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Games to Play on a Bus Ride

Bus rides can be extremely tedious, particularly long ones when the landscape is more or less unchanging. Even though technology provides adults and kids with portable DVD players, laptop computers and video games they can use to pass the time, it can still be hard to remain in an enclosed space for hours. Playing games with the other passengers is sometimes entertaining.

Sit-Down Charades
- Write down the names of 20 or so movies on strips of paper and shuffle them in a hat or empty paper bag. Have each player draw a title at random. Each player must act out the movie to the best of his ability while sitting. This should make for a more amusing and more challenging game as the constrictions of remaining seated should provide a difficult but not insurmountable obstacle. Make sure each player gets at least one turn to act out a film.
Travel Scavenger Hunt
- This game keeps passengers attentive to the passing scenery and surroundings. Make up a list of things to watch for while the bus is in motion. Create list of items appropriate to the landscape you are driving through. If you're driving through a rural area, don't make a list of items containing things you'll probably only find in a city. Instead, for a rural landscape, put things on the list such as a "tractor" or a "silo" or a "pond." For a city scavenger hunt, you could put a "bike messenger" or a "sign in a foreign language." As passengers see items on the list, they check them off. You could divide passengers into teams and have a small prize for the team that spots the most items.
Geography Game
- This is a classic game to play on trips in a bus or car. One person starts by naming a city or country such as "New York," and the next person has to name a city or country that starts with the last letter of the place the first person just named. Thus, in this case, you would have to name something that begins with a "K" such as "Kalamazoo" or "Kenya." Clarify to players that they can only use the name of a place once. You can make the game harder by implementing a two- or three-second time limit.
Name That Tune
- This game is best for private bus rides in coaches or charter buses, as it could disturb other passengers on a public bus. Players have to sing, hum or whistle the first few bars of a song. You can choose a theme for each round of the game such as "theme songs to television shows" or "show tunes" or "1980s songs." The person who guesses correctly gets to be the singer for the next round.

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