ROAD TRIP: 19 GAMES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE CAR

1.  ABC Game- Each player must find a letter (outside your car) in the alphabet in alphabetical order. Look for letters on bumper stickers, street signs, or billboards. You see those golden arches off the interstate? There is your letter A in McDonalds to start you off. First person to Z wins! Another option, work as a team. Yell out the letters and together go through the alphabet, A-Z.

2.  I Spy- Select someone to be the spy, the spy picks and object, and they give a hint like, “I spy something red” and each player tries to guess your object. If no one guesses correctly after the first round give another hint. Let the player who guesses correctly become the next spy.

3.  Animal Sounds- Spot an animal but identify it by making the animal sound. For example, you see a cow you “mooooo”. First person to make a sound first when an animal is spotted gets a point. This one might not promote” inside voices!”

4.  Fake News- We discovered this game, thanks to Laura Dorwart who wrote “14 Best Car Games for Kids So You’ll Never Hear “Are We There Yet” Again.” This one is best suited for older children. One person tells a fake—or real—”news story” starting with “Did you hear that…?” The others have to guess whether it’s fact or fiction. Everybody gets a turn to tell a story or two! https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/14-best-car-games-kids-141617436.html

5.  Name that Tune- There are two ways to play this one either electronically or vocally. You can do it electronically by delegating a DJ to choose the music on a device or scan the radio or make it digital free and have each person sing a song. Each time you guess a song correctly you get a point.

6.  Categories- Pick a category like Movies. Go around the vehicle and have each person list a movie. We have multiple winners here with the person that can’t name another movie is out.

7.  I’m Going On a Picnic- This is a version of categories and a good one for young kids who need to practice their alphabet skills. Everyone takes a turn to say one item they are bringing in alphabetical order, “I’m going on a picnic, and I’m bringing…” Apples, the next person has letter B for bread and so on. It also doubles as a memory game, each person also has to name the previous person’s items and all the ones that came before them so “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bread, and cucumbers.” Make it all the way to letter Z. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/14-best-car-games-kids-141617436.html

8.  License Plate– Grab a notebook and favorite pen and document all the different license plate states you see. Maybe if you are traveling far enough, you’ll see all 50 states and as you get north you might see some from our Canadian neighbors.

9.  Two Truths and a Lie– Each person shares three statements (in any order) to the group, two being facts, the other fiction. The other participants need to figure out which is the lie.

10. Would you Rather– This one is pretty simple. Simply state “Would you rather….or….?” Like, “Would you rather be locked in a closet with a snake or a mouse?” Everyone else has to pick one or the other. This can get pretty silly.

11. Rule– We found this one at: https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2018/06/road-trip-games/ Everyone in the car gets to make one nonsense rule, like “every time we go under a bridge everyone needs to bark like a dog” or “whenever I put my hat on everyone has to touch the roof of the car.” Every time a rule is enforced everyone but the last person to catch on gains a point.

12. The Compliment Game– If things are getting a little chippy in the back seat it might be time to try this one. Use the alphabet to give compliments. The first person to start has letter A they would say “A is for Jonny’s awesome hair” the next person would have “B is for Sally’s beautiful smile” We can thank https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2018/06/road-trip-games/ for this feel good game.

13. Geography– First decide what category you’ll use, states, cities, countries, rivers or all of the above. Let’s use states as an example. The first person will name a state MINNESOTA (of course)? The next player has to use the last letter of that place as the first letter of their new place, and so on. For example, the second player next says, “Alaska.” The next player needs to think of a place that starts with A as well, and says, “Arkansas.” Play until you run out of places or you can’t think of any new ones.

14. Story Time-If you are feeling a little creative, try this one. The first person starts with “Once upon a time…” and says a complete sentence. Each person builds on the story by giving their own sentence while reciting the previous sentences. You can either set a time limit (15 minutes) or make the goal to wrap it up after each person has a chance to say 3 sentences. Use some electronics here and record story time on your phone to replay the creativity.

15. Hypotheticals– Let everyone have a turn answering a hypothetical question. Some questions would be: “What would you do if you won the lottery?” or “What would you do if you got trapped in a Zoo?” You might get to know some things you didn’t about your family members.

16. Restaurant Race– Set a time limit and have a player choose a restaurant, such as Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonalds, etc. Players earn points by spotting their restaurant off the road, on a billboard, on exit markers, on Food/Fuel signs, or by hearing it mentioned on the radio.

17. Who Am I– Be anyone you want in this game. Make a statement like “I wear a vest have a pet monkey and ride a magic carpet”. You can pretend to be friends, family members, celebrities, characters, anything! Oh, and if you are playing, I’m Aladdin.

18. Virtual Hide and Seek– Taking a classic game on the road. Here you chose a place inside your house to hide, and imagine you are there. You can hide anywhere like, for example your sock drawer or shampoo bottle. The others ask yes/no questions to find you. Whoever “finds” you by guessing your location wins and hides next.

19. The Game– This one is interesting, try to count to 20 collectively without delegating an order. Someone at random says “1” another person follows, again at random. If two people say the number at the same time or it takes longer than 5 seconds to get to the next number you start over again and yes at random. Maybe this should be called “Random”. Thank you to https://www.buzzfeed.com/fuelthejourney/cows-on-my-side for this one.