17 Easy Hiking & Backpacking Games

When you head out on a multi-day hike or even a short stroll—especially with children—having a few great games up your sleeve can completely transform the day. Instead of “how much further?”, you get laughter, stories, and a trail full of little adventures. With the right game, an ordinary walk becomes a moving playground, packed with in-jokes, surprises, and shared memories.

Here are 17 walking games we play to help the time (and miles) fly by!

1 - Create your own story

This is my favourite game to play by a mile (excuse the pun).

Start by making up the beginning of a story and saying it out loud so everybody can hear. Then stop after a minute or two, so the next person can continue the story, however they want to! You can play this with two people or a large group, moving the story from person to person and letting your imagination run wild!

2 - Eye Spy

I can't write a list of games without including the classic game of eye spy! You can obviously use the first letter of the item you're thinking of, but to mix it up, you can use the last letter, the colour "eye spy with my little eye, something YELLOW".

3 - Yes-No game

This game can go on for hours, or if you're like me, a few seconds! Simply ask each other questions and try not to answer with YES, NO, or words, phrases, or sounds that replace yes and no, such as Nope or Yeh!

You can make the yes-no game harder by including head shakes and nods, as well as pauses and word repetition! If you want, you can add another dimension to the game by adding a time limit. If the person asking the questions hasn't got you to say yes or no, you win!

4 - 20 Questions

A simple game... in theory. The Yes-No game in reverse. You play it by thinking of something - your favourite film, food or book, maybe a person or hobby, anything you like. The other person has 20 (or however many questions you decide) to work out what you're thinking. However, you can only answer their questions with "yes" or "no". Some variations of the game allow you to say "I don't know" and "irrelevant", but it's up to you!

5 - I went to the market...

Eve loves this game! I find it infuriating!

Start playing the game by saying, "I went to the market and bought a pie" or any item of your choice. The second person then has to remember and repeat the list out loud, adding another item on at the end - "I went to the market and bought a pie and a pair of socks". The next person repeats, adding a third item at the end, and so on. The winner is the last person who can remember and repeat the whole list without forgetting anything!

You can make this game personal and relevant to your group, but starting with "When I want camping, I saw a...?" or "When I visit my friends, I like to play...?". The choice really is yours!

6 - Quizzes

Another classic walking game! You can quiz on anything you want! Examples I have used are Harry Potter trivia, The Lord of the Rings, and general knowledge. You can take quizzes to the next level by using maths equations or spelling words to add an educational element to the walk!

7 - I'm cooking...

This is a twist on 20 questions and the Yes-No game, with a theme. Start by saying, "I'm cooking something in the oven". The other player(s) 10 questions, or however many you choose, to work out what you are cooking. The common way to play this is to limit all answers to "yes" or "no".

You can change 'I'm Cooking...' to anything that fits your theme, such as "When I went for a walk, I saw a...". You can obviously make this game harder by using obscure answers or limiting the number of questions, or make it easier by allowing more questions and using easier answers!

8 - Cat or Dog

This game can be a little silly, but also great fun! The game is played by selecting one person to think of something, preferably something or someone the whole group knows, for example, a cat. But it could be anything, a film, a celebrity, a book, a teacher, a relative.

The players then have to work out what word, phrase, person, etc, that person is thinking of by asking what it's most similar to.

For example, you might ask, "Is it more similar to a cat or a dog?". If the person is thinking of Harry Potter, they have to decide if Harry Potter is more like a cat or a dog. Assuming they think Harry Potter is more like a cat, they would say, "Cat". Then you ask another question, "Is it more like a sausage or a TV?". Again, they would have to decide whether Harry Potter was more like a sausage or a TV, until, hopefully, you can work out what they are thinking!

9 - Counting

Nice and simple, best played with several people. This game is nothing more than counting 1, 2, 3, 4 as a group. The twist, however, is that only one person can say the next number in the sequence.

It works like this. If I start by saying "1", another person in the group has to decide whether to say "2", and so on. If two people say the same number at the same time, they are both out, or you simply start the game again.

You can play this game with a twist; instead of counting, you could list crisp flavours, Marvel characters, Munro names, etc.

10 - Mallets Mallet

This is a game inspired by the 1980s TV show Wacaday, hosted by Timmy Mallet! The only difference between this hiking game and the TV show is that we're not going to hit people over the head with a giant pink foam hammer!

A fast-paced game that can be played in pairs or by a large group by going around one at a time. It works like this: if I say "Kettle", the next person has to think of something related to a kettle, e.g. "Electric". This keeps going until somebody can't think of a related word, it takes too long or a word is repeated.

Here's a video if you want to see Mallets Mallet in action!

11 - Pass the Phrase

This is a good game to play, especially when sitting around a campfire! One person thinks of a sentence or a phrase and whispers it once to the person next to them. That person then has to whisper what they heard, or think they heard, to the next person until it eventually goes around everybody! There are just two basic rules - the whisperer cannot repeat the sentence and there are to be no hints!

What has been said, heard, and consequently passed on, will inevitably change from person to person, into something unrecognisable and usually very funny!

12 - Ventriloquy

This is less of a game, more of a challenge, but a whole lot of fun! To start, you need to create a tongue twister, a sentence or a phrase and try to say it, keeping your lips together, hence the name of the game. A word we use a lot for this game is 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'.

The aim is to work out what has been said, but if the person 'speaking' shows their teeth or starts laughing, they lose the game!

You can theme the game around song lyrics or anything else you want! Have fun and experiment.

13 - First to Find

This is a game you can play whilst walking or at camp, and is a twist on the traditional scavenger hunt. You simply challenge people, including yourself, to be the first to spot something. It might be a species of tree, a ladybird, a waterfall or an inanimate object somebody is carrying.

14 - Alphabet Search

Similar to 'First to Find', except you have to search for items in order of the alphabet. It could be a simple game of finding the first thing on the trail that begins with 'A', then 'B', and so on. Just keep going around the group until somebody can't list an item!

A variation of this game is to list items from a specific category in alphabetical order, such as fruits, vegetables, countries, insects, animals, etc. It's harder than it sounds!

15 - Would You Rather?

This game can lead you down some rather odd paths (no pun intended).

The basis of the game is to present two competing situations and ask which people would rather be in and why! It could be, "Would you rather live in a tree or in a cave?', or "Would you rather spend a month on the moon or under the sea?"

This game can obviously be expanded. A couple of ideas that I am aware have been used are "who would win a race between...?" and "who would win a fight between...?"

16 - Charades

Need I say more! If you don't know what charades is, you have to act out the name of a place, a person, a book, a film, or a TV series title. Just make sure people can guess it. There's no point acting out something people haven't got a chance of knowing!

The one rule: no verbal communication allowed!

17 - Name that tune

A nice, simple one, hum a tune, and others have to guess what you're humming! Make it easier by limiting music choice to specific genres or artists!

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These are just a few of the games we play while walking, and we still enjoy them today. The best games I’ve ever played are the ones we’ve made up ourselves. Use these 17 games as inspiration for creating your own.

One final piece of advice for keeping everyone entertained on the trail: go with the flow. You’ll be amazed at how many games you can come up with by simply using a little imagination!

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