100+ Travel Games The Kids Can Do in the Car

If you are getting ready for your summer trip, chances are you are asking yourself that age-old question–“how are we going to keep the kids occupied during our looooong trip?”  In the age of technology, the easy answer often seems to be the portable DVD player or gaming device.  However, sometimes we forget there are a whole lot of travel games kids can do in the car and enjoy just as much, if not more, without that screen-zone hangover.

Today, with your help, we are going to see if we can make the longest list of travel games kids can do in the car WITHOUT the use of technology.  Ready?  I’m going to get the list started with the first 100.  Feel free to add your ideas in the comments below.  Let’s see how many options we can come up with so that we never again have to ask that question, “how are we going to keep the kids occupied during our looooong trip?”

100+ Travel Games The Kids Can Do in the Car BESIDES Watch a Movie

1. Read a book.
2. Listen to audiobooks from your local library or Librovox.
3. Trace your route on a map.
4. Brain Quest Question and Answer Cards (they are available for kids of all ages)
5. Make fruit loop necklaces (also serves as a fun snack)
6. Lacing Cards
7. Card games such as Go Fish or Old Maid
8. Play I Spy.
9. Play car bingo.
10. Play Tic-Tac-Toe.
11. Play a travel magnetic game.  (this one includes Checkers, Chess, Backgammon, Parcheesi, Chinese Checkers, and Snakes and Ladders)
12. Complete a travel scavenger hunt.
13. Play Spot It! On the Road.
14. Play battleship.
15. Sing along to a favorite tune or two.
16. Play string games.
17. Make origami.
18. Color or doodle in a coloring book.
19. Complete complex mazes.
20. Create a vehicles graph.
21. Play the alphabet game.
22. Tell jokes.  (here’s some great ones for starters)
23. Talk!  I know, right?  Who’d have thought?!  Even these table talk questions would be great for travel.
24. Play the license plate game.
25. Play I’m Going to Grandma’s house… or I’m Going on a Picnic… or another similaralphabetical memory game.
26. Play 20 questions.
27. Play the Banana game.
28. Play the spelling challenge.  One person spells a word and the next person has to spell a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word spelled.  No proper nouns can be used and no words can be repeated.
29. Review school info with fun flash cards using one of these flashcard game ideas
30. Play Name That Tune.  One person hums a tune and another has to try to guess it.
31. Play on a Wooly Willy board.
32. Make crazy creatures with pipe cleaners.
33. Learn something with Invisible Ink Books
34. Find Waldo.
35. Develop fine motor skills with sticker books
36. Have fun with Wipe-clean cards and books.
37. Laugh with Mad Libs
38. Play hangman
39. Draw on blank paper.
40. Play with finger puppets
41. Play with Imaginets
42. Learn with Lift-the-Flap books.
43. Spur on creative thinking with activity books
44. Play with matchbox cars and printable road map.
45. Play with Wikki Stix (or Benderoos).
46. Play with doll house dolls, plastic animals, army men, or other small characters
47. Play with busy bags.
48. Play Find It.
49. Roll play with magnetic paper dolls
50. Increase focus with 1001 Things to Spot Books
51. Play with nesting cups
52. Play Travel Connect 4
53. Draw on an Etch A Sketch
54. Draw on a doodle board.
55. Play on a Rubik’s Cube.
56. Play with a ball maze.
57. Paint with water books.
58. Use aluminum foil to create crazy creatures
59. Have a snack while reading the Cheerios book
60. Count the cows along the side of the road.
61. Make up a story together.  Each person can tell a part.
62. Play slug bug.  Be the first person to spot a Volkswagon beetle and call out “slug bug!”
63. Play the vowel race.  Each player chooses a different vowel and the search begins.  First person to find their vowel 10 times outside the vehicle wins.
64. Play the guessing game.  One person asks a question like “how many telephone poles will we pass in the next minute?” or “how many horses will be pass in the next 2 minutes?”  Then, everyone guesses.  Once the guesses have been stated, the timer starts and everyone counts the objects to see who was the closest.
65. Play the license plate alphabet game where you have the find the alphabet in order on license plates.
66. Play the license plate counting game where you have to find the numbers 1 to 100 in order on license plates.
67. Play rock-paper-scissors.
68. Play pairs.  One person states an object  such as “peanut butter” and another has to come up with a pair such as “jelly.”
69. Play with a quiet book.
70. Play Sudoku.
71. Do crossword puzzles.
72. Complete some brain games.
73. Read a kids magazine like National Geographic Kids.
74. Thumb wrestle.
75. Make friendship bracelets
76. Play Guess Who?
77. Make a list.  It could be any kind of list.  You could even have a competition–who could make the longest list of animals?  Or birds?  Or where are all the places you’d like to visit in the world?  Or what would you like to do by your next birthday?
78. Write a poem.
79. Play the Word Chain Game.  One person says a word and the next person must say a word that relates to the first in some way.  For example, if one says “lemon” the next might say “banana” because it is also a fruit or “sun” because it is also yellow.  See how long you can keep the chain going.
80. Play Would You Rather?  i.e. Would you rather scuba dive or snorkel?  The next person has to answer and give a reason why.
81. Read Trivial Pursuit cards and quiz each other.
82. Play Pictionary.
83. Have a finger dance.Put on some upbeat music and see what kind of crazy grooves their fingers can do to “get down.”
84. Learn how to do card tricks.
85. Journal
86. Eat a Tootsie Pop and count how many licks it takes to get to the middle.
87. Make a bead necklace.
88. Complete a Word Search.
89. Play math volley.  One person thinks of a math problem (i.e. 1+7 is…) and the second person has to solve it.  Once the second person solves the problem they then get to think of another problem for the next player.
90. Play Connect-the-Dots.
91. Complete a Dot-to-Dot.
92. Play the Build Words Game.The first player begins by saying a letter.  The next player says the first player’s letter and adds the next letter of a probable word.  The game volleys back and forth until either a word is created or a player cannot thing of a letter to create a word.  The person to complete a word gets one point and starts a new word.
93. Come up with a creative story using Rory’s Story Cubes.
94. Play Two Truths and A Lie.  One person tells two truths and a lie and the others try to guess which one is the lie.
95. Play Categories.  The first player says “I am thinking of kinds of…” and names the category.  Then the next player in the circle names an object that would fit that category and so on until no one can thing of any other object to fit in the category.
96. Play guess the number.  One person thinks of a number between 1 and 100, and the rest try to guess it.  The first person can only respond by saying “higher” or “lower” or “correct.”
97. Play Unfortunately.  One person starts a story by stating the first sentence.  The second person begins her sentence with “unfortunately.”  The third player begins his sentence with “fortunately” and so on until no one can thing of what might happen next.
98. Play Hot and Cold.  First, the players decide on a unified location to think about, usually the home.  Next, one player thinks of a spot to hide an object in that location and states, “I hid my ____.  Where is it?”  The other players then take turns trying to guess where the object is located.  The first player may only respond with temperature replies such as “hot,” “hotter”, or “cold”, “cool”, and “cooler.”
99. Play Verbal Tennis.  To do this you take turns to keep a conversation going using ONLY questions.  For example, “where did you get your hair cut?” “Why do you like it?” “How could I not?” etc.
100. Play 21.  It’s a game of memory and speed.  Each person begins by counting one number at a time.  The persons who say 7, 14, and 21 gets to make a substitution rule for any number like “from now on 5 is “pretzel.”  When counting reaches 21 the counting starts over with the replacements added from the last round.  Repeat until all numbers have been replaced.
101. Play the synonym game.  Call out a common noun such as house.  Players then take turns saying as many synonyms as possible for that one word.  i.e. home, cabin, apartment, etc.
102. Play the homonym game.  The first player states a phrase that includes a homonym.  Then next player states a phrase that includes the homonym of the first.  i.e.  I can see…the deep blue sea.
103. Play the antonym game.  The first player states a word and the next states the antonym.  i.e  Hot.  Cold.