.

But sometimes, it doesn’t seem to be going too well, does it? Conversation is sparse and shallow, the outlying scenery is reduced to just so much blue, brown and green, and you’re left wondering whether you’d been better off attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with your boss, lawyer and that kid who used to bully you back in third grade.

You need a game-changer. By that I mean road trip games. No, I’m not talking of the usual Atlas, Spelling Bee and what-have-you. These are, shall we say, a chip off the new block.

Best part: You don’t need to bring anything to play these. No boards, no blocks, no dice. Just brains.

Now read what follows. It could save you eight-odd hours of pain someday.

Fortunately-Unfortunately

Great for killing time on the backseat, Fortunately-Unfortunately is a 2-player game that demands quick thinking and creativity.

Here’s how it works: The first person starts by thinking of an unfortunate scenario, for instance, “Unfortunately, the tunnel ahead of us is going to cave in.” The opponent has to come up with a solution to that problem, for example, “Fortunately, there’s a goat path we can take to sidestep the tunnel.”

Oh, and that solution has to come within 10 seconds.

Feel free to take it to ridiculous levels like, “Unfortunately, Arnab Goswami will be sharing a seat with us.” or “Unfortunately, the stereo is jammed and we’ll be listening to Justin Bieber’s tracks for the next four hours.”

If the opponent comes up with a solution within the time limit, he/she gets to create an ‘Unfortunate’ problem. If not, well, repeat and bring your A-game this time.

Hold It In

The cushy front seat next to the driver is always choice pickings. How do you decide who gets to sit there?

Here’s how it works: First off, you’ll need beer juice. Lots of juice.

Now, start drinking. Everyone must drink. And keep drinking. And then drink some more.

You see where I’m heading, don’t you?

Yep, the objective of the game is to be the last man not urinating. Congratulations sir/ma’am, by sheer force of will and a very resilient bladder, you just won the most comfortable seat in the car.

Okay, this isn’t so much a game than a form of self-induced torture. But it’s better than fierce tantrums and sullen silences, right?

No? Okay then.

Friend Charades

A variation of Dumb Charades, this game is a great measure of how well you know your friends.

Here’s how it works: You’ll need a group of friends for this one. Family works too, but playing this with friends is…shall we say, more uncensored, hence more fun.

The play is pretty straightforward. Think of a friend/relative everyone knows of and imitate his/her mannerisms. Does he/she walk in a funny manner, or have an unfortunate habit of picking their nose?

Copy it and see if your companions are able to guess who you’re alluding to.

Car-spotting

I had to include a classic! This game is probably as old as the invention of cars itself.

Here’s how it works: The play is simple. Spot a car coming from a long way off, and accurately guess its make, model and colour. If you want to up the stakes, place bets on occupancy as well (“My spidey sense tells me there will be 4 people in the car.”)

A simpler version is predicting the colour of the next car to pass you by. Randomness overload, but it works well when you’re bored out of your skull.

So, here’s my list of games to play on a road trip. Any suggestions? The Comments box says ‘hi’.