Fun games to pass time without your phone

Are you waiting somewhere, like the doctor’s office? Traveling? Long road drive? Low battery on your phone? Simply bored?

Time pass games

Worry not! You are in for an overload of fun with the simple games listed in this post. What’s more, you can enjoy these offline games for time pass and recharge your batteries!

PC: Pixabay

Fun-time

When I travel with friends on a long journey in our own or a rented vehicle, we play different games to pass time in an interesting way. I am the proud initiator of most of the games too (Yes, I rock ;))

That is when I thought that anyone who faces some idle time can use these fun games and wrote this blog post. Hope you enjoy these games as well.

As an awesome bonus, these games do not involve you staring at your mobile screens 🙂

PC: Pixabay

Cool games

Try these easy to play games to pass your down time. You do not need anything like a pen, paper, board or dice to play these fun games. You just need to be your fun-self 🙂

1) Dumb-charades

If you have one or more people with you in your idle time, you could try playing dumb-charades. It is a simple game of word guessing.

The rules:

A player shuts his lips and tries to convey a movie name or an actor’s name, or any word for that matter, to the other person through sign language.The number of words being conveyed can be indicated with fingers.

For example, if the word is ‘high wave’, the player could stretch himself up and indicate that it is the first word using his fingers, the other player would then start guessing (tall, big, stretch….finally high); when the correct word is identified, the next word can be taken up and similar process followed.

It was awesome to see Anna, Elsa and gang playing this Charades game in the latest Frozen movie, of course Olaf is a winner 🙂

2) Identify the movie

If you have one or more people with you in your idle time, you could try this game where one person forms the questions and asks something like:

“Name any movie in which Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie were cast as the lead pair?”

“A movie that has kung fu and comedy”

This is a very fun game, which can be played to identify songs in a movie, or other such unique things.

3) Total Recall

This game can be played even if you are alone. Recall the events of your day.

Try to identify every single event from the time you got up in the morning including specifics like what you had for breakfast.

You will find this very interesting, and your brain gets stimulated too. This game not only trains your memory but also sharpens it.

If you do this regularly, you will be amazed to find that each day your ability to recall keeps increasing. It is a great work-out for your brain.

You can also try to play this game to recall the route you have taken to reach any place, try to remember all the details you have spotted on the way, like the door color of your neighbor’s house.

PC: Pixabay

4) Name, Place, Animal, Thing

For young children, this game is a great way to learn and have fun at the same time. Fun-loving adults can also try this game.

For each letter in the Alphabet, try to name a person, place, animal and thing. It’s very interesting to note that, at the time of need, the actual word slips our mind 😉 right?

Keep scores for each item a person misses and the game can get very competitive too.

Reader’s suggestion: One person tells a name starting with a chosen letter and then the next person has to tell a word that starts with the last letter of the first person’s word. Cool, right?

5) Cards and other related games

If you are not into the regular card games, try these enjoyable ones. I found the Mattel Games UNO: Classic (Tin Box) super useful in my travels with friends.

Card games for 8 years and above folks: Mr. Toast, Travel Scavenger Hunt

6) Pictionary

Of course, this game needs you to be in a room with your friends, but you would love it. Does any of your friends totally hate drawing? 😉

This game would bring out the artist in you and ensures that there are many fun moments because not everyone can draw, and it can get very tricky to draw and express the word when you are under pressure!

7) Color Drawing Board – for kids

This is a fool-proof idea to keep your toddlers busy. You should get this a Drawing Board. A reusable board gives them endless fun time and engages them in a creative way. The kids should not have to watch their tablets and other electronic devices.

8) Super singer

A game where you play your favorite song and ask the next person to start the song with any word you choose from the song that you just sang. The second next person gets his word from the previous song…the cycle goes on. It is called ‘Anthakshari’ in India.

The person who fails to sing with the chosen word loses.

9) Movie quotes/misquotes

Here a game that is very popular too. You quote or misquote a famous line from a movie and the other players have to identify that.

“I’ll be back” .. which movie is that from?

“Why so serious?”

Pretty cool, right?

10) ‘Truth or dare’ and ‘I spy’

Games like ‘Truth or dare’ where you need to answer some questions truthfully or choose to do some dare and ‘I spy’ game for kids are also popular time pass games.

Of course, you can always pick up the book you have been trying to read from a long time and pass your time.

11) Would you rather

This one works very well for young kids. Start by asking a question like ‘Would you rather have crayons or water paints to draw with?’ Once the kids choose an option, proceed to the next question. Say they chose crayons, go with ‘Would you rather pick crayons or color pencils?’ and so on. You can change the questions to different topics and spice up the game. Cake or banana bread? Get the idea, right? Have fun! This is a very entertaining game for littles on a road trip and you will hear ‘Are we there yet?’ less often 😉

12) Road Bingo

Again for little ones, this game is a classic. Prepare a few sheets with some things you get to see on the road sides like mountains, water, dirt road, types of cars, road signs, animals.. you get the idea. Ask the kids to tick off whatever they find on the road and give the winner a treat. Pack plenty of small treats! You can also get some really neat bingo booklets at the dollar store or Amazon.

Also read: eBook or Paperback – Which is better?

Know more cool games? Hit the comments to let me know.

Have fun!

Also read: Camping tips for a lovely trip in the outdoors with kids