Nothing melts away stress and allows you to escape the grind of everyday life like a few nights in the wilderness. All you need is a tent, sleeping bag, and a good group of friends to escape the cities and put your mind at peace.
If you have never been camping before, you may be wondering what kind of activities you can do with your friends.
Some of the most fun activities you can do while camping with friends include hiking, climbing, and hunting. For a more relaxed experience, you can play board games or cards. Cornhole, ladder golf, and horseshoes are also fun to do but not as physically demanding.
Looking for more ideas?
Here below is a list of fun things you can do while camping.
Cooking
Nothing is more satisfying than unique and delicious meals cooked around the campfire. Not only does the food look and taste incredible, but the process of preparing it is just as enjoyable.
When you think of camp food, your mind may point towards hot dogs, sausages, and tanned marshmallows over the fire. However, with a couple of searches online, you will find some fantastic recipes that campers are using today to keep themselves well-fed when spending time in the great outdoors.
Card and Board Games
After indulging in some top-notch camping food, it’s time to start looking into what activities are available to you. If planting yourself in a chair, relaxing, and looking for a calm vibe, card, and board games may be a great option.
Card Games
For the most part, any card game you enjoy at home can also be done while camping. However, below you will find a good list of card game examples to get you started.
- Poker
- Euchre
- Rummy
- Solitaire
- War
- Go Fish
Basecamp Cards
Basecamp cards are a deck of cards you can buy specifically made for people that love to travel and spend time outdoors. Each card has a fun question to ask one of your fellow campers and is excellent for getting to know each other better.
Board Games
Like card games, home board games can and should transition into a campsite. Make sure to pick some with a lot of interaction and can include multiple people per game. That way, nobody is feeling left out. Some examples of board games that are great for camping include:
- Uno
- Monopoly
- Cards Against Humanity
- Heandbanz
- Risk
- Clue
- Pandemic
- Taboo
- What Do You Meme
- Drawing Without Dignity
Adventurous Activities
Camping has a way of drawing out the adventure inside of us. It only makes sense to take it to the next level with some adventurous activities. Whether you enjoy the outdoors with boots on the ground or floating on the water, the activities below will be an excellent way to get started!
Hiking
Hiking is hands down one of the best activities you can do when you go camping with your friends. This is especially fun when camped out in a unique national park or forest. No matter where you are, chances are a hiking trail is close by. Many folks will carry all their camping gear on their back and just camp out wherever the trail takes them.
Mountain Biking
Like camping, mountain biking is a growing sport that is great for outdoor enthusiasts and fellow campers. There are loads of mountain biking festivals worldwide that offer camping and events to spend time with your fellow riding buddies.
Rock Climbing
If rock climbing is your thing, you probably already know that camping is a big part of the culture. Setting up camp alongside your favorite wall or even mid-climb takes climbing to a whole new level.
Off-Roading
Whether you are taking off in a jeep, dune buggy, quad, or dirtbike, off-roading is a great way to escape into some open country. You can quickly load your camping supplies into an ATV and park it anywhere you want to camp. Even locations have private land dedicated to riding with campgrounds included in your memberships.
Archery
Get yourself into a safe shooting location and let those arrows fly! If you live in an urban area, practicing archery or tuning in your bow can be challenging. Limited yard space, local laws, and neighbors make it difficult to find shooting locations. That is not an issue if you pick the right camping site.
Hunting
Hunting and camping do go hand in hand. Since the beginning of humanity, hunting parties have been setting up camp to get to the prime hunting locations early in the morning. Today, backpack hunting is very popular, where groups will carry everything they need for a multi-day hunt on their back. Including their camping setup!
Throwing Axes
Businesses are popping up all over the world for throwing axes at targets. Camping provides a great opportunity for you and your friends to enjoy it without breaking the bank!
Photography
If you and your friends love photography, camping can provide the inspiration and subjects for incredible shots. Pick a location with an abundance of wildlife and scenery like a national park, and you will not be disappointed.
Watersports
Your camping experience should not be limited to land activities while there are so many fun things to do on the water. If you find yourself camping along a lake, river, creek, or ocean, these activities below will provide some fun times with your friends.
- Fishing
- Kayaking or Canoeing
- Snorkeling
- Diving
- Jet Skis and Boats
- Surfing
- Sailing
- Crabbing
- Cliff Jumping
- Hitting the Beach
- Whitewater Rafting
Outdoor Games
While hiking, biking, and rock climbing provide some great fun when you are out in the wild, sometimes you aren’t looking for physically demanding activities. Maybe you aren’t as adventurous but still love spending time outside.
These activities below will allow you to spend time outdoors at your campsite without the struggle and hardships of some of the abovementioned things. Set your games up, turn on some music, and have an excellent time with your friends with some of these examples below:
- Survival Games
- Birdwatching
- Horseshoes
- Cornhole
- Frisbee or Frisbee Golf
- Ladder Golf
- Bocce Ball
- Golf
- Arts and crafts
- Painting
- Can Jam
- Spike Ball
More Fun Camping Activities
We have covered a pretty extensive list of activities up to this point. If you are still having some trouble deciding what to do, here are a few more ideas that don’t exactly fall into the same categories as the rest.
National Parks
National Parks provide some of the most incredible landscapes, wildlife, and camping opportunities globally. Camping in these locations is usually very cheap or completely free, and you can find one for any time of the year.
Take some of the ideas listed above and take them with you to a national park, as they provide plenty of options for hiking, riding bikes, and many other outdoor adventures. If camping is something you enjoy, these are places you need to go!
Racing
Whether you love Nascar, Indycar, Motocross, or Formula 1, racetracks provide some awesome camping spots right next to the track. Typically, a race weekend will have many events and attractions, with the big race occurring on the final day. This will give you and your friends plenty of things to do at the track before watching these spectacular machines tear these circuits apart.
Concerts and Festivals
With some quick research online, you will be able to find music festivals and shows worldwide that offer great camping sites. Enjoy your favorite bands throughout the day and head back to the campground with your friends for the afterparty!
Drinking Games
If you and everyone else in your party are of legal drinking age, drinking games are an excellent way to spend time with your friends. Just make sure you do it as responsibly as possible and clean up any trash!
Camp Words – Pick a group of words that are associated with camping. Whenever someone says one of these words throughout the night, they have to take a drink.
Kings Cup – Spread a deck of cards in a perfect circle around a cup. Each player picks a card from the ring, with each card being assigned a rule or game. When the first three kings are drawn, the players that picked them must pour some of their drink into the center cup. Whoever draws the fourth king has to drink the cup!
Never Have I Ever – Each player holds 3-5 fingers up in the air. One by one, the players go around describing things that they have never done before. If it is something that you have done, you put one of your fingers down and take a drink. Last person with any fingers in the air wins!
Medusa – Each player stands in a circle with their head down and eyes closed. On the count of three, players lift their heads, open their eyes, and look straight at another player of their choosing. If two players are looking directly at one another, they shout “Medusa.” Whoever says it first wins, and the loser must take a drink.
Dizzy Bat – Empty a can of beer into a cup. Hand the empty can to one of your friends and chug the cup of beer. Once the cup is empty, you have to spin around the bat in a circle for as many seconds as it takes to finish it. After spinning, your friend pitches the empty can, and it’s your job to knock it out of the park!
Frisbeer – Teams of two players line up around 20 to 40 feet apart. Two stakes with glass bottles or solo cups will be sticking out of the ground on each side. Each player must have a drink in their hand while the other is used for throwing and catching. The goal is to throw the frisbee into the stake and knock the cup or glass bottle off. The other team has to try and catch the cup or bottle before it hits the ground. If it does hit the ground, that earns 1 point.
Sleeping under the stars and making memories you will never forget is the most important thing to focus on when preparing for a camping trip! It doesn’t matter what specific activities you do when camping with friends. It’s ultimately about spending time with your friends and family in the great outdoors.
