I’m going on vacation and I’m bringing… #10

I’m Tom, I’m a console gamer who is starting to get into unplugged games with my wife and three primary school aged children. I have a small blog called Playing Games Together.

Whenever I go on holiday with the family I always try to take a few games. These are useful for keeping everyone entertained on the journey, and also for some great quality family time when we are there! One of the main limits to what to choose is the luggage space, especially while flying, so all the things I take fit in a compact package. There are several games that would fall into this category, but here are my five favourites, that I happened to take on a recent trip:

1. Playing Cards
This may seem a little too obvious of a choice, but for me taking a deck of classic playing cards on a journey is a must. They are very compact, only 52 pieces (not including jokers..), so versatile in the amount of games you can play with them and very accessible – pretty much everyone has played a card game in their lives. I played a few games with my son on the plane to my recent holiday, and the journey flew by (excuse the pun!).

2. Rory’s Story Cubes
This is another simple game with many possibilities, that also comes in a packet as big as a deck of cards. The game comes with 9 dice, each covered with various different pictures. To play, you roll the dice (as many as you want) and use the pictures that come out in any order to inspire a story. There is no score and no winning or losing, it is just about telling entertaining stories.

It’s great to play while travelling or on holiday, all you need is enough space to roll the dice! My children have Spanish cousins and it is also a good game for inspiring language learning among them.

3. Happy Salmon
Happy Salmon is a fun and simple game, great warm-up or icebreaker game for family gatherings or any kind of party really!

In this game, three to six players each get a pack of 12 cards with a mixture of actions that need to be done in pairs: high five, fist bump, or ‘Happy Salmon’ (stick your arm out like a salmon fin and flap flippers with the other person!). They then have to be the first to get rid of their cards by shouting and finding partners to do the actions with. That’s pretty much the whole thing!

Since it is so simple, quick to play, but more importantly fun, it was great to take on our last holiday as we were going to spend some time with family. The other advantage for this game is that it comes in a cool neoprene bag, so it is super easy to stuff in any backpack or suitcase!

4. Love Letter
I really enjoy introducing new games to people, especially if they don’t typically play games. Love Letter is a good game to do this as it gives people a sense of achievement. When you play for the first time it can seem quite overwhelming to learn the different moves, but since there are only 16 cards in the pack and the game is played over several very short rounds, it is actually soon picked up.

We played this a few times with different family members over our last holidays and it was enjoyed by all. It is simple enough to not put off casual players, but also has a basic tactical element that more experienced gamers will appreciate.

5. Sushi Go
Sushi Go is a family favourite of ours, and it makes us hungry for sushi every time we play! If you have ever been to one of those sushi restaurants that have the food going by on a conveyor belt, the game concept should be easy for you to pick up.

The idea in this purely card based game is to build up the tastiest sushi meal possible. This is helped by the really nice art on the cards of different types of sushi dishes with cute faces.

The kids really enjoy playing the game and they really understand the rules and how to score points, while my wife and I understand the slightly deeper card drafting tactics, so it’s enjoyable for all of us to play together on a holiday afternoon.

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