Entertaining Road Trip Games for Kids + Printable Activities

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The summer is here and many families are gearing up for their next family road trip. Kids love to be entertained, but it can also be hard to find things that will keep them busy in the car.

In this blog post, we provide you with some road trip games for kids that will make them happy on the road!

Fun games to play in the car:

If you’re looking for some fun games to play in the car, we have some fun ideas for the whole family and a few road trip activities that the kids can navigate on their own. We have lots of road trip game ideas for kids that are perfect for playing in the car or RV during long car rides.

These games are meant for children of all ages, though some of them might be more difficult for really young kids. With a few tweaks, you might be able to adjust these games for younger players.

These fun kids’ travel games will keep the whole family entertained for hours!

The alphabet game

One player starts by saying any letter of the alphabet. The next player must say a word that begins with that letter. If they can’t think of one, it is their turn to start with another letter. To make it interesting and more challenging for older kids, you could use specific categories for words such as animals, cities, countries, food, etc.

The license plate game

This is one for all the world travelers out there. Players try to spot all the different U.S. states’ license plates during the trip. If they spot one, they can call it out. The first to spot all 50 wins!

Use this printable set to keep track of all of the license plates you find.

A my name is…

This is a fun game that will pass the time and create lots of laughs. It is a simple game where you have to come up with a name, a spouse’s name, a place, and a thing that all start with the same letter in order of the alphabet.

Person one: A, my name is Angela and my husband’s name is Andrew. We come from Annapolis and we sell apples.

Person two: B, my name is Ben and my wife’s name is Betty. We come from Boston and we sell bugles.

Everyone in the car gets a turn with their letter and you keep taking turns until you’ve used every letter in the alphabet.

Twenty Questions

One player thinks of a specific person, place, or thing. The rest of the people in the car become detectives and have to guess what that person is thinking of. Players ask questions to figure out what they think it is in 20 questions or less.

I Spy

This is a classic car game that every child should know how to play! If you’re not familiar with it, the first player tries to get all of the other players to guess what they saw.

For example: “I spy something yellow and round.” The players will then try to guess what it is you saw and can try to figure it out by asking simple yes or no questions.

Name That Tune

Many of us grew up playing this classic road trip game. It’s a game where players try to guess the song that the other person is thinking of based on the number of notes hummed by the person whose turn it is. You could also play a variation of this by singing a certain number of words in the song.

A player will say, “I can name that tune in 6 notes” (or words), and the person who is “it” will hum or sing that many notes of the song.

This game might be a little difficult for younger children, but if you use popular kids’ songs that most children know, they might be able to play along.

License Plate Game printable

The USA License Plate Color Sheet is not only exciting to color in as they spot different license plates from around the country, but they’ll also be practicing recognizing states.