Road Trip Games
We all love road trips. If we're honest though, there are moments when heading down the road of life can be a little bit less than thrilling (especially when it comes to kids and sitting still for more than five minutes).
To ensure everyone's sanity remains intact for the duration of your trip, we're sharing a few of our favourite 'Road Trip Games'. Mix up the games, play them for prizes or pride. Whatever you do, play fair (or cheat quietly) and have fun!
Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Make up a list of things to find along the road. Give each child a list of items to watch for while driving. For a younger child who can't read, you might draw a little picture of each item next to the word so they will know what to look for. Work as individuals or together as teams. The list can be made up ahead of time and adjusted for the scenery. Check off each item when they find it.
- City
- flashing red light
- bus
- signs in foreign languages
- dog
- food store
- railroad tracks
- billboard with a child on it
- police officer
- licence plate with "Q"
- person with tall boots
- person talking on a cellphone
- Suburbs
- school
- flashing traffic light
- food store
- someone on a bike
- statue
- church
- playground
- flower garden
- person walking a dog
- Rural
- cows
- railroad tracks
- pond or lake
- dirt road
- tractor
- gas station
- horses
- barn
01 Alphabet Words
Pick a letter and find words or objects starting with that letter. Move through the alphabet. Or play as a memory game - A is for apple; B is for.... The second player must remember what "A" was for, and so on through the alphabet.
02 Building Words
Build a word one letter at a time. Each successive player adds a letter and must have a real word in mind.
03 Buzz
Try to reach 100 without making a mistake. Every time you get to a number that's divisible by seven (7, 14, 21) or has a seven in it (17), say "Buzz" instead of the number.
04 The Car Next Door
Invent stories about people in the car next to yours
05 Group Story Telling
Someone starts a story and, after a couple of sentences, points to someone else to continue the story.
06 I Spy
Or "I spy with my little eye". Use colour or first letter as a hint. Whoever guesses correctly goes next.
07 Name That Tune
Can be played with TV theme songs.
08 Odds, Evens
Two players pick either "odds" or "evens", say, "One, two, three...shoot," and stick out one or two fingers.
09 Rock, Paper, Scissors
Two can play. Both players make rock paper or scissors shapes behind their backs, say "One, two, three," and show their hands.
10 Twenty Questions
One person states they are a person, place or thing. (Or declares animal, vegetable or mineral.) Everybody else gets to interrogate the player with 20 questions, which must be answered "yes" or "no."
11 Two Truths and One Lie
The player tells the group three statements about himself or herself. Two are true and one is a lie. Everyone tries to guess which one is the lie.
12 Licence Plate Lingo
Make up a phrase using the letters on another car's plate. Spot a licence plate and call out the letters on it. Then everyone tries to come up with a different phrase using the letters in the order they appear on the licence plate as the first letter of each word. For instance KEW could be "kittens eating watermelon" or "kiss every warthog." When you can't think of any more look for another licence plate.
13 Playing DJ (Name That Tune)
One person is in control of the iPod/CDs and gets other people in the car to guess the artist or song name. You can get into this further by guessing things such as the artist's real name, country of birth, the name of the album it's from, the year it was released...etc.
