Discover Online Game Worlds Built for a Weekend Escape

Some weekends we cannot afford to go anywhere. The trip fund is empty, the weather is grey, and the train fares to the coast have doubled because of a bank holiday. On those weekends we travel anyway, inside online game worlds built for wandering. It is not the same as a real trip, and I would never pretend otherwise. But a good open world can scratch the itch surprisingly well, and some of them have shaped where we actually travel next.

I plan our real weekend trips, so I approach these games a bit like a travel planner. Here is which worlds feel most like a getaway, what makes them work, and how we turn a gaming weekend into something that feels like time away.

What makes a game world feel like a trip

Lots of games have big maps. Very few feel like going somewhere. The ones that do share a handful of qualities, and they are the same qualities that make a real weekend away feel restful.

• A sense of place. Distinct local food, architecture, weather and sounds, rather than generic fields.
• Freedom to wander without a goal. A real holiday is partly about not having a to-do list.
• Small discoveries. A viewpoint, a hidden café, a conversation with a stranger. Trips are remembered for small things.
• A slower pace. Worlds that constantly push you towards combat feel like work trips, not holidays.

Worlds we visit when we cannot travel

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Hyrule is the closest thing to a walking holiday in a game. You can see a mountain, decide to climb it, and actually climb it. We spent one rainy weekend doing nothing but following rivers to the sea, with no quests at all. The map is roughly 72 square kilometres, and much of it rewards simply looking around.

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is set in a compressed version of Mexico, and it works as a road trip. We take turns driving while the other picks the route and the radio station. Jungle roads, volcano slopes, beach towns. It is the game that made us want to see the real Guanajuato, which is now on our long list.

Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is an online pirate game, but the best evenings we have had in it involved no fighting at all. We sailed, fished, watched storms roll in and listened to the shanties. The water is beautiful enough that sailing between islands at sunset feels like a holiday on its own.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey in discovery mode

The Discovery Tour mode removes combat and turns ancient Greece into a guided museum walk. It is educational in a gentle way, and it covers places like Athens and Delphi with short narrated tours. We used it before a real trip to Athens and recognised street layouts and landmarks when we got there.

How we turn a gaming weekend into a getaway

Playing for six hours on the sofa does not feel like a trip. We had to add some structure to make it feel different from a normal weekend at home. This is the routine we settled on.

1. Pick one world for the whole weekend. Switching games breaks the feeling of being somewhere.
2. Cook food from that place. Tacos and mole for Forza Horizon 5, grilled fish and a Greek salad for Odyssey. Odalys takes this very seriously.
3. Change the room a little. We move the sofa to face the window, open it if it is warm, and keep the main lights off.
4. Take photos. Most of these games have a photo mode. We keep a small album of in-game postcards, and looking back at it later feels a lot like holiday photos.
5. Go for a real walk. At least one hour outside each day. Without it, the weekend feels stale by Sunday afternoon.

Why a virtual trip is not a replacement

I want to push back on the idea, popular in some gaming circles, that open worlds can replace travel. They cannot, and pretending they can sells both short. A real trip involves physical tiredness, strange food, getting lost on actual streets, overhearing a language you do not speak. Those things are often uncomfortable, and the discomfort is part of why trips stay in memory. A game smooths all of that out.

What a game can do is give you the mood of a trip on a weekend when you need a break and cannot go. It can also be good research. Several of our real destinations started as places we saw in a game first.

From game world to real trip

A virtual weekend in a game set in a real place often makes the real trip better. Before our trip to Athens, the Discovery Tour gave us a rough mental map of the ancient city. Before a long weekend in the Scottish Highlands, we played a few hours of a hiking game set in similar country, mostly to remind ourselves how quickly weather changes on hills. It did change how we packed.

When we are ready to book the real thing, the money comes from a named savings pot, and the planning follows a simple routine described in our guide to planning a weekend trip on a fixed budget. More of our real trips are collected under Weekend Trips, and other games we play together are in the Games section.

A short list for your first stay-at-home trip

If you want to try this, pick a world that matches the kind of trip you miss. For a walking holiday, Breath of the Wild. For a road trip, Forza Horizon 5. For the sea, Sea of Thieves with combat avoided as much as possible. For a city break with history, any Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour. Cook something from that place, take photos, go outside once a day, and see whether Monday morning feels a little more like you have been away.