7 Road Trip Games for Kids To Play in the Car

Heading on a family road trip and wondering how to keep the kids entertained beyond phones and tablets? Consider incorporating some kid-friendly road trip games to play in the car for a more memorable experience. 

We're sharing our seven favorite games to play in the car, perfect for passing time and entertaining everyone of all ages. 

1. License plate game 

This classic family road trip game is ideal for all ages. To make this fun car game more hands-on, print out a black-and-white map of the United States and give the kids some crayons or colored pencils.

Each time they see a new state on a license plate, they'll color it on the map. The first person to spot all the states (or spot the most state plates by the end of the journey) wins!

2. Road trip Olympics 

While playing games in the car can entertain children during the ride, activities for your rest periods are also a must.

To play "Road Trip Olympics", ask your kids to complete a physical challenge at each pit stop. Examples include:

• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Jumping jacks
• Ball dribbling

See who can do the most in a certain amount of time or perform the activity the longest. Parents can also spice things up with a bit of competition by offering a prize for the winner—a Cold Stone Creamery gift card, perhaps?

3. Guess the song or artist 

Another entertaining family road trip game is Guess the Song or Artist. You can play this game in different ways: 

• One person can hum or sing a line from a song. Then, the rest of the players must guess the song or artist. You can even add variation to the activity by limiting songs to hits from the last three to five years, TV show theme songs, or popular tunes from movie soundtracks.
  
  
• Or, instead of humming or singing, you can play a few seconds of the song before turning off the volume and having everyone guess.

In either case, whichever player guesses the song title or artist name first earns a point. The first one to reach a specified point total wins! 

4. Scavenger hunt or bingo

For this family road trip game, provide each player with a list of things to look for while traveling. You can either make your own cards or find a template online.

Then, you and your kids can mark off items from the list or bingo card as you see them, such as squirrels, airplanes, cows, graveyards, wind turbines, dogs, or buses. 

The first player to mark all of their spaces or achieve "bingo" is the winner.

5. Travel card games or board games 

Take family game night on the road! Many popular pastimes offer travel editions, designed for on-the-go fun.

You can find pocket-sized or travel versions of popular car games on Amazon, Walmart, or Target; look for options such as:  

• Scrabble To Go
• Travel Yahtzee
• Sorry!
• Jeopardy! Card Game
• Monopoly Deal

For more interactive fun, you can also try games like Heads Up! or Uno on your mobile phone or tablet.  

6. Hot Seat 

Hot Seat is an exciting family road trip game, especially for teenagers. The rules are simple: in each round, a new player is in the "hot seat". The other players ask the person in the hot seat five total questions.

The participant can refuse to answer one question but must answer the other four. Questions can be as simple or quirky as "Would you rather never eat pizza again or never eat ice cream again?" or "If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?"

But to make the game more intriguing, include challenging or thought-provoking questions with each round, like "What's one thing you'd change about yourself?" or "What's a popular opinion you completely disagree with?"

7. 20 questions 

For this classic road trip game, one person starts by thinking of something, and everyone else takes turns asking up to 20 yes-or-no questions to figure out the answer.

The game usually starts with the question, "Is it an animal, vegetable, or mineral?" and gets more specific from there. The first player to guess the correct answer or come the closest gets to choose the next item.