Looking for ways to make family game night more exciting? Bring it out to the hot tub with these fun, family (and water) friendly games!
Ducky Dodge
What you need: 5 rubber duckies (or floating toys or ping pong balls)
The goal of the Game: Don’t let the toys touch any part of your body
How to Play:
This game is more fun with the jets turned on, since their movement will guide the duckies around the spa. Drop the 5 rubber duckies into the center of the spa. If a duckie touches you, you’re out! Feet must stay inside the water at all times, but shift your body and arms to stay out of the path of the duckies. If a ducky touches you and you’re out, step outside of the tub, and the real fun begins!
Players that are out can begin adding more toys to the spa to try and get other players out. When you’re out of the spa, you can only add new toys by placing them in front of the hot tub’s waterfall. The waterfall will push the duckies out towards the rest of the spa — and towards the players! The players left in the hot tub must avoid all these new duckies until they are all eliminated. Last player in the spa is the winner!
Submarine
What you need: 2 cups
The goal of the Game: Pour water into the floating cup without it sinking to the bottom of the spa.
How to Play:
This game works best if your spa’s jets are turned off. Place a plastic cup in the middle of the spa so that it bobs around. Fill your second cup with water. Each player will take turns pouring water into the floating cup for two seconds. Start pouring, count… one… two… and stop. Then it’s the next person’s turn to pour. Keep going around the hot tub giving each person a chance to pour. If your pour is the one that sinks the cup, you lose the game!
Waterproof cards
What you need: A set of waterproof playing cards; a Frisbee (optional)
Bring any card game your family enjoys to the hot tub with some waterproof playing cards. You can use a Frisbee turned upside down in the water as a floating makeshift table. Plenty of games work in the water, but here’s a fun one for a group: IDoubtIt
How to Play:
Deal all cards, one at a time, to each player. Some players will have more cards than others, which is okay. The first player begins the game starting with aces. He places the card(s) face down in the center of the table saying “two aces” or whatever the desired number of cards are. The game continues clockwise to the next player, who will discard twos. The following player discards threes, and so on. Players announce their cards as they lay them, and they can place up to four cards of the card they are required to discard. Keep in mind that players don’t have to play the cards they announce. They can be lying.
Start again with aces after kings have been played. Even if you do not have the required card to discard, you must put down at least one card and say what the card is (or is supposed to be).
If someone believes a player lied about the cards they put down, they can challenge the player by saying “I doubt it.” Remember to challenge a player only if you think he might not be discarding the cards he says he is. When a challenge is voiced, the challenger can look at the discarded cards. If they match what the person who played them said, the challenger picks up all cards in the discard pile and adds them to his personal pile. If the cards are not what the person said they were, the player who discarded them must pick up the entire discard pile. The player run out of cards first will win the game.
Find more fun card games for families in this About Home article.
No toys? Try a word game!
Goofy Gab
How to play:
During this game you can only say three words: Hee, Hah, and Hoh. Go around in a circle, taking turns saying your choice of the words in a funny voice to try and make the others laugh. You can sing, grunt, or whisper the words while making funny faces. Get creative! Anyone who laughs is out, and anyone who says anything besides “Hee,” “Hah,” or “Ho” is out too. The last person gabbing is the winner!
Your kids already love playing in the hot tub, and these games bring even more fun to the water. Does your family have a hot tub game they especially love? Share it with us on our Facebook page!