One cold Ballarat night, about five years ago now, my partner came up to my desk and asked what I was working on. I remember feeling a bit embarrassed as I answered.
“Well,” I said. “I’m writing down all the travel games I can remember. I know quite a lot of them, and I don’t think anyone’s released a book of just travel games before. So maybe that could be something?”
As an author, it’s always hard to know if you’ve got something. Certainly, there have been quite a few times now where I really think I do have something, only to have my publishers gently disagree. (If anyone is looking to publish some incredibly quirky and ambitious picture books in 2026, get in my DMs — I’ve got a drawer full of them!) But more than any other project, the travel games really did feel like I was going out on a limb.
Well, anyway: Family Road Trip Games came out in August 2023, and it is already the best-selling book that I have ever written. In Australia I’ve seen it sold in bookshops, and gift shops, and camping shops, and co-editions have been released in Spain and Portugal and Denmark and the Czech Republic. It’s not “bestselling” in the way that Harry Potter is bestselling, but in its space I think I could tentatively call it a minor hit.
So, if people are enjoying learning road trip games so much — maybe they’d like to learn some great camping games too!
The two big rules of Family Road Trip Games were that all the games could be played with no special materials, and that all the games could be played inside a car. Family Camping Games throws out that second rule, embracing the great outdoors with a veritable carnival of chasing and throwing and hiding and spotting and exploring. The book contains games for playgrounds, and camp sites, and hiking trails; huge games to burn energy in the afternoon, and quiet games to pass the time around a campfire. Crucially, they are games to keep players off their phones and other screens, engaging their bodies and brains with something a bit more wholesome instead.
Excitingly — and because I’m posting about this new book a little bit late — I’ve also already had the chance to test some of these games on a family audience! I was a guest at the Clunes Booktown Festival in March, where I ran two sessions promoting the Travel Games series. And they were delightful! I’d never actually seen Hunt the Thimble in action, and so watching a gang of children search a tent for a tiny thimble I’d sticky-taped to the canvas was a real treat. Session two ended with us playing Substitute (from the classic Australian quiz show Spicks and Specks) and I’m relieved the kids correctly identified Huntrix’s “Golden” before I had to hit any of the high notes. You can see me on slide 8 of the carousel below.
So with all that said, I really hope Family Camping Games finds its way into as many rucksacks and glove boxes as its predecessor did. If you buy both books, you’ve now got access to more than 140 games that require no special materials at all, which is kind of mind-boggling!
And finally, in a very cool sign off line: Happy Camping!
JACK HENSELEIT 