11 Fun Family Road Trip Games
When you’re road tripping across the states with kids, you may need a little something other than the scenery to keep them busy. Get everyone involved in a little family fun by playing games and you’ll be surprised by how fast the miles roll by. These road trip games are fun for the entire family!
1. Alphabet Game – great for awareness
The object of the game: Be the first to go through the alphabet using words found on signs only.
How to play:
- Call out words found on signs for roads, billboards, and businesses in alphabetical order (no license plates allowed).
- The first one to reach the end of the alphabet wins.
- Each word can only be used by one person.
2. Cows on My Side – great for awareness
The object of the game: yell when you see a cow and accrue the most points.
How to play:
- Determine the winning point level.
- Receive 1 point every time you see cows on your side of the road and yell, “Cows on my side!”
- If you spot cows on the other side of the car, yell, “Cows on your side!”
- If you yell, “Cows on your side!” before the other person spots them, you get to steal a point from them.
- If you pass a cemetery scream, “Ghost cow,” to steal everyone else’s points.
- The first one t reach the winning point level wins!
3. Grocery Alphabet Game – great for memory
Object of the game: Make it to the end of the alphabet as a team.
How to play:
- The first person says, “I went to the store today and bought apples,” with the item starting with the letter ‘A.’
- The second person repeats the phrase and says what the other person bought, as well as adds a new item with the next letter of the alphabet.
- This goes back and forth, with each person repeating the entire list of what both people bought, in alphabetical order, and adding another item with the next letter.
- If a player gets an item wrong, the game starts over.
4. Road Trip Bingo – great for awareness
Object of the game: be the first person to cover all of the squares in a straight line.
How to play:
- Print a free road trip bingo card for each player ahead of time.
- Give each player a book or hard surface, Crayon, and bingo card.
- When players spot items on their card, mark on an X on it.
- The first one to cover all squares in a line wins.
- Note: You can also give the kids buttons or coins to cover the pictures with instead of using Crayons.
5. Storytelling – great for teamwork
Object of the game: tell a wild and wacky story as a team.
How to play:
- The first player tells the beginning of a story.
- Each player takes turns adding on to the story, building the story into a larger tale.
- The story concludes when you arrive at your destination.
- As an added bonus, the kids could write the story in a notebook or journal and illustrate it later. This would be a great souvenir!
6. I Spy – great for awareness
Object of the game: guess correctly what each player spies.
How to play:
- Taking turns, each player spies something outside the window and says, “I spy, with my little eye, something blue” and says the color of the item.
- The other player must guess what the first person is looking at. Player continues to guess until correct.
7. Spelling Bee – educational
Object of the game: spell words correctly.
How to play:
- Take turns spelling a word.
- If you spell it correctly, move on to next round.
- Continue taking turns until one person is named the champion.
8. The Banana Game – great for awareness
Object of the game: Accrue the most points.
How to play:
- Determine the winning point level.
- The first person to spot and call out a yellow vehicle receives a point.
- Play until you reach the winning level.
- For added fun, award different points to buses (e.g. 5 points) and small cars (e.g. 2 points)
9. License Plate Game – great for awareness, teamwork
Object of the game: Be the first to make it to the end of the alphabet.
How to play:
- All players work together and look for letters on license plates and must find them in alphabetical order.
- Start over after making it to ‘Z’ or, for a bigger challenge change it up and look for double letters.
10. The Counting Game – great for awareness
Object of the game: Be the first to spot predetermined number of similar objects.
How to play:
- Determine the number of objects you will count.
- Each person selects an object and keeps track of counting all of them aloud as they spot them (i.e. telephone poles, blue trucks, cows…)
- The first person to reach the set number wins.
11. 10 Questions
Object of the game: Guess what the person is thinking about.
How to play:
- The first player thinks of an object, person, or place.
- All other players take turns asking questions until 10 questions has been reached. After each question, they try to guess what the first player is thinking of.
- If the players guess right, it’s the next player’s turn. If no one guesses correctly, that player goes again.
Featured image via Flickr by Paul L Dineen
Kellie S
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I love this – so important to introduce learning games with your kids. My daughter is 17 months and we’re starting to introduce some counting and colour games…Thanks for linking up to #dreamteam x
These are great. I play a few of these with my kids but that bingo game I think will be our new go to game. We also have quick drawing contests at rest stops which are a lot of fun. When in the city I will also pretend I’m lost and have my kids tell me where to drive. We end up in some fun places, usually done on new park days.