Camping is a great way to get away from the electronics and enjoy a bit of nature as a family. But if you’ve spent your life indoors, enjoying nature might not come naturally.
To get you started, we’ve picked out some of our favourite camping games for kids and grownups alike. Whether you’ve got 2, 4 or 8+ people in your camping crew, we’ve got a game suited to every group size.
Camping Games for Groups Under 4 People
Water Gun Shoot-Out
- Players: 2 or 4
- Time required: At least 5 minutes
- Equipment required: Water guns, plastic cups and a flat surface (like a table).
The rules are simple. Set up six cups on the table for each person, then take your marks about 5m from the table (or as far as you need to make it challenging yet achievable). The first person to shoot all six of their cups off the edge of the table wins.
To turn it from a two- to a four-player camping game, you can team up to make it a relay. When you shoot a cup down, the water gun is handed to a teammate who has to shoot down the next one. The first team to remove all their cups wins.
Glow-in-the-Dark Ring Toss
- Players: 2 or 4
- Time required: 5-30 minutes
- Equipment required: Glow sticks (that can connect and form a ring) and a stick.
As the sun goes down, find a stick that’s around two feet long and reasonably straight. Dig a hole around 6-12 inches deep and bury the stick with at least a foot of it exposed above the surface.
When night has well and truly fallen, start around 8-9 feet away from the stick and attempt to lob your glow rings over the stick. Whoever can make the most shots from 5 throws wins.
To keep this a fun camping activity, make sure you have enough lighting. There’d be nothing worse than stepping on something dodgy or falling on the stick you buried earlier.
One-Word Campfire Stories
- Players: 2 or 4
- Time required: At least 5 minutes
- Equipment required: A good ol’ campfire
It’s time to tell a story, but you don’t have one prepared. No matter – this is where everyone’s joint creativity will carve one out for you.
The first person says one word. The next person says one word. The next person says one word, and so on. With everyone’s collective minds at work, you’ll end up telling a story not one person could have predicted, and likely share a few laughs.
Camping Games for Groups Over 4 People
Blind Water Relay
- Players: 8 or more
- Time required: At least 10 minutes
- Equipment required: Plastic cups and water.
Everyone splits into two teams and lines up in single file. The person at the front of each queue has a cup full of water while everyone else has an empty cup.
When the race starts, the person at the front pours their water over their head behind them as the second person tries to catch it in their own cup. When that’s done, they pour the water over their head, and so on. Make sure no one peeks over their shoulder as they pour the water (it’s called the “blind” water relay for a reason).
At the end of the race, whichever team has more water in their final cup wins.
To make it a little more interesting, you can reward the team that’s faster. For every second they beat the other team, they get a 10mL bonus.
Wink Murderer
- Players: 5 or more
- Time required: At least 10 minutes
- Equipment required: None
One person is chosen to be the ‘detective’ at the start of the game. They leave the rest of the group as the group decides who their ‘murderer’ will be. When the detective returns, the game starts. The ‘murderer’ will take sneaky opportunities to wink at people in the group, who when they see a wink directed at them, will collapse. The game continues until either the entire group has been ‘murdered’, or the detective catches the culprit.
Remember if you’re heading off into the great outdoors, you’ll need the right gear. And for the best camping gear in the business, check out the range on the Outback Equipment website.