Road Trip Games

If you’ve ever traveled with kids you know it can be somewhat daunting.  I try my best to make sure my children are as comfortable as possible when traveling.  It makes my life so much easier and I can actually enjoy vacation.   I have found that playing car games helps buy us a few hours of no arguing amongst the kids and it is usually pretty fun.  As I prep for our upcoming road trip I decided that I would share some of our favorite road trip games.  Most of these games can be tweaked to your liking depending on the ages of your children.

Alphabet Game – You must locate a word that begins with each letter of the alphabet and you must go in order.  You can find these words on highway signs, billboards, or passing vehicles.  Q, X and Z are usually the hardest ones to find. 

Hint:  Quality Inn is our life saver with Q.  The X we usually find on tractor trailers branded with “Xtra.”  Z is pretty difficult most times but doable.

You can get even fancier with this game by selecting categories.  For example restaurants, hotels, stores, etc.  You can only find a letter of something that falls within that category.

Beetle Bug Game – This is what we call it.  We assign 3 colors to locate prior to the start of the trip, usually green, blue, and yellow.  Whoever locates a VW beetle bug with that color wins a prize.  We typically give the kids $10 and they can only win once.  This is money they can use to buy things on vacation (things we would have normally purchased).  There are other versions of this game.  Some count the amount of beetle bugs they locate.

Ispy – One person locates an object that the others have to guess.  You use the following words and insert a hint. “I spy with my little eye something that begins/looks with/like (insert first letter or description of the item).  This game can be extremely fun if the person giving clues is honest with the guessers about their answers. 

License Plates – How many different state license plates can you locate?  You can also have the kids look for double letters or triple letters in a license plate.  This game can be played in many different ways depending on the ages of your children.

The Picnic Game – One player says, “I went to a picnic Saturday and I brought…” then says a picnic favorite that begins with the letter A, like apples. The next player repeats the opening phrase, and after “…I brought” they repeat the A item then add one that begins with B: “I brought an apple and some bananas.” The third player repeats the opener, the A and the B portions, and then adds something that begins with C. Of course there’s always those difficult letters. 

21 Questions – This is a guessing game.  Someone thinks of something for the other people in the car to guess.  The rest of the occupants begin asking questions but the key is to not repeat a question.  Whoever guesses right wins and starts the next round.

Fortunately/Unfortunately – One person starts by saying “Fortunately (insert something positive/fortunate).  The next person responds by saying something unfortunate about the previously said fortunate situation.  You create a rotation and stick with that order.  You will alternate fortunate/unfortunate until someone stumbles.  Each stumble is a strike.  Each player gets three strikes before they are out.

What games does your family play on road trips?