Looking for road trip games for your next family adventure? Every summer our family tackles a 40-hour road trip. That’s a LOT of togetherness, people! Honestly, it’s the electronic devices that keep us busy and sane on these long trips. But inevitably the batteries die… And that’s when we reach for this list of unplugged road trip games!
Here’s our great big list of 40 road trip games for kids and their grown ups. Most of these are classics and you probably know them well. If you need a refresher, you can click the links for rules and gameplay tips.
The first ten ideas on this list are printables. -So a little advanced prep is needed for those. Otherwise, the rest require nothing more more than a pencil and paper, (or nothing at all), and can be played on the fly when everyone starts getting cranky in the middle of Wyoming.
Ok, on to the list…
(Again, the first 10 activities are printables. *Games with an asterisk require pencil and paper. The rest require no materials at all.)
40 Road Trip Games for Kids:
- Read and Write on the Road: This printable booklet is my most popular download! It’s a set of fun, classic games with a literacy twist.
- Scavenger Hunt Printable
- Road Trip I-Spy Printable
- Road Trip Bingo Printable
- Road Trip Restaurant Bingo Printable
- Truckspotting Printable
- Travel Mad Libs for Kids
- Road Trip Word Search Printable
- Road Trip Scavenger Hunt for Teens and Tweens Printable
- License Plate Game Printable
- *License Plate Game
- Categories (with paper and pencil) or Categories (the clapping version)
- Backpack: We play it just like this classic game, but we list the things we’re taking in our backpack.
- 20 Questions
- Would you Rather?
- Rock Paper Scissors
- Rhyme Game: Say a word, take turns naming words that rhyme. If you can’t name one, you’re out. Play until no more rhymes can be found.
- Letter Game: Take turns naming words that start with a letter of the alphabet. When you can’t think of of a word, you’re out.
- Alphabet Game: Identify an object outside the car window that starts with each letter of the alphabet.
- The Prime Minister’s Cat
- I-Spy
- Chopsticks
- Thumb Wrestling
- Concentration hand clap game
- Slide hand clap game
- Build-a-Story: Make up a group story. One person starts by saying the opening sentence of a story. Take turns adding on to the story. Each person must build on the events described by the last participant. Continue until the story is complete.
- Tell campfire stories: This is great if you’re going camping!
- *Back Words
- *Dots and Boxes
- Guess My Number
- *Paper Telephone
- Word Association
- *Sprouts
- *Battleship
- *Panagrams
- *Art Gallery
- Fortunately/Unfortunately
- Two Truths and a Lie
- License Plate Sentences: Make up silly sentences using the letters and numbers on a license plate.
- And my favorite game for the last hour of our 40-hour road trip: THE QUIET GAME! If you’ve been a parent for longer than a year or so, you probably know this one…Everyone sits in silence. First one to talk loses. 🙂
Also, here are some more road trip ideas for the little ones.
And below you’ll find links to our very favorite books to pack along on road trips. Happy road tripping!
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