15 Fantastic Card Games for Family Vacations

An article in the USA Today caught my attention last week – because it was about board games!

Entitled, “14 of the most popular board games on Amazon this summer” it lists a number of fun board games both old and new. Of course, the write started with the basis of popularity on Amazon and also added in his own favorites. That’s while you’ll see both Candy Land and Betrayal at House on the Hill on the list.

There were a bunch of games I loved seeing in the USA Today article.

Then just a few days later, an article in our local news shared a list of “13 board games to play at your summer family reunion“. Once again I found myself nodding in agreement for many of the games on the list.

However, as much as we like those board games and having just taken a family vacation, we say the best games to take along on a family trip will be card games.

Why?

For starters, when packing for a trip, space is at a premium. Card games are the most compact games you’ll find.

Other things that are at a premium on family vacations are time and attention. Many families try to pack in lots of fun activities on a family vacation. But they also like to allow for chunks of down-time. It’s during the down-time moments that games get pulled out.

Card games are great for these moments because many can be played in under 30 minutes.

You can also find many fun and light card games that don’t have complex rules. Thus, they’re easy to teach and understand and won’t take a lot of mental effort to play.

The last 3 things to look for in a good card game for family vacations are number of players, age range, and the replay value. Card games that are flexible enough to play well at various player counts and with people of various ages are fantastic for these settings.

And once you get family members playing a card game that meets the above criteria, they’ll most likely want to play it over again and again. That’s why card games with interesting decisions plus a mix of luck are perfect for multiple plays with family members.

Plus, most of these games can be purchased for under $15!

It’s with this criteria in mind that we present you with our list of 15 fantastic card games for family vacations!

• Compact
• Short
• Simple to understand
• Range of player counts
• Range of ages
• Replay value

 

1. Fuji Flush

Like many family card game, Fuji Flush has a simple objective – be the first player to get rid of all your cards. Of course, the catch is in how you get rid of your cards. On their turn, players can play any number card from their hand they’d like. If they play a higher card than players that have gone before, all those players must “flush” their card and draw another card to their hand. Only if a player’s card is still in front of them when it comes back to their turn can they discard it. The beauty is that similar number cards can “stack” along the way – making the combined numbers higher and less likely to get flush in the round. We played Fuji Flush many times on our recent family vacation and never tired of it.

See our full review of Fuji Flush or just go ahead and buy a copy of Fuji Flush.

 

2. Coup

Coup is a game of bluffing, guessing, eliminating other players, trying to be the last one standing, and it can be played in under 10 minutes – leaving plenty of time for multiple rematches. Normally we’re not fans of games that eliminate players – as they’re left sitting around while everyone else continues to have fun playing. However, when you’re only out for a couple minutes before the next game starts, it’s not a problem at all. Plus, the great draw of Coup is how actions in one game will affect decisions in the subsequent games. So playing over and over completely escalates the fun.

See our full review of Coup or go straight to buying a copy of Coup.

 

3. Incan Gold

Incan Gold was one of the first games we reviewed and is still one of our favorite card games. If you’ve ever wanted to be on Deal or No Deal so you could press your luck for more reward, that’s what you’ll feel in Incan Gold. Before each card is turned over, each player simultaneously decides if they’ll venture further on the adventure. If you go further you could get more treasure, but if you wait too long to head back to camp, you’ll lose it all. It’s that chance you take that can either win you the game or cause you to fail miserably.

See our video review of Incan Gold or just go buy a copy of Incan Gold.

 

4. Love Letter: The Hobbit

Like all the Love Letter card games, Love Letter: The Hobbit is about knocking other players out of the game so you can be the sole survivor or have the highest rank card at the end of each round. The beauty of Love Letter games is how simple yet re-playable they are. Each player has one card in their hand and draws one card on their turn. Then they must choose which of their two cards to play and take the action on the card (which will involve the other players and the single card they hold). It’s luck of the draw mixed with tactical decisions and plays very quickly. Each round lasts only a minute or two and you’re on to the next round. It’s quick and fun and we always play multiple games back to back.

See our full review of Love Letter: The Hobbit or buy a copy.

 

5. No Thanks!

The rules of No Thanks! are simple. Each turn, players have two options: play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card or pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card. The catch is in the scoring at the end of the game once all cards are taken. Players get points for the face value of each card they’ve collected. And points are bad because lowest score wins (chips count as negative points). The trick is that players only score the face value of the card that’s the lowest of any run they have. So if they have cards 17, 18, and 19, they only get 17 points for those 3 cards combined. But at the start of each game, 9 cards are randomly removed from play. So players won’t know what cards are missing as they take their chances on getting cards in a row.

Buy a copy of No Thanks!

 

6. Bring Your Own Book

While Bring Your Own Book may sound like a board game or rather a “book” game vs. a card game, this is a great game for family trips. Why? Because the game itself is only a deck of cards. Players must supply their own books. And books are something we usually all take on a vacation. Sure we might all be taking our books on digital devices nowadays, but the game can still work with books in the form as well. Each card in the deck has a couple of prompts that the active player can choose from. Then all other players find a phrase from their book that fits the chosen prompt. Once everyone has selected a passage, they read them out loud and the active player chooses the one they like the best.

See our full review of Bring Your Own Book and buy a copy.

 

7. Spyfall

Spyfall is a fun party game where all players but one receive cards showing the same location — a casino, a traveling circus, a pirate ship, or even a space station. The other player receives a card that says “Spy” instead of the location. But they’re all handed out randomly so players don’t know who has which card. Players then start asking each other questions — trying to guess who among them is the spy. The spy doesn’t know where he is, so he has to listen carefully to the other questions being asked and their answers. When it’s his time to answer, he’d better create a good story! It’s a great group game where some are trying to guess the spy and the spy is trying to guess the location.

Buy a copy of Spyfall.

 

8. Timeline

Timeline is a simple card game. Correctly determine where each of your cards go in the Timeline and you’ll win. The tricky part is making that determination. Players are dealt a starting hand of double-side cards depicting a historical event. On one side is just the name and an image of the item. On the other side is the same information but with the year that the item was made, discovered, or took place. The cards are dealt so players don’t see the side of the cards with the year printed on it. Players play cards to the center of the table in a growing line of cards. If the player doesn’t play their card in the chronologically correct location, they must draw another card. The first player to correctly place all their cards in the joint timeline is the winner. 

See our full review of Timeline or buy a copy.

 

9. Anomia

According to the game designers, the definitions for Anomia are: “1) A problem with word finding or recall. 2) Chaos. 3) The game where common knowledge becomes uncommonly fun!”. After playing Anomia a number of times, I think you could add to those definitions, “4) The party game where people jump out of their chairs, point frantically, stutter in loud outbursts, and experience brain-freeze.” One of the things we’ve gotten a kick out of with Anomia is that players have a hard time staying seated. When your brain freezes and you just can’t think of an answer that quick, the energy and need to say something quickly, just seems to bring you to your feet. And when mom rates a game a 5, you can bet it’s a game that will have a nice spot on the game shelf.

See our video review of Anomia and buy a copy.

 

10. Codenames: Pictures

Codenames: Pictures is one of our favorite games to play as a family. We love splitting into teams and trying to figure out what the others on our team are thinking. One player on each team gives one-word clues to their teammates who must decipher which cards among the grid of cards on the table match the clue. If they guess correctly, they’re one step closer to winning because the first team to find all their agents will win. Because of the popularity, there are multiple versions of Codenames. The Pictures version is our favorite.

See our review of Codenames: Pictures and then rush out and buy a copy.

 

11. For Sale

Are your kids great investors? Do they like to buy low and sell high? Can they flip a property for a great profit? The great news is that your kids don’t have to know anything about investing or Real Estate to enjoy playing For Sale. Sure, the theme of this family card game is about buying and selling property, but that doesn’t mean it’s a boring, number crunching exercise. Instead, For Sale is a great family card game that’s simple to understand and fun to play.

See our full review of For Sale, then buy a copy.

 

12. Mamma Mia

Another family card game we reviewed our first year of doing game reviews that we still enjoy playing is Mamma Mia! It’s a game about making pizza – what’s not to like? Players take turns playing pizza topping cards to a central pile. Once they think there are enough of the right ingredients to fulfill their pizza order, they place one of their pizza order cards into the growing pile. After all cards are gone, players flip over the stack of cards and go through them filling orders. If your order card comes up but there aren’t enough of the right ingredients to fill it, you don’t score it. The player with the most filled pizza orders wins. It’s quite the fun memory game as players watch what’s being played and trying to time their orders correctly.

See our video review of Mamma Mia! and grab a copy for your family.

 

13. Red7

Red7 was released in 2014 and caught my attention immediately because of its very unique game condition: You have to be winning at the end of your turn or you’re out of the game. It’s that simple. The catch is that you can only play one or two cards on your turn. For such a small deck of cards, it’s amazing that the game packs in a lot of fun. Players can play cards in front of them to meet the current condition or they can change the condition itself or they can change the condition and play a card in front of them. As long as once they do so, they’re winning, then they’re still in play. Players don’t draw more cards during a round, so each round goes by super quickly.

See our full review of Red7 or jump straight to buying a copy.

 

14. Sequence

We can’t finish this list without including 2 of our most-played family card games for many years. Sequence has been a go-to family card game for ages for many reasons. Perhaps the biggest two reasons are that it can accommodate a huge range of players and that we can carry on conversations while still playing the game. We’ve spent many extended family vacations winding down the evening around a table playing Sequence. Which really makes it close to a family tradition.

See our video review of Sequence, then buy a copy.

 

15. Spot It

And last but certainly not least is Spot It. It’s a quick card game that only takes a minute or two to play and is all about spotting the image that matches on two cards before everyone else does. The tricky thing is that for any two cards in the deck, 1 and only 1 item will match. That’s great game design! It may sound super simple, but that’s what makes it so enjoyable for families to play together. People of all ages can play it and enjoy it. Because of the simple play and the type of art on the cards, you may think that it’s just a kids game. But you’d be wrong. Playing with adults is a lot of fun too because of how competitive people become as soon as the cards are turned over.

See our video review of Spot It and buy a copy.

 

What are your go-to games when packing for a family vacation?