The Travel Game

I fly to Michigan.  I stay 2 nights.  Then I fly to Texas.  Next I go to Seattle.  Where am I at?  If you said Seattle you are wrong.  I am actually in New York.  That is how the travel game is played.

If you have ever seen the TV shows where a masked magician reveals how magic tricks are done, that is how I feel divulging the secret of this game.  However, it is well worth it if new people learn how to play and can have some fun with their friends.

Here’s how it works:

The locations that are named are not relevant – only the first letter of each location is what you need to remember.  Second, the number of nights can range from 1-5.  The reason is that each number corresponds to the vowels in the alphabet.  1 is A.  2 is E.  3 is I.  4 is O.  5 is U.  Take the letters you have from the locations and the number of nights in order to make a word, or rather a team name.  Where ever that team is located is the final destination and “where you are.”

Let’s go back to the original example.  I fly to Michigan.  The letter needed is “M”.  I stay 2 nights.  The number 2 corresponds to “E”, which is the next letter.  Then I fly to Texas.  The third letter is “T”.  Next I go to Seattle.  Finally, the last letter would be “S”.

When you put the selected letters in order it spells out “METS.”  The Mets play in New York, which is where I am and the answer to the riddle.  That is the travel game.

Because the first letter of a said place is all that is needed, you can use any city, state, or country as long as it begins with the same letter.  The only constant is the number of nights, although you could change the phrase to 2 pit stops, 2 train rides, etc. as long as it is the number 2.

You can assume this is the plane you are taking to all the destinations in the travel game

One tricky part of the travel game is when a team name has vowels that occur back to back.  If you were spelling out “Yankees,” for example, there are 2 E’s.  You would say that you stayed 2 nights then stayed 2 more nights.  This way, you make certain that there are two separate letters.  If you simply add the numbers and say 4 nights, that would make the letter “U” which is not correct.

The travel game can be played with any team and any sport, but is obviously best when using baseball teams.  If you do divulge into other sports, you can trick the people guessing by using generic team names like the Tigers, Bears, and so on.

It can be tricky to catch on to the travel game, and I myself had a hard time figuring out the secret and needed someone to eventually tell me how it was done.  I don’t recommend telling how to guess the final destination, because if everybody knows how it’s played then there is nobody to stump, and it becomes a matter of simply knowing what town a given team plays in.

If you think you have it figured out, try guessing this one…

I start in Syracuse.  I stay 2 nights.  Then I fly to New Mexico.  I stay 1 night and go to Toronto.  After 4 nights I head to Rochester.  My last stop is in Singapore.  Where am I?  The answer is a throwback travel game answer: Washington D.C.