Icebreakers to Make Your Long bus Trip Feel Shorter
Posted on: 12 May 2015
As you climb onto a charter bus for a long trip, it can become painfully obviously how little small talk you can make with people you don't know at all. If you need to pass a long bus trip with workmates, schoolmates or other groups here are some icebreakers that can hopefully avoid awkward silence.
Bus bingo
Set up bingo cards where everyone has a different set of criteria. Include items such as "The name of someone on this bus born in Adelaide" and "The name of someone on this bus born in August" to get the bus talking to each other and swapping details of their lives.
Bus scavenger hunt
Similar to bus bingo, have an MC at the front of the bus that calls out items from a list such as "sunglasses" or "pink post-it note". Get each side of the bus to compete in passing the item to the front of the bus, with the winning side being the side that pass it down the quickest. Start with some obvious items, and gradually move to more complex items as the game progresses.
Blood sugar busters
The winners to each game should get a special prize of a candy bar or coffee voucher, but it's also a good idea to keep an esky full of snacks such as fruit, small bags of chips or biscuits, fun-sized candy bars and bottled water at the front of the bus so that all of the passengers can keep hydrated and recharged throughout the trip. Build the cost of stocking this supply into any budgets for the trip. Long bus trips combined with low blood sugar can easily lead to cranky passengers picking fights over minor issues.
The quiet corner
If some of your party are a little introverted, they may find non-stop icebreakers tiring. Have a section of the bus allocated as the 'quiet' corner (often the back few rows) where people can head for a snooze, to listen to some music with their headphones in or just to read a book. This can let people keep enjoying the interactions and keep the entertainment fun and not forced.
These tips are just a starting point to keep your charter bus trip lots of fun. With some planning you can all arrive in a great mood and knowing a little more about each other. For more tips, consult resources like Vics Maxi Transport.
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