Beach, lake, mountains or a city: where does your ideal summer week happen?
Road trip job: driver, navigator, DJ or snack manager?
Vacation reading: a thick novel, a thriller or your phone?
What always gets forgotten on a beach day?
What is the first thing you pack for a summer trip?
What is your best tip for sleeping in a tent, or your best reason not to?
What would a perfect summer week at home include?
Where is the best place you have ever gone for a swim?
Which souvenir from a summer trip do you still own?
Which summer trip would you take again exactly as it was?
Heat 10
At what temperature do you stop pretending to enjoy the heat?
Dry heat or humid heat: which can you stand?
Hot night: a fan, air conditioning or every window open?
Pool, lake, ocean or sprinkler: where do you cool off?
Sunscreen: first to put it on or the one who always forgets?
Thunderstorm on a hot night: watch from the porch or stay well inside?
What do you refuse to cook once it gets hot?
What is the fastest way to cool down that really works?
What is your trick for sleeping when the night is too hot?
Where is the hottest place you have ever stood?
Childhood summers 10
Did you ever go to summer camp? What do you remember best?
How did you fill a whole summer day when you were ten?
How did you survive the longest car ride of your childhood summers?
How late were you allowed to stay out on a summer evening?
What did the last day of school feel like when you were a kid?
What did you always order from the ice cream truck?
What did you build, catch or collect during a childhood summer?
What was the best thing to do with a garden hose or a sprinkler as a kid?
Which game did the kids on your street play until it got dark?
Which summer treat from childhood do you still buy?
Cookouts and ice cream 10
Campfire marshmallow: golden brown or on fire?
Corn on the cob: across like a typewriter or around in circles?
Ice cream: cone, cup or straight from the tub?
Watermelon: slices, cubes or not for you?
What goes on the grill first when summer starts?
What is the best side dish at a cookout?
What is your signature dish for a summer potluck in the park?
Which flavor should every ice cream shop be required to carry?
Which ice pop color is the best, and which one is always left in the box?
Which summer fruit do you wait all year for?
Summer at work 9
Do you need a sweater at your desk in July because of the air conditioning?
Does work get quieter in August? What do you do with the calm?
Half the team is away in the same week. What finally gets done?
How many days into a vacation before you stop thinking about work?
Summer lunch break: at your desk, in the shade or in full sun?
What would you do with every Friday afternoon off this summer?
Where is the best place you have ever taken a work call from in summer?
Which desk snack does not survive a summer commute?
Which work task would you happily do outdoors if the wifi reached?
Multiple choice 11
Beach day: in the water, under the umbrella or walking the shoreline?
Camping: a tent, a cabin or a hotel with a view of the woods?
Fireflies at dusk: catch and release, watch from the porch or never seen one?
Fireworks: front row, from a distance or indoors with the dog?Canada Day is July 1, U.S. Independence Day July 4 and Bastille Day July 14.
Mosquitoes: they love you, ignore you or never find you?
On the longest day of the year, would you rather see the sunrise or the sunset?The summer solstice usually falls on June 20 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Summer evening: the porch, a campfire or an air-conditioned sofa?
Summer footwear: flip-flops, sandals, sneakers or barefoot?
Summer night out: an outdoor concert, a county fair or a ball game?
Sunglasses: one good pair or a trail of lost cheap ones?
When summer ends, are you relieved or sorry?
How it works
Summer icebreaker questions are easy to answer because everybody has a summer in them: a trip, a heat wave, a game played in the street until dark. Of these 60 cards, 24 can be settled by a show of hands.
Read the full guide
Pick a topic for the occasion
At a cookout or a reunion, press Childhood summers: "What did you build, catch or collect during a childhood summer?" gets a story from every generation. In a big group, press Multiple choice and let people vote with their feet, one corner per option. On a team call, press Summer at work: nine cards about office air conditioning, quiet Augusts and Friday afternoons.
When summer is
Summer means June to August in the Northern Hemisphere and December to February in the Southern, so a team spread across both can deal this deck twice a year. The longest day usually falls on June 20 or 21 in the north; one card asks whether you would rather see its sunrise or its sunset.
The fireworks vote suits the week of July 1 in Canada, July 4 in the United States and July 14 in France.
Follow a Heat card with "and what happened?" The hottest place anyone has stood comes with a story.
Questions and answers
Are these summer icebreaker questions written for adults or for kids?
For adults and mixed-age gatherings: reunions, cookouts, team calls. Every card is clean, but Childhood summers looks back on being a kid, and Summer at work is for colleagues. For a camp or a class, use the kids deck or the middle school deck.
What if some people are not going anywhere this summer?
The vacation cards ask about any trip ever taken, never about this year's plans or what a trip cost. "Which summer trip would you take again exactly as it was?" can be one day at a lake. Or press Heat: everyone has been too hot.
Why does no childhood card ask where you lived?
A childhood address, or the years, can give away where someone is from or how old they are, and neither belongs in an icebreaker. Those cards ask what you did, ate, built or collected. A few assume a street or an ice cream truck.