These are the best travel board games I love to take with me on vacation

No matter whether you're going on a Fall vacation or are due to hit the road and visit family this Holiday season, leave space in your suitcase for the best travel board games. Regardless of the occasion, these portable favorites will brighten up any trip.

Where should you start, though? I've been writing about and reviewing the best board games on GamesRadar+ for almost eight years now, and that means I've got plenty of recommendations. These are the best travel board games our experts and I make a beeline for when we head on vacation, so they'll hopefully add a little sunshine to your trip as well. Bananagrams always finds its way into my suitcase because of how replayable it is, for example, while Hive is an excellent choice if you want to play something compact on plane or train tray tables.

These choices span a range of interests and costs, so there should be something to suit you regardless of your budget!

Curated by

Curated by

Benjamin Abbott

Benjamin has written about board games for GamesRadar+ since 2018, and his professional credits stretch back over 13 years. However, he's been playing tabletop games since he was a child in the 1990s. The travel board game he can't put down right now is Wingspan Pocket.

Quick list

Best travel board game overall

Countless fans (and our own writers, no less) swear by Scout, and honestly? I can't argue with them. It walked away with the industry's most prestigious game of the year award in 2022, and it continues to be highly recommended by the community now.

For starters, it travels exceptionally well due to coming in a small box while only using a few cards and tokens. That means you've got a lot of entertainment crammed into one small space.

Secondly, it's dead easy to learn but has a hidden depth that should keep you coming back. Your aim is to create sets of the same number or sequences of a higher value than the last one laid down, but you can't change the order of the cards in your hand. That means you've got to be clever in the way you gather and play new cards, giving plenty to think about. As our Scout review notes, "its emphasis on speed and uncertainty makes for an addictive 'just one more match' feeling that's hard to beat."

Best travel board game for families

Looking for a game everyone can enjoy, regardless of whether they like board games or not? Try Bananagrams. It's a high-speed crossword that anyone can understand, and it also travels brilliantly. For one thing, it's all stored in a single soft case that's easy to find room for. Next, it can be played anywhere with a flat surface.

The idea here is to use up all the letter tiles in front of you to create your own crossword, with words that all connect to one another. Each time you use up the supply, you shout "peel" and everyone must grab a new tile. Play then continues until every single tile is gone. It can become incredibly speedy once everyone gets the hang of things, and what may have sounded like a dry word game becomes a frantic race to the finish.

Enjoy competitive challenges? This will very much be your jam. It's a test of speed, skill, and flexibility, because rearranging your crossword when progression becomes impossible is key. While that can be overwhelming if you fall behind, there's no better feeling than outsmarting your rivals - particularly if you've gone from the back of the pack to pole position. You'll be dining out on that high for a while if you win.

Best travel board game for friends

There's nothing better than a hidden role game, if you ask me - and this one streamlines the mechanics of my favorites, including Unfathomable (which I said was brilliant but took too long to play in my Unfathomable review).

The aim is to take the gameplay excellence of those fan-favorites and condense them down into a 20-minute experience that's easy to understand and even easier to play. One side are pirates, while a small number take on the role of mutineers (the number of which varies depending on how many players there are). The pirates are trying to build up the value of their treasure chest and meet a specific goal, like 11 points in total. Meanwhile, the mutineers are trying to reduce that chest's value. To do this, everyone places a card from their hand into the chest each turn - and these cards have a value of +1, 0, or -2. If you're a pirate, you'll want to add as many +1s or 0s as possible. If you're a mutineer, it's all about those 0s or -2s. Once a pirate thinks the required goal has been met, the game ends and you check the chest... but you won't know if you've succeeded until you flip the cards over.

Things get interesting because you're encouraged to play fast and loose with the truth as a mutineer. You're meant to discuss what you've put into the chest each round, and mutineers can obviously lie. "Oh," they say after slapping down a -2 in secret, "me? I put in a +1. Definitely, yes sir." A pirate's only defence is to give anyone they're suspicious of three 'walk the plank' cards and banish them from the game, though they can also use ability cards to turn the tide.

Best travel board game for 2 players

It's impossible to discuss the best 2-player board games without Hive being mentioned. This is an utterly stone-cold classic that's been going strong since 2001, and there's a good reason for that. Despite being very accessible and portable enough to be used anywhere (be it a plane tray or a beer garden table), there's enough strategy powering it to keep you coming back.

Basically, Hive is like an easier-to-understand version of chess. Your aim is to surround and trap your opponent's queen, but all your tiles have to be connected to something else - you can't have bugs out on their own. Because they all move in different ways, you have to cleverly outmanoeuvre your foe whilst keeping you queen safe, all as they try to do the exact same thing. It's a shame only two people can play at once, but hey; it's good enough to make up for that shortcoming.

Enjoy competitive games or head-to-head challenges? Make sure this is in your collection.

Best strategy travel board game

The original Wingspan is a modern classic that still tops the charts, but it was far from portable… until now. A travel version of the game came to roost in 2026, meaning you can take that same strategic gameplay with you on the go. Don't think Wingspan Pocket is a 'lesser' version, though; I'd argue that it's just as good as its inspiration.

That's because it sands off some rough edges for a tighter, more accessible experience. The problem with Wingspan is how overwhelming it can be early on; there's a lot to learn, and so much to juggle. By contrast, Pocket streamlines all that while losing none of the brilliance. Your objective is still to earn as many points as possible, for example, but you don't have a massive board with multiple biomes to worry about – you're just laying down a single row of bird cards.

This leaves you free to focus on the good stuff: creating a satisfying domino effect. That's because each bird has a special ability, and clever players will combine them until it's basically a snowball rolling downhill. Working out killer combos is what I enjoyed most when testing the game for our Wingspan Pocket review, and there are countless options available to you.

Just don't take your eye off what your opponents are doing. The game enters its final round as soon as someone places their sixth bird card, so be careful that you aren't left behind.

Best travel board game for kids

Even though it isn't just for kids (everyone can have a great time with this vacation board game), Sushi Go is particularly good when travelling with younger family members. On top of an inviting cartoon style, it's very easy to get the hang of and only lasts 15 minutes or so per session. It also comes in a hard-wearing metal tin, so can be taken pretty much anywhere.

Your aim is to create the most delicious sushi menu around, and you do that by choosing cards from a deck that's being passed between players. Each card scores differently, so you've got to choose wisely; they either provide points straight away or can be combined for a more powerful combo if you collect enough of an item. That gives plenty of options, but it also risks you winding up with nothing if you (literally) don't play your cards right. When multipliers, sets, and 'puddings' that only count at the end of the game are added to the mix, this straightforward game shows that it's got more than enough to chew on.

Honestly, Sushi Go is one of my ride-or-dies in terms of travel games; it goes with me everywhere.

For more recommendations, don't miss the best tabletop RPGs.