The dog days of summer are best spent at the beach with friends and a cooler of some refreshing, iced beverages. Of course, you also need your entertainment besides people watching and commenting on the man’s plumber butt in front of you. And that’s where card games come in. Card games are one of the best things to bring to the beach because their small, portable and easily fit in a beach bag. They’re also a great way to unite a group and make people laugh, squirm, or even reminisce about last night.   

Below are some of our favorite card games to bring to the beach. But be warned, use discretion when choosing which card game to play. Some of these games are better for the “getting to know you” stage while others are best to play with the friends who’ve seen you at your worst and still decided to stick around! 

Have fun playing! 

I AM ON EDGE

I AM ON EDGE is almost too pretty to play. It’s a beautiful deck of cards, and the game was actually designed by experiential creative firm Meet The Edge. With 150 unique prompts AKA “edgy AF questions,” this game is great to play with friends or even break the ice with new friends. It’s a fun, interactive game and the ability to play doesn’t depend on if you’ve known your friends since the pre-historic age or if you met them 5 minutes ago on the beach.

We also asked Meet The Edge founder and creative director Grant Plotkin about I AM ON EDGE and this is what he said, “You know that feeling? That’s the genesis of I AM ON EDGE -- a relatable, visceral, shared human experience that we all encounter in our lives.

At meet the edge cultivating community is at our core. We wanted our debut product to unite the world in such a disconnected time. I AM ON EDGE is our portal towards unlocking incredible, irreverent stories that bring the surprise factor with every prompt!”

Actually Curious

The Curiosity Lab is a ​Black-owned empathy and experience agency that created the card game Actually Curious. This card game is designed to get you past the chit-chat and small talk and get you to the stuff that really matters. The game has four levels of intimacy which players can identify through color. Blue is level one and has questions like “What 3 things are you thankful for?” Pink is level four and includes harder questions that force you to think like “Can violence ever be justified?” Actually Curious is a great game that will provoke interesting conversation while enabling you to learn more about each other’s values. 

Roast Me

If you get easily offended, don’t play Roast Me. It’s a card game that’s perfectly incorrect, and it challenges the idea that we’ve all become a bit “too sensitive” nowadays. If you have a sense of humor, can laugh at yourself, and know the people you’re playing with quite well, then this is definitely the game for you.

When we spoke to the engineers behind Roast Me, Chris Mueller & Ato Eyiah, they said, “We’re all huge fans of standup comedy. The idea of making a card game about roasting people sort of fell into our lap. Roast Me is the party game to roast your friends and roasting each other is something we’ve been doing our entire lives. This game’s been tested in bars, dorm rooms, and living rooms again and again.” If it survived dorm rooms and bars, it can without a doubt survive the beach. 

What Do You Meme​​

This is a classic card game for the meme generation. What Do You Meme has evolved to include a variety of games like For The Girls, career-specific What Do You Meme’s?, and even The Office edition of What Do You Meme? As the name suggests, What Do You Meme is great for people who are addicted to social media and basically majored in meme culture. It’s typically a crowd-pleaser that makes people laugh.  

We’re Not Really Strangers

If you want to play a game to connect with your inner self and get in your feels, We’re Not Really Strangers (WNRS) is the card game for you. WNRS made a name for itself on Instagram for its sultry, deep posts that feel like they’re speaking directly to you.

Koreen, the creators of WNRS, bundled this up and created a card game that people absolutely love. It’s a game of self-discovery and reflection. It doesn’t waste time with shallow-surface questions. It asks the tough questions that require vulnerability and can leave people feeling more bonded than ever. WNRS created several editions of the game including Friendship, Family, and Honest Dating. We recommend selecting the edition according to how well you know your fellow card players. 

P.S. You may cry when you play this game. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.