Camping games for kids

Read through our top camping games for kids and get some ideas for your next camping trip. They’re a great way to spend some quality time together in the great outdoors!

✅ Best camping games for kids

Camping with your kids is such a great way to spend some time together in the great outdoors! 

Having some games in mind to play together will make the experience even more fun, and will give you plenty to keep in mind when looking for something to do all together! 

✅ Fun camping games for families

What’s better than family camping games? These are some of our favourites!

Here is a list of the very best camping games to play on your trip:

• Scavenger Hunt – a great way to explore your camping site
• Camping bingo – perhaps one for a rainy day
• Natural tic tac toe – noughts & crosses for the great outdoors
• Sack races – an old favourite with a camping twist
• Boat races – pooh sticks for camping!
• Flashlight tag – hide & seek in the dark, for older kids!
• Limbo – limbo, but using what you find in the woods
• Glow stick ring-toss – take some glow sticks with you and set up some woodland stakes to play
• Alphabet hunt – camping ‘I spy with my little eye’…
• Simon Says – another one suited for a rainy day!
• Squirt Gun Races – take some water pistols and this is hours of fun on a warm day!
• Water relay – who can spill the least?
• Air pong – all you need is a ping pong ball…no bats required!

Scavenger Hunt

A great way to make fun out of what you have around you is to create a scavenger hunt around the campsite. 

This is a fun way of getting to know the site where you are staying as well as getting the kids involved with the natural world around them! 

This is also a great active game as it requires lots of running around too.

Camping bingo

This is a great way to create some excitement before the camping trip for your kids, by letting them know some of the fun things that they will find while you are there. 

Simply print some cards with pictures on them of things that can be found around the site. 

If you plan to play on a rainy day, print out the words and draw them at random; if you’re playing outdoors then you can play by finding things around the campsite that are on the cards!

Natural tic tac toe

Tic tac toe is a classic game that never ceases to entertain players of all ages, but when out in nature there is an easy way to make it even more exciting by using the natural world around you to make the game. 

On the campsite you can simply draw the grid in the dirt with a stick and use stones or pine cones to play your turns. 

Alternatively, you can use sticks to make the grid too

Sack races

This is an old game that never gets less fun as it’s passed down from older generations – the good old fashioned sack race!

There is something about jumping around in an old potato sack that just keeps everyone entertained, and that makes a sack race the perfect game to play with kids. 

You can use lots of different materials for your sacks, from real potato sacks to pillowcases! Simply shout ‘Ready, Set, Go!’ and let the fun begin!

Boat races

Boat races are a super simple and fun game that also require some creativity before the game starts! 

Keep the kids entertained for hours on end making individual sailboats out of things that can be found around the campsite such as sticks, and then get ready to race them on the water!

Be sure to pack some string and glue to make the boats, and for the sail you can either use some paper or a leaf.

Flashlight tag

It can be tricky to find games to play around the campsite after dark, but this game is the perfect solution to that problem!

Flashlight tag is a great way to get a runaround in the evening time after the sun goes down – just give the tagger the flashlight and play as you normally would. 

This time, however, the person becomes the tagger after they have been hit with the light coming from the flashlight!

Limbo

Limbo is a great game to play because it can be played pretty much anywhere, as long as you have a stick or pole available! 

You can use a hiking stick if you have one, or simply try to find a big enough one in the woods!

Put some music on and enjoy hours of laughter and fun with this simple game.

Glow stick ring-toss

This is another great game to play when it’s dark out! 

Hand out four or five glow stick rings per person and dig some sticks into the dirt so that they stick out of the ground. 

Now take turns trying to throw the glow rings onto the sticks and see who can get the most!

Alphabet hunt

This is a little bit like a scavenger hunt, but instead of writing a list of things to try and find around the campsite, go through the entire alphabet and try to name something around you for every letter!

For example, A for apple, B for boulder, C for campfire, and so on.

Simon Says

Choose someone to be ‘Simon’, they will now tell everyone else what they must do and everyone will obey what they say, but only when they say ‘Simon says’ first of all.

The fun of this game is in Simon giving a command without saying this first, and everyone who obeys this command must sit out until the end of the game. 

Repeat until their is a winner.

Squirt Gun Races

This is the perfect game for a warm summer day to play with kids. 

Simply create a line of empty plastic cups along the edge of a table, then fill up a squirt gun with water – repeat this on the other side of the table too with another gun and you can make the game into a race! 

The game is to squirt water at the cups until they fall off the table and do this until there are none standing – first to get all of the cups over is the winner!

Water relay

Another summer game this time – have everyone stand in a line with an empty drinking cup and only fill the cup of the person at the front of the line. 

The person at the front of the line then, without looking, tips their cup of water over their head into the empty cup of the player behind them. 

The person behind has to catch as much water as possible in their cup, and this goes on until the last person catches the water. 

Then, they race to the start of the line to begin again (although they may need to fill the cup back up first!)

Air pong 

Divide players into two groups and have them stand on opposite sides of a table and place a ping pong ball in the centre. 

Each player must place their hands behind their backs and try to blow the ball onto the side of the opposing team and off, which scores a point for that team!

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