Whether are traveling by bus, train, airplane, or car, it is not a bad idea to have some fun road trip games for kids of all ages. Not only does it keep the little ones entertained, playing games as a family is a great way to create fun vacation memories. Check out some of the below ideas for your next long trip.
11 Road Trip Games to Play in the Car
Twenty questions – This is a super way to pass some time and get everyone involved. To begin the most classic of road trip games, Just pick someone to go first and have them think of a person, place, or thing. Each person playing gets to ask a “yes” or “no” question only and if it gets guessed, then the person with the right answer goes next. Often times this turns into 30 or 40 questions.
Word searches – Either find some fun printable word searches online or pick up a book from your local dollar store. The first one finished with the completed search is the winner. There are lots of cheap word search books on Amazon.
Travel Hangman – These are fun for the whole family and hangman printables are easily found online typically for free. But really, all you need is a blank notepad and some pens or pencils.
License plate states – Keep your kids occupied by playing the old favorite, name license plates from across the United States. Whoever can spot the most different states on the plates, wins! Here is a License plate game printable.
Restaurant spotter – This is a lot of fun, especially for older children while on a road trip. Pick some favorite restaurants that you usually see along the highway or on roadside signs. Such as McDonalds, Subway, and Starbucks. See who can spot the most of their favorites. Here is a restaurant spotter printable.
Name TV tunes – This is fun for everyone on the trip. Hum or sing a little bit of a TV theme song and see who can guess what show it is from first. This is a great choice for road trip games since everyone will have different tastes in music!
Funny ABC game – Starting with the letter “A, B, C” make up a funny story using and remembering as many parts of the story. For example, “my Apple Bit my Cat.”
Road Trip Bingo – As you travel along you can look for items on your board. This has kept my kids occupied for long periods of time along the road.
Spot It is a matching game that can be played with one to eight players. You have to find the a matching symbol between two random cards. This is a STEM activity that develops focus, visual perception skills, speech-language skills, and fine motor skills. The kids and I have a lot of fun playing this game.
On the Dot game has over 60 brain teaser puzzles to solve and can be played by one to four people. This is a more challenging game and better for teens and tweens. It is considered a STEM activity. My 13 year old daughter finds this game challenging and she’s a “tag” kid.
Ivan’s Hinge is another puzzle game and is for solo players. Your kid will fold, loop, bend, twist, and turn to find a solution! The patterned challenge cards invite curiosity, logic, determination. My nine-year-old son will spend hours doing this.
These road trip games are just what you need to keep yourself and your kids happy and busy on those long family vacations in the car!
Need a game break? Listen to books!
And when you get tired of playing games there are always audible books to listen to! Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks
What are your favorite road trip games? Let us know if the comments below.
More Travel Tips:
Printable Travel Journal For Kids
Great car games! We used to love Spot It when my kids were little, and they especially loved the Chef game by the same company. Thanks for these ideas!
Ohh I could have used this two weeks ago when we drove to CA with my two young kids. It was a pretty miserable drive and I ran out of ideas to entertain them! Pinning this for our next road trip!
A game I’ve played is the alphabet one but a version where you have to find the letters sequentially outside on signs – keeps everyone engaged in looking outside!