Jet Lag hide and seek: how the game works and how to play it with your friends
Jet Lag hide and seek is the format from Jet Lag: The Game, a travel competition show by Wendover Productions. One player hides somewhere near a train or transit station, and the others chase them across a city or a whole country using only public transit and a set of map questions ("Are you within 1 mile of me?"). Every answer narrows the map, and the hider earns cards that buy extra time or slow the seekers down. Whoever stays hidden longest wins. You can buy the official home game, or run a simpler version with friends and a transit map.
Below: what the show is, how a round works, and how to play your own version this weekend.
What is Jet Lag: The Game?
Jet Lag: The Game is made by Wendover Productions. Sam Denby created it with Adam Chase and Ben Doyle, and the three of them compete in every season. Episodes premiere on Nebula and reach YouTube about a week later (Wikipedia).
Hide and seek has become one of its best-loved formats. According to Wikipedia, the seasons so far are:
| Season | Where | Aired |
|---|---|---|
| Hide + Seek | Switzerland | Feb–Mar 2024 |
| Hide + Seek Japan | Japan | Dec 2024–Jan 2025 |
| Hide + Seek NYC (two-episode special) | New York City | Apr 2025 |
| Hide + Seek UK | United Kingdom | Dec 2025–Jan 2026 |
A season in Italy has been announced but had no dates when we checked.
The official home game
In November 2024 the team released a boxed version so viewers could play it themselves. The official store page lists:
- a deck of 125 water-resistant game cards
- an Investigation Book
- two rulebooks and six dice
- 2 to 4 players
The store promises "80 questions to ask and over 100 cards to play", and says game modes scale from small towns to large countries. Wikipedia adds that a metric version came out in April 2025 and an expansion pack in November 2025, and that the home game rules are largely the ones used in the Japan and UK seasons.
How a round of Jet Lag hide and seek works
Here's the shape of a round, based on the show and the home game rules. The box has the full details.
1. The hider gets a head start
The hider rides transit to a spot of their choice while the seekers wait. In the home game, the length of this hiding period depends on the size of the game: players who tried the small version had half an hour. In the Switzerland season it was 2.5 hours. When it ends, the seekers can move.
2. The hiding zone
The hider's hiding zone is a circle around a transit station. In the show it's half a mile (about 0.8 km) around a train station. The hider can keep moving inside it until the seekers get close.
3. Seekers ask questions
Seekers ride transit and ask questions from a fixed menu, and the hider has to answer truthfully. The official rules group them into six categories. Roughly, they work like this:
| Category | What the seekers ask | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| Matching | Is your nearest ___ the same as mine? | yes / no |
| Measuring | Are you closer to or further from ___ than me? | closer / further |
| Radar | Are you within ___ of me? | yes / no |
| Thermometer | I just traveled ___. Am I hotter or colder? | hotter / colder |
| Photo | Send me a photo of ___. | a photo |
| Tentacles | Which of the ___ near me are you nearest to? | a place |
Each answer rules out part of the map. The art of seeking is picking the question that cuts the map roughly in half.
4. The hider draws cards
Questions feed the hider. In the Switzerland season, each question earned the hider coins to spend on curses. From the Japan season on, the hider has a deck of cards instead, and the home game follows those rules. There are three kinds:
- Time bonuses: extra time added to the hider's score, counted at the end of their round.
- Powerups: one-time tricks, like vetoing a question.
- Curses: challenges that slow the seekers down.
That's the cheeky part of the game: every question the seekers ask hands the hider ammunition.
5. The endgame
Once the seekers reach the hider's area, the hider has to settle in one spot and stay put. The round ends when the seekers find the hider (or time runs out), the clock stops, and someone new hides.
6. Winning
Everyone hides in turn. In the show, the longest hiding time wins.
How to play Jet Lag hide and seek with your friends
You don't need a country or a camera crew. A city with a few train, subway or tram lines works well. Here's a light version you can run in an afternoon.
What you need
- 3 or 4 players, or teams of 2
- A transit map of your city and a day pass each
- Phones with a map app, plus location sharing between the seekers if you want the hider to see them coming
- A charged battery pack
- A list of questions (copy the table above) and a timer
Simple house rules
- Pick a play area that everyone can reach in 30 to 40 minutes by transit, and agree on which lines count.
- Hiding period: 30 minutes. The hider can't take a car or bike, only transit and their feet.
- Hiding zone: within a quarter mile of a station. The hider tells nobody which one.
- Questions: one every five minutes, never two from the same category in a row, and each question only once per round.
- Skip the deck at first. Instead, give the hider 5 bonus minutes for every question they answer. It keeps the "every question costs you" tension without printing cards.
- Endgame: once the seekers say they're in the zone, the hider freezes in one public spot they can be seen from a path.
- Found = spotted within a few steps. Stop the clock and swap.
- Set a hard stop, like a café at 6 pm, whoever is hiding or not.
One group who played the small version in San Francisco wrote up their day: two players, about six hours in all. Their tips: have a rough idea of where the lines go, take more breaks (or spread the game over several days), and with only half an hour to hide, catch an early train rather than wait for a connection. They also wanted at least three players next time.
Keep it safe
- Hide only in public places that are open to everyone: squares, parks, station concourses, museums during opening hours.
- Never near anyone's home, and never on private property, building sites, roads, rail tracks or near water.
- Don't block platforms or stairs, and follow transit staff.
- Kids play with an adult on their team.
- Share a "safety check-in" time with the whole group, even the hider.
Playing when you're not in the same place
The real thing needs everyone in one city on one afternoon. If your friends are spread across towns or time zones, a map version scratches the same itch.
That's what Planque does: the hider drops a secret pin on a real map, anywhere from one street to a whole city, and seekers spend a few questions (radar, hot or cold, same district, nearest metro) before tapping where they think the pin is. It's turn by turn, so friends play whenever they have a minute, and questions they don't use become points. It's a lighter game, not a version of the show, and Planque isn't affiliated with Jet Lag: The Game or Wendover Productions.
It's also a good way to practice the seeker's mindset: which question cuts the map in half?
FAQ
Is there an official Jet Lag hide and seek game?
Yes. Jet Lag: The Game Hide and Seek is sold on the Nebula store. It came out in November 2024.
How many people can play?
The store page says 2 to 4. Bigger groups can split into teams.
How long does a game take?
It depends on the size you pick. Even a small city game can take most of a day once everyone has hidden.
Do you need public transit?
The official game is built around it. In a small town, agree that everyone walks and shrink the play area.
