Travel games to play right now
Missing that holiday feeling? Get your head into these diverting games for all budgets, from sophisticated console experiences to classic cards.
It’s hard to experience the rush of excitement that travel provides when you’re stuck inside your own four walls. Thankfully, help is at hand.
Whether you want to try piloting a plane into a scenic airport, or virtually explore remote corners of the Earth you never knew existed, these travel-themed games are all you need to re-ignite your inner wanderlust.
1. GeoGuessr
Hit play. Get sent to a random location. Guess where in the world you are. It’s a simple premise, but GeoGuessr is an addictive game that’ll have you clicking for hours.
Using your travel detective skills, you’ll have to deduce where you’ve been dropped, using any signs, landmarks, and cultural quirks you can spot. One round, you could be strolling through a Parisian park. The next, you’ll be driving for miles along an empty Argentinian highway. The closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you get.
Courtesy of GeoGuessr
All you need to start playing is to visit the GeoGuessr website on a phone or PC. Create a free account and choose whether you want to explore the world, a country, or even a city. Pro members can compete against each other online for a coveted place on the leaderboard.
What's the cost? One game is free per day, but you can get a pro account from £1.99 per month
READ MORE: Visit the top virtual attraction in every US state
2. Flight Simulator
If you hear the sound of jet engines at takeoff thrust in your sleep, this Microsoft classic will fuel your love of aviation. Flight Simulator puts you in the cockpit of a plane of your choosing – from gliders to the latest Airbuses – and flies high over a virtual planet Earth.
The map is so large, it’ll take 14 years of constant play to see it all. As you perfect your flying skills, you’ll learn about the more complicated aspects of a pilot’s job, such as speaking to air traffic control and carrying out pre-flight checks.
Courtesy of Microsoft
The game comes in both PC and Xbox formats. Use a joystick or your computer keyboard to control airspeed and altitude. You can challenge other virtual pilots, or you can simply select a departure and arrival point, and admire the whole world from 37,000 feet (11,277m).
What's the cost? £59.99
3. MapCrunch
Much like GeoGuessr, MapCrunch drops you off at a random location on Google Street View. However, this time, the game is not to guess where you are; it’s to get home again.
Screenshot courtesy of MapCrunch
Known colloquially among internet users as the ‘airport game’, when you load up a random street view on MapCrunch, imagine you’ve just woken up there. Your job is to navigate your way to an airport, checking out the scenery and small towns you'll stumble across on the way.
An address in the corner tells you where you are, but if you want to challenge yourself, you can disable this by clicking ‘stealth’.
If you’re not in the mood for a game, sit back and marvel at the ‘view of the day’. To see where you’ll go first, open the MapCrunch website on a smartphone or PC (no account required), and see where it lands.
What's the cost? Free
READ MORE: Europe's museums and galleries you can visit from home
4. Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
This 1980s franchise introduced us to Carmen Sandiego, a mysterious (and fashionable) thief who collects the world’s iconic landmarks.
The player travels the globe in pursuit of Carmen, interviewing locals and discovering incredible cities. A handy retro phone briefs you on Carmen’s hideouts, telling you interesting facts about their history and culture – all of which help you get closer to catching Carmen and saving the planet’s treasures.
Courtesy of Carmen Sandiego
Though the game is unavailable on CD nowadays, three free Carmen capers were recently released on Google Earth. Carmen first steals the Crown Jewels but ultimately she comes over to the good side, and you help her catch a new thief who has pinched both Tutankhamun's mask as well as the riches of the Kremlin.
All three games are free to play, so you'll be taking a nostalgia trip around the world in no time.
5. Ticket to Ride
Virtual travel doesn’t have to be online. Board games such as Ticket to Ride can also transport you to faraway places. The aim of this steampunk, train-themed series is to build the longest railway line, and connect up different cities. Think Monopoly, but for locomotive lovers.
The original Ticket to Ride board game is set in the early 20th century US and Canada, but there are now expansion packs set in different European countries, India, Asia, and Africa.
If you’d like to play online, you can download the game and its expansion packs to your smartphone or PC via Steam.
What's the cost? Board game £39.99, online version £6.99.
6. Backpacker
Backpacker is the game about travel you can play while travelling (or not). This pocket-sized card game will help you relive the full holiday experience, as you’ll jostle against other tourists to take the most photos of the world’s truly amazing places – from beaches to ancient monuments. You’ll also need to get back home safely, avoiding sickness, flight delays and bad advice from rival backpackers.
Courtesy of Backpacker
The game takes about an hour to play, and can be enjoyed by up to six people. The colourful and easy-to-read cards make it a game for all the family, and it’ll easily kill lockdown boredom.
What's the cost? £9.99
7. The Sims 3: World Adventures
One of the many expansion packs for the wildly popular Sims franchise, The Sims 3: World Adventures enables your character to explore fictionalised versions of China, France, and Egypt.
Live the life of an expat winemaker in a grand chateau in Champs les Sims, brush away ancient dust in the depths of the pyramids in Al Simhara, and become a martial arts master in Shang Simla. You’ll also get chatting to the locals, learn how to cook foreign dishes, and take home precious relics as a memento of your astonishing adventures.
Courtesy of EA Games
You’ll need the original Sims 3 base game to play, which can be downloaded from Origin. Then, you can install World Adventures, and set off on your journey.
What's the cost? £29.99 for the base game, and a further £29.99 for the expansion pack.
Main image: Ion Şipilov/Unsplash
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature