A road trip is often an experience to remember for a lifetime – but that’s only the case if you take the time to plan carefully and make sure that you won’t be bored during the long hours. Yes, Australia has some phenomenal scenery to feast your eyes on and you’re bound to see plenty of amazing sights, especially if you take some of the most iconic routes on offer… but when you’re going to be driving for hours, you still need to line up some entertainment so you can make sure there’s always something fun to do.
We’re not just going to tell you to download a podcast before you hit the road, though; we’ve got some better ideas that will keep you engaged for the whole drive, even if it spans multiple days.
It’s easy to forget about breaks when you’re thinking about road trips. After all, you might only be stopping for a handful of hours total, but those handful of hours are an amazing opportunity to reset your brain so when you hit the road again, you’re fully refreshed.
That means you want to ensure you’ve got some very easy activities for the breaks, ones that you can plunge straight into – and ideally ones that you can enjoy while also eating and drinking. Refuelling both your brain and your body at once sounds like a pretty good approach.
So, what is your best option? Well, we’d say a game. This kind of activity is engaging enough that you won’t find yourself nodding off, and it provides a completely different experience from driving. However, you’ll want to pick your game with care, so it’s something you can dip into and out of, not something where you’ll be stuck for hours while you try to find a save point.
Checking out a platform with a wide variety of simple games could therefore be the best way to go. If you look at Joe Fortune’s wealth of options, you’ll find pretty much anything you could ever want, meaning this suits many different situations. If you want to zone out with something ultra-simple, their vast range of pokies caters to every possible theme and setup, providing a multitude of different features like Hold & Win, Megaways, and more.
And if you’d rather have something more challenging to wake your brain up, why not try one of Joe Fortune’s poker variants? You’ll be able to play against other people, testing your skills against theirs to see who has the best virtual poker face and who can take home the win. If that’s not your preference, you’ll also find all the classics like blackjack, roulette, and more. Deciding whether you’re going to hit or stand while gazing out across the Australian landscape and enjoying a cold drink has got to be one of the best ways to intersperse a road trip with a high-quality break.
And of course, it doesn’t have to just be casino games. There are plenty of puzzle games online; bring up your browser and have a go at some Sudoku games or crosswords. Low-energy, low-commitment, and plenty of fun, these will also break up the monotony of a long drive.
In fact, these could even be good for your brain, and since they’re using very different parts of the brain from driving, they’ll hopefully let you take the road again feeling fully refreshed.
Okay, so the break is over and you’re on the road again. You’ve worn the playlist into the ground, and none of your podcasts are taking your fancy right now. The answer? More games! Of course, you’re not going to be firing up the casino while driving, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to end. You also don’t have to settle for a boring round of I Spy that will send everyone to sleep.
You have lots of options, such as creating your own rendition of Would I Lie To You with your passengers; this classic game offers a load of fun and can help build bonds with those around you. If you’re not familiar with the concept, one person makes a statement about themselves, and the others then get to ask two questions each – after which, they guess whether the story was a lie or not. You can keep score, giving a point to anyone who guessed correctly, or just play for fun.
And if you’re flying solo with no passengers, you can tune into your own version of this by downloading previous episodes of the program in advance and keeping your own score. Alternatively, try a creative game to keep yourself busy: tune into a book program and wait for a book’s title to come up, then turn off the radio and begin composing the story in your head. Think about the characters, the plot twists, and more. When you next pull over for a break, look the book up and see what similarities there are!