Are you looking for fun road trip games for your next big trip? We love a good game called ‘This or That Travel Edition’, so here are a few fun questions that we’ve collected, along with our answers.
Why not play along? They perfect road trip entertainment to help you pass the time!
Beach camping or mountain camping?
It’s no secret that here at Officer Travels we love the mountains.
Whether we’re parking up with views of them, or hiking in them, the mountains are definitely our happy place.
Fun fact: We had our human design explained to us, and turns out both of us have mountains deeply ingrained within who we are. This was no surprise to us, considering where we’ve always chosen to live!
Lilly loves the beach, but I think as long as there are some good sniffs and an opportunity to dig, she’s happy wherever she is!
Would you rather travel to a new destination every day or stay in one beautiful location for a month?
I think our answer to this changes, depending where we are!
In Australia, we were so aware of just how much there was to see that we felt pushed to visit somewhere new almost every day. Whereas in New Zealand, everything felt much closer so we had more of a base for longer with a focus on day trips instead.
A month in one place is ideal for really exploring or experiencing a place, and we’re fortunate enough to be able to do that.
Would you rather have unlimited gas money for a year-long road trip or free food at all your stops?
Unlimited gas money!
Fuel is expensive but you can always find cheap eats if you look local. That’s part of the joys of travelling around Europe though I guess.
Van life in the city or van life in nature?
Ooh, so for those who don’t know, our first experience of van life was stealth camping in Melbourne while we converted our tiny van into a ‘campervan’.
After travelling Australia for almost two years, we then stealth camped in Sydney for a few months until we found a flat.
So the answer to this ‘this or that travel edition’ question, I can hands down say that we prefer nature to urban camping.
City van life can be fun, but it’s a last resort for us now. We much prefer to commute into a city when we want to explore.
Sunrise or sunset views?
Both?
Ok, to stay in the spirit of our ‘This or That travel edition’ game, I (Leah) prefer sunsets but I’m sure Dec prefers sunrises. They’re usually quieter so it’s easier to get people-free photos of the really scenic or popular spots.
Would you rather have a small, cosy van with just enough space for essentials or a larger, more luxurious van that’s harder to manoeuvre?
We have had a small cosy van, and are now converting our larger ‘more luxurious van’ (it’ll have a toilet… that’s luxury!) but we have lived in a converted bus, and travelled in a big motorhome before so we have experience with quite a few different options.
The bigger vans are way more comfortable and yes, they might occasionally restrict where you can park (we slept in an underground IKEA car park in our tiny van once… there’s no way we’d manage that in our Crafter!)… but, you can’t put a price on a comfortable night’s sleep or being able to stand up and stretch.
Bigger van for the win, no hesitation here!
Cooking in your van or eating out at local restaurants?
Again, both?
If we had to pick one for the rest of our life… probably local restaurants/cafes. I imagine you’d end up looking for some really quirky or unusual places to break it up a bit.
If we factor in cost, the sensible option is cooking in the van which we do really enjoy doing but for local experiences, restaurants win.
Would you rather have an unexpected adventure or have a perfectly planned trip with no surprises?
I think when you live on the road, every trip is sort of an adventure.
It’s really hard to have everything perfectly planned with no surprises when road trips are a long term way of life (I mean, our van got egged once, which is a surprise that you can’t plan for 🤣)
For this ‘This or That travel edition’ question, we’re going to say surprises!
Short weekend trips or extended month-long journeys?
Given van life is our chosen way of living – or at least, that’s our goal – extended trips is the only answer that makes sense to us!
Don’t get me wrong, while we’re ‘house living’ we take full advantage of shorter trips. Mostly to get Lilly used to being in new places, travelling in the van etc. but they don’t replace the feeling of being on longer trips.
Would you rather spend the night under the stars with no roof or in a noisy parking lot with full amenities?
Easy. Under the stars with no roof. Even if it’s raining.
We lived and worked on campsites in New Zealand and let me tell you, they can get louuuddd. A quiet night under the stars sounds perfect and rain won’t melt you 😉
Would you rather have a week of perfect weather or a month of unpredictable but mostly pleasant weather?
Weather plays a huge part of your plan when you live on the road. It’s why many full time van lifers in Europe ‘chase the sun’, spending their time South in the Winter, and North in the Summer.
Unpredictable weather is part of life, and if you know where to go – the weather can still be quite easy to guess. So I’m happy to stick with that rather than have just a week of perfect weather.
Campsites or wild camping?
Over the years, we’ve heavily favoured wild camping (or freedom camping) and other than our time living/working on paid sites, our experience is pretty limited with them.
I see the value in paid sites, and we do utilise them when we need to or if we want somewhere secure to park the van while we explore but for the most part, we’re wild campers!
Summer road trip or winter road trip?
This ones hard and boils down to where we would be for these seasons.
Summer in central Spain? Hmmm, too hot. Winter in Switzerland? Too much snow!
Ultimately we prefer Spring but for the sake of the road trip game… Summer!
Would you rather always have great weather but with crowded campsites or have solitude but with unpredictable weather?
Another weather question – maybe I should have shuffled these haha.
Unpredictable weather but quieter/empty sites please!
Motorway driving, or country roads?
Country roads can be stressful. Especially in a big van when they suddenly turn into single lanes.
Motorways are undeniably boring but get you from A to B fast.
For this ‘This or That travel edition’ question I’m going to saayyyy…. Country Roads.
There are road trip apps and SatNav devices you can buy that allow you to put your vehicle dimensions in. This is really handy for making the most of country lanes without the risk of getting to a village that you’re too big for!
Would you rather have a van with a luxurious bed but no kitchen or a full kitchen but only a sleeping bag?
We essentially did this in Mo (don’t know who this is? Read our very old post about it here!)
We had a pullout bed that we had to set up every night (not luxurious, I know) and no ‘proper’ kitchen, just a single burn gas stove. We managed like this for 2 years!
So I would say bed, no kitchen. We value our sleep too much!
Would you rather face a flat tire in the middle of nowhere or run out of gas in a busy city?
I asked Dec this one, since he’s the driver 😄
He said gas in a busy city, unless you had a spare tire or decent recovery insurance. As always, so practical.
I guess if you run out of gas in the city, chances are you’re not too far from a fuel station anyway. Yea you’ll probably cause a bit of a traffic jam but it’s better than sitting like a lemon in the middle of nowhere waiting to be towed.
Campsites with other travellers or secluded spots alone?
This might come as a surprise to you (or not, if you’ve read any of the previous ‘This or That travel edition’ answers) but secluded spots!
I think this comes from the fact we’re travelling as a couple, and with Lilly. It’s easier to put her on a long lead and let her explore a bit around the van when there’s nobody else around.
That’s not to say we’d avoid a place if there were others there, but it would give us a pause before we parked up.
Would you rather travel with limited access to WIFI or limited access to electricity?
This is a hard one!
Since we work online, electricity and WIFI are quite important to us.
I’ll say I’d rather have limited WIFI, because then at least I can do some stuff offline and upload it when I can 🤣
Ironically, my home WIFI cut off for 30 minutes while writing this.
Podcasts or Music?
Unless I’m out walking, I will always have something playing.
I prefer podcasts & audiobooks at the moment, but when I really need to concentrate I’ll stick some music on as background noise.
Supermarkets or local markets?
This is a tricky one! I really enjoy visiting supermarkets in different countries to see what sort of things they stock, the brands etc. but local markets have a whole different atmosphere.
I’d say local markets for this one! You can usually get much more for your money and even sample some local-homemade products.
Would you rather have a van with lots of storage but limited living space or a spacious living area with minimal storage?
Lots of living space but minimal storage.
A lot of people think living in a van means you have to live really minimally with 0 belongings.
Truth is, you can have as much or as little ‘stuff’ as you want. We chose to scale right back but we know plenty of people that carry their whole world with them.
We hope you enjoyed this road trip game of This or That travel edition! If you have any more creative questions that you would add to this list, let us know!
