It’s more and more common these days to see cars equipped with TV’s, DVD players, and kids have all manner of hand held entertainment systems and video game to keep them occupied. But not everyone wants or can afford every high-tech something-or-other on the market to replace the more old-fashioned means of passing time on a road-trip. If spending a little quality time is appealing, or fun travel games on a budget are a necessity, then the following car travel games should come in handy.
  • Eye Spy: All it requires is the phrase “I spy with my little eye something that is _____”, then a lot of yes or no questions until the object is found by process of elimination; hardly challenging, but great for all ages.
  • 20 Questions: This is sort of like the Eye Spy of the mind; someone thinks of a famous person, place or thing, and everyone gets to ask 20 yes/no questions to bring it within guessing range (e.g. Santa Clause, the Circus, Statue of Liberty).
  • License Plate Acronyms: Have the kids take turns turning the letter on license plates into funny 3-letter phrases, with points awarded to the silliest or most logical outcomes, e.g. LTE 903 = Long Toed Egret or Let’s Taste Eggs.
  • Alphabet Games: Name a fruit, an animal or anything that starts with A (like apples or alligators) and let everyone take turns naming more starting with each letter of the alphabet (B = bananas/baboons, C = cumquats/cats, etc.).
  • Adjective Game: Make up a sentence like this “Grandma’s cooking is _____" and start with an adjective that begins with A (like amazing), then take turns, going through the alphabet accordingly (B = buttery, C = crunchy, etc.).
  • Counting Games: One of the oldest car trip games; pick something to count, like barns or red cars or out-of-state license plates, then see who can spot the most (it’s a good idea to restart the game every so often so everyone has a chance to win).
  • Old Standards: Yes they get old fast, but Tic-Tack-Toe, Rock Paper Scissors and Odds & Evens are simple one-on-one games that can act as filler between longer and more involved road trip games.