Most Fun Games to Play on a Road Trip
Have some of these road trip games ready to play in the car to make any drive more fun. We do a lot of driving and I’ve found the best way to keep everyone happy is to have a few conversation games and other good road trip games to play at the ready. If bickering begins, I can start one of our favorite games bring back peace to the car ride.
Not only do road trip games keep kids happy, when we play these games we make memories and build connection – one thing I love about traveling. I have nothing against watching a movie or playing a video game sometimes on a long trip, but I value the fun we’ve had as a family with these more interactive games for the car.
Our Favorite Games to Play on a Road Trip
Some links are Amazon affiliate links, should you purchase through them you support the work of Bounceback Parenting at no extra cost to yourself – thanks!
Conversation Prompts (asking irresistible questions) – Whether you print a list or just read through a few ideas and remember a handful of them, having some conversation starters at the ready makes for a quick way to end squabbles in the back seat. It’s a lot more fun to answer interesting questions than to annoy your siblings.
Battleships on Paper – Bringing games to play in the car that have lots of little pieces makes for a mess, but you can find printable paper Battleship games (or draw your own on graph paper) and enjoy this game that teaches both graphing skills and strategy.
Coloring – So long as you don’t leave out crayons to melt (we favor colored pencils while on the road) coloring is a fun activity while driving. You can download some fun coloring pages and a maze in my printable activities pack here.
Mad Libs – This word game leads to lots of laughs and humorously teaches a little grammar along the way.
Take Photos (scavenger hunt) – If your kids have a tablet (my boys each saved up and purchased a Kindle Fire, which we’ve been happy with), or if you have a kids’ camera, it can be fun to ask them to document their journey. You get a unique look into their world when you see what they enjoy photographing. You can turn it into a game by making it a road trip scavenger hunt and giving a list of items to photograph.
Mental Math – Occasionally the kids enjoy answering math challenges such as practicing multiplication facts, calculating gas mileage, or figuring out how long it will take to get to our destination. Take a look at the mental math games here for ideas.
Be the Navigator – There are all sorts of ways to play this. For the younger kids I’ll draw a path with squares for each 25 miles we drive – they get to put a sticker on the map for each of those way points. This gives a nice visual of our progress. We got a pack of car stickers for each kid to make the miles pass more quickly on a 600 mile journey we took one summer.
For older kids you can print a Google map of your route, follow the route in an Atlas, or have them find directions on your phone. On short trips around town I’ll play the game “How do we get home from here?” and let one of my kids direct our drive as best they can.
I Spy – This is the classic car game. I find the trick when playing with younger kids is to not make it complicated – simply state what you’re seeing (shape, colors) let them guess, and take turns. You can also vary it by looking for a specific color. Eboo make Travel Bingo Cards that work well for playing I Spy while you drive.
Alphabet Game – This can be another look-out-the window game if you’re trying to spot something starting with each letter of the alphabet, or play it by coming up with a category and then coming up with a word in that category for each letter. We also play a version that let’s us talk about our day with our ABC About Your Day game.
New Lyrics – Sometimes we make up silly new lyrics to well known nursery rhymes or songs. I like Mary Had a Little Lamb much better now that we have the “Larry Had a Little Ham” version.
Stickers for Horses – This was a popular game to play in the car when my kids were toddlers. We’d have a stash of stickers along and each time they saw horses they got to put a sticker on the door next to them (of course you could have them put the sticker in a notebook if it’ll cause too much mess to put stickers on the car). If you’re not in the Southwest where horses are plentiful choose some other common sight to sticker for.
Look for Wildlife – Maybe this isn’t exactly a game, but many car rides have been made better by one of us saying, “Hey, guys, have you spotted any elk? or “This area has lots of Big Horn sheep, let’s see if we can find one!” It’s not a long lasting game, but we certainly have been rewarded with kids who spot wildlife on the go.
64 Positive Things to Say to Kids
Subscribe to the Bounceback Field Notes to Download your FREE printable of 64 Positive Things to Say to Kids
Merely to follow up on the up-date of this topic on your website and would like to let you
know just how much I treasured the time you took to create this useful post.
Within the post, you spoke on how to really handle
this challenge with all convenience. It would be my pleasure to build up some
more suggestions from your web page and come up to offer other folks what I have benefited from
you. I appreciate your usual wonderful effort.
Spelling games like Ghost! Someone starts by saying a letter, and the next person adds a letter WITHOUT spelling a word. The next person adds a third letter and so on, until someone is forced to spell (or accidentally spells) a word. That person is out for the next round. Keep going until one person emerges victorious!
Another favourite is the license plate sentence game. In some states this works better than others, depending on the style/format of the license plates there. But in some cases plates have a series of three letters (such as Washington State and some plates in Michigan). Everyone takes turns coming up with a sentence or phrase based on those three letters. For example: GKP could be Great Kangaroo Parade or Gigantic Kale Products. ARV could be Anteaters Really Vomit or Around Red Valleys. There’s no winning or losing in this game–just lots and lots of laughing. 🙂
Singing Wheels on the bus but changing it to wheels on the car. When the wipers go swoosh swoosh swoosh, I make the wipers go. When the horn goes beep, beep, beep… I honk the horn. Etc.
Finding road signs that start with the letters of your name. First one finished wins. Example Emily
E-exit 101, M-merge left, I-interstate 1, L-Left on Main St, Y-yield to oncoming traffic 🙂
We love the alphabet game and I spy!! I am so grateful for this post and list because we have a road trip coming up and I really would like to use the DVD player less:) love your blog!!!!!
We love to play the “wacky game” where we find silly things:)
My kids are little so we mostly play iSpy. When I was a kid I loved 20 questions and travel games like travel Yahtzee.
these are great.
we play 2 truths and a lie and you have to guess which one is the lie…always revealing.
You listed some great games! In addition, we often play the rainbow car game (best in town). Work as a team to spot cars from each rainbow color.
Thanks for the chance at the Hyatt room night!
Wow, what fun memories we have of playing Slug Bug, I Spy and seeing how many different state license plates we could find! I saw that someone else mentioned Raffi! What great songs he sang! Our daughter just loved him! That was back in the 80s – really takes me back.
We always play I SPY and Hangman, but mostly past the time playing 20 questions …except my kids only ask one question over and over again. “are we almost there?” repeat 20 times. We would love to win! we love Hyatt House – last year in Houston our house flooded from the heavy storms and we lived at the Hyatt House Galleria for 7 weeks – they were amazing to our family. (my son learned to swim in their pool, and my daughter lost a tooth there).They went above and beyond to accommodate us and our pets during a very hard time for us. Would love to visit a Hyatt House without being under such stress.
We play many of the games named above “I Spy (with my little eye)”, 20 questions, “I’m thinking of…,” A-Z spotting, and…
…travel board games such as chess, checkers, memory games (with a selection of thematic cards), and dominoes.
Progressive stories are fun, too. One person starts, then others add on.
We also listen to the radio until we lose our signal, then we do lots of singing with CDs, especially Camp Tawonga songs, repeat, repeat. Of course, books on tape have taken us a long way.
Because I never gave my daughter screens in the car, she is the kind of traveler that can sit and enjoy the scenery, silently or chatting, for hours!
Thanks for your site. I’m a newcomer and am enjoying it!
We love to play “Bobby’s World”. It has to do with the double letters in Bobby. You come up with a word with double letters and one without that have some connection. “In Bobby’s world there are PILLOWS but no blankets.” There are FEET but no toes. We keep going until we get stumped 🙂
Thanks for the great list.
My 4 year old made up a game, “guess which letter I am thinking of”. Yes, just like it sounds. You think of a letter and then the other people try and guess which letter.
Another one he made up is “the humming game” where you guess what people are humming. Being 4, he doesn’t hum well enough for us to guess correctly, but he’ll often say we’re right with whatever song we guess.
When I was young we played slug bug, I spy, looked for out of state plates and tried to go through the alphabet by only calling out letters off billboards
I want this soooo bad. My husband and I haven’t had a vacation alone in so long. When we go on road trips with the kids we play the license plate game and see how many different state plates we can see. We also play name that tune! My husband puts on Sirius Radio and plays 80’s music. The kids try to guess who is singing! So fun!
Please pick me!!!!! Merry Christmas!
We play I Spy and 20 Questions!
I Spy was a favorite when I was a kid. Also, my mom bought me a new book–one of those with the pen that revealed the “invisible” ink.
We play battle of the bands alphabet game. Example: a- Aerosmith b- bell and Sebastian’ c- catpower d- dead milkman e- Eric Clapton etc
Always loved playing “I’m thinking of the color……” or listening to the Canadian singer, Raffi, and having the kids guess what instrument was playing at the time. They got very good at it, too.
Please put my name into the drawing for the Hyatt prize. Thanks. Susan
When I was a kid I loved playing the “Beaver Cleaver” bug game by looking for VW bugs and convertible bugs and adding up points for each one spotted. It was a great way to pass the time on long trips!
We love to play I Spy with My Little Eye!! And also lots of mental math story problems.
Our favorite game is “I’m thinking of an animal”. You can only ask yes/no questions like…. Does your animal live in water? Does it live on land? Does it like Hot places/Cold? Four legs? Ect…., many fun hours spent this way!!
We play alphabet game where we try to follow the alphabet in a category.. Abc foods: Apple, banana, carrot, Danish, and so one…
We have spent a lot of time on roadtrips and flights – our top games include:
1) True and False – my boys love this game! Sometimes we keep it silly and family related, like “dad loves cake” – “false”, othertimes factual like “a crocodile is a reptile” – “true”. The stranger the better.
2) Another success is audio stories to listen to – we bought Julia Donaldson as well as Roald Dall box sets which is great to pass time as well as develop listening skills.
3) Melissa and Doug also has a great range of travel toys calles “on the go”.
4) A packet od bandaids can keep my kids busy and there is lots of fine motor practise in managing a plaster.
Happy travels!
My son’s favorite is Would You Rather? Basically, making a choice between two really gross, dangerous or awful options. Perfect for elementary and middle grade kids!
Our favorite is the “I’m going on a picnic” game where you are bringing something from each letter of the alphabet (but you have to remember everything else brought too!!)
Or we like guess what {category} I’m thinking of… Like 20 questions
I spy or singing silly songs!!!
When I was a kid we played a lot of alphabet road signs. Similar to your alphabet game. We went through the alphabet having to find a sign (even business names) for whatever letter of the alphabet we were on. Other than that apparently I just talked a lot. My nickname was chatterbox on road trips. The last time we took my kids on a road trip they weren’t old enough for many games. They are now though! I can’t wait to try all these out with them!
the alphabet game!