Puzzles on the Move

By admin · Monday, December 15th, 2008

Travelling can be boring especially if you are on a long flight or a trip where you really can’t just get off and walk around. You can’t sleep for the whole trip and it is a safe bet that your return flight will involve a screening of the same movies you had on the way over. How do you fill in your time?

Puzzles are a wonderful way to keep yourself occupied while travelling. Number puzzles, crosswords and other word puzzles can help you fill in those long, empty hours.

There are a great many advantages to doing puzzles while you are on the move.

1. We know that puzzles help keep your brain healthy and even reduce the risk of Alzheimers and dementia. If you have time to fill in then use it to maintain your mental health.

2. Doing puzzles will ease your boredom. We all know what boredom leads to – short tempers and impulsive actions. Hmm, could be trouble. Help keep your serenity by completing a sudoku puzzle.

3. Depending on your form of travel, doing puzzles can help ease the effects of travel sickness. Don’t do puzzles requiring close focus if you get car sick. Instead look for puzzles that are larger. A magnetic jigsaw is better than nothing. Why not look out for the magnetic crossword sets which have large letters? By thinking about something involving like a word or number puzzle you can ignore or overcome some of the travel sickness symptoms that make you feel so bad.

4. Travelling with kids can be a nightmare. Puzzles can be a great way to help them fill in their time and keep arguments to a minimum. You can sneak a little education in with some word finds or build vocabulary with a crossword. You can also buy travel games and puzzles to suit all ages. There is something great about doing puzzles as a family. It can bring you closer together as a family unit.

5. Take the opportunity to learn something. Why not try a crossword in a new language? Try one in French if you are heading to France. Start with childrens’ crosswords and you will find that you start to learn the language.

6. Jetlag is something we all battle after long haul flights. Seasoned travellers and travel writers recommend completing word and number puzzles to help keep your mind sharp. This is especially useful if you are travelling for business purposes and you need to walk straight into meetings.

Modern puzzles come in so many versions from ebook, phone applications and electronic versions to magazines and books. They are all easily portable and will fit in a handbag or briefcase.

If you have a long trip to go on then grab some puzzles and you will travel much faster.