25 Road Trip Games for Kids or Adults!

Road Trip Games & Activities

Have a road trip planned with the family soon?  Here are some road trip boredom busters to keep your kiddos happy and busy on a long drive!  Avoid the dreaded “are we there yet” with a selection of creative road trip games, snacks and supplies.

Road Trip Games for Kids

Road Trip Bingo 

• This Road Trip Bingo is a classic way to pass the time while spying for a church, a horse, a bird, a fire hydrant, etc…
• OR create and print out your own for a more specialized game based on your trip

I Packed a Suitcase

• The first person says “I packed a suitcase and I put inside my ___” (i.e. Pajamas)
• The second person repeats the first person's sentence and adds one item (i.e. a Hairbrush)
• The third person has to repeat both of those and add their item
• The game goes on as long as possible until one person misses packing an item!

Surprise Bags

• Keep the kids excited for the next hour to roll around with these surprise bags!
• Number each bag with the hour they can open it
• Inside you can pack goodies from the Dollar Tree like Pez Dispensers, Sunglasses, Snacks, Coloring/Activity Books, and more
• These Snackle Boxes are also great for Road Trips!

Playground Stop With Return-to-Car Rewards

• Plan your potty and lunch breaks at playgrounds to get the kids' wiggles out before hopping back in the car
• Tell the kids they have 15 minutes (or however long) to play as hard as they can play – hurry and try to do all the things.
• Everyone who hops in the car IMMEDIATELY when the time is up gets $1 Souvenir Money (Or whatever amount you like)
• Since you were probably planning to buy them a souvenir this is a wash and saves you having to fight to get them back in the car!

Gas Station Guess

• Guess the name of the price at the next gas station you will encounter
• The closest wins!
• The winner could get a prize like a gas station snack

The License Plate Game

• Try to spot a license plate from every state, play cooperatively as a family….OR

• Try to spy each letter in the alphabet in alphabetical order
• When you see an “A” on a license plate call it out, when you see a “B” call it out
• First one to “Z” wins….OR

• Pick a license plate and try to make an outlandish sentence based on the numbers/etters
• i.e. 519 HGZ becomes: Five Hundred and Nineteen Hams Going Ziplining

Sensory Busy Board Time

This is a calm quiet-time activity that is great for fidgety kiddos.   Grab this 2-Pack of Sensory Busy Boards or get the cute heart-shaped busy board shown above.

Restaurant Race

• Each traveler picks a restaurant of their choice
• Every time you see a sign with your restaurant on it you win a point
• The most points at the end of a pre-determined length of time wins (i.e. 30 minutes)

Window Cling Decorator

• PPP Team Member Krystl said that she picks up inexpensive window clings and lets her kids decorate their own car windows while they drive.
• Such a fun idea and Dollar Tree consistently has cute ones of these!
• Pull them off and redecorate over and over

Would You Rather

• Take turns asking the car crazy questions to see what they'd rather do – #1 or #1 (Usually both ideas are terrible)
• For example: “Would you be covered in mosquito bites for a whole year or have the hiccups for whole life?”
• Let each person explain their choices, for lots of fun conversation!

Story Puzzle

• Piece together a story one person at a time!
• One person begins telling a story until they simply STOP – leaving the next person to fill in what happens next
• Each person can change the trajectory of the story however they like before passing the baton
• The story ends when the last person in the car has their turn (Or go around more than once!)
• i.e.  There once was a girl named Mary who had a boring life until she suddenly found herself in….
• The ocean fighting a shark with a sword that she got from...
• Her dad who was a time-traveler who turned out to be King Arthur… etc…

Learn Fun State Facts

• Each time you enter a new state, you have to learn five fun facts about that state.

 Lite-Brite Mini and Etch A Sketch Pocket

• These mini travel games are just $8 each and are classic time-wasters that are great for creative minds!

Tell Riddles

• Pick someone to be the riddler – have them use a phone to pull up lots of “kid-friendly” riddles to ask the car.  See who can solve them first!

👇👇👇

Keep going for more game ideas that will work for kids – but ALSO work for adults and teens too!

 

Road Trip Games for Teens/Adults

20 Questions

This is a classic!  One person is it, and thinks of a person, place or thing.  The rest of the car gets 20 guesses that have Yes or No answers only, to guess the right thing.  The house rules and variations are all over the map – so decide what your “car rules” will be and have fun!

The Movie Game

• The first player names a movie
• The next player names an actor that was in that movie
• The next player names another movie that actor played in
• The next names a different actor who played in that movie, and so on – actor, movie, actor, movie.

Cows, Cemeteries & Silos

• Divide the car into two teams: drivers side vs passenger side
• When you spot a cow or silo your team earns a point
• If you pass a cemetery on your side, you lose all your points and start over
• Pre-determine a point at which the game will end, and add up your points that time.

My Cows! (Variation)

• If you see a cow on your side of the road, yell “My Cow!”
• If you see a cow on the other side of the road and yell “My Cow” before they do, you claim their cow
• Add up one point for every cow you claim on your side or theirs
• If you see a cemetery, yell “Ghost Cows” and steal all the other team's points

Things in Common

• Two players play at a time
• Say 1-2-3 and at the same time both players blurt out two random different words (i.e. milk and lizard)
• Count to 3 again and try to come up with a new word that has something to do with the two words that were just blurted
• Maybe “Slime” because its green like a lizard but more liquidy like milk
• Keep going until you end up both saying the same word together!

The Alphabet Road Sign Game

• Using billboards and other road signs, try to find words starting with each letter of the alphabet
• The first player finds a word that starts with “A”
• Next player finds a word that starts with “B”

What Do You Meme (Roadtrip Games)

• This fun game is a favorite of PPP Team Member's Bridgett's family (Shown above) – they played it on their last road trips and the teens weren't bored the entire time!
• Shotgun is another fun one by the same company

Name That Tune

• Assign one person to be the DJ and they'll pick a song to play
• Whoever can guess the name of the song first wins
• It's trickier than you think because the chorus comes later and that's often the best memory-jogger

Green Glass Doors

• One person needs to learn the “secret” before playing this game – it can be found here
• The secret-keeper says “I'm going through the green glass doors and I'm bring a ___ but not a ___”
• What they are “bringing” should start the group guessing what the secret rule is.
• The other players try to guess what the secret rule is and try their own answers
• The secret-keeper tells them whether they can go in or not, base on their choices.
• I.E. “I'm bringing a kitten but not a cat” (You can go) “I'm bringing a paddle but not a boat” (You can go)
• “I'm bringing a plate but not a bowl” (Sorry, you can't go in….)

The Alphabet Game

• Someone pick a category and start the game off by naming an “A” word from that category
• Go around in alphabetical order until someone can't think of one
• Example: Category is Animals.  Ape. Bear. Capybara. Dog. Elephant…..

Crambo

• This is a rhyming game with a fun Q&A rhythm!
• One person is “It” and they think of a word like “Blue”
• They say “I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with Shoe”
• The other players take turns guessing in this way
• “Is it something that's not old?”
• Rhymer answers: No it is not “New”
• Is it something that's not a lie?
• Rhymer answers: No it is not “True”
• The correct guesser wins and becomes the rhymer

We'd LOVE to add your favorite road trip games to our list – leave a comment and tell us what your favorite road trip game is!

And just a note – we think it's just fine to watch a movie on a long trip too – we all need some time to NOT interact with everyone.  Building in downtime is a great idea!

Also check out these Frugal Roadtrip Tips  and these amazing Road Trip Snackle Boxes!