How to travel by bus or train with friends in an eco-friendly and fun way

If, instead of hiring a car, you take the bus or train, your trip will be greener and your holiday with friends will take on a whole new dimension. No one will have to sacrifice driving for hours, forced to stay focused on the road instead of enjoying the scenery and the company. And you can organise group travel games to beat the long transfer hours and turn even a long queue or train delay into a memorable experience.

Whether you have organised an Interrail backpacking trip or just a weekend away by bus, travelling can be really frustrating. Long hours of sitting down, delayed trains, missed connections, intermittent WiFi and hard seats: it sounds like a description of a trip to hell. But it only takes a little effort to turn it into an adventure where everyone has fun. And you can also involve the other passengers by making new friends.

But how? By organising travel games that overcome boredom and raise the fun level. Instead of isolating yourself with headphones on, complaining about being late or scrolling through social media, take advantage of the time to challenge your friends. Each game could have a prize for the winner, or a penalty to be paid by the loser. For example, the winner could choose where to go that night and the loser will pay for ice cream for everyone.

All you need to play with friends on the train or bus is your imagination; at most a pen and a sheet of paper, but notes on your phone will also do. Here are a few suggestions, from the great classics to some more creative ideas.

Hangman

Who has never played Hangman as a child? So why not give it a try as an adult? You choose a word, which can be travel-themed, and mark the number of letters. If your opponent guesses correctly, you transcribe the letter and gradually form the word. If he gets it wrong, a piece of the hanged man is drawn hanging from a rope. The weirder the word, the more difficult and therefore the more fun it will be.

I spy

Spot something outside the window and describe it to your friends without saying what it is. You can say its colour, its shape, its height. The others have to guess what it is before it disappears from view. The fastest wins!

This or that?

Whoever answers has to choose between a disgusting and an even worse scenario, or between an embarrassing and a frightening one. For example: would you rather enter a tank full of snakes or eat a maggot? Not answering is not allowed! Guaranteed laughter.

The number plate game

Set the rules and challenge yourself: who can see the most number plates that begin with a given letter or contain a given number. Just look out of the window and observe the cars passing by the bus. Are you on a train? Play a similar game by spotting a number of objects in the landscape whose names begin with A or C or Z or even all the letters of the alphabet. It's a great way to pass the time while enjoying the scenery.

Guess the song

If the group is large and you are not disturbing the other passengers too much, launch into a musical challenge. Take turns humming the tune of a song, and the others will have to guess which one it is. Nine times out of ten you end up singing it all together. Try not to dance, if you can.

Tell me a story

To play this game you need at least 4 or 5 people, but the more the merrier. One person starts a story with 4 words, the next person adds 4 more, and so on. The story is constructed piece by piece, at random, and who knows how it will pan out: will it be the next bestseller?

Bingo on the road

Before setting off make a list of things, they can be on a specific theme or random. When you are on the road play bingo by spotting everything in the landscape that is marked on your chart. It's like a treasure hunt, but in a travel version.