Looking for a good road trip game? Then look no further–you’ve found the map for road trip fun!
That feeling of excitement as you start out on a long summer road trip is part excitement, part adventure, part anticipation. And if you’re a parent, part fear of hearing the dreaded “I’m board” or “Are we there yet?” But this list of fun summer road trip games will keep that fear away. There are games for everyone, from the young to the seasoned, to the silly and to the serious, and from the short-attention-spanned to the long play tripper. Find one for every hour of the trip.
1 – Road Trip Game: Colour My Rainbow
This road trip game is great for the youngest road-trippers. To play, start at the beginning of the rainbow with red. Everyone looks for something that is red. When red has been spotted move on to orange. Follow through with yellow, green, blue and purple.
To step up this road trip game, add in some numbers. For example you can find three red things or five green things.
2 – Car Game: Scavenger Hunt
This road trip game was a favorite of ours growing up and is now a favorite car game for my kids. You will need a pen and pencil. First, let everyone have input to make the list of things that you might see on your travels. Make a list of about 10 items. The items can be simple such as a mail box or more complex such as a road side stand selling veggies. When the list is done and the journey begun, have one player read out the whole list. Next, all players watch the windows to spot the items on the list. When they have spotted something, they should say it out loud and then get to cross it off the list.
3 –Road Trip Game: Alphabet Finder
This road trip game is easy enough in concept. Start with the letter A. Everyone in the car looks to find the letter, it could be on a license plate, a road sign, a billboard, anywhere. When A has been found, look for B and so on until you get to the letter Z. This can be a co-optative game or each player can have to find their own alphabet.
4 – Word Game: Spelling Bee
For this game, you will need a pen and paper. First, decide on a word to spell. Start with simple four letter words. Next, all players look for the printed letters, in order, that spell that word. For example if you’re spelling the word ROAD, players will have to find an R in a sign, or license plate or other printed material. Then they will move on to O.
When you have conquered the small words, move on to longer words or words with harder to find letters such as ZEBRA. Names can also be fun to find.
If there are any double letters, then each letter needs to found separately. For example, if you’re spelling SCOTT and a player found the letter T on a road sign then the next T needs to be found some place else.
5 – Road Trip Game: Can You Name…
This road trip game is good for filling some time but it might be harder for younger players. To start, players choose a topic with board amount of answers, say movie tiles or restaurant names or school subjects even board games can work. Next, one player gives an answer in the category that starts with A. The next player then gives an answer that starts with B all the way through to Z. The game is over when a player can’t give an answer.
Or you can turn this into a co-operative game and help each other out to get all th way to Z.
6 – Word Game: Fortunately/Unfortunately
This is a story telling game where the first player makes a statement that starts with Fortunately and then the next player adds to the story with a sentence that starts with unfortunately.
An example is: Fortunately, our summer road trip has started. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our luggage. Fortunately, there is a store where we’re going.
7 – Car Game: In My Suitcase
This road trip game is a memory adding game. The players are listing what’s in their suitcase in alphabetical order. Each player must list the items that other players have already said before adding their letter.
For example, player one says “In my suitcase there is an apple.” Player two then says “In my suitcase there is an apple and a bumble bee.” Player three then says “In my suitcase there is an apple, a bumble bee and a cat.”
8 – Road Trip Game: Would you Rather
Kids love this next game. Players take turns asking would you rather questions—the more outrageous the better.
Examples: Would you rather sleep in a tree house every night or live in your car.
Would you rather smell dirty socks all day or eat rotten apples?
Would you rather pet a shark or hug a cactus?
9 – Travel Game: The Jelly Bean Game
For this game, you will need a zipper top bag full of jelly beans (or other small candies). The first player chooses an item in a category in his head. Next, he will tell the players what the category is. Players then take turns trying to guess what his chosen item is. When a player guess correctly, the it payer will gently throw the bag of jelly beans at her. She then gets to eat a jelly bean and it’s now her turn to pick a category and an item in it.
Example categories could be colours, cities, clothing items.
10 – Road Trip Game: Minions or The Banana Hunt Game
Who can resist the cute Minions? And everyone knows how obsessed they are with bananas. In this road trip game, everyone in the car gets to be a Minion on the hunt for, what else, bananas. To play, players watch for things that are yellow. When something is spotted, that player says Ba-na-na! and points the object.
11 – Car Game: I’m Driving To…
This road trip game is another guessing one. To start, one player picks a place to drive to. Next, the other players have 20 questions to ask to guess where the person is driving to.
12 – Travel Game: What’s the Next Line
For this game you need some family favorite music. Next, play a song and then stop it mid song and see who can finish the line or sing the next line.
13 – Road Trip Game: You Make the Rules
At the start of the trip, everyone gets the chance to make up a rule that everyone has to follow for the whole trip. An example could be that you have to hold your breath when going over a bridge, or that you have to Moo when you see a cow, or you have to put your hands up in the air when passing a transport (of course the driver can only participate when safe to do so).
14 – Word Game: What Is It?
This road trip game is yet another guessing game. To play you need to pick a category and someone picks an item. Next, players get to ask a question and then a guess.
Examples of this game are grocery store item. A question could be is it a sauce? Other categories could be colours, animals, and at the beach.
15 – Car Game: Group Counting
In this game, players take turns saying a number as they count from one to ten. The trick is that they can only say the number—no planning. But if two or more people say that say number then you have to start over at one. See how fast you can get from 1 to 10. If you’re looking for a harder challenge up the number you’re counting to—try 15 or 30.
16 – Road Trip Game: Pick Three
This is a story making game. One player picks three nouns. Next, the other players have to make up a story using all three of the nouns.
17 – Word Game: Word Association
This is an easy but tricky game. All you have to do is start with one word and the next player has to answer with the first word that comes to mind. The trick is to be speedy and not repeat any word. Teens seem to really like this game.
18 – Car Game: My Cows
This road trip game is best played when traveling across countryside. You will need a pen and paper to keep score. First, when a player sees some cows, they call out “my cows” gaining two points, any other players who call out get one point. When you cross a bridge, the first player who calls out “no more cows” keeps their points but all others’ points are zeroed out.
19 – Travel Game: Green Door
One player choses a category and then says that “You can Bring a __something that is in the category___ through the green door.” Next, player ask if they can bring ___ through the green door to try to guess what the category is.
For example, if the category is red food the first player starts with “You can bring an apple thought he green door.” The next player might thing that it’s item starting with the letter A and ask, “Can I bring an ant through the green door.”
20 – Road Trip Game: The Minister’s Cat
In the road trip game, you need a lot of adjectives. You play by saying the phrase “The Minister’s Cat is____” and fill in with an adjective. Each player needs to say a sentence with an adjective that starts with A. Once that has been done, then they move on to the letter B. When a player can’t come up with an adjective or repeats one then they are out of the game.
An Example game:
The minister’s cat is awesome. The minister’s cat is adorable. The minister’s cat is angry. The minister’s cat is beautiful. The minister’s cat is buff.
21 – Word Game: Initial Letters
One player gets to ask the questions and all other players have to answer a two word response with the two words starting with the same letters as their names. For example, if the question is “what are your favorite animals”, Avah Smith could answer “Anteaters and snakes.” Ben Jackson could answer, “bears and jaguars.” For families traveling together that share an initial, you could keep the repeating letter to make it more challenging or you could use the initials of their first and middle name.
22 – Car Game: It Could Be Worse
In this road trip game, one player starts with a sentence with an unfortunate situation in it. For example, “I forgot to pack my toothbrush.” The next player then says, “It could be worse, you___” and fills in the blank with something that is worse than the original situation. Keep going until no one can come up with a situation that is worse.
23 – Travel Game: One Word Story
As the name says, you will make up a story by saying only one word at a time. The first player starts the story by saying any word, the next player then adds to the story with just one word. Players keep adding to the story one word at a time until the laughter takes over.
Variation: when we’ve played this game before, there always seems to be person who gets stuck saying all the small words like “a”, “in,” “of,” or “the.” To make it more fun, we’ve made the rule that a person can add one of these little words to their turn.
24 – Road Trip Game: Catch the Smile
This road trip game is for the more outgoing group. One at a time, players try their best to make passengers in other cars to wave back at them. This can be done by waving or by showing silly faces or antics. Players score a point for every waves they get.
25 – Word Game: The Alphabet Story
We have played this game countless times! It stated off as an activity that was meant to fill in just a few minutes but turned into a must play game. It works especially well over Zoom calls.
To play the Alphabet Story game, one player starts the story by saying a sentence that starts with the letter A. The next player then has to continue telling the story starting her sentence with the letter B. Players keep adding to the story with sentences that start with the next letter of the alphabet until the last player says the last sentence starting with Z.
26 – Car Game: The Integrator
The Integrator is a silly game where players try not to laugh but almost always ends with peels of laughter. To start, one player is chosen as the integrator. Next, everyone agrees on an answer that will be given to all answers. The answer should be a silly as possible, say stinky feet, or Willy-nilly Worm. Once chosen, the integrator starts asking questions, trying with words only to make the players laugh. For example, he might ask, “What is the best smell in the world.” To which the player asked would have to answer seriously, “stinky feet.” When a player laughs or smiles, they are out of the game. Keep playing until there is only one player left who then becomes The Integrator.
Are We There Yet?
These are words that you won’t hear with these fun road trip games. Instead, you might hear “we’re there already!” Where ever you’re going this summer, or any time really, we hope you’ve found a new favorite game to help you get there.
If you’re looking for travel games you can shop here. There is an interesting game that looks like a good addition to our road trip games called Shotgun, you can check it out here. Canadians can shop for travel games here.
And for more family favorite games to play once you do get to where you’re going check out our game reviews, card games and dice games too.
And to make your time on the car even more fun and organized try some travel trays. Canadians can shop travel trays here.
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