Offline puzzle games for flights and waiting rooms

The best offline puzzle games for a flight are the ones you've already tried in airplane mode at home. Lots of games lean on the internet for adverts, daily puzzles, sign-ins or saving your progress, and you only find out when the spinner never stops.

That bites hardest in the places a quiet puzzle is most welcome: planes, trains through tunnels, hospital waiting rooms, the back seat on a long country road. So the test comes first, then the games, grouped by the kind of puzzle.

Fair warning: we make one of the games below, so weigh that part as you see fit. Prices, free levels and offline features change, so check each game's own store page before you count on it.

The airplane mode test: will it work with no signal?

It takes two minutes, and it's the most useful tip on this page. Do it at home the day before you travel.

1. Install and open each game while you're connected. Some download extra levels or ask you to sign in the first time. Get that out of the way now.
2. Install updates the night before. An update that lands at the gate can leave a game half ready.
3. Turn on airplane mode and turn off Wi-Fi.
4. Close the game completely, then reopen it. A game that's already running may carry on happily until it restarts.
5. Play a full round. If anything asks for a connection, you've found out at home rather than at 35,000 feet.

While you're at it, charge your phone and a power bank. Pack headphones too, or plan to play with the sound off.

Logic puzzles for a long flight

Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

This free, open source collection holds about forty small logic puzzles. Among them are sudoku (called Solo), nonograms (called Pattern), Bridges and a loop puzzle called Loopy. Every game makes fresh random boards, so you'll never run out.

You can play in a web browser or install it on a Windows or Linux computer. The browser version loads from the website, so install a copy if you want it on a laptop with no signal. Other people have made phone versions over the years, so check who made the one you install. It's a great pick if you want lots of variety for no money.

A good sudoku app

There are countless sudoku apps, and many play offline once they're installed. Look for pencil marks, an undo button and a choice of difficulty. No adverts between puzzles is a bonus. This one's for people who want one familiar puzzle they can pick up and put down.

Nonogram apps

You might know these as picture cross or griddlers. You shade squares using the number clues, and a little picture appears. Many apps come with big puzzle libraries, and one large nonogram can happily fill an hour of a long flight.

Enjoy that kind of slow, quiet deduction? Our list of calm logic puzzles for adults has more to try.

Line and path puzzles

Flow Free

Big Duck Games has made this one since 2012. You connect matching coloured dots with pipes, pair every colour and cover the whole board, and the pipes can't cross. The store listings promise more than 2,500 free levels plus new daily puzzles.

At the time of writing it's free to download, with adverts and optional purchases, including one that removes the adverts. Its store pages don't say whether it plays offline, so give it the airplane mode test before you go. It's good for quick, bright rounds.

Number line puzzles

These are close cousins of the dot joining games, with one extra rule: every line has to be an exact length. Linelet is ours. You join each pair of matching ends with a line that covers exactly the number of squares shown, and every square gets filled.

You don't need a connection to play. The boards and both daily puzzles live on your phone, and there are no adverts. The only thing that needs signal is buying or restoring the optional unlock.

It suits people who like spatial puzzles and a quiet screen. You can try today's free Linelet puzzle in your browser first, and our guide on how to solve number line puzzles covers the tricks that help.

Puzzle adventures

Rather explore than fill in grids? Paid puzzle adventures are popular travel picks. On the App Store, Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 from ustwo games are paid apps at the time of writing, and so are The Room Two, The Room Three and The Room: Old Sins from Fireproof Games.

Neither maker says plainly whether its games play offline, and newer games in a series can work differently from older ones. Run the airplane mode test anyway. Check how much storage each one needs too, before you're stuck downloading it on hotel Wi-Fi.

Paper still wins on battery

A puzzle book and a pencil never need charging or updating. They're also welcome during take-off and landing, when you may be asked to put devices away. Crosswords, sudoku, word searches and logic grids all come in pocket-sized books.

Newspaper puzzle apps often fetch each day's puzzle fresh, which is another reason to pack a book. For the daily games you'll pick back up once you land, see our roundup of daily puzzle games like Wordle.

What makes a good offline puzzle game?

Beyond working with no signal, a few things make a game much nicer to play in a cramped seat.

• You can pause at any moment. You will get interrupted, so turn-based puzzles with no timer are ideal.
• It saves your place. You should be able to close it mid-puzzle and come back to exactly where you were.
• No surprise adverts. They can act oddly without a connection, and they break the calm even with one.
• It plays well with the sound off. Your neighbours will thank you.
• The text is easy to read. Cabin lighting is dim, so check the game respects your phone's text size and has good contrast.

Waiting rooms are different

A flight gives you hours. A waiting room gives you an unknown number of minutes, and your name could be called at any moment.

So choose short rounds you can drop mid-move without losing anything. Watch your battery, too, if you'll need your phone for a check-in code or a call.

And if you're waiting somewhere stressful, there's no need to solve anything at all. A gentle puzzle can simply be something kind to look at while you wait. Back home, a calm daily puzzle routine works the same way.

Questions people ask

Do puzzle games work in airplane mode?

Many do, but not all. Adverts, daily puzzles, sign-ins and cloud saves can all need a connection. The only way to be sure is to turn on airplane mode at home, close the game completely, reopen it and play a round.

Why does a game say it needs the internet when it worked yesterday?

Some games check a purchase, sync your progress or fetch new content when they start. Opening each game once while you're still connected, and installing updates the night before, avoids most of these surprises.

Can I play games on my phone during a flight?

Most airlines allow phones in airplane mode once the crew say so, but the rules differ between airlines and between parts of the flight. Always follow the crew's instructions.

What's a good mix of games for a long-haul flight?

Take one game you can sink into for an hour, one with quick rounds for the gaps between meals and naps, and a paper puzzle book in case your battery runs low.

This roundup was written in September 2026. Game names belong to their owners. We're not affiliated with any game here other than our own, and nobody paid to be included.