road trip games

30 Best Road Trip Games That Are Super Fun

Road trip games can make any journey more enjoyable and fun whether you're going on a long drive across the country or spending a few hours in the car with the kids.

Our list of the 30 of the best road trip games will provide entertainment for children and adults alike, ranging from music-related games and foodie challenges to word contests and devious pranks.

You will never have to think of what to do on a long car ride again! The following is the ultimate list of games you can play on a road trip.

1. The Story Game

Entertaining for adults and kids alike, this is storytelling with a twist - you go round the car and each passenger adds just one word following on from the player before.

See how crazy you can make the story, and get someone to record it on their phone so you can listen back to the hilarious progression of the plot as you make way along your road trip. You could go from sunbathing in Spain to training alpacas in Chile in a matter of seconds.

Trust us, you're in for a laugh with this one and if your passengers are good, these stories can get seriously long!

2. I'm Going On A Road Trip

This road trip game requires a bit more brain power than some of the others, but is still really entertaining and great for all ages. To play, passengers take it in turns to state 'I'm going on a road trip and I'm bringing…' followed by an item of their choice.

The next person has to repeat the phrase, saying the last person's item and adding one of their own and so on - eventually you'll have a really long list of crazy items to try and remember, and it's always amusing watching people try and get it right a few rounds in.

Be sure to throw in a few weird and wonderful items to confuse the rest of the players!

3. The Quiet Game

This game is a bit of a joke for the adults who want a few minutes of peace and quiet from their squabbling kids. The rules are hilariously simple - just say 'who can stay quiet the longest?' and breathe as the competitive siblings fall instantly silent.

Just a word of warning though: don't expect it to last very long, so have another kid-friendly car game lined up for when they get bored.

4. The Banana Game

This game is all about the color yellow and is super simple - points are awarded whenever a passenger spots a yellow vehicle.

Come up with a scoring system for different types of vehicle (e.g. one point for a car, two for a van, and three for a lorry) and whether you saw it parked (one point) or in motion (two points). Add any extra rules you fancy, and prepare to get competitive about who saw it first.

5. Never Miss A Beat

This game may be more of a singalong than a game, but it's still awesome!

Never miss a beat offers another chance to show off your singing skills and unusually gets everyone playing together rather than against each other.

All you need to do is stick on your family's favorite song or a song everyone knows the words to and start singing. Someone then needs to turn it down for 10 seconds whilst everyone keeps singing, before turning it back up again to see if you've kept the beat and stayed in time.

This game is mainly just a bit of fun, but you could always turn it into a competition by splitting into teams!

Another classic you've probably played a thousand times before but never get bored of.

Passengers take it in turns to find an object either inside or outside the car and say "I spy with my little eye something beginning with…" the first letter of whatever the object is.

The other passengers must then try and guess the answer (clues can be given if it's really hard), with the winner taking the next turn. This is an easy car game to play with kids and always a great one to keep bored passengers entertained for a surprisingly long time.

7. 20 Questions

This classic road trip game probably doesn't need much of an introduction - simply choose one passenger to start by thinking of a random object, and the other passengers take turns asking 20 yes-or-no questions to guess the object.

Whoever finds the answer first gets to think of the random thing in the next round, but if the object has everyone stumped, they get to keep their role for the next round.

There are no rules on the object you can pick, but lying in your answers is strictly forbidden!

8. Car Bingo

This kid-friendly game takes a little prep before you set off, but it's well worth it if you need to keep the kids entertained on a long journey.

Make a list of things the children might see along the road trip route - e.g. cows, a tractor, a red car etc, to give to them when you get into the car.

As you drive they can cross things off as they see them, not only distracting them from boredom but also encouraging them to look around and learn about the places they're visiting.

Make the list as specific to the place you're going as you want. In Texas you might have anything mentioning the Lone Star and in Wyoming you might be on the lookout for elk!

You can tailor the difficulty and number of things to find depending on the age of your children.

9. Sweet Or Sour

The rules of this road trip game are super simple: passengers take turns waving at passing pedestrians or people in nearby cars. If they wave back they're sweet, if not they're sour. You win a point for every sweet passerby you get, so aim to find as many friendly people as possible along the way.

For obvious reasons, the driver should opt out of this one, but it can be extra fun if they divert the car through a busy area of town to rack up some extra waving opportunities!

Remember not to distract other drivers!

10. Secret Place Race

Make use of that old road map that sits in the car seat pocket to entertain the kids. All you need to do for the secret place race is pick a place they're unlikely to know such as a tiny village, river, or mountain, and see how long it takes them to find it on the map.

This can be incredibly entertaining in a Where's Waldo kind of way, except their mission in finding the village can be made critically important for the driver to be able to find the right way!

Have a reward on hand if they're able to find it in less than 5 minutes, and watch as they're completely engrossed in the task. A simple yet satisfyingly effective game.

11. Punch Buggy

First gaining popularity as part of one of Volkswagen's marketing campaigns in the 1960s, the aim of this game is to give your fellow passengers a playful punch whenever you see a VW Beetle drive past.

This is one of those road trip games that is universally loved by children (as long as you monitor the punching to avoid disaster), although we don't see why the adults wouldn't enjoy it too.

Granted - in some parts of the world, seeing a Beetle is incredibly rare, so if you're struggling to see many Beetles, you could always choose a specific color of car or another funny model as the target instead to make it a touch easier.

12. Regional Car Pantry

One for the foodies. Stretching across the full duration of your road trip, collect as many local snacks as you can at every stop along the way to build up your car pantry.

Make sure you take pictures of each snack (or buy duplicates if they'll keep) so you can see what you've managed to collect at the end of the trip, and be sure to take some weird and wonderful treats home for friends and family to try.

Do some research beforehand and make a list of all the foods you want to find, or just wing it and see what local delicacies you stumble across as you go.

13. The License Plate Game

You'll need pens and paper for this game so make sure you've packed some before you head off. The aim is to spot license plates from as many different countries or US states (depending on where your road trip is taking place) as possible.

Write a list of the places you've seen and compare it with the other passengers at the end of the drive. This is the ideal game for those long stretches of boring motorway where you'll probably rack up a surprisingly long list, and the person with the most countries gets to ride shotgun for the next leg of the journey.

The end of this road trip game can get very controversial - if you spot a real game winner, photographic evidence is a good idea so get your phone out and take photos in secret!

14. The Fortunately - Unfortunately road trip game

This is similar to the Story Game (see #1 above), however players get a little more control and creativity. You can say more than one word this time!

One player starts off with a 'fortunately' sentence, and the next has to follow with an 'unfortunately' sentence to build a story of luck and misfortune. For example, one player might start with 'fortunately, the sun was shining' with the second player adding 'unfortunately they had a long drive ahead of them' and so on.

This game can make it a little easier to remember the long string as everything has to be either fortunate or unfortunate! Get as creative as you can and you'll find yourself at your destination in what seems like no time at all.

15. The Complete Food Menu Game

This is the perfect road trip game to play if you're passing through a few towns on your way although roadside restaurants and chains will do just fine.

Print out a sheet with all the food types you can think of in a grid against the names of people in the car.

Every time you drive past a restaurant of some kind, the first person to spot it gets to collect the tick for the food type it serves. Steaks and pizzas should be easy to collect by everyone, but you might just win if you're the only one who spotted the seafood restaurant in the middle of Oklahoma!

16. The Name Game

This is another simple game that keeps your brain occupied during a long drive without being too strenuous. One person simply says any name they can think of and the next person must say another name that begins with the last letter of the name before, and so on.

For example if passenger one says Tom, passenger two might say Mary. If you've made any friends during your road trip, try and include their names to make it a tad more topical.

Obviously adding the rule of not repeating the same names once they have been mentioned makes this a whole lot more interesting as the game progresses although you're guaranteed to have a disagreement over whether a name has or has not been mentioned already!

17. Guess The Song

If you're comfortable in your musical knowledge you'll definitely want to suggest playing this one. The rules are simple: get the front passenger to play the first few seconds of a song and whoever can guess the artist and song title the quickest wins a point.

This is much easier if you can connect your phone to the car for the road trip and play songs from there so you can easily search and pause the music.

The person with the most points after half an hour gets control of the music for the rest of the journey, so there's a lot at stake...

18. Sing The Next Line

A variation on the Guess The Song game above, except this game relies on your vocal chords.

Instead of just guessing the song after a few seconds, players have to rack their brains and try and sing the next line, and the person who successfully remembers it first wins a point. Think of a reward for whoever wins, and if you attempt it but get it wrong you have to do a forfeit chosen by the driver.

19. Radio Roulette

This game's a little less hands-on but no less entertaining. Use your road trip driving time to discover all the local radio stations of the place you're visiting by re-tuning every ten minutes and choosing a new station at random.

You'll probably find some pretty wacky programs and get to know traditional and popular music in that country - a great way to appreciate culture even when you're between destinations.

If you a radio station that is really wacky, let us know!

20. Would You Rather

This road trip game can be be as PG or as outrageous as you like depending on the age of the passengers.

Take turns asking the car whether they would rather do one thing or another (e.g. 'would you rather go to France or Spain?') and see what they answer. Make it as difficult as possible to choose between the two options for maximum entertainment value, whether that's making them equally amazing or equally horrible, it's up to you…

You can see how this game can get as interesting in group of adults as with kids - answering the question is compulsory and providing reasons is where it gets fun!

21. Car Rules Road Trip Game

Everyone in the car gets to make up a silly rule, e.g. whenever we cross a bridge everyone has has to touch their nose, or whenever we stop at a red light everyone has to touch the roof of the car.

The last person to join in when an action is enforced gains a point, and the person with the most points at the end of the drive loses. Get as creative as you like with the rules and try and catch people out where possible so you can take the victory.

The loser has to go pay for parking or buy ice creams at the next stop!

22. Hot Seat

If you're that nosy friend that wants to find out all of your companions' deepest secrets then you'll like this one. Passengers take it in turns to be in the hot seat and are asked 5 questions, one of which they're allowed to veto and the other four must be answered honestly.

This is best played in an adult-only car (questions get notoriously cheeky) and is the ideal way to pass the time finding out some interesting new facts about your road trip friends.

You can use it as a warm up or a step up from the car version of Truth or Dare (see #27 below) depending on how close your friendships are!

23. People Watching

Someone picks a car full of people that everyone can see (this works best if you're stuck in traffic), and together you make up a story about the people - who they are, where they're going, what they do for a living. The funnier and more far-fetched the story, the better - just make sure you're not staring too obviously at your subjects or it might get a little awkward...

Use your imagination to make the stories controversial and see how far you can go with making things up!

You might just surprise yourself how the most innocuous of road trip games will make you spot things you would never otherwise see just by looking at the cars around you.

24. Kiss, Marry, Avoid

Another one for the older crowd. Take turns listing three famous people and the other passengers in the car have to choose which person they would kiss, which they would marry, and which they would avoid.

Make it really hard to decide so that everyone has a bit of a laugh, and try to predict each other's answers to add an extra twist to the game.

If you want to add a little spice to the game, use people you all know or move to people in the car!

25. While You Were Sleeping

There's nothing more tempting than pulling a prank on a passenger who falls asleep en route, and whilst we don't dispute the whole drawing-a-mustache classic, we've got something even craftier.

Whilst they're taking a nap on the road trip, have a brainstorm with the awake members of the party and come up with an epic story or scenario of something that they missed during their nap.

The aim of the game is to get them to believe the story, so make sure nobody laughs or breaks character (come up with a forfeit if they do), and keep the lie going for as long as possible. If you manage to pull it off this is far better than a DIY mustache... but by all means, draw one on for good measure.

This classic road trip game can really take a turn for the worse if you want it to. A simple horror story about a truck that followed the car for miles that you just managed to pull away from before getting a flat tyre can go a long way as you're parked on the side of the road. Peer into the rear view mirror in horror and watch their face when a random truck appears on the horizon!

26. Categories

Popular with kids and adults alike the world over, Categories can be an awesome game to play on road trips as well.

The premise is simple - somebody picks a category which can have multiple different answers. Fruit or Beatles' songs can both be great options.

Players have to then take turns to name one item from the category at a time. Players are eliminated when they can't name one until there's one winner. Either the winner or the next person in turn gets to choose the next category.

That brings our list of the best road trip games to an end. Do you have other games you enjoy? Get in touch to let us know and we'll add it to our list!

27. Truth Or Dare (The Car Edition)

The old classic can and should be played on road trips! Players take turns to either answer an embarassing question truthfully or perform a dare set by other players.

The dares obviously have to be contained to the realms of the car or the roadside so you'll have to get creative.

Needless to say, this game is very different when played with kids as a family or with adult friends and is equally great in both cases!

28. 6 Degrees of Separation

This is a road trip game that will require some imagination and provide plenty of topics for conversation.

Take turns and pick two people who you may know or make them up (e.g. a Shaolin monk). The more different the background and location of these people the better!

Then proceed to discuss how these two people are connected through 6 connections or less. You don't have to know the whole chain - that's actually where the fun is.

How is a gaucho from a remote farm in southern Argentina connected to Prince Charles? The gaucho must know his ranch's boss (1). The boss knows the boss of the company that buys beef from local producers (2). That company has a liaison manager in a UK-based Argentinian beef importing firm (3). This manager has a colleague who imports fine wines from around the world for the same company (4). The colleague personally provides the fine wines to the Royal sommelier (5) and the sommelier personally knows Prince Charles (6). Bingo!

29. The Stop Joker Card road trip game

If you're going on a long trip and you're going to be driving all day or even longer than that, this is a great way to give everyone in the car, kids included, a way to have a bit of control.

At any point during the trip, each person can enact their Stop Joker Card - this means the car has to stop wherever they are passing and spend some time there doing an activity or just relaxing.

Your kids might see something really fun halfway along and use their card to break up the journey and everyone gets to have their stop along the route!

30. Pick One Car road trip game

This one is a game of patience and opportunity. Every person in the car has one chance during the journey to pick a car that you can see on your way as their ultimate One Car. The objective is to pick the coolest/fastest/most amazing car possible.

Once you've chosen a car, you can't change it - you only have one go so you better make it count - if you're passing something that is decent but not stellar, you might have to make a tough choice.

The game is made even more difficult by the fact that the first person to call the car out gets to have it so you have to be alert and on the lookout if you haven't got one yet.

Join our email list!

By joining our email list, you give LazyTrips permission to use your email for sending you newsletters, emails and updates including for marketing purposes. Your email will not be provided to third parties.

Related posts

39 Fun Road Trip Games to Play

Sharing is caring!

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these links, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Learn more

Fill long drives with joy by playing these fun road trip games , helping you say goodbye to boredom on the journey, no matter who you’re traveling with.

I’ve been on plenty of road trips across Europe and the U.S. in my time, and these games have helped me, friends, and fellow travelers pass the time with lots of laughs and intrigue.

Road Trip Games (Fun Games to Play in the Car)

1. Truth or Dare

This is a classic game, but it can be adapted to a road trip as well. Take turns picking whether you want to reveal a truth or take a dare.

In this case, you will need to pick a dare that can be done safely in the car or by stopping the car when you get the chance. Time to be creative!

Read more: 100+ Best Truth or Dare Questions

2. Never Have I Ever

Each player holds up five fingers, and in turn, they name something they have never done, for instance, “Never have I ever been to Italy.”

For each thing they have done, players need to fold a finger. The person who folds all five fingers first loses. This is a fun game, and if you pick the right questions, you may even learn some interesting or funny things about your friends.

Read more: 200+ ‘Never Have I Ever’ Questions

3. The Compliment Game

In this game, you go through the alphabet, and for every letter, you say a compliment about someone else in the car. For instance, “A is for how awesome Monica is,” “B is for Jack’s beautiful hair,” and so on, taking turns.

4. Most Likely to

Take turns and come up with “most likely to” scenarios about your friends. Everyone in the car must point to the person they believe reflects the title.

You could say things like “Most likely to become a celebrity” or “Most likely to win a Nobel prize.” If you’re out of ideas, you can find many examples online, or just try to be creative and invent fun scenarios.

Read more: 300+ “Who is Most Likely to” Questions

5. The Forbidden Word

Pick a forbidden word at the beginning of your trip. Try to aim for a word that you would normally use a lot. Keep count of how many times each person says the forbidden word.

At the end of the trip, whoever has said the word the most will have to take a pre-agreed forfeit, such as paying for a round of drinks.

6. Truth or Lie?

This is a storytelling game in which one person in the car tells a true or invented story from their past, ideally something elaborate and hard to believe.

The other people in the car take turns and get to ask one question about the story before deciding if it’s true or not. Reveal the right answer after everyone took their guess. Take turns telling stories and see who has the greatest number of correct guesses.

7. Smurfing

Pick one person in the car who will be the subject of the game. While the subject covers their ears, the other persons need to pick a verb. Then, the subject must ask questions replacing the verb with the word “smurf.”

For instance, “Do you smurf in the morning or evening” or “When did you last smurf?” They need to guess the right verb as quickly as possible. You may even decide how many questions they get to ask or set a time limit, like 2 minutes, to guess the right verb.

For Families and Kids

8. what color is it.

In this game, start naming a list of items of the same color until your kid, or one of your kids, guesses the right color. For instance, you could start by saying “Sky, sea, smurfs…” and keep going until someone guesses blue.

A classic road trip game for families and kids, “I spy” consists in choosing an object, preferably something in the car, and having other players guess by asking yes or no questions.

You can use colors or the first letter of the object. For instance, you could say “I spy with my little eye… something blue/something that starts with the letter B.” The first person to guess the object gains a point.

10. Spelling Bee

A fun and educational game, the spelling bee is easy to play in a car. You can pick random words or make it more fun by choosing a theme, possibly something kids would enjoy.

For instance, you could do a Harry Potter spelling bee with words from the book/movie. Make sure to have someone keep track of the points on a piece of paper or a note app.

11. Scavenger Hunt

This game may require a bit of preparation but it’s a great way to keep kids entertained on a long road trip.

Before the trip, prepare a list of things you would usually see on the road, like road signs, cars, animals, and so on. The person who checks the most items off the list before the end of the trip wins.

12. Car Color Search

This game also needs some preparation, but it can be very entertaining for small kids. You can draw several cars of different colors or find a ready-made sheet online and print it.

Every time they spot a car of a certain color, they cross it off the list. Whoever crosses the most cars off the list wins the game.

13. Going on a Picnic

This challenging memory game is great for adults, but you can also play it with older kids. The first person starts by saying “I’m going on a picnic, and I’ll bring…” and picks an item.

The next person repeats the sentence and adds another item, then the third adds a third item, and so on. The list will get longer and longer. The first person who can’t remember the correct list is out of the game and it resets until there is one winner.

14. Storytime

If you’re feeling creative, why not invent a fairy tale with the kids? Start with the classic fairy tale beginning “Once upon a time…” and come up with the start of a magical journey in a singular sentence.

Each player will add a sentence to the story until you either reach the end or until a set time limit elapses. You can also record the story so you can listen to it later.

15. The Quiet Game

If you’re traveling with kids and want some downtime, you can always try the quiet game. See how long your kids can go without saying a word. The first one to break the silence loses.

For Couples or Two People

16. 20 questions.

In this guessing game, one person will have to think about an object, animal, or person, and the other must ask yes or no questions to figure out what the other person is thinking.

They have a limit of 20 questions to guess the item or person. Ideally, you would start with more generic questions, like “Is it an animal” or “Is it an object?” and get more specific with questions about the size, color, and other features.

If the person guesses in less than 20 questions, they take the place of the answerer. Otherwise, the same person gets to think of a new thing.

17. The Human Jukebox

This can be a really fun song if you know song lyrics. One person starts singing a song, and the next has to connect it to another song using the last word of the lyrics, then another has to connect a new song, and so on.

For instance, “Take me down to the paradise city where the girls…. Just wanna have fun, oh girls… Who run the world? Girls. Who run…. Boy run. This world is not made for you…” And see how long you can keep going before someone is stumped.

18. 6 Degrees of Separation

A person has to name two people, objects, movies, or any other thing. You can mix them, for instance, a celebrity and a movie, that are apparently not connected. Another player has to connect the two in six statements, or less.

You could, for example, pick Uma Turman and the movie Mamma Mia. And then say “Uma Turman starred in “Kill Bill” with Lucy Liu. Lucy Liu starred in Charlie’s Angels with Cameron Diaz. Cameron Diaz had a relationship with Justin Timberlake. Justin Timberlake starred in “In Time” alongside Amanda Seyfried. Amanda Seyfried starred in Mamma Mia!”

19. Two Truths and a Lie 

This is a great game to learn more about your travel companion. Take turns and tell two truths and one line. The other person has to guess which is the lie.

You can just keep playing to discover curious facts about yourselves or make it a points game. Whoever gets to 10 correct answers first wins. Remember to choose a reward for the winner.

Read more: 2 Truths and a Lie: 200+ Lie Ideas

20. Holiday Memory Game

In this memory game, you pretend you are packing your suitcase for the holidays and need to take turns listing all the items you will pack. The first person will start by saying “I am going on a holiday and I’m taking…” and adds an item.

The next player has to repeat the sentence and add a new item then the next player will do the same. Keep adding items to the bag, repeating the entire list every time. The first person who messes up the order or forgets an item loses the game or is out. Ready to test your memory?

21. Kiss Mary Avoid

Pick three people, either someone you know or celebrities, both from past and present. You may even pick a fictional character.

The other person will need to choose which person they would kiss, marry, and avoid. Depending on your choice of people, this game can be really fun. Take turns and get creative!

22. Would You Rather

Time to get creative for this game where a person has to ask the other(s) what they would choose between two options.

The idea is to come up with impossible or weird choices, like “Would you rather never see again or never taste food?” If you’re out of ideas, this “would you rather” questions list can help you out. Tine to make some difficult choices.

Generally Fun Road Trip Games

23. categories.

While this is not necessarily a road trip game, it’s a really fun one to pass the time. Pick a category, anything from ice cream flavors to R&B songs. Every player takes turns naming an item in that category. See who runs out of ideas first.

24. The Humming Song Game

The game is pretty easy yet fun to play. One player must hum a famous song while the others need to guess the song. The person who guesses correctly gets to hum a new song. It may sound really easy, but it can get quite tricky.

25. Music Battle

To play this game you must be at least three passengers. One person is the judge while the others need to play songs on their phones.

Select different categories, and for each one, every player picks a song and plays it. The judge has to decide the winning song for every category.

26. Alphabet

This game consists in spotting items that start with each letter of the alphabet, in order. You can use objects in the car or on the road, like road signs, billboards, animals, or anything else you may spot.

Call out each letter and the item/word as you see it. The first person the get to Z wins. In a different version, you may pick a category, like animals, and take turns naming items in that category in alphabetic order.

One player starts by saying a word, then each passenger takes turns saying words that rhyme. Set a 15-second time limit per turn. If the person can’t come up with a word within the time limit, they are out.

The remaining person wins a point. See who gains the most point before you get to the destination or who gets to 10 points first.

28. Storyteller

The game is pretty simple but depending on how creative you get it can be very fun. One person starts a story with the first sentence. Then, everyone takes turns adding to the story.

Come up with interesting and fun plot twists to make the story more entertaining. Record it to have a memory of your road trip story.

29. Fortunately/Unfortunately

This game consists of telling a story where each sentence starts with the word “fortunately” or “unfortunately,” alternating between them.

For example: “Anna had to go to work. Unfortunately, her car broke down. Fortunately, she could take the train. Unfortunately, all trains were delayed.” Keep the story going, alternating between the two.

30. While You Were Sleeping

This is a funny game that you can play if any of the passengers falls asleep during the trip. With the other passengers, come up with an interesting and unbelievable story of something that happened while the other person was asleep.

When they wake up, tell them the story, starting with “While you were sleeping…”. Each passenger adds a little to the story to make it credible that you all witnessed it. Try not to break character and see if the other person believes your story.

31. Car Rule

To play this game, each person in the car gets to make up a random rule, and everyone has to follow it. Try to think of weird and fun rules, like “Whenever I change the radio station, everyone has to clap their hands”.

Assign points to everyone who enforces the rules except for the last person to do so. The person with the most points at the destination wins.

32. The License Plate Game

This classic road trip game can be played in different ways. You can try to spot a license plate from every US state or from different countries if you’re traveling in Europe.

Or you can try to spot a license plate starting with each letter of the alphabet, and the first one to get to Z wins. If you are playing with kids, you can even print a coloring map of the U.S. and have them color each state they spot on a license plate.

Trivia Road Trip Games

33. name that tune.

A great game for music lovers is “Name that tune”. You can simply turn on the radio or put on a Spotify playlist, making sure the song name is not visible on the display.

As soon as the song starts, the first person to shout the right song title wins a point. This is a great game to have fun, listen to music, and refresh your memory of song names.

34. Name the Artist

A different take on “Name that tune,” this game requires players to guess the artist. You can even prepare a playlist in advance and set different rules.

You can assign points based on who answers first, or you can take turns, play a song for 5 to 10 seconds, and let the player guess or pass. Whoever makes more points or reaches a set number of points first wins.

35. The Movie Game

If you know your movies and actors, you can play this potentially endless game during your road trip. To start, a person mentions an actor while another person must name a movie the actor has been in.

Another player must name a different actor in that movie, and the next player must then name another movie with that actor, and so on. See how long you can go!

36. Guess the Quote

One person in the car has to say a quote from a movie, TV show, or song, while the other passengers must guess where the quote is from.

The player who makes the right guess takes the next turn in saying a quote. Try to make it hard, and for extra fun, use the accent of the actor who said the quote.

37. “Sorry I am Late” Movie Guessing

This can be a really fun game for movie buffs. It essentially consists of saying a sentence that starts with “Sorry I am late” and continues with the main plot of a movie, told in a fun way.

For instance, “Sorry I am late, but I got a letter saying I am a wizard and I had to go to wizarding school only to find out this evil wizard has been trying to kill me since I was a newborn,” which would be Harry Potter. The person who guesses 10 movies first wins.

38. Bad Movie Plot

Another fun movie fame consists in picking a movie and explaining the plot in a really bad way, although factually correct. The other person has to guess the movie.

If they do, they win a point. Take turns and see who makes the most points or gets first to 10 correct guesses.

39. Celebrity

In this game, one person will play the character of a celebrity of their choice while the others take turns asking random questions.

The celebrity player answers the questions as if they were the famous person. The first person to guess the celebrity wins.

Long journeys in the car can often be difficult, for both you and the other passengers you are traveling with. Finding activities to pass the time can go a long way making the journey far more comfortable and enjoyable.

The beauty of these road trip games is that they require little, if any, equipment and preparation to play, yet can provide hours of fun.

Don’t let tiredness and boredom take control on a long car ride. Use these fun car games to create a fun and relaxing atmosphere, keeping your minds off the journey and giving you all an opportunity to interact and bond.

From word games to games involving famous people, there’s so much you can do in the car with minimal resources to entertain young kids, teenagers, and the whole family!

You Might Also Like to Read

• 40 Fun Things to Do on a Long Car Ride

Save and Pin for Later

Keep these super fun road trip games for safekeeping, ready for when you next travel by car, and save this article to one of your Pinterest boards.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

20+ Entertaining Road Trip Games to Play in the Car

This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I (The Winding Road Tripper) earn from qualifying purchases.  Read more . 

Road trips are not just about getting to your destination. It’s also about all the fun you can have on your journey to your next stop.

These road trip games will bring laughter and excitement to your next road trip.

Let’s dive into some of our favorites.

Alright, we know this is one of those classic games to play on a road trip that everyone has heard of, but have you ever really dug into it? 

I Spy has a lot of versatility. It’s not just that one-dimensional game you remember from your childhood. This is a game that you can mix up and cut loose with. Try adding time limits, creating I Spy themes, or just killing some time with a class road game. 

You probably know the rules, but all you need to do to play this game is pick something you and your friends can see and have them guess until they get it right. You’ll say, “I spy something that…” and add a clever clue that gives a subtle hint about what you’re looking at. 

The key to playing this game as an adult is to focus on those clever hints. That’s where the fun is!

20 Questions 

 20 Questions is one of those games that has plenty of versatility. Let’s look at a few ways to enjoy this game while on a road trip.

You play 20 Questions by assigning one person to be “it.” That person thinks of a person, place, or thing, and everyone else has 20 questions to narrow down their guess and get it right.

You can spice up 20 Questions by making it themed, personal, or romantic. It all depends on who you’re traveling with. 

Like many road games, this game is best played in short bursts. You want to mix up these classic road trip games, so you don’t burn out on any one game. 

Would You Rather

Would You Rather is another excellent game to play while on a road trip. 

The goal of this game is to give someone a ridiculous and near-impossible choice between two options. You can ask them to pick between their favorite hobbies, a million dollars or perfect health, or anything else you can think of!

This is also a great game for getting to know someone new. It’s the perfect icebreaker for couples and helps you explore topics that matter to the people you travel with. 

Mini Board Games 

Mini magnetic board games are fun games to play in the car, but they are also adorable. 

You and your travel companions can enjoy Scrabble, chess, checkers, or mini Monopoly.

There are travel-sized versions of just about every board game out there. Throw one of these in your bag, and you’ll hardly notice the extra space it takes up. Besides, it will generate way more fun than you might expect. 

Travel Scavenger Hunt 

One of the most fun things you can do when heading out on your road trip is to set up a scavenger hunt .

You need to do some planning ahead of time for this game. Think about some interesting or challenging items you and your travel companions can hunt down or see on the road together. 

These can be wrappers from regional snacks, landmarks, road signs, or anything you can find along your road trip route. 

Here’s a tip for setting up a scavenger hunt. Come up with a low-stakes prize for the winner, which could be anything from a Starbucks gift card to a coupon for a free back massage. 

Trivia Apps! 

Playing trivia games on the road used to mean taking several decks of cards with questions and answers on them. However, your phone is full of game apps to keep you entertained on your road trip.

There are trivia apps like Popcorn Trivia, SongPop, and countless others. These let you play trivia games based on movies, music, and even history with your travel buddies. 

Don’t get caught thinking these games are trivial; they are some of the most fun games to play on a road trip!

Related Post: Best Road Trip Game Apps

Travel Bingo

Here’s another exciting game that takes a little preparation before you hit the road.

You can set up a travel bingo gam e for everyone you will be on the road with. This bingo game can be full of fun inside jokes, sites along the way, and all the ups and downs of a long car ride.

Travel bingo is a great way to add a little lightheartedness to some of the challenges of taking a road trip. Why not lean into these awkward moments and add a square on your travel bingo card for awkward smells or getting stuck in traffic?

The winner of travel bingo can get a little prize, but there’s no prize more fabulous than the satisfaction of being the travel bingo champion.  Related Post: Free Downloadable Road Trip Bingo Cards

Gas Station Stop Gourmet 

There are plenty of travel games about embracing the unique and sometimes weird cuisine you can find while on the road.

The goal of this game is to make the most of the limited culinary options you have at your average gas station. Players should be given a budget and are challenged to come up with the most exciting meal they can think of.

Imagine you’re on a Food Network competition show, but all you can do is create a fine dining experience using a convenience store and a few fast food diners.

This is a great game to help people think outside the box and not get stuck snacking on the same pre-packaged chips for the entire ride. 

Fictionary  

Fictionary started hundreds of years ago with the Victorians in England. 

This word game is all about obscure words and the definitions that they “should” have. Play works like this. 

One player picks an obscure word that few people know, like “mycorrhizal” or “sozzled.” Everyone else writes down their made-up definitions. Whoever gets the most laughs wins!

More Road Trip Entertainment: Best Attention-Grabbing Audio Books for a Road Trip Boredom-Busting Podcasts for a Road Trip Road Trip Questions for Couples

Six Degrees of Separation

Here’s another road trip classic, especially for movie buffs. 

Six Degrees of Separation got a second wind when it became an iconic meme in the early days of the internet known as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. 

The point of the game is straightforward. One player names two actors, and the other must connect them in six degrees of separation or less.

Here’s a classic example using Kevin Bacon.

“Kevin Bacon and William Shatner.”

William Shatner was in Festival in Cannes with Maximilian Schell, who starred in Telling Lies in America with Kevin Bacon.

There’s even a website called The Oracle of Bacon that can generate these degrees of separation if you two get stuck!

Fictional Road Trip Families

One of the most fun things about a road trip is the people you will meet on the way. 

However, some people you “meet” drive past you on the road at 60 miles an hour. While you need more time to meet them adequately, you can still tell a fun story about their lives.

The next time an interesting-looking car drives past you, collaborate on a fictional story about the family inside that vehicle. Take turns adding story elements and see where it will lead you.

The Movie Game

Here is another one for film buffs.

This game starts with one person naming a movie and another person naming an actor who starred in that film. The next person then picks another actor from that movie and a different movie that the actor starred in. The second player then repeats the process, and play continues until no one can name a new movie.

For a twist on this game, players can go back and forth naming actors, writers and directors, and production staff on movies until they cannot name anyone else involved with a given film.

Human Jukebox

Here’s a game for the musically inclined pair on a road trip.

Human Jukebox starts with one player singing a line from a song. Then the other player uses the last word of that line to connect it to a brand-new song.

Here’s an example:

Player 1 starts with a line from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody: “So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye. So you think you can love me and leave me to die. Oh, baby, can’t do this to me, baby .”

Player 2 connects it with Britney Spears’s classic “… Baby One More Time.” When I’m not with you, I lose my mind. Give me a sign. Hit me, baby, one more time.”

And the song goes on!

Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie is more than a fun game. It’s a great way to get to know your travel companions.

Here’s how the game works:

Name two truths about yourself and one lie. For example, you could say, “I used to have blue hair, I once designed a video game, and my aunt is a world record holder for women’s rodeo.” 

Your traveling companions will then have to guess which is the lie and which is the truth. And the fun part is that you can make your truth and lies as straightforward or as challenging to guess as you’d like. 

This game is a fun way to explore your traveling companion’s personal history and discover unique and fun details about their life.

Fortunately Unfortunately

Fortunately Unfortunately is a game that can get weird pretty quickly. Therefore, it’s a great game if someone in the car has their crabby pants on. 

It starts with one player saying something that starts with “fortunately: that’s positive, and then the next saying something negative about that same event starting with “unfortunately.”

“Fortunately, we got time off of work for this road trip.”

“Unfortunately, your boss got replaced by a zombie.”

“Fortunately, all those George Romero movies I watch have prepared me for this day.”

Continue this back and forth until you are ready to move on to the next game. 

The Road Trip Memory Game

Here’s a fun game to test your memory skills.

The game starts with the first player saying, “I’m going on a road trip, and I’m bringing…” 

They can name any person, place, or thing they want to bring on this road trip. Let’s say they said, “my guitar.”

The next player continues the game by saying, “I’m going on a road trip, and I’m bringing my guitar and…” and adding their own item.

The game continues until someone forgets items on the list. Consider this game as a safe way to forget what you need to bring on your next road trip!

Radio Roulette

Radio Roulette can be an exciting way to find new music you love or a challenging endurance test.

All you need to do is turn on the local radio stations and pick one randomly. You have to keep this station on for an unbroken 10 minutes to complete a round of the game. After 10 minutes, you switch to the next radio station and keep playing.

You might find yourself in love with some local Polka you would have never thought to listen to. Or you might be battling through 10 minutes of local talk radio.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

In the mood to win $1,000,000? Well, there might not be a stack of hundreds on the table, but you can have fun playing along.

The Who Wants To Be A Millionaire app is a great way to play a game with just two players on your next ride. One player gets to be the host of this iconic game show, while the other gets to be in the hot seat with a shot at a cool million dollars.

Bad Film Plots

Usually, when you play a game, you want to do everything right. However, Bad Film Plots has you intentionally doing everything wrong.

This game aims to explain a movie’s plot as badly but as accurately as possible. The other players must guess the film you’re talking about correctly.

Let’s say you wanted to badly explain the plot of Terminator II: Judgement Day. You could say: “A down-on-her-luck working single mother makes an unlikely friendship as her son discovers a father figure.” 

That may be tricky, but that’s the whole point of the game. 

Local Trivia Night

One of the most significant advantages you have when taking road trips today is that you’ve got the whole internet by your side while you’re on the road.

Use that to your advantage and do a local trivia game while traveling. 

One player gets to be the trivia master asking questions about the state you’re driving through.

Try Out Some Nintendo Switch Games! 

Some of the best games to play on a road trip take advantage of today’s technology. 

The Nintendo Switch offers plenty of variety, including two-player puzzle games, action, and RPGs with compelling stories. You can even download classic Super Nintendo video games and enjoy nostalgia while on the road. The Switch has games for kids and adults, so you don’t have to worry about not finding the right game for you. 

Name That Tune

No list of road trip games would be complete without a game designed for music lovers, as singing and enjoying new tunes is one of the best parts of a good road trip. 

And SongPop 3 is one of the best game apps for long car rides for music lovers. This app plays a song clip and has you guess what you’re hearing.

These are real clips from actual songs. And you’ll hear everything from Cardi B to Queen. You can even play in dedicated music genres to focus on your favorites.

You can spice things up a little by trying to sing the next lyrics in the song. 

Words With Friends

Words With Friends is one of, if not the, most popular word game app. The secret to this app’s success is that it is Scrabble but for the smartphone age. Being a digital Scrabble allows Words With Friends to give you more options to play while traveling.

You and your traveling partners can play together using your own devices or challenge friends and family back home. Since it’s basically Scrabble, you know what you’re getting into with this app.

License Plate Game

The L icense Plate Game aims to find as many license plates from the 50 States + the District of Columbia as you can during your road trip. 

The best thing about the License Plate Game is you can make the rules to fit your road trip needs. Plus, you can make it enjoyable by finding prizes for the winners or an award for the first passenger to spot a license plate from Mexico or Canada.

You can make a list of all 50+ states, or there are phone apps to help you keep track. Our favorite is PlateSpot . 

Related Post: License Plate Game: 3-Ways to Play on Your Next Road Trip

25 Road Trip Games to Make the Miles Go By Fast

You won’t be hearing: “Are we there yet?” 😂

Every item on this page was chosen by a The Pioneer Woman editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Road trip games are one of the easiest ways to make the miles fly by in the blink of an eye, and if you used to take road trips when you were little, you likely have several car games that you still love today. Perhaps you’re heading out with your whole family in tow or going somewhere fun with a group of gals or your main squeeze (talk about a cute summer date idea !). No matter what type of trip you’re taking, road trip games are a must. The nice thing about road trip games is that they don’t require a ton of items to bring along—just your brains, a few rules to follow, and plenty of giggles. If you’d like to tuck away those smartphones and kick it old-school, turn to these 25 boredom-busting road trip games.

While You Were Sleeping

It’s not just a favorite movie from the ‘90s! For this game, one person will be asleep (which happens pretty frequently on road trips). Once they’re asleep for at least five minutes, the ones who are awake will start making up a story, and each person will take turns adding to that story. After the person wakes up, the group’s job is to make them believe that it’s a true story. If someone starts giggling, they’ll lose a point. But if each one tricks the sleeper into believing the story, every person gets three points.

The Singing Game

This is for the family and pals who love to bust out a tune! One person in the car will start singing a song. The next person will pick up a lyric from that song and will link it up with another song (i.e. “Should I stay or should I go…” can link to “…your own way, go your own way.”) The words can connect to one another going round and round until someone can’t think of a new lyric or sings the incorrect words.

This might be one of the most classic car games of all time. You know the rules: someone in the car will spot something by the road and say, “I spy with my little eye, something that is…” and then will give a hint, whether it’s a color or general direction. The other players will ask questions until someone discovers what it is.

20 Questions

One person will choose a noun (a person, place, or thing) and the other players will get 20 questions to find out what it is. Simple and fun!

License Plate Game

A game that’s always a favorite! The aim of this game is to spy all 50 states on license plates throughout your journey. You can keep track on a piece of paper, a phone, or you can use a board with markers for each state.

SHOP LICENSE PLATE GAMES

Scavenger Hunt

Similar to “I Spy,” a road trip scavenger hunt involves bringing along a list of items that are typically seen along the road. Your pals or little ones will spot the items, like stop signs or blue cars, and check them off the list. The first one to check them all off wins.

Two Truths and a Lie

For this, one player will make three statements, and one of them will be false. The other players will try to guess which one is the untrue one. It’s a great way to discover new things about a friend or family member!

This game is great for older kids and adults. Focusing on compound words, each person will link to the previous word and keep going around until someone can’t come up with anything. For example, notebook, bookstore, store-bought, etc.

Never Have I Ever

Each player will start a statement by saying, “Never have I ever…” Then they’ll finish the statement by saying something like, “Fallen asleep in class,” or “Flown on an airplane.” The rest of the crew has to decide if it’s a true statement or not.

Road Trip Bingo

It’s just like the bingo you play at home, except this game has a road-trip spin. Bring along some bingo cards (you can even purchase ones that are road trip-themed) and look for all the items on the board. The first one to get BINGO wins!

SHOP ROAD TRIP BINGO CARDS

The Name Game

This game is all about naming as many “names” as you can, but you’ll each only have three seconds to answer! There are lots of ways to play: focus on first letters, go with last names only, etc. Or change the category to dog breeds, books, types of flowers, or anything else you can come up with.

Story Starter

Here’s a classic game. One person will start a story but won’t finish the sentence. The next player will finish that sentence, but won’t finish it, and so on. By the end, you’ll probably have a pretty funny story going!

Alphabet Game

This is a game to play when you know there will be a lot of signs and billboards along the way. Starting with “A” and so on, players will find words on the route that start with each letter of the alphabet. You can play with the letters in order, or you can cross them off as you see them.

The Grocery Game

The first player will come up with an item they would buy at the grocery store. Without telling anyone, the rest of the car will take turns asking questions to discover what it is. Is it red? Can it be found in the produce department? It’s an apple!

Name That Tune

This one goes out to the music lovers out there! For this game, someone will start playing music on the radio or on a smartphone. In only five seconds, you have to guess what song it is. The first person to answer gets a point!

SHOP SMARTPHONE SPEAKERS

What Color Is It?

This game is perfect if you have young kiddos. The adults will list several items that are the same color: for instance, leaves, frogs, money, and so on. The kids have to guess the color!

Triple Threat

Someone in the car will choose three random nouns, like “alligator,” “flute,” and “mashed potatoes.” Everyone else in the car will have to make up a story based on these three nouns!

Car Color Search

Keep track of car colors as you spot them, including all the colors of the rainbow and some less-common ones, like pink, lime green, and gold.

Would You Rather?

These are questions that you make up as you go along, and you might learn some new things about each other, too! Ask questions like, “Would you rather eat a too-hot slice of pizza or a too-cold popsicle?” or “Would you rather win a million dollars or have the ability to fly?” Each person gets to answer these fun questions.

In My Suitcase

It’s a memory game! Start a sentence with, “I’m going on vacation, and I packed…” and begin with an item that starts with the letter A. The next player will choose an item that starts with B, but they have to add the previous player’s item onto their sentence. For example, you could say, “I’m going on vacation, and I packed accessories.” Next, the person could say, “I’m going on vacation, and I packed accessories and a brush.” See how long you can go until someone forgets.

SHOP SUITCASES

.css-l114lb:before{background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:contain;background-size:contain;content:'';display:block;margin:auto auto 0.25rem;}.loaded .css-l114lb:before{background-image:url('/_assets/design-tokens/thepioneerwoman/static/images/butterfly.svg');}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-l114lb:before{width:2.039rem;height:1.616rem;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-l114lb:before{width:2.5rem;height:1.9rem;}} Fun

30 Pool Party Ideas That Are Sure to Make Waves

Cute Couple Captions That Are Just So Dang Sweet

75 Riddles for Adults That Will Leave You Stumped

25 Fun Picnic Games for the Whole Family

125 Cute and Unique Girl Cat Names

25 Cute Pickleball Outfits to Wear on the Court

These Two 'When Calls the Heart' Actors Are Dating

Give Dad a Laugh With These Father's Day Puns

30 Fun Father's Day Games Any Dad Will Love

177 Best Horse Names for Your Shining Stallion

These Father's Day Jokes Will Make Dad Chuckle

8 Road Trip Games to Keep Everyone Entertained, No Matter Their Age

Whether you’ve got a car full of kids, adults, friends, or family, these road trip games will make sure everyone has a good time—no equipment required..

• Copy Link copied

Lots of road trip games are free and you don’t need to pack anything other than your brain and a sense of humor.

Courtesy of Getty/Unsplash

Road trips are as much about the journey as the destination. But even though a car gives you flexibility and allows for more spontaneity than a plane, train, or bus, boredom is bound to set in. That’s where games come in.

Whether you are hitting the road with a party of 2 or 10—or with kids or adults—here are appealing games that can help pass the time and keep the “are we there yet?” chorus at bay.

20 Questions

In this classic parlor game that transitions easily into the car, one player thinks of a random person, place, or thing and the other participants take turns asking up to 20 yes-or-no questions to figure out the answer through a process of elimination. Whoever gets the answer first starts the new round.

The License Plate Game

The goal of this quintessential road trip game is to spot at least one license plate from each of the 50 states. Participants can write down the states as they see them or check them off of a list. Have kids in tow? Print out a blank map of the United States for each tot and have them color in the states whenever they see a corresponding license plate.

Build a Story

You might not write the next great American novel on your road trip, but you can create a hilarious tale collaboratively. The first player invents an opening line and then everyone takes turns adding a sentence to the story. Keep it going for as long as you need to, whether it’s the next rest stop or your final destination.

In this game, players take turns choosing letters to create a valid word (so no picking “Z” after someone says “X”). But the catch is that you don’t want to be the person to complete the word. Any player who does complete a word is penalized by receiving a letter from the word GHOST: “G” for the first penalty, “H” for the second, and so forth. Players who receive five penalties—and therefore spell out the word “GHOST”—are eliminated until one winner remains.

Scavenger Hunt

A game that involves spotting specific objects during the trip might not be ideal for the driver, but the rest of the travel party can have a blast. Simply create a list of objects to look for beforehand and distribute it to each traveler. Make the game easy or challenging by choosing items that are really common or very rare. To add some randomness to the game, create a unique list for each participant. As with any scavenger hunt, whoever finds the most items wins.

Alphabet Game

A good choice for families traveling with children, the alphabet game is another road trip classic that involves looking for words on signs and billboards that start with each letter of the alphabet, beginning with the letter “A” until reaching “Z.” Players can simply yell out the word when they see it, and the whole group moves on to the next letter. Whoever spots the most words wins.

Interactive Podcasts

You may not be able to convince a game show host to join your road trip adventure, but your entire travel party can put their smarts to the test by pressing play on a trivia or brain teaser podcast like Good Job, Brain! or Road Trip Riddles .

Name the Passenger

As you make your way along the open road, keep an eye on passengers in the other vehicles around you. (Unless you are driving, of course.) Pick some passengers at random and have a discussion about what name you would assign to them and why. Some laughs are guaranteed.

• lol Badge Feed
• win Badge Feed
• trending Badge Feed

Browse links

• © 2024 BuzzFeed, Inc
• Consent Preferences
• Accessibility Statement

14 Road Trip Games Adults Will Actually Enjoy

Before tablets and podcasts, we used games to keep us entertained. For your next road trip, try some of these games to keep you going along the way.

Brand Publisher

Road trips always seem like a great idea at the beginning, and they are! But let's face it: spending hours on end in a moving metal box with the same people can take its toll on your patience. Especially if energetic kids are involved.

So here, to combat potential boredom and irritability in passengers any age, are some fun road trip games to keep everyone in the car happy:, 1. if you have some sleepy passengers in the car, you should definitely play "while you were sleeping.".

The Game: Create the most believable story when someone falls asleep

• First, a passenger must fall asleep

• After five minutes of slumber, the awake passengers begin creating a story

• Each person takes turns adding to the story

• Once the passenger wakes up, you have to get them to believe the story

• If somebody breaks character, they lose a point

• If somebody goes off script, you ask, "Are you sure?" and then that person is silenced and loses two points

• If you successfully fool the person, each storyteller wins three points

• If the sleeping passenger fools the car and joins their story correctly, they steal their current point total

• The one with the most points at the destination wins

2. Change ONE letter of a title and get people to guess it by describing the plot.

The game:  Change ONE letter of a title and get people to guess it by describing the plot. Unfortunately this game doesn't have a name like the others do, but it's still super fun and you can play it anywhere.

• Pick a movie, video game, TV show, or book title and change one letter of it. Don't pick anything to obscure.

• Get people to guess it by describing the plot of the new title you created. For example, you might change Beauty and the Beast to Beauty and the F east , and make up a new plot about a beautiful woman who runs a catering company and has to plan the biggest meal of her career.

• Adding or subtracting a letter from the title also works, just as long as it's still only one letter. Example: Star Warts  instead of Star Wars

3. For a good old-fashioned guessing game, play "21 Questions."

The Game: Guess what a person is thinking in 21 questions

• Someone thinks of something

• Then the car begins by asking questions

• You can't repeat a question that has been asked

• Whoever guesses it right gets to start the next round

4. If your car mates are current and hip on events, then you should play "Did You Hear That...?"

The Game: Pop culture and news collide for a fun game of fact or fiction

• You are trying to fool your opponent

• You start by asking, "Did you hear that _______ happened?"

• Your opponent can either say, "That didn't happen," or, "Tell me more."

• If they correctly guess that it didn't happen, the opponent gets two points

• If they incorrectly guess that it didn't happen, you steal one point and gain two additional

• If you are asked, "Tell me more," points double at the end of the statement

5. For a car full of human jukeboxes, play "The Singing Game."

The Game: Connect song lyrics for a fun sing-along game

• One person starts singing a song

• Using a lyric from the song, the next person has to connect it with another song

• It continues on until somebody messes up the lyrics or is stumped

• "I kissed a girl and I..."

• "...Really, really, really like you..."

• "...Doing that thing you do, breaking my heart into a million..."

6. If your car is full of film buffs, play "The Movie Game."

The Game: Connect actors through movies they have starred in

• The game starts with an actor/actress

• The next person has to say a movie that they were in

• The following person has to state another actor/actress from that movie

• It continues on

• If someone is incorrect, they have to sit out the next round

• Elijah Wood

• Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

• Sean Astin

7. When you have a car full of optimists, play "Fortunately/Unfortunately."

The Game: Making a fortunate situation out of an unfortunate situation

• One person starts by saying "Fortunately" and mentioning something fortunate

• The next person has to follow by saying something unfortunate about the previous situation

• Move clockwise around the car switching between fortunate and unfortunate situations

• If somebody stumbles, they get a strike. Three strikes, and you're out

• Last man standing wins

• Fortunately, this will be my first time seeing the Grand Canyon

• Unfortunately, it was invaded by Martians just last week

• Fortunately, I just finished my course in extraterrestrial communications

8. All know-it-alls will spark some fierce competition if you play "The Alphabet Categories."

• This is NOT the road sign game; you name things in alphabetical order from a category

• You start with a category like food, bands, cars, etc.

• You start with A and travel down the alphabet

• You can get as specific with your categories as you want

9. If you love to get your snack on, definitely play "Regional Food Master."

The Game: Collect the most regional snacks between the start and finish of your road trip

• At each gas station you stop at, you have to find a local snack

• You can only get one food item per gas station

• The food item has to be created within the region the stop is located

• Whoever has the most snacks by your destination wins

• Duplicate cities don't count

10. For the spontaneous math wizards, play "The Counting Game."

The Game: See how high you can collectively count without any order

• Somebody random begins with the number one

• Another person follows at random with the next number

• If two people say the same number at the same time, you start over

• If there is more than a five-second pause, you start over

• You are trying to get to the number 20

11. For all the walking encyclopedias, play "The Name Game."

The Game: Connect first and last names of famous people

• Start with the name of anyone famous (besides yourself, duh...)

• The next person has to say a person whose first name starts with the letter of the previous last name

• If somebody mentions a person where both the first and last name start with the same letter, the game reverses in order (e.g., Bob Barker, Lindsay Lohan, Mandy Moore, etc.)

• Tom Brady

• Billy Joel

• Janet Jackson (reverse!)

• John Oliver

12. For the aspiring DJs in your car, play "Battle of the Bands."

The game: Two people battle to pick the best song based on a category

• One person gives a theme, like "songs about cities" or "love songs"

• Two contestants have 60 seconds

• Each contestant takes a turn playing their selected song

• The car judges the two selections and picks a winner

• Tally up scores at the end of the game

13. If you consider yourself a wordsmith, then definitely play "Word Association."

The Game: See how far you can string along words through association

• The name of the game is associations

• One person begins with a word

• The following person has to think of a word that is associated

• The game continues until somebody messes up or says something far-out

• Taco Salad

14. If you are looking for an easy laugh, play "Cows on My Side."

The Game: Holler when you see a cow!

• When you see a cow on your side of the road, you have to yell, "Cows on my side!"

• Every time you call a cow, you get a point

• If you see cows on the other side you say, "Cows on your side!"

• If you call, "Cows on your side," before the person sees them, you steal a point

• If anyone sees a cemetery they scream, "Ghost cow," stealing all the other side's points

15. And if you want to kick it old-school, play "The Alphabet Game."

The Game: This is the classic alphabet game everyone knows and loves. Go through alphabet using words on signs

• You are trying to find words in alphabetical order

• You can use billboards, business, and road signs

• You can't use license plates

• The first one to get to the end of the alphabet wins

• Once a word is said, nobody else can repeat that word

Have a favorite road trip game? Add it in the comments below!

Sometimes it isn't the destination that matters, it's the journey. for all your road trips, let bp fuel your journey..

All images courtesy of Thinkstock.

Share This Article

Home › Blog › 15 Road Trip Games To Bust Travel Boredom

15 Road Trip Games To Bust Travel Boredom

By Tania Griffis

Published Apr 21, 2024

Are you looking to hit the road on a family road trip? Keep the kids occupied with my go-to road trip games and activities so that the entire family has a good time.

For some parents, getting out on the open road sounds like a dream. The chance to get a change of scenery and make fun family memories.

For other parents, the idea of driving with kids for more than 90 minutes brings to mind choruses of “Are we there yet?” and “I’m bored!”.

Well, not anymore!

The key to a successful (and fun!) family road trip is a little pre-planning. Preparing yourself with a variety of fun road trip car games and other activities will go a long way toward everyone having a good time out on the road.

Check out these 15 fun road trip games for kids to keep everyone laughing and having a great time in the car.

Road Trip Tips For Success

If you really want to be prepared for a fun adventure with no whining, follow these pro tips.

• Create a fun activities kit – an activity packet , if you will, of paper games and activities that the kids can pull out and participate in as they desire. Grab all the ideas you need down below!
• Have some other verbal games in your “back pocket” that you can pull out for distraction or to buy yourself some more time before your next stop. Games like Twenty Questions, I Spy, etc.
• Bring snacks – there is just something about being out on the open road that builds up an appetite! Pack a bunch and hand one out every hour or so.
• Bring a charged electronic device (as well as the corresponding charge cord…and maybe an external charge pack). You can use this for apps as well as podcasts and even books.

Fun (And FREE) Road Trip Printable- Just For You!

We know firsthand how tough road trips can be sometimes. Which is why we made our own license plate game to make the car ride even more fun!

Download our printable of the classic license plate game and see who can find a license plate from each state first (the competition is the best part)!

Here’s a sneak peek of what it looks like…

>>> DOWNLOAD HERE<<<

Bring Fun Road Trip Games With You

Now, onto some more fun games!

Check out these can’t-miss ideas to keep your kids occupied and having a great time as you cruise down the road.

Road Trip I Spy | Stuffed Suitcase

Keep those eyes open! I spy…a police car. Keep kids occupied and their brains off of food (or the bathroom) by playing this terrific car version of I Spy.

Word Building Activity Kit | I Heart Craft Things

Incorporate learning for your kids into your travel with this road trip game idea. I love that you can adapt it to your needs by customizing it with color words, sight words, or whatever your child is currently learning!

Draw On Windows

Good news! Dry erase markers can be used to draw on windows. Coloring can take up a good chunk of time. Using dry erase markers makes it easy to erase one artwork and make a new one.

Travel Journal Binder | Sweet Rose Studio

A travel journal binder allows kids to write about what they see and do on their trip. Answer questions on a paper or free write whatever comes to mind. That’s great practice for reading and writing skills. ?

Don’t forget to include the pencil case in your binder filled with colored pencils instead of crayons (crayons can melt in the heat).

Twenty Questions

A classic. My kids delight in trying to stump each other – and us – by choosing the most obscure things! It’s the perfect road trip game to get the whole family involved.

DIY Travel Lego Box | Live A Little Wilder

Talk about a fun road trip game! This idea is genius. If your kids love to build with legos, then this idea is for you.

I love that the kids can build with and store their legos all in one place. It’s a great way to keep the car clean and organized!

States and Capitals

If you’re here then I know you’re looking for fun (and maybe educational) road trip games for kids. Play trivia games that involve learning all the states and their capitals.

My family did it when I was a kid, and I still remember those fun times to this day (and play the game with my kids!).

Make a Hurricane Jar | One Time Through

Look how amazing these look! My kids are mesmerized by these amazing DIY hurricane jars and can look at them for long periods of time.

They are great to use when you need to help the kids to calm down (nap time, anyone?).

Road Trip A-Z Car Game

This idea is geared mostly toward kiddos who can read. However, if your little one knows letter sounds, they might be able to join in on the fun.

To play, simply take turns finding an object that starts with the next letter in alphabetical order. This is great for building up observational skills!

Would You Rather? | The Measured Mom

I don’t know about you, but I have a ball listening to my kids play “Would You Rather…?” with each other. If you need some ideas to get started, check out the link above.

The questions they ask are so random and funny, and both the questions and answers are always met with squeals of laughter.

Music to my ears!

Kids love a good joke-telling session and can occupy themselves for ages with some funny (and cringe-worthy) jokes.

If anything, buy them the Big Book of Silly Jokes For Kids . It has over 800+ jokes!

Listen to Podcasts | Made in a Pinch

If you haven’t tried listening to podcasts with your kids, you (and they) are seriously missing out! Podcasts are now available on a huge variety of topics.

Find a funny podcast or one that tells stories that will take your kiddos on an adventure – without a screen.

Lines and Dots Game | Mom’s Minivan

You can print off the cards (an easier version or younger kids or a harder one for older kids) and find out the rules for this mind-strengthening road trip game for the kiddos.

Pro Tip: Print it off, slide your sheet into a plastic sheet protector and include it in your DIY travel binder. Then, the kids can use dry erase markers, erase it, and play again later!

Let Them Use Apps

I saved this suggestion for last, because I do believe in the memory-making potential of road trips through playing games together. However, as a parent, I know all too well that there are times when you need to talk with your partner…or just need a little quiet time.

That’s when educational and other fun apps (or even digital books) can be great road trip games to keep those kiddos entertained and happy.

Some great examples include:

• Rory’s Story Cubes
• Agents of Discovery

Use these 15 ideas for fun road trip games to help the entire family have a great time on your next road trip!

Don’t forget to download our printable of the classic license plate game !

More From One Crazy House:

• Popular Road Trip Printables
• 10 Road Trip Snacks to Pack on Your Next Trip
• 14 Road Trip Tips You’ll Love

You Might Also Like

12 of the Best Large Tents for Large Families

17 Crazy Smart Must-Have Road Trip Tips and Hacks

23 Beach Day Hacks For An Awesome Day At The Beach With Kids

10 Must-Try Things To Do On Spring Break

Camping Tips Hacks & Tips Travel Tricks & Tips

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

FEATURED BY

©2024 DIY House Hacks - One Crazy House. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy • Cookie Policy • Disclosure Policy • Powered by CultivateWP .

28 Fun Car Road Trip Games For Kids And Families

By: Author Nakia Pullen

Posted on Published: September 29, 2023  - Last updated: March 23, 2024

It seems that family road trips are making a comeback, especially for people who are interested in seeing the country from the ground instead of the air.  

We all have the advantage of knowing how kids can start to feel antsy during road trips because we have experienced it ourselves as children.  

Having a list of things to do during road trips is helpful for the entire family.  The miles go by much more quickly for a child who is busy and parents have the joy of happily entertained children.

With all the things you already have on your to do list for going on trips (which includes packing for pretty much everyone!), we thought you would appreciate some assistance with the in-car entertainment!

These games do not have to be complicated at all. 

For most of them, you only need your imagination and the optional piece of paper, so there is no worry about overpacking the car with a ton of activity related paraphernalia.

Keep this list at the ready for that time (probably within the first hour of your trip) that you hear the words dreaded by most parents….”I’m bored!”  or, my personal favorite, “Are we there yet?”

You will be able to quickly change the vibe in the car by introducing any of the fun road trip games we have listed below.  Best of all, you might all have a ton of fun and be at your destination before you know it!

Road Trip Games For Kids

1. Play Road Trip Bingo

I remember looking at road signs a lot when I was on a long road trip as a child.  Younger kids would love playing road trip bingo to make the miles go by faster.

A great way to help supplement this game is with this colorful and fun  road trip BINGO printable .  Playing this game will help the kids keep their eyes on what is outside instead of spending hours on screen time!

2. Have A Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

One of the best ways to pass the time is to have the kids have something to look for.  

Our  road trip scavenger hunt printable  will help set you up to get started with fun ideas for your next road trip.

The kids will be on such good behavior because they will be so busy looking for all the of items of their scavenger hunt!  

For an added bonus, the winner could have the first choice of a treat at a fast-food restaurant!

3. See Who Can Find More Of Each Color Car

This next option is a road trip classic!  It is a great game especially for kids who are getting more familiar with colors.   

Everyone looks to see how many cars of each color they are able to find along the way.

To help keep track of the cars, we have this cute  car color find printable  to help keep track of everything.  

You could also include bonus points for unusual colors, interesting designs or trucks with different store logos on them!

4. Spot Items Of The Alphabet

Starting with the letter A, spot items on your trip that start with corresponding letters.  This is definitely a game that can include the entire family. 

 If you have little ones, it may be better to take turns and help them so they do not get lost in the shuffle of competition.  

5. Ask Each Other Fun Questions

Road trips are great ways to get to know each other even better than you already do!  Asking each other different questions can really give you a new insight into each member of your family.

The sky is really the limit with what types of questions you can ask.  Sometimes the easiest way to start on these questions is to ask some that make your kids laugh.  

A funny example of this would be  gross would you rather questions !  In addition to gaining instant interest, these questions will also get everyone laughing.

If your road trip happens to be during the summer, you can try out some great  summer would you rather questions  to celebrate the season of sun and fun!

Other questions that will get your kids chatting include  fun questions to ask kids  and the ever entertaining  this or that questions .  

You will definitely be surprised at the variety of answers you get as well as the priceless insight you may get into the personalities of the people in your family! 

The most important thing is to listen and take in the answers from your little ones!

6. Tell Funny Jokes

There is nothing better than hearing jokes from little kids!  It’s one of my favorite car activities.

If your joke bank is running low, we have you covered with  jokes for young children .

If you have kids that have outgrown their car seats and may have a more sophisticated sense of humor, we have also included  jokes for older kids .

Leave room for your kids to bring up jokes they have heard or even better, jokes they have made up by themselves!

7. Play Sevens

Each person in the car takes turns counting and anytime the number is a multiple of 7 that person has to say BUZZ or else they are out.

If you need to modify this game for younger kids, you can start with multiples of 2 and maybe work in teams so that an adult can help.

8.Play Cows And Graveyards

Each person in the car counts the number of cows they see, but when you see a graveyard, it cancels everyone’s cows. Designate one person to keep a tally of cows and graveyard losses.

The person with the most cows at the end wins.  

9. Play Hey Cow

If you spot a herd of cattle, one player rolls down their window and YELLS “Hey COW!!” as loudly as they can. You get one point if the cow looks at you.

10. Play I Went To The Market

The person who starts says “I went to the market and bought (something that starts with A- apple, maybe). The next person has to remember apple and add something with B.

This memory game will give everyone’s brain some needed exercise!

11. Play The License Plate Game

Who knew that you could use license plates to help teach your kids about United States geography?  That is precisely what this classic game is all about.  

Print off a map of the United States for each family member.  The maps will be used as score cards for everyone- kind of like a bingo card.

During the long car ride, each person keeps an eye on license plates of the cars on the road.  If the license plate is from the state you are in, it counts for zero points.

If the license plate is from a state touching the state you are in, it counts for one point.  Every state that touches a one point state is worth two points and so on.

When someone spots a license plate, they must call out the state to get the point for themselves.  This is a perfect way to help your kids learn about different states and their locations!

At the end of your long trip, you can tally the points on each score card to declare a winner!

12. Play Guess The Animal

This is one of the best games to keep everyone busy and learning at the same time.  

One person thinks of an animal and everyone takes turns asking only yes or no questions to figure out what animal that person chose.

For young kids, your best option is to keep answers and questions more simple to meet them where they are in their animal knowledge.  

However, the entire family will be surprised at how much your kids really know about animals!

13. Play Name That Person

Select a person in a passing car and make up their life story.  The story can be as silly and magical as you want.  

Make sure you give them a good backstory and a lot of side characters to follow the main character on their life story journey. 

14. Play The Strange And Unusual Game

Each time someone sees something strange or unusual, they get a point.  

15. Play The Counting Game

One person in the car starts with 1, then someone else (randomly without being signaled) says 2. If two people say it at the same time, you start back at one. The end goal is to get to 20.

You will be amazed at how much this will make everyone laugh!

16. Play Name The Song/Artist

Playing this game is such a good way to have your travel music playlist work double duty for you!  

It is also a one of the better road trip activities to take part in for those of us who experience motion sickness and have a challenge looking at things inside the car while it is moving.

There are a few variations of this game.  You can play the beginning of the song to see if people can guess it.  

You can also have someone say the lyrics to a song and everyone guesses.  

Make sure you have a kid safe playlist that has songs that kids of all ages can identify!

17. Play Triple Threat

Someone says three random nouns and the other people in the car have to tell a story about the three items.  

You could either have one person tell the tale, have each person tell a different story, or have everyone take turns and be involved in the same story.  

No matter what you choose, this game will score high in the creativity and fun category!

18. Have A Rock Paper Scissors Tournament

Among some of my favorite road trip games has to be rock paper scissors!  Make sure you go over the rules: rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper and paper beats rock.  

If there is a tie, the people who tied get to go against each other again until there is no tie.  The people who lose could wash the car windows on the next stop or help get snacks for the winners.  

The tournament could resume after each car stop.

19. Play Punch Buggy

Also called Slug Bug or Punch Bug, this game consists of looking for Volkswagen bug vehicles.  Make sure the kids are clear on what one looks like before you begin!

When someone spots a bug, he or she lightly punches the person next to them and says “Punch Buggy!”.   A variation of this can be to include the color of the bug vehicle that was spotted.  

You can designate a person to keep a tally of each family member’s finds.  Designate one point for a found bug and take away a point for each time punch buggy is called in error.

Go over the level of punch with your kids to start or you can change the rules to have them tap each other.  Sometimes the excitement of the game can lead to and overexcitement in the punch category!

That being said, keep the game light and fun and give each other kudos for their finds.  The only out of bounds area for this game is when passing by a Volkswagen dealership, or else mayhem may ensue!  

The winner can be declared the bug champion of the trip!

20. Play Mystery Phrase

It’s like telephone, but you spell the phrase out in a person’s hand.  To help ease the guessing a little bit, you could come up with themes, like summer items, animal names or shapes, for example.

This game is sure to get the laughter going in the car!

21. Play Fortunately, Unfortunately

This storytelling game will help you all create a story with tons of exciting ups and downs!  

The first person says something like:” Fortunately, I remembered to bring sunscreen”, and then the next person says something like “but unfortunately, it made my skin green!” and so forth while telling a silly story.

Every sentence starts alternately with Fortunately or Unfortunately, thereby changing the story for better or worse with each sentence.  Kids will enjoy the general silliness of this game!

22. Play Mad Libs

These road trip-themed Mad Libs are perfect for your next trip!

If you would like to reuse stories, depending on the length of the drive, you can put them in clear pocket folders and use erasable markers to fill in each blank.

23. Play I Spy

Each person starts their turn with the phrase “I spy with my little eye….”  and then they give some form of description about an item they happen to see out the window of the car.

For example, someone might say “I spy with my little eye something green” and then everyone else in the car starts guessing items outside that are green until someone guesses correctly.

24. Play The Quiet Game

For the times when things have gotten too loud and rambunctious (especially in the back seats!), this game will help chill things out, at least for a while!

As the name suggests, the point of the game is to stay quiet.  The last team or person to stay quiet the longest, wins the game.

While I can not guarantee that this game will last long, it will give at least a short break and most likely end in laughter!

25. Play The Category Game

One person chooses a category and a letter (for example, animals and the letter G).  Then each person takes turns naming items in this category that start with the chosen letter.

So for our example we would have gorillas, goats, giraffes, gerbils, etc.  The first person who can not think of a word for the category is out and gets to pick the next letter.

The remaining players continue to name items in the category, but now using the next letter that was chosen.  You continue to play the game this way until everyone but one person is out.

The winner gets to choose the next category and letter for the next game.

26. Play The Name Game

The first person in this game starts off with the name of their choice.  Then the next person has to figure out a name that starts with the last letter of the first name and so on.

For example: Adam, Mary, Yolanda, Aiden.  Anyone who can not think of a name or repeats a name already used is out.  The last person left at the end wins the game!

27. Play Two Truths and a Lie

One player tells everyone two things that are true and one thing that is a lie.  Everyone else has to guess which of these is the lie.

This can be quiet challenging since you are most likely traveling with people who know you pretty well!

28. Play Tic-Tac-Toe

For this simple game you can use a piece of paper and pass it back and forth.  If you want to do something a little different, you can find tic-tac-toe magnets and use a small cookie sheet to stick them to.

For a bonus, you can add other fun magnets with pictures of the alphabet that can encourage some independent play as well!

We sincerely hope that this list will help ease some of the pressures that can come with a long road trip.  

Time together with family can be wonderful, but it can also feel like a lot when you are all crammed in a small space for hours at a time!

While not every minute has to be life changing and amazing, it is good to have a plan to keep the kids (and adults!) busy and happy.  

Remember that it is also ok for the kids to do their own thing at times as well.  While it is nice to do things together, you also need a break every now and then and that is definitely ok!

Have fun and enjoy those sweet moments where you are all enjoying yourselves and laughing so hard that your eyes are watering!

Happy trails and as always, you’ve got this!

Super Funny Road Trip Mad Libs Printables

Saturday 23rd of March 2024

[…] with packing activity books, a great way to keep everyone busy is with fun road trip games that will create so much fun that the time will go by so […]

Fill-In-The-Blank Would You Rather Game

Monday 11th of March 2024

[…] great way to start is to check out these road trip games that will lead to loads of family fun on the […]

Saturday 7th of October 2023

What an incredible post about fun car road trip games for kids and families! I absolutely love the idea of "See Who Can Find More Of Each Color Car." It's such a fantastic way to engage everyone in the car and keep them entertained while enjoying the journey. "Play Name The Song/Artist" is another brilliant game that brings the joy of music into the road trip experience. And let's not forget about "The Quiet Game" – a classic game that can provide some much-needed tranquility during long drives. Thank you for sharing these fantastic ideas! They really make car journeys more enjoyable, memorable, and filled with laughter.

Brenda Kosciuk

Thanks for the appreciation!

57 Car Activities For Toddlers For A Stress-Free Trip!

Friday 29th of September 2023

[…] a bunch of these car games for kids and car activities for 2 year olds, 3 year olds or 4 year olds ready to go will help you to not […]

5 Fun Scavenger Hunt For Road Trips Printables

[…] to a great start (or end!) to your next trip! I hope these road trip games are […]

The Best Road Trip Games For Kids, Teens, and Adults

Traveling by car might not be the quickest or most glamorous way to get to a destination, but it can be tons of fun. You just need these road trip games!

Ah, the open road! There’s nothing like it. Crank up the tunes, put the windows down, open the sunroof, and feel the wind blowing through your hair. There’s so much to see out there! Eyes open wide as you pass new sights, “moo” at cows in fields, and play some awesome road trip games.

Traveling by car might not be the quickest or most glamorous way to get to a destination, but it’s the most common and certainly be tons of fun. You just need to know how to make it exciting, and we’re here to help! We’ve listed the very best games for kids, teens, and adults to play while traveling.

Make a Stop for a Scavenger Hunt

You could create your own scavenger hunt for the car, but why not make a stop in one of the 400+ cities where we offer ready-made epic adventures! Get ready to stretch your legs because these app-led hunts are packed with interesting sights that you’ll be challenged to find. Each landmark is fantastic in and of itself, but we’ll also share interesting facts, quiz you with some local trivia, and prompt you to take social-media share-worthy photos. All of this can be yours for less than the price of a movie—and our scavenger hunts will leave you with lasting memories. Give one a try!

Road Trip Games for Young Kids

These days, you can order an  I Spy Travel Car Game  from Amazon, but it’s not absolutely necessary. You can certainly play I Spy without it.

This guessing game is technically easier to play while stopped, but many families have enjoyed it as a road trip game. The only thing is that, since you’re moving, it’s best to choose items that can be viewed in plain sight, within the car or in a book or magazine. 

To start, players must decide on the first spy. That child will need to say “I spy, with my little eye” and give a clue to what they’ve seen. The item itself should remain a secret until the other players guess. For example, if the spy chooses a straw, he might start with “I spy, with my little eye, something that starts with an S.”

The player who correctly guesses the object gets to be the next spy.

Restaurant Race

There are so many chain restaurants out there and passengers probably see hundreds of them on an average road trip. Another easy game, Restaurant Race lets passengers each choose a chain and collect points whenever they hear it on a radio commercial, see a billboard, or see the actual restaurant.

The Alphabet Game

The Alphabet Game works best on long car rides with many objects to see along the way. The object is to proceed through the alphabet by finding words or things that start with each letter of the alphabet. This is a fun game and helps young kiddos learn their alphabet.

Unless you’re allowing road signs (and maybe sometimes if you are), it’s best to leave out letters like Q, X, and Z. We’re assuming it’s unlikely you are traveling somewhere kids will see and recognize quails, Xolos, and zebra!

Kids can play this game competitively or cooperatively. To play competitively, each child must go through the entire alphabet, and the first player to finish wins. To play cooperatively, take turns going through the letters as you proceed from A to Z.

Punch Buggy

This family road trip game has been around for decades! Playing is as easy as identifying Volkswagen Beetles on the road and remembering to “call” them. All you have to do is yell “punch buggy” or slug bug!”

Back when some of the Let’s Roam crew were kids, we didn’t just call the cars as we saw them; we also punched each other’s arms. Since we’re living in a kinder world now, we don’t advise that. You can just play for points.

Sometimes, passengers can agree on special circumstances. For instance, you might opt to give more points for old-school bugs, convertibles, VW buses, bugs on the side of the road, etc. You could even give bonus points for spotting Beetles in limited edition colors.

There is a variation on this game that can be played at night. It’s called Padiddle and, instead of Volkswagen Beetles, passengers try to be the first to call out cars with at least one headlight out. We used to hit the car roof when we saw padiddles, but tiny kids won’t be able to reach that. Like punch buggy, it’s just as fun without the hitting!

First One to See It

This is an uncomplicated game for the little explorers. It’s all in the name! Pick certain landmarks and offer points or rewards for the first to spot them from the car. If you’re traveling to a different state, you could give a small reward, like a special sticker, to the first passenger who spots the “Welcome” sign.

You might want to set different point values for references vs. the actual business. Kids can get 5 points for each advertisement and 10 points for each sighting of the restaurant. Set a time limit or play for the entire trip. When time is up, the winner is the passenger with the most points!

This is a clever take on the age-old game of Bingo. Car bingo, or travel bingo, can be played with DIY, commercial, or printable bingo cards . They’re different from the typical B-I-N-G-O cards because, instead of numbers, the blocks are full of things typically seen on a road trip.

A typical car bingo card might have a school bus, a hospital, a traffic cone, a cow, and an airplane. Just as in traditional bingo, players will mark items off as they come up until someone gets all of the objects in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row. You can also play for four corners, an X, or a full card.

This is a terrific game for little ones, but you could modify it for older age groups by changing the items on the cards. You could even make it a more adult game by associating the cards with things like common road rage expressions, things often heard on car trips, or unusual roadside sights.

Miles of Smiles

This fun road trip game oozes positivity and should help a long trip to go more smoothly! Challenge kids to brighten up the moods of passersby with their biggest smiles and see how many smile back.

The real appeal of this game is that it’s a feel-good way to pass some time on the road, but you could keep track of points—10 points for a smile, 15 for a wave, and 20 for a smile, wave, and beep.

Road Trip Games for Teens

The License Plate Game

The general premise of the license plate game is that passengers collect points when they are the first to spot specified things on license plates—every state, every letter of the alphabet, etc. You can vary it according to the way your group would like to play.

From our experience, one of the most common methods is to challenge players to be the first to spot all of the letters of the alphabet and/or numbers 0-9 in order . The first one to finish wins. Alternatively, passengers can mark states off a list and the person who spots the most unique states on license plates is the victor.

One clever variation on the license plate game is that passengers try making up silly word combinations with the letters on the license plates on passing cars. So, RKG could translate to “Rich keeps guppies.” The more the sentence seems to fit the driver or others in the car, the better the game ends up!

The Name Game

The name game also has variations but is most frequently played by going through rounds of categories. Passengers decide on an order. The first person names a category and each player needs to name something that not only fits the category but also begins with the same letter that starts their own name.

To increase the difficulty, you can time answers by using a timer or whistling the Jeopardy theme song. Anyone who gets stumped is eliminated. If you are playing with only a few passengers, You can allow 2 “stumps” but, on the third strike, the player is out.

The Memory Game

You can play this memory game in a number of different ways, but the premise remains the same. Players go through the alphabet naming something that begins with each letter. What makes it tough is that each player needs to remember and must recount everything that’s been mentioned before their turn.

One variation, “In My Suitcase,” begins with the first player saying, “I’m going on a trip and, in my suitcase, I packed” and listing an object that begins with an A. The next player repeats what player 1 said and adds something that begins with a B, and so on. For example:

Player 1: “I’m going on a trip and, in my suitcase, I packed an adapter” Player 2: “I’m going on a trip and, in my suitcase, I packed an adapter and a blanket.” Player 3: “I’m going on a trip and, in my suitcase, I packed an adapter, a blanket, and a camera.”

Players continue until they get to the letter Z (or everyone gives up). To make the game a little less challenging, you could eliminate tough letters like X. To make the game more difficult, you could restrict players to objects that meet a certain theme, like objects you would actually pack in a suitcase. Just change the original statement according to the topic you choose.

This is a guessing game that tests players’ pop culture knowledge. One passenger chooses a celebrity to portray but doesn’t say who it is. As other passengers ask questions to try to determine the player’s secret celebrity identity, the “actor” answers the questions as the celeb would.

This doesn’t require any acting skills (although those could make it more entertaining)! Questions can be about anything, from daily habits to high-profile romance details. The first person to correctly guess the secret identity wins the right to portray s famous person of their choice.

The Movie Game

While we’re focusing on pop culture, we can’t leave out the movie game. This activity is challenging but can pass a lot of travel time.

To play this game, one passenger starts by naming an actor. The next player must name a movie or show that the actor was in. Then, the next passenger must name another actor from that show or film. Keep going until all players are completely stumped.

It may sound easy, but after a while, the movie game can really get tricky. It can be just as enjoyable with two people as with ten. It’s a fantastic pastime during a family vacation and it’s popular on school field trips with a large group of kids.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

This is a super simple game, but it can lead to lots of laughs! Basically, you start a story that all of the passengers will make up as the game goes on. The catch is that each part of the story starts with “fortunately” or “unfortunately.” The first person starts the story with a sentence that begins with “fortunately.” The next person begins the second sentence of the story with “unfortunately,” and the story progresses from there.

Player 1: “Fortunately, we decided to go on a vacation.” Player 2: “Unfortunately, we decided to take the car.” Player 3: “Fortunately, our car is very comfortable.” Player 4: “Unfortunately, it was a very long ride.” Player 1: “Fortunately, we read Let’s Roam’s article about the best road trip games before we left!”

Get the idea? We told you it was easy!

String Along

Study your playlist before your trip because, if you’re playing this road trip game, you’ll need to know your music. This is a fun way to test players’ knowledge of song lyrics.

The first player says or sings one line from a song. Each subsequent player must sing a line from another song that begins with the same word the previous lyric ended with.

Road Trip Games for Adults

Would You Rather

“Would you rather” questions are ideal conversation starters, but they work with any sort of company. All you need to do is think about interesting choices that will help you get to know your traveling companions or might spark discussion.

The questions you ask can be as practical or unusual as you’d like. Here are some samples:

• Would you rather go skydiving or deep-sea diving?
• Would you rather be on a reality TV show or star in a romantic comedy?
• Would you rather have a velociraptor or a brontosaurus?
• Would you rather quit watching sports or quit listening to music?
• Would you rather relive your most embarrassing moment or your scariest?

If you’re looking for more ideas, we’ve got 50 would you rather questions for couples . Even if you’re traveling with friends or family members, some of the suggestions might inspire you.

This road trip game ended up on our list for adults because of its complexity. We assure you—as difficult as it is to explain, it’s not nearly as tough to play. It’s kind of a combination of the basketball game of HORSE and Hangman. Even if you’re not familiar with those, we’re pretty sure you’ll get the hang of it!

At the start of the game, players should agree on a minimum acceptable word length. Then, a starting player thinks of a word and says its first letter. The next person must add a letter that follows the first to start an actual word. They don’t have to be thinking of the same word—all that matters is that a real word can be spelled with each letter given. Each subsequent player must add a letter until someone adds a letter that eliminates the chances of creating a longer word.

If the first person chooses the letter C, the second might choose an R. The third player could name the letter O. If the next player should choose a letter that extends but does not complete the word. The object is to try to see how long a word you can create by selecting one letter at a time.

So where does “GHOST” come into all of this? While the game progresses, if a player cannot think of a letter that extends the word everyone is spelling, they might be tempted to throw out a random letter. Any other player can call that person’s bluff by asking the word they had in mind. If the stumped passenger cannot give an actual word that could be spelled with their letter, they are assigned the letter G.

If it happens again, they get the letter H. A third time? They get the letter O, and this goes on until they become a GHOST and are out of the game. You could also be punished with a letter from the word GHOST if you finish a word too soon.

Even while players are being assigned letters from the word “GHOST,” word-forming continues. Each time a word is successfully completed, the next turn starts a new word. This goes on until all but one player is a GHOST. The only player to remain alive is the champion!

20 Questions

“20 questions” is a popular pastime that is fantastic for adult road trips. In case you’ve never played it, you’ll be glad to know the instructions aren’t quite as complicated as our previous game! It can be played with kids, but sometimes it’s too complex for the young crowd and not quite exciting enough for teens. Adults always seem to like it!

To play, passengers take turns thinking of a person, animal, object, or landmark. (If you’re playing old-school style, the choices are typically animal, vegetable, or mineral.) Once they have someone or something in mind, they can give the other players the category their choice falls into. Each guesser takes turns asking yes/no questions until someone correctly guesses or all 20 questions have been used.

Name That Tune

This is a travel-friendly version of the game show! The easiest way to play is to take turns playing snippets of songs and see who can identify the song from brief clips. The person who correctly guesses receives points and picks the next song. Mobile devices and worldwide connectivity have made this much easier to adapt as a road trip game.

If you want to make it even more like the game show, you can allow players to challenge each other to see who thinks they can guess the song with the shortest snippet. If they fail, other players can guess and steal the points for that round. Set a time or song limit so you know when the game will be over. In the end, the person with the most points wins.

What Am I Counting?

This game is great to play just about anywhere you may be riding. Take turns coming up with objects that are seen multiple times on a trip. On each turn, someone counts out loud every time they see one of whatever “it” is until another player guesses what’s being counted.

Once a player correctly guesses what’s being counted, they start the next round. Play until everyone has gone or you get tired and want to move on to another game.

Six Degrees

Do you remember the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game popularized in the 90s? This road trip game is a version of that.

Based on the notion that everyone can be connected within six or fewer acquaintances, people were dumbfounded when they realized that Kevin Bacon can be connected with practically anyone in Hollywood within six degrees. The game got so popular that websites and apps, like The Oracle of Bacon , were made to test the theory. Try the site or app—you might be blown away by the results!

You can play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon in the car, or you could just play a game that connects people or celebrities within six degrees of one another. It’s amazing to see what types of ties you can come up with, even when you try to link people you know.

Best Drive I Ever Had

We’re ending with a quirky and cute game to play with friends. When you set out on the road, wait until you get to the first main highway or freeway and say, “best drive I ever had!” When they look at you as if you’ve lost your mind, explain to them that this is a new game.

Every time you get onto a new main road, someone needs to repeat, “best drive I’ve ever had.” You can play for points (given to the first person to remember each time you switch roads) or just play for laughs. Either way, it’s bound to add a little humor to the trip!

Closing Thoughts on Road Trip Games

We hope you and your friends or family try some of these travel games on an upcoming trip. If you want to get a little fancy, pack a dry erase board and marker for each passenger to list items or for someone to keep score when playing for points. They also come in handy for games like tic-tac-toe or Pictionary. Whiteboards are also easier to see than someone’s mobile device.

Speaking of mobile devices, consider a “no phones” rule for the car! Go old-school with activities, songs to sing, and the very best road trip snacks. We could all go one trip without Disney videos and podcasts.

Do you have any favorite road trip games? How about some funny or interesting memories from family car trips? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

On your next road trip, don’t forget to pack the Let’s Roam Scavenger Hunt App ! As you drive past cities, see if they’re on our list. We’ve got app-led scavenger hunts in hundreds of cities worldwide. You can purchase tickets in advance, and take a quick pit stop in any of the available locations to enjoy a little adventure!

Frequently Asked Questions

Family members of all ages can appreciate games like Travel Bingo, The Alphabet Game, What Am I Counting, and Restaurant Race. With that said, most road trip games can be family-friendly!

Many road trip games are “classics.” Even with the rise of mobile devices, today’s kids are playing some of the same travel games their grandparents played, like I Spy, Punch Buggy, and 20 Questions.

Three of the simplest road trip games to teach kids are First One to See It, I Spy, and Punch Buggy. Other easy games include Restaurant Race and Travel Bingo.

When traveling with children, come prepared with road trip games . You might also want to pack dry erase boards and markers. Remember to make pitstops and consider a scavenger hunt along the way!

Featured Products & Activities

Home » Roadside Attractions Blog » Road Trip Games » 55 Fun Road Trip Games for Adults to Play in the Car

55 Fun Road Trip Games for Adults to Play in the Car

This post contains affiliate links from which we will make a commission from your clicks and/or purchases.

• Pinterest 15

Road trips are full of fun, adventure, breathtaking landscapes, and weird roadside attractions . But sometimes they also involve long stretches of driving with nothing on your itinerary and nothing but corn out your window. In those cases, you might be looking for something to keep you and your friends entertained in the car. Enter these fun road trip games for adults.

Kids aren’t the only ones who should be able to have fun in the car. So all of these game ideas are perfect for a road trip with friends or a couples trip. Most of them can even be enjoyed by the whole family.

Read on to find some of the best road trip games for adults, and get ready for a memorable road trip!

Want more fun road trip games?

The road trip journal & activity book.

Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation.

Classic Road Trip Games for Adults

Get to know you road trip games for adults, watch out the window road trip games, travel board games, story games to play in the car, word and number road trip games, guessing games to play in the car, movie/celebrity-based adult road trip games, music car games, more road trip games for adults, road trip game apps, pin these road trip games for adults to save to play on your next road trip, fun road trip games for adults to play in the car.

Everyone knows these standard road trip games. They are such classics that everyone will have fun playing, no matter their age!

The License Plate Game

How do you play the license plate game? All you have to do is keep a look out your windows and keep track of all the different license plates you see. To win: try to be the first to spot one from every state! Each individual vehicle can only be claimed by one person, so think fast! For example, if Jane sees a red Toyota with a Montana plate, she can claim that car. John will have to wait for another Montana plate to go by. You can play this game with just a pen and paper, or you can click here to learn more about the game, get a free license plate game printable, or find versions you can play online or buy .

Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Keep your eye out for these common road trip sites. Compete in a road trip scavenger hunt to see who will claim each item first or make it a photo challenge and see who can get the best pic of or selfie with each item.

Road Sign Bingo

Play a friendly game of Road Sign Bingo . Play a traditional game where you try to get four in a row on a game sheet. Or print out a road sign checklist full of some of the most common road signs you’ll see on your road trip. Keep an eye out to see who can spot the most the fastest!

Traveling with friends, family, or a husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend? Want to get to know them a little more? These Get To Know You road trip games for adults will have everyone in the car talking.

Road Trip Questions

With all the free time you have in the car, why not spend some of it getting to know your passengers by taking turns answering fun road trip questions. This game of ice breakers and conversation starters will get the chat going. Use these 100 fun road trip questions to get everyone in the car talking. Ready to get to know your travel companions? Start asking away!

TableTopics to GO Road Trip

What was your all-time favorite vacation? Answer this and 39 other conversation starter question cards in this portable question and answer game designed for road trips.

Truth or Dare

Would you rather reveal something potentially embarrassing about yourself or do something potentially embarrassing? Play a friendly round of truth or dare while driving in your car. Take turns asking passengers, “truth or dare?” If truth is picked they have to answer any question you ask them. If they pick dare, give a wild (but car friendly) dare. A game of truth or dare in the car can be as tame or wild as you desire, and will let you really get to know your friends.

Two Truths and a Lie

Go around the car and have everyone say three facts about themselves: I studied abroad in Rome, I’ve traveled to all fifty states, my favorite color is blue. They can be anything you want…but one of them must be a lie. State two truths and one lie about yourself and then everyone else has to guess which of those facts is not so factual.

Never Have I Ever

Traditionally played as a drinking game, Never Have I Ever allows you to say something you’ve never done and learn which of your friends have. You definitely don’t want to drink and drive, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun with this get to know you game. Each person takes turns saying something they have never done using the phrase “never have I ever.” For example: “Never Have I Ever Been to Alaska,” Never Have I Ever Driven for 12 hours straight,” or “Never Have I Ever gone camping.” Then everyone else in the car has to chime in to say whether they have done the things you haven’t. If you’re playing at night by your hotel’s pool or the light of a campfire, have everyone take a drink if they have done the action in question. If you’re playing in the car, have the guilty raise their hand and yell “I have!”

The Hot Seat

Want to ask your friends questions you’d normal shy away from? Put them in the hot seat. In this road trip game everyone takes a turn in the hot seat. When it’s their turn everyone else gets to ask them any question they want. Any question they want. And the person in the hot seat has to answer. You can set a timer (like five minutes), a maximum question amount (like 5 questions), or a per person quota (everyone gets to ask two questions). Whichever way you choose to play, this game will let you all get to know each other on a whole new level.

Would You Rather

Would you rather eat only hamburgers for the rest of your life or never eat tacos again? In this game you pit two things against each other and decide which scenario you’d rather do over the other. Take tuns posing hypothetical battles and see how your answers compare to everyone else in the car!

Kiss, Marry, Kill

Say you had to choose from Joey, Chandler, and Ross on Friends. Which one would you kiss, which one would you marry, and which one would you prefer to throw off a cliff. Take turns listing three people (they can be celebrities; movie, book, or TV characters; or even people you know) and make arguments for who you would kiss, marry, or kill.

The Compliment Game

Go through the alphabet and take turns giving each other compliments that start with each letter. Tom is an amazing athlete. Danielle is a badass beatboxer. Go from A to Z and brighten your car mates’ days.

Most Likely To Game

Remember senior superlatives? At the end of the school year everyone would choose from their class who was the “most likely to succeed,” the “most athletic,” or the “biggest flirt.” Turn that into a road trip game by coming up with superlatives for everyone in the car!

What makes a good road trip game for adults? Most of the time you’ll be playing within the confines of the car, so you want something that can be done with minimal movement and minimal supplies. These car games are fun to play and are only dependent on what you can see out the car’s window.

Cows on My Side

If you’re driving across certain areas of the country, you’re going to see a lot of cows out your window. A lot of cows. Make spotting bovines a game by playing a friendly game of Cows on My Side. Game play for this one is easy. If you see cows out the window on your side of the car yell out, “cows on my side!” to get one point. If you see cows out the window on the other side of the car, yell out, “cows on your side!” before someone on that side does, to steal one point. When you pass a cemetery, be the first to yell out, “ghost cow!” to steal all the points.

There are plenty of other cow-related games to play on a road trip. Here are some of my favorite variations.

Similar to Cows on My Side, but with slightly different rules. For this version, every time you see a herd of cows, the first person to yell out, “my cows!” gets a point. If you see a church, the first to yell out, “marry my cows!” doubles their points. If you see a cemetery, the first to yell out, “bury your cows!” steals everyone’s points.

To play Hey Cow! you just yell out, “hey cow!” whenever you pass a herd of cows. For every cow that turns their head to look at you, you get a point.

Counting Cows (AKA Cow Poker)

Pit the left side of the car against the right side of the car and count all the cows you can see from your side of the window. It can get tricky when you pass a large field, so count fast! Whoever has counted the most cows at the end of the journey wins, but watch for cemeteries, if someone calls out, “your cows are buried!” they can steal all the other side’s points.

The RV Game

RVs are known to have some interesting names on their own. Make them even more interesting by adding the word “anal” before them for a bit of a juvenile laugh. Keep an eye out for RVs and make the one marked “commander” a little more interesting.

Slug Bug (AKA Punch Buggy)

The rules of this game are simple: every time you see a Volkswagon Beetle out the window, yell out “Slug Bug!” (or “Punch Buggy!” if you prefer), and give your travel companion a gentle punch on the arm.

The object of this road trip game is to be the first person in the car to spot a car with a burnt out headlight or taillight. This game is best played when driving at night (or through long tunnels) where the surroundings are dark and most cars have their lights on. Whoever spots a car with a light out yells out, “Padiddle,” and touches the ceiling of the car. Play throughout your trip and whoever has the most padiddles when your travels end wins.

Odd Colored Cars

Pick an odd-for-a-car color, something like pink or purple or orange. Keep your eyes on the road and see who can spot a car of that color first or see the most through the entire trip.

The Alphabet Game

Try to go through the entire alphabet (in alphabetical order) by referencing words on signs you see from the car. Look for words on billboards, highway signs, road signs, and businesses. Each individual word can only be used by one person. The first person to get from A to Z wins!

The Gas Price is Right

Gas prices are ever changed and can vary widely by state or city. Make it a game to try to guess the prices that gas will be for the next station you pass. Try to guess to the nearest tenth and see who is closest.

Fictional Families

Do you ever look at other cars on the road and wonder what their story is? In this road trip game for adults, you pick out another vehicle on the road and come up with a story about who they are and where they’re going.

Vehicle Identification Game

When you spot an oncoming car try to be the first person to identify the make and model and see who is the best at identifying the vehicles on the road.

Bring along a variety of travel-sized versions of your favorite board games. Look for smaller, simplified games that come with cards or magnetic boards that can easily be played by backseat passengers in the car. But even though they are meant for travel, many travel board games work better as games to play in a hotel after a long day on the road. Pack your favs to play in your hotel room or by the pool! Here are some of the most popular travel board games:

Monopoly Grab and Go Game

Play a compact game of Monopoly with all your favorite features in a small package that also serves as storage.

Connect 4 Grab and Go Game

Try to get four checkers in a row and block your opponent from getting it first. Connect 4 Grab and Go is a compact travel version of the popular board game.

Clue Grab and Go Game

Solve a whodunit mystery by following the clues. Move around the board and try to piece together what you find to be the first to crack the case in a friendly game of Clue. Buy Travel Clue

Scrabble to Go

Challenge each other to come up with the most impressive words. A travel edition of scrabble not only allows you to play this fun board game in a hotel room, latching pieces mean you can bring your unfinished game with you to pick up at the next day and the next hotel.

These games are perfect for bringing out your creative side. Use your time in the car to make up stories with your friends.

While You Were Sleeping

On a road trip with friends one thing is for certain: someone is going to fall asleep in the back seat. And that’s the perfect time to play a fun game of While You Were Sleeping. Once your sleeping car mate awakens from their backseat nap, tell them a story of what happened while they were sleeping. The catch? It’s a completely made up story. Try to make up a ridiculous story and see how long you can go and how much you can convince your sleepy car mate that it actually happened.

Fortunately/Unfortunately

Tell a story where everything goes right…and wrong. In Fortunately/Unfortunately you alternate sentences that start with fortunately or unfortunately. For example: Marissa was driving on a road trip. Fortunately she was almost to her hotel. Unfortunately her phone (and Google Maps) was about to die. Fortunately she had a paper map.

See how long your fortunate and unfortunate can go and where it takes you.

Mad libs are fun for all ages. There are a wide variety of these fill-in-the-blank stories, from adult-friendly options to ones based on your favorite TV shows to road trip focused stories . Whichever version you choose, you can pick adjectives and verbs to create your own hilarious stories.

Sorry I am Late

“Sorry I am late, but I accidentally traveled back in time and had to make sure my parents still got together so I would be born.” In this story telling game you start with “Sorry I am late but…” and then fill in the rest with a movie plot. Then see who in the car can guess what movie you are recapping.

Tell a story one word at a time. Have one person in the car start a story by saying a single word. Then the next person adds the next word. Keep going around the car one word at a time and see where this story time leads you!

These road trip games rely on simplicity: words, wordplay, and numbers.

Don’t Say It

Before your trip come up with a “Don’t Say It” word: something everyone is forbidden to say. Whenever someone says that word, they get a point. The person with the most amount of points at the end of the trip loses, and has to buy the car a round of soft drinks.

The Name Game

Start with one person saying a name, like Rebecca. The next person then says a name that starts with the last letter of that name. Rebecca ends with an A so the next person might say Amy. No repeat allowed, keep going until no one can think of a new name that fits!

The Counting Game

The goal of this game is to collectively count to 20. Sounds easy, right? But the trick here is you don’t know where or when the next person is taking a turn. One person starts by saying the number one. Then anyone can say the number two. But, if more than one person speaks at the same time, the game is done and you have to start over. If more than five seconds pass in between, the game is also done, so act fast!

Scattergories

This car game only requires a pen and paper. Come up with a list of categories. It can be anything you want, but try to find things that might have a lot of possible answers, like dog breeds, items of clothing, body parts, or cars. Write those all down in a list. The driver can then pick a random letter and all the passengers race to see who can fill in the list of categories with something starting with that letter the fastest.

In this easy car game, everyone picks any category they want: Taylor Swift songs, MLB teams, La Croix flavors, etc. And then everyone takes turns naming something that fits that category until someone is stumped and can’t think of anything that fits.

Try and guess what your car mates are thinking with these guessing games that are perfect to play in the car.

20 Questions

Read your friend’s mind in 20 questions of less. In this game, one person in the car has to think of something, anything. It can be a movie, a book, a person, place, or thing. Then everyone else in the car gets to ask questions to see who can guess what the person is thinking of. Choose your questions wisely, because you only have 20 tries.

I’m Going on a Picnic

In this game, players take turns saying what they might bring on a picnic (bananas, sandwiches , paper plates…). But one leader is in charge of saying whether you are allowed to bring that item or not, all based on a secret rule they have. For example, if Amanda is the leader she might have a secret rule that all items brought to the picnic must start with the first letter of her name. So if someone wanted to bring guacamole, they would be denied but someone bringing avocados would be OK. Players take turns naming items and trying to figure out what the secret rule is.

How much do you know about movies, TV shows, or celebrities? These games rely on your knowledge of films and those who star in them.

6 Degrees of Separation

Based on the popular “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” where it is said you can link any celebrity to Kevin Bacon (via mutual movie/television appearances) in six connections or less, in this version you can link any celebrities you want. Pick any two celebrities, like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Frank Sinatra and connect them through their mutual crossovers.

The Movie Game

Similar to 6 Degrees of Separation, this road trip game also involves linking celebrities. But in this version, you have to come up with the next celebrity to link an actor to. To play, have one person name an actor or actress. Then, the next person has to name a movie they were in. The next person then has to name another actor or actress from that movie. Keep going until someone is stumped. That person has to sit out the next round. Keep playing until only one person is left and a winner is declared.

Bad Movie Plot

The goal of this game is to explain a movie plot badly and see who can guess what it is. For example, you might say, “an elderly man uses balloons to kidnap a young boy,” and others would have to try to guess that you’re explaining the plot to the Pixar movie Up .

Whether you love to sing or can’t hold a tune and prefer to leave it to the professionals, many fun road trip games for adults rely on music to guide them. These games are based on music knowledge, singing, or your favorite playlists.

Name That Tune

Use the scanner or seek on your radio or the shuffle feature on an app like Spotify. For every new song that comes up, try to be the first one to guess the name of the song and the musical artist. Or, take turns choosing a song to play and see if you can stump your friends.

Battle Of The Bands

Battle it out among the car to see which song reigns supreme. Choose a category. Any category. You can pick anything from “Best Emo Love Ballad” to “Songs that mention Birds.” Have two eople in the car think of a song that fits and then play them both for the whole car to hear. It’s then up to everyone in the car to vote and see which song, and which player, wins.

Human Jukebox

Channel your best Pitch Perfect impressions for this road trip game. To play, one person starts singing a song. Then the next person has to pick up with a new song that borrows the last word of the last phrase of the song before. Keep going until someone gets stumped, then start the Human Jukebox all over again.

There are so many different road trip games adults can play in the car. Here are some more games that will keep you entertained on long stretches of road.

Enjoy fun games and challenges to pass the time on your next road trip and have a keepsake to look back on for years to come with this entertaining must-have for your next vacation. The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book features fun and engaging journal prompts. plus 100 activities and games to play in the car, at your hotel, or at stops along your route.

Shotgun! Road Trip Game

Shotgun! is a fun card game and car game. Designate a reader and then take turns answering road trip related questions and doing activities.

Road Trip Trivia

Have a fun time challenging each other to road trip trivia. Find trivia questions based on road trips, the route you’re on, your destination, or America.

Regional Snack Master

Every time you pull over at a gas station or travel center, have everyone try to find a local snack. Something you can really only find in the city or state you’re in. Compare your finds and see who found the tastiest (or weirdest) ones.

At the beginning of your road trip, have everyone make up a rule for the car. The sillier, the better. Something like at every red light you have to open all the windows and cheer. Try to keep up these funny road trip rules throughout the course of your trip.

In this game, start with one passenger coming up with a sentence or phrase. They whisper it into another passenger’s ear, and it should go all the way around until it gets to the last person in the car. That person then has to say out loud what they think they heard, and see how close or far it was from the original phrase.

Almost any game app can be a road trip game app. Here are some of our favorites that work well with a group of people traveling in a car.

Drive.fm: Car & Home Trivia

Have a knack for knowledge and want to put your brain to the test? Drive.fm is a game app controlled using your voice, making it the perfect hands-free trivia game to play in your car.

This musical trivia game features real song clips from popular artists. See who can guess the song the fastest!

A fun road trip game app for singing karaoke songs in the car.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Plan Your Road Trip

Best Trash Cans for Cars

Let’s face it: cars can get messy…especially if you’re spending days on end driving long distances on a road trip. Fast food bags, napkins, gas …

Fun Car Accessories to Rev Up Your Road Trip

When taking a road trip you’re going to be spending a lot of time in your car. Rev up your trip by decking your vehicle …

20 Road Trip Tips from a Road Trip Expert

Road trips are the best way to travel the country. There are so many stops to make and sites to see and taking a car …

Valerie Bromann

Founder & road trip expert.

Valerie Bromann is a a website manager, content creator, and writer from Chicago, Illinois (currently living in Dallas, Texas). As an avid road tripper who has visited hundreds of roadside attractions, Val always pull over for a world’s largest thing. Founder of Silly America and author of The Road Trip Journal & Activity Book , she visits, photographs, and writes about all the weird tourist destinations she visits and offers road trip planning advice and inspiration based on her own travels so you can hit the road for yourself.

Follow Valerie & Silly America

Last modified: December 2, 2023 Category: Road Trip Games , Road Trip Planning

Hotel Scavenger Hunt Game (+Free Printables)

Road trip instagram story ideas for 2023, share this post ⤵.

Everything You Need to Have and Record an Epic Road Trip!

By valerie bromann.

The road trip you’ve been dreaming of starts here! Journal about your stops and get to know your fellow passengers with activities and exercises designed to pass the time and bring you closer together. Instead of “Are we there yet?” you’ll find yourself asking, “We’re there already?”. Complete with prompts you can turn to while driving between locations, this journal will one day be a memento of your life-changing trip.

Silly America

Silly America is a roadside attractions blog designed to help travelers find unique stops for their next road trip. The website is a tribute to the great American road trip, devoted to all that is odd in America: roadside attractions, tourist traps, peculiar destinations, bizarre events, road food, fun festivals, and more! It’s a travel website and trip planner for those seeking an offbeat road trip.

Explore Roadside Attractions by State

Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

© 2007-2024 Silly America

Silly America is a Participant In The Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, An Affiliate Advertising Program Designed To Provide A Means For Sites To Earn Advertising Fees By Advertising And Linking To Amazon.Com

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

31 Best Road Trip Games for Kids: Definitely Bookmark This

Are you planning a road trip and looking for the best road trip games for kids? We totally understand that doing long car rides with kids can be hard and stressful, especially when not using any screens.

“Are we there yet?” “I’m hungry!” “It’s too long”

Does that sound familiar?

Family road trips can be stressful for parents and long for kids, so it’s better to be prepared with some ideas. That’s why we listed 31 of our favorite games to play in the car on a road trip to pass the time. They are all fun games for kids (but also for the entire family, from toddlers to older kids and adults).

And the cool thing is that most of them don’t require much and can also be played at the destination.

Disclaimer: Just a heads up, this free article contains affiliate links . If you purchase after clicking one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost . Also, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Your support helps me continue to provide helpful and free content for you .

Our TOP 5 Road Trip Games for Kids

We do a lot of road trips as a family, short and long car rides . We even took the kids on two cross-country road trips (for the first one the boys were 18 months old and 3.5 years old). We had to get creative with road trip activities, especially that we don’t really allow the kids to watch TV in the car.

Here are our favorite road trip games for the family and the kids:

• License plate game : I love this game, especially when we travel to the USA where we see many different license plates. This is a perfect game for older kids since they need to be able to see outside the windows, but it’s a lot of fun and doesn’t require any material.
• Audiobook & Stories : We have a Spotify account and download many kids’ stories. We don’t have them on for the entire trip, but we put a few stories occasionally when we all need some quiet time.
• Smart Games : The kids received some Smart Games for Christmas this year and we are hooked. They are easy to pack for a road trip and kids can play alone. We have the Smart Games Jump In and the Smart Games Ghost Hunters .
• Drawings & Coloring: We always pack coloring books or sketchbooks, and the kids love drawings when we drive.

💡 PRO-TIP There are so many different kids’ car activities that can played by simply using everyone’s imagination skills . Of course, all those travel games for kids may require the parent’s participation (at least a little if your kids are the youngest, but older kids should be able to play alone).

1. Activity Booklets

There are TONS of activity books with mind games, riddles, and puzzles for your kids.

The hard part is that they don’t always keep the kids interested for as long as we want. Sometimes we can get a solid 45 minutes out of these booklets, but other times we get a few seconds of peace.

You might find that one of your kids naturally likes one type of activity (sudoku, crosswords, etc.) and your other kid likes another. Try to find the activity that matches your kids’ interests to pique their interest.

2. I (Eye?) Spy

I Spy is a classic for a reason (and I still think it makes just as much sense to spell it “eye spy,” for the record). There are no simpler games to play on a road trip than the I Spy game . This game also helps to hone your kids’ powers of observation.

How to play I Spy:

• The person choosing the object chants, “ I spy with my little eye, something beginning with… ” and then gives the first letter of the word they are thinking of.
• Everyone else tries to guess and the person who guesses correctly first takes their turn choosing an object.

How to adapt this road trip game for toddlers: Naming the color of the object instead of (or as well as) the first letter.

If you happen to be driving through an area with lots of wildlife, you could also try “ I hear with my little ear ” and crack out your best animal impressions, a great hit with toddlers.

👉 You can also purchase a I Spy travel card game to help your little ones with the game.

3. Rock Papers Scissors

Rock Papers Scissors is one of those fun games that your kids should be able to play together (and alone) as long as they sit relatively close .

How to play Rock-Papers-Scissors: The game is pretty simple. Each player will simultaneously do one of the three shapes (rock, paper, or scissors) with one of their hands.

• Paper beats rock
• Rock beats scissors
• Scissors beats paper

There are many other versions that can be played by adding a few extra shapes.

4. “I’m Going to a Picnic”

This game is another great fun car game for kids that requires no material .

How to play I’m Going to a Picnic : Whoever is starting gives a short list of things they are taking on their picnic, and everyone else tries to guess the rule that connects these objects .

Here’s a simple example. If I say, “I ’m going to a picnic and I am going to take some eggs, some earplugs, and an éclair, you’d probably be able to guess pretty quickly that I’m only taking objects that begin with an “e”.

Of course, you can get creative with your rules. Perhaps every object at your picnic is round or has four letters in the word, or rhymes with a cat.

Players can also ask if an object would be allowed on the picnic to help them figure out the rule. Or the person in charge can give some examples of things that aren’t allowed.

Adapt the difficulty of the rules depending on the age of your kids.

5. Make Up Stories 

You don’t have to be a master storyteller to keep the kids entertained with some inventive tales . Some of the best stories come when you take turns adding bits and embellishing the details.

How to play Make Up Stories : You could try one-word stories , where each person says just one word, and you build the story together—the same works with single sentences too.

If the kids struggle to get inventive, you can handle the bulk of the storytelling but still leave plenty of opportunities for their input. Start with “ once upon a time there was a giant… ” and let the children fill in the gaps. Who knows where your imagination might take you?

6. Twenty Questions

Most of us have played this family classic game at one time or another, and it is an easy travel game for kids.

How to play Twenty Questions:

• One person thinks of an object, person, animal, or plant. It must be something everyone is likely to know about.
• Then, the others ask questions to help them determine what the person is thinking.
• The person can only respond with “yes” or “no”. The goal is for the others to guess the word correctly before they ask more than 20 questions.

In some versions of the game, the person specifies whether they are thinking of an animal, a plant, or a mineral (an inanimate object) before they start.

You can increase or remove the question limit if your kids get too frustrated or struggle to guess the word within the 20 questions.

7. Quiz Time

Quizzes are fun road trip activities for kids and are also a great way to slip a little learning into your trip.

We like to call them pop quizzes .

For the 2-6 age group, this works best if you give multiple-choice options and take it in turns to be the quiz master. Keep the questions age-appropriate – you want to stretch your kids but still make it fun by sticking to questions they will likely know the answers to.

If you are feeling organized, you can prepare some questions before you go so that you have them already to hand when boredom sets in on the road and the nagging for the iPad starts. There are also quiz cards available to buy if you need some help thinking of questions. This kid’s car activity is also a great way to start road schooling lessons .

8. Categories

This wordplay game is one the whole family can join in with and is a fun option for road trips. Your kids can pick a category and see how many things you can name within that category. Categories can be :

• types of fruit,
• colors, … – you can keep going for hours.

If you want to make it more challenging, set a time limit. Or you could go competitive and make each family member take a solo turn to see how many items they can name.

9. License Plate Game

This is an old-time favorite that you’ve likely played with your parents in the past. I won’t lie, it’s one of my favorite travel games to play. This one works best in the United States, though it could work through the Canadian provinces, too (it’ll just be a lot shorter).

The game is simple : look for license plates from states other than the ones you’re either currently in or coming from.

At any rate, everyone in the car should try to find as many license plates as possible until someone gets all 50. You can also play collectively if you have young kids since it will be harder for them to compete.

💡 PRO-TIP You can use this travel games for kids to start teaching your little ones about geography and teach them a little history about how modern North America is laid out (aaaaand from there, you can go into the history of the continent in whichever way you feel most comfortable).

10. Grocery Store

This is a twist on the classic “Alphabet Game. ” In this version, you say you’re going to the grocery store and buying ingredients. You need to list out what you’re going to buy starting with the letter “A.” For example, the first person would say, “I’m going to buy an Apple.”

The next person repeats what was said and adds a new item with the next letter. In this case, it would be B. For example, the second person would say, “I’m going to the store. I’m going to buy an Apple and a Banana.”

And this memory game continues throughout the entire alphabet.

11. Would You Rather

You likely played this game in college, so you’ll want to make it more tame (and since you’re driving, probably without the beer). The game is easy to play: you give two terrible scenarios and ask someone to decide which one they would rather do.

For example, would you rather wear wet socks or a diaper for an entire week?

This game can get as silly as you’d like it to be.

💡 PRO-TIP : Set a number of questions each person will ask per “round.” So you can say, “everyone is going to give 3 scenarios we all have to answer.” Then, when the 3 turns are up, you can choose to start over or play another game.

12. Can You Name the Most

This is a fun road trip game even toddlers can play . Plus, it will help them build vocabulary and word associations. Have one person in the car choose a category. For this example, let’s say “superheroes.”

Now go around the car and everyone has to say a word related to superheroes in under 5 seconds. The first person who can no longer think of words closely associated with the category is eliminated.

The last person standing wins!

Remember, you don’t need to say exact superhero names. Instead, you can use words associated with heroes, like:

• Super speed

The goal is to have fun, so don’t get too “nit-picky.”

💡 PRO-TIP Make one parent and official judge for this game, as siblings will probably fight over what counts as “closely associated.”

13. Movie/Song Quotes

In this game, everyone will think of their favorite quote from a movie or song. Start easy and make sure these are things your kids are familiar with. That said, you can get more advanced to try and trick your road partner, too.

For example, you would think of a quote like, “Man… there are just no jobs in this town. Yeah… unless you wanna’ work 40 hours a week !”

Which, of course, comes from the great cinematic masterpiece, Dumb & Dumber .

You’ll need to adjust the quotes you use depending on the age of your kids.

14. Fortunately/Unfortunately

I like to think of these travel games for kids as the “home stretch” activity . It’s when you have a stop coming up and your kids start feeling “antsy.” In this game, one person begins by saying, “Fortunately…” and describing a hypothetical situation that was really good.

For example, you could say, “Fortunately, there was a mistake at the factory, and all the broccoli in the world is going to turn into marshmallows.”

Then, the next person continues the story with “unfortunately.” In this case, they could say, “Unfortunately, these marshmallows also shrink you to 3 inches tall.

And you continue with the “fortunately/unfortunately” structure until everyone has had a few turns.

💡 PRO-TIP : When you reach the end, you can discuss your hypothetical situation and pose more questions. In this example, the ultimate question would be, “Would you still eat the marshmallows?”

15. The Rhyme Game

Here’s an easy one: someone in the car thinks up a word, and everyone has a maximum of 5 seconds to think of a word that rhymes when it’s their turn.

If someone gives duplicates or a word that doesn’t rhyme, they’ll be eliminated.

Again, this game is perfect for those awkward 10 minutes before reaching your destination or a quick distraction if one of your kids is starting to go into crisis mode.

16. New Rule

This is a great game for the oldest sibling and young kids who like the taste of power. Everyone in the car gets to think up a “new rule.” It can be anything (appropriate) and would be something like, “Every time we pass a Wal-Mart, you need to burp.”

I like to make this game the prize of another fun game.

So when a kid wins at another game we play, they get to invent a “new rule” that will last until we reach the final destination.

17. Yellow Car

Yellow car is a game that’s a classic twist on the old “Punch Buggie” or “Slug Bug.” Basically, you get to punch someone else in the car whenever you see a yellow car.

This game is fun because some places tend to have way more yellow cars than others. Emilie and I played while driving through Quebec , and I only got punched once or twice.

Then we played in California , and my arm looked like it had seen the wrong end of a fight with Mike Tyson.

18. Spelling Bee

You can recycle activities your kids do at school for the car. This one is great for helping your kids learn to spell .

Work from a list of age-appropriate words for your kids to spell. Have them take turns and see how many they can spell correctly.

Here’s a good list of spelling bee words around the kindergarten age-level that you can use if you need help thinking up words.

19. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is a great way to keep kids occupied during a road trip. It’s another game that gets your kids paying attention to their surroundings while in the car.

This works best if you have a list prepared before you go. Combine things you are guaranteed to see, like a speed limit sign, with some that are less common, such as a specific make and color for a car.

You can use types of vehicles, buildings, and natural features in your list. Give each kid a copy – illustrate it with pictures so pre-readers can still join in. Leave space for each player to tick off objects as they see them.

If you like, you can turn it into a version of bingo and race to see who can complete their list first.

For those who don’t have time to make their own scavenger hunt, there are plenty of printable options available online . We’ve created a printable road trip game package that includes a scavenger hunt

20. Hangman

Another classic game, hangman , helps new readers practice new letters of the alphabet and spelling in a fun (and competitive) way.

All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. However, everyone playing will need to see the paper, so the driver will want to sit this one out.

How to play Hangman:

• The first person acts as the host. They think of a word and then mark out blank spaces for each letter.
• The players take it in turn to guess letters. If they get one right, the host fills in the letter wherever it appears in the word. If they get it wrong, the host marks the letter at the top of the paper and then draws one piece of the scaffold.
• The game continues until the players guess the full word or the host draws the full scaffold and the stick man hanging from it.

Of course, you may want to avoid images of death in a kids’ game, even if it is a stick man. You can make the game more child-friendly by drawing a snowman or a rocket blasting into space. Or you could draw a line of balloons and have one pop each time someone makes an incorrect guess.

You can increase or remove the question limit if you find your kids get too frustrated or struggle to guess the word within the 20 questions.

❤️  You may also like to read: The Best Road Trip Snacks

21. Squares

Best played with two people, this is an easy travel game to teach your kids and all you need is a piece of paper and a pencil or pen.

The object of the game is to make as many squares as possible . Start by drawing a dotted grid on your piece of paper. You can choose how big you make the grid – begin with three by three when you first teach the kids and it can grow from there.

The two players take turns to join two dots together by drawing a straight line between them. You can’t go diagonally.

When someone completes a square, they write their initials inside it and get a bonus go. The game ends when the whole grid is joined up. Then you count the number of squares each person has claimed to determine the winner.

22. Build a Cootie Catcher

I remember learning how to do this in second or third grade. It was never as popular for the boys in our class (though maybe that’s changed), but it did keep me busy on long car rides with my brothers, who were busy playing Yellow Car with me.

Typing out all the directions would do two things:

• Help exactly 0% of the people reading this

Instead, here’s a great video tutorial 🙂 :

23. Make a Comic Book

I’ve noticed that my oldest son is super addicted to certain TV shows. But I realized it wasn’t necessarily the show he was in love with… it was the story .

He LOVES stories, and lately, we’ve been trying to encourage him to come up with his own. The car ride is a great time for kids to think up their own superheroes and draw their very own comic books.

You can stab some scrap pieces of paper together in advance or just have the kids work from individual pages. The comics will probably be silly, but they stretch the kids’ imaginations. Our son, for example, made a comic about aliens on a different planet at a park with slides that go “up” instead of “down.”

24. Draw What You See

The name pretty much says it all on this one! For long stretches of road around mountains, forests, rivers, oceans, lakes… anything… have the kids draw the landscapes they see as you go.

This doesn’t always work, but when kids get into the drawings, it can make a great coffee break for the parents.

25. Pictionary

This isn’t a game that the driver will be able to participate in, but you’re probably familiar with how it works.

One person draws something and the other must guess what it is. This works if you’re driving with more than one child or if one parent can participate safely.

👉 You can also purchase a Pictionary game to help your little ones with the game.

26. Audiobooks or Stories on Spotify

Reading their favorite stories aloud is a sure way to keep children entertained on a road trip.

Unlike watching videos or playing games on screen, listening to an audiobook allows their imagination to run wild as they picture all the scenes in the story. There’s a huge amount of choice out there for kids – search “stories for kids” on Spotify, and you’ll have plenty of options.

If your kids are a little older, they might also enjoy a factual podcast. There are several podcasts and audiobooks aimed at kids of kindergarten age that are both educational and entertaining. And you may be able to find some that are related to your road trip.

💡 PRO-TIP Don’t forget to download some stories before you head off in case you hit any areas without an internet connection during your journey, especially if you are planning to visit some national parks .

27. Drawing & Coloring

Drawing and coloring are great screen-free road trip activities  for kids at any time. There is no reason you can’t embrace them while you are on your road trip as well.

Pack plenty of coloring pencils, crayons, paper, and coloring books to keep the children entertained in the car. If you are worried about the mess, choose pencils instead of pens and steer clear of paint, glue, and glitter.

It helps to get some trays and organizers so that the kids have somewhere to keep their art supplies while you are traveling. Plenty of inexpensive options and the tray is also useful if you are eating meals on the road.

We bought some craft trays from IKEA , and they work perfectly. For crayons, we opted for the twistable Crayola one, which is more robust and less messy.

28. Sticker Books

When you need a bit of peace and quiet, sticker books are brilliant for keeping kids occupied in the car. You can even get reusable ones that can be brought out repeatedly.

It is worth laying down some ground rules before you hand stickers over – they get stuck to the book, not the car, their siblings, or the family dog.

For younger kids, look out for stickers that are large enough that little fingers can peel the backs off without help from an adult. Some sticker books involve fragile or fiddly shapes, which will only lead to frustration when they inevitably rip.

👉 There are many sticker books options, but we love the Melissa & Doug Reusable Sticker Pad .

29. Mazes and Puzzle Books

Mazes and puzzle books are easy to find and are an inexpensive way of keeping kids entertained on the road without resorting to screens.

Make sure you choose options suitable for your children’s ages, like this one from Amazon if for 4-8 years old . Word searches and verbal reasoning puzzles are great for those already reading, while pre-readers might like ones that ask them to join the dots, follow a wiggly line, or match pictures.

Again, there are also plenty of free printables available online, which you can print off before you get in the car. If you are feeling especially organized, you can laminate them and have your kids complete them with a wipeable marker so they can be reused.

👉 Buy Mazes and Puzzle Books on Amazon

Never underestimate the power of a good book. Long car journeys are the perfect time to encourage your kids in their love of reading . 

Have plenty of engaging, age-appropriate books available for your journey. Even pre-readers can get involved by “reading” familiar picture books to themselves. Or enlist older siblings to read to them – this gives them a chance to hone their own reading skills while keeping their younger brothers or sisters entertained.

31. Mad Libs

This can be something you can prepare in advance or just buy a booklet for . Mad Libs aren’t only fun, but they also teach your kids about grammar and sentence construction.

If you’ve never played the game before, it’s easy. There’s a pre-written story with a few keywords missing. People in the car must supply the word based on its function in the sentence (noun, adjective, adverb, etc.).

You fill in the words with random selections and read the story when it’s over.

Here’s a great resource for building Mad Libs with your kids .

Final Thoughts on Fun Road Trip Games for Kids

This ends how the list of kids car activities. I hope it gave you enough ideas to feel ready to pack the car and leave on a road trip with your little ones. If you end up on the road using one of our road trip activities with your kids, please share your pictures on Instagram and tag us @lovelife_abroad .

I’ll be honest here, we don’t always entertain the kids in the car. We do lots of the fun games above, but we also ask them to entertain themselves a little along the way.

Emilie is the founder of Love Life Abroad. She helps moms plan epic road trips and outdoor adventures with their families. Because who said adventuring had to stop once we have kids? She’s based in the Canadian Rockies and shares her love for the region as well as other unique places in Canada & USA. She works with tourism boards and outdoor brands to inspire families to experience new unique destinations and outdoor activities.

52 fun and hilarious road trip games! [2024]

By: Author Megan Singleton

Posted on Last updated: November 18, 2023

These fun road trip games will keep you and the family going for hours on a long car ride. Literally!

We all know road trips can be long and boring, no matter how excited you are to reach your final destination. So, spice things up by playing one of these fun car games with the gang, or taking some of them with you to play on your vacation.

Whether you are on a car ride, or hurtling down the highway in an RV, or setting up camp for a week and looking for activities to play together, get ready for a whole lot of fun with this list of 52 fun travel games for a road trip!

Because this list is long, here are my favourites to start with: I like 3, 9, 11, 16, 19, 21, 25.

We’ve broken these games into categories, so scroll down to the section that works best for you. We’ve got road trip games for kids, road trip games for couples, road trip games for adults – which can do nicely as drinking games too (just saying!)

Oh, and if you’re an Apple Music subscriber, I have uploaded three great playlists in this post that you might like . One is cruisey vibes, one is bangers and the other music-to-smoke-cigars-to!

Some of these games have Amazon links. If you buy from my links I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support of my blog!

Classic Road Trip Car Games

Below are some classic long road trip games that the driver can also partake in and join the fun.

Road trip games for kids

Is any road trip complete without a round of the classic game I-Spy? This game would have been played on more family road trips than any other, but I had to list it! In case you don’t know how it goes: One person picks something in sight, and says “I spy with my little eye …” with a clue of what you’re looking at. Then, the remaining players must guess what object they spotted. A great one for little kids.

2 The License Plate Game

The goal of this famous game is to find license plates from each one of America’s 50 states (or if you’re not in America, find a plate starting with A, B, C and go through the alphabet). Since the winner is decided based on who spotted the most, keep track as you go along. 

3 20 Questions 

A fun way to pass the time: pick one object, person, or place, and allow the rest of the players to guess. The rule is answers can only be “yes” or “no” and if it’s not guessed in 20 questions, you win! It is similar to I-Spy, though more ideal for long car rides since your imagination is even more endless than traffic. 

4 The Alphabet Game 

Keep an eye out for road signs for this one! While going in alphabetical order, shout out every time you see a road sign with the same first letter your group is up to. The winner is the first person to get to letter Z. (This is also a great game to play when watching live sport on TV while the rest of your family cheers for the players!)

5 Car Bingo 

Car bingo consists of marking down notable destinations, signs, emergency vehicles, or animals until you reach “BINGO,” of course! This innovative approach to bingo allows the whole family to play without leaving their car. Download pre-made  road trip bingo  sheets from Etsy or design your own with easy-to-use templates from Canva. 

6 Punch Buggy 

When you spot a Volkswagen Beetle, (lightly!) punch the person next to you, saying, “punch buggy, no punch back.” It is much more challenging to find Beetles on the road in 2023, making this classic road trip game all the more exciting when you actually find one. Besides, who wouldn’t want an excuse to punch their siblings? 

7 The Sign Game

Similar to the Alphabet Game, you will want to look for signs/brands along the way in alphabetical order. We suggest pulling over when you can, as the state signs boast great photo opportunities you can look back on after your road trip is over. Someone pick which sign you’re looking for next, and first to spot it wins.

8 Name The Artist

This simple yet fun road trip game is perfect for music lovers! The first person to correctly answer the name of the artist or group playing on the radio scores a point. And no using Shazam to cheat!

You might also like this post on the best travel quotes – and come up with some of your own!

9 In My Suitcase 

This memory game is on theme and so easy to play. The first player begins by stating, “I’m going on vacation, and I packed…,” with an object starting with the letter A. The second person adds to the list alphabetically, still repeating the original items listed beforehand, and so on for each player. The first person to mess up the packing order loses the game!

10 Road Trip Scavenger Hunt 

Ditch car bingo and, instead, embark on a road trip scavenger hunt that lasts throughout your whole trip. This game may require making some stops, depending on what you list in your scavenger hunt. For example, some choose to put items like “coffee from a rest stop” on their list.  This game can be prepared in advance by very organized parents!

11 Who Am I? 

Choose a famous person, whether a historical figure or celebrity and have the other players guess who you are. It is similar to 20 Questions, though this time, the original player is a person. You can determine whether they must be living, or include historic people.

Imagination Road Trip Games 

Some of the best car ride games call for using your imagination. A great excuse to put down the tech and challenge each other. The options below are perfect for all ages.

12 Telephone Whisper Game

This is fun to play for all ages, and the bigger the group the better. Someone makes up a story and whispers it to the next person, they then whisper it to the next player and so on, until the last person is reached who then tells out loud what they heard. Play it on the plane, in the classroom, in the car!

13 The Categories Game 

This famous word game, also known as Scattergories, consists of choosing a category, such as an animal, city, or sport. Then, you and the remaining players will list words that fit into said category in alphabetical order. Once someone cannot think of a word, the players will move on to the next round. 

14 Mad Libs 

Mad Libs is a classic, imaginative game in the form of a fill-in-the-blank book. There are numerous editions to choose from, such as  Mad Libs On The Road , featuring stories about road trips, car songs, and historical sights. You select a bunch of your own nouns, adjectives and adverbs, then write them in order on the blank spaces in the pre-written story. Crazy funny.

15  Spot The Cracker Barrel 

While this is not a traditional road trip game, my family and I used to count how many signs for Cracker Barrel we would see driving from the East Coast to Florida. Whoever spots the most when you reach your destination wins a free breakfast at your next Cracker Barrel pit stop! Since there are a bunch of these restaurants across the United States, we are sure you can keep the game going the entire drive. Or, swap Cracker Barrel out for McDonalds! 

16  The Movie Game

You will adore this imaginative road trip game if you are a movie buff who loves The Alphabet Game. The first player will suggest a letter. Then, each player must name a movie that starts with the corresponding letter of the Alphabet. 

17  Count The Animals Game

Before your road trip, choose an animal that you want to keep an eye out for on the road. Popular choices include seagulls, deer (tough one), geese, and squirrels. Once you spot the animal, shout it out. The first person to do so scores a point. When you reach your final destination, the person with the most points wins the game!

18  Two Truths and a Lie

This one might not work well for family members, but is a fun one to play even just sitting around the campfire with mates: Test how well you know your friends by catching them in a lie. Each player reveals two truthful statements and one lie. It is then up to the others to guess which was the lie. If you get the answer right, you get the point. But if you guess wrong, the player who lied receives the point (or a drink – if you’re not driving that is!)

19  Road Trip Olympics  

Kids (and adults) can get restless after spending hours in the car. So, make your rest stops more fun by turning them into the Road Trip Olympics! Select a challenge to try playing at each stop, whether push-ups, jumping jacks, or something else. Tally up who got the most wins to award the gold! 

20  Color Search

Choose a color at the start of your road trip. Then, keep an eye out for any objects, signs, or cars in that shade, like red fire hydrants. Shout it out once you see it to ensure you score a point. Most players tend to stick with cars to keep the game more challenging, especially if you choose a random color like purple, which is rare in cars. Great for younger kids.

Fun Word Games

21  triple threat  .

Triple Threat is the ultimate imaginative road trip game. Let the driver start by naming three random things off the top of their head; the remaining players must use those words to create a story. Think Mad-Libs, but in real life (and with less context)! 

22  The Grocery Game

Don’t play this game if you’re hungry! The first player will choose an item they would find at a grocery store while the remaining players attempt to guess what it is by asking a question. For example, they might ask, “Is it something in the produce aisle?” The initial player can only answer with “yes” or “no.” The person who guesses it correctly wins.

23  Would You Rather 

This easy game can be as short or as long as you want. Simply ask your fellow passengers, “Would You Rather…” followed by a question. The questions tend to be outlandish, which keeps things interesting. I’m not going to lie, this also makes a great party game with a couple of drinks! Would you rather have a broken leg or a broken arm, have no ears or no nose…

24  Name The Most

Start with a category (like capital cities, beaches, cake flavors, candy bars), and see which player can name the most corresponding items during their turn. Whoever runs out of related words to say loses that round. If you really want to make things interesting, cap the time to 30 seconds per player. Then, the score is based on who named the most items during that time. 

25  Fortunately, Unfortunately 

This is my favorite road trip game. Similar to Triple Threat, players will take turns telling one story when playing this game. However, each player must begin or end each sentence with “fortunately” or “unfortunately,” which the next person then builds on. This game results in lots of unforeseen plot twists! 

26 Starter For 10 Drawing Game

I made this game up when I was kid. Each person starts with a blank piece of paper and one person draws a crazy shape on their paper, then traces it onto everyone else’s piece of paper. You all have 1 minute to turn that shape into something. Add eyes, limbs, wheels, hats. It’s the time limit that adds the pressure. Such fun!

25  The Counting Game

The Counting Game is simple and exciting. Each player states a number, aiming to be the first player to reach 20. Players may only say one to three numbers at a time in chronological order. So player one starts and says “1,2,3” the second player has to start from “4” but could just stop there. There next player starts with “5” and could say “5,6,7” – it’s all strategic to see who is the player who gets to say “20”.

28  Guess Whose Playlist 

Instead of assigning Aux to one passenger, compile a list of everyone’s favorite songs and guess whose playlist it came from. It is a great way to learn more about your friends’ music tastes and gives everyone a chance to sing along. Plus, playing this game is even easier with the help of Spotify’s  remote group sessions , allowing your friends to share and upload songs to the shared playlist.

Card Games for Road Trips

Check out the terrific card game options below, from regular ol’ playing cards to immersive card games. These games are good fun for RV road trips, but most don’t need to lay the cards down so can work for the long car ride too.

29   Blackjack 

Who says you can only play this classic card game in the Casino? The goal of Blackjack is to reach 21, or as close as you can to it. If your cards total more than 21, you will bust. If no players hit 21, the player with the closest total receives the point. 

30   Carpool Chaos

Carpool Chaos is an exciting card game designed with long road trips in mind. The 160 playing cards feature actions, hypothetical questions, and group challenges. Even the driver can participate in the fun since none of these challenges require physical movement. 

31   Do You Really Know Your Family?

See how well your family really knows each other with this fun card game! Cards either contain a trivia question or challenge that involves the entire group. If anyone guesses wrong or fails to complete their challenge, they lose their card. 

32  Go Fish 

Go Fish is the perfect card game for young children since it is so easy to follow. A player will ask for a card, saying, “Do you have the queen of hearts.” The rule is that the asker or “fisher” must have at least one card in the same suit in their personal pile. If the other player does not have the requested card, they will “go fish” by drawing a card from the main deck.

33  Hearts

All players receive the same amount of cards and begin to take turns following suit, starting with the 2 of clubs. You can play the next highest card if you do not have the same suit. The Queen of Spades and heart cards cannot be played in the first round. Instead, they can reveal heart cards later when they do have the same suit, “breaking” the heart. 

34   Cards Against Humanity

“A party game for horrible people”! The goal of Cards Against Humanity is to have the funniest answer to the black prompt cards using terms from the white cards dealt. The person who picked up the black card is in charge of choosing the winner, alternating with each player. Note, this card game is recommended for teens and adults since answers are sometimes a bit naughty. That being said, you can also check out this family-friendly version,  Kids Against Maturity . 

35   Slapjack 

This family-friendly version of Blackjack is even more fun than the original. Each player is dealt cards until the deck disappears. These cards should be kept hidden from the other players, gradually taking one out per turn. Once a jack enters the center, the first player to slap the card collects it and the cards underneath. The first person to lose their cards has one last shot at winning if another jack is revealed in the central pile. 

36   “Shotgun!” The Road Trip Game

Much like Carpool Chaos, this game was designed for road trips. Each card presents an action or question, including some dashboard-friendly cards to keep the driver involved. Since it’s a part of the What Do You Meme? Family, we are sure your group will giggle the whole car ride. 

37  Trivia

Trivia is an excellent way to stay entertained on road trips, especially for those who binge TV shows like Jeopardy. Various trivia card decks are available online, from classic  Trivial Pursuit  to family-friendly  All of Us .

38   UNO

UNO has been a personal favorite game of mine for as long as I can remember. Each player is dealt seven cards, taking turns playing or picking up cards if nothing matches. However, things get more interesting when players start to throw down “Skip,” “Draw 2,” “Reverse,” and “Draw 4” cards. When you have one card remaining, shout “Uno” before the other players catch on or risk picking up another card from the deck, starting the whole process over. 

39   Taco vs. Burrito

Developed by a 7-year-old named Alex, this exciting yet strategic card game is perfect for travelers of all ages. Cards either contain an action or “food” item for extra points. It is super fun to play, especially when you pull out a “food fight” card!

40   We’re Not Really Strangers

Are you looking to get deep on the road? If so, you and your partner, family, or friend group will enjoy the “We’re Not Really Strangers” interactive adult card game, in which each card poses a question or activity. These questions are divided into three levels: Perception, Connection, and Reflection.

Board Games for Road Trips

While board games may not be the best option for a traditional car road trip, they come in handy when traveling by RV. These games are fantastic for keeping your kids (or yourself) engaged longer on the road.

41   Connect Four

Connect Four is always fun, regardless of your age. Each player aims to match four colored discs in a row (up, across or diagonally) before the other, alternating turns every time. If nobody succeeds, you start again until someone wins! There is also a mini version of Connect Four which will work better in the car.

42   Hedbanz, Blast Off!

This board game takes the classic “What Am I?” up a notch. All players wear headbands with cards stating what they are. Then, you take turns to help each other guess what item is on your headband’s card.  

43   Monopoly

While this game may be infamous for causing fights, a game of Monopoly will keep your group entertained for at least two hours (unless someone flips the board). We usually do not suggest bringing board games with many tiny pieces on the road. Still, this iconic board game deserves an exception. Or you can get a magnetic version!

44   Jenga

This simple game consists of removing blocks and re-stacking them until the entire structure comes crashing down. Whoever causes the drop is the loser of the game. What’s even better, you can invest in a  giant Jenga set made of wood that stands three feet tall to double as an outdoor game at your campsite. 

45   Pictionary

One of my favourite all time games! Pictionary has remained a popular game since the mid-1980s. It is pretty similar to charades, but with drawing rather than acting out. Plus, it is the one drawing game where being a mediocre artist actually pays off since the other players might have trouble guessing your answer. 

46   Memory Match Game: Summer Camp Edition

Memory matching games are ideal for the little ones. This camping and wilderness theme version features tons of items you will likely encounter around your campground (except the bear card, hopefully). 

47   The Upside Down Challenge

This game may have nothing to do with the Upside Down in  Stranger Things,  but it is equally as entertaining. Players take chances wearing special upside-down goggles, competing in tasks against their fellow players to see if their vision makes things more complicated. 

Mobile App Games You Can Play On The Road 

I know most of us like to unplug on camping and road trips. However, these interactive mobile games are a great way to entertain the entire family on their devices until you reach your final destination!

48   Heads Up

This famous mobile game, created by Ellen Degeneres, consists of holding your phone over your head (with the app open, unveiling a series of cards like in Hedbanz). At the same time, fellow players help you guess what the card says. The other players cannot use the term when providing you with clues. There are many categories available, from animals to celebrities to miming actions. Plus, the app records your fellow players, meaning you can look back on the hilarious memories made while playing.

49  Duolingo

Home schooling on the road! Improve your language skills while on your road trip using this popular (and free) mobile app, Duolingo. Lessons are straightforward and entertaining. It is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. 

50   Findery

While Findery is not technically a road trip game, it is a useful app for documenting your trip photos and locating points of interest nearby. So, instead of doing deep-dive Google searches of the town you plan to stop in, learn all about it on Findery! A good one for curious passengers who want to educate everyone as you drive.

51   Trivia Crack

This colorful and straightforward mobile trivia game is a great way to keep your children busy during long car rides. The questions are super easy and can be upgraded to more challenging for older kids and adults. You can also play on a TV or iPad screen through Netflix’s version,  Trivia Quest .  

52   Wordle

Have you played Wordle yet? New York Times bought Wordle from an English man who created it years ago and it’s among the most trending online game right now. The goal is to correctly guess the daily word based on the number of letters available. Now, this game may not keep you entertained for the entire car ride, but it is an excellent way to see who your group’s wordsmith is. 

My top road trip posts you might like to read next!

Los Angeles to San Francisco : with a free downloadable itinerary to print out

Utah road trip in 7 days featuring Zion and Bryce

New England road trip in Fall

Florida Keys : Miami to Key West drive

The Ultimate New Zealand itinerary

Ireland road trip : Dublin to Galway in 5 days

Driving through Denmark

France road trip in 2 weeks

Looking for the best deal to rent a car? I like RentalCars.com .

I always check here first for prices and invariably find it’s the best deal.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Sierra Wanden

Wednesday 6th of December 2023

Hi Megan! Just wanted to tell you what a great list this is! I'm printing it out and putting it in a "Road Trip Survival Kit" basket that my work group is going to raffle off at our holiday party. Can't wait to try out some of these games myself :)

Megan Singleton

Wonderful! You've made my day :D

About Megan Singleton

Hi, I'm Megan Singleton and I'm the word slinger of this travel blog as well as on radio in NZ every Sunday. Former Travel Editor at Yahoo NZ and current freelance writer for a few newspapers and mags from time to time, I set off on this travel writing journey 20 years ago and I've pretty much always got a suitcase half packed (or half un-packed!) I'd love you to join me on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for my newsletters if you want loads of travel tips, advice and deals!

The Long Drive- Road Trip Game 4+

Explore dessert in full speed, faraz anwar, designed for ipad.

• Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description.

Enjoy The Long Drive! Are You Waiting for Summer Car? Long Drive Simulator is specially Designed for You! Try Long Route & Enjoy Your Free Time. Welcome to our new long road trip games car drive simulator. Long road trip - car simulator is open world extreme car driving games, animal hunting simulator, offroad car drive and animals shooting game. This junkyard game is different from other car driving simulators and motorcycle road trip games. You have to drive on long route to attend birthday party of your friend. The long drive journey of car drive desert trip is start from junkyard, car garage. First you have to check the car as a car master, car mechanic games and clean the car for road trip games. Make sure you have done 3d tuning of muscle car before leaving on your trip in car driving simulator. You have to use different routes of city car driving and offroad jeep game in long road trip car drive simulator. Advance Car Driving Simulator – Extreme Car Games Gameplay of long road trip - car simulator is full of risk. So don’t forget to take your shotgun with you while on trip in an animal hunting game. You may have to face wild animals during your long drive journey. This open world car driving simulator is very dangerous because animals are ready to hunt anytime. So stay focused and keep your weapons ready to beat the animals in long road trip car drive games. Lions are disturbing people in car driving games. You have to beat the lions and get victory in long road trip games car drive simulator. Drive the car through the main city, forest and offroad deserts. Take care of your car as a car mechanic simulator. Explore new places on your road-trip and experience the extreme car driving in an in car drive simulator. Car Driving Long Road Trip Game for Family – Real Long Drive Game Make sure to keep the tank of your car full of gasoline on your long trip journey so that you don’t get stuck in any risky area and you will be hunted by animals on a long road trip - car simulator. Also maintain your car engine and take care of your car as a car mechanic simulator. Because it’s not easy to find any junkyard garage on a long road trip game car drive 3d. Experience the different mysteries during your long drive journey in road trip games. Advance car driving game is full of adventure with a car drive, car drifting, offroad jeep games, and animal hunting games on thrilling roads of long road trip car drive games. You will experience different stunning routes like main city, desert and offroad in long road trip games car driving. If you are tired of driving for a long route then you will find a safe place and do camping in your long road trip car drive games. Features of long road trip - car simulator: Beautiful and stunning long route 3d environments. Main city, Desert road, offroad driving 3d in long drive game Hunt the animals to get rewards in road trip games. Easy to play and smooth controls of a car drive simulator. Fill the fuel tank for the journey for gas station junkyard. Hunt food for yourself and stay night in camps Realistic and eye-catching graphics of long road trip car drive games. So what are you waiting for? Download the easy to play advance car drive simulator and enjoy your free time with this junkyard game. Also refer this car mechanic simulator to your friends. Also give feedback about gameplay of long road trip - car simulator.

Version 1.2

- Size Reduced - Bug Fixes

App Privacy

The developer, Faraz Anwar , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Identifiers

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

• Coins Pack 2 $2.99
• Unlock Everything $14.99
• Coins Pack 1 $1.99
• Remove Ads $2.99
• Unlock All Jeeps $5.99
• Unlock All Levels $9.99
• Developer Website
• App Support
• Privacy Policy

More By This Developer

American Truck Simulator 2024

Mix Monster Makeover Toilet

Good Pizza Maker Cooking Games

Color Page: Cameraman Coloring

Merge Toilet Monster Battle 3D

Hide And Seek: Toilet Monster

You Might Also Like

Color Car And Truck Parking 3D

Tuk Tuk Auto Driving Games

Fury Car Parking Game 3D

Long Road Trip Car Games

The Long Drive Road Trip Games

Gas Station & Car Dealer Game