- Play guessing games like 20 Questions, Trivia, or Would You Rather? to pass the time.
- Test your brainpower with activities like the Memory Game or Categories, where you’ll need to think of your answers quickly on the fly.
- Get creative with games like Story Time, where you and the other passengers work together to tell a story.
20 Questions
Play 20 Questions with a partner if you enjoy simple guessing games. This game is super easy for all ages. First, have someone think of a person, place, or thing. Then, have everyone else take turns asking yes-or-no questions to try and find out what they’re thinking of. After asking 20 questions, each player gets a single guess. Whoever guesses correctly wins! As a bonus rule, whoever guesses correctly gets to start the next round of the game. Take note of other players’ questions (and the responses) to make the best guess possible. Don’t repeat any questions, though.
The Alphabet Game
Run through the entire alphabet while scanning signs along the road. The alphabet game is a classic: watch the side of the road and read the signs and billboards you pass. Call out words you see in alphabetical order, but remember that everyone else will be doing it too. The first person to reach the end of the alphabet wins! To keep things interesting, multiple players can’t repeat the same word. For example, once someone calls the word “highway,” competitors have to find a different word that starts with “H.” Words on license plates don’t count for this game.
Memory Test Game
Create phrases while reciting the alphabet to test your memory. Pick a person to start the game. They’ll say, “A is for…” and come up with a word that starts with “A.” Then, the next person will do the same with a word that starts with “B,” but they’ll also repeat the “A” word. Continue through the entire alphabet while reciting each letter’s corresponding word! For example, if it’s your turn and the letter is “D,” then you could pick the word “dog” and say something like, “A is for antelope, B is for bark, C is for centipede, and D is for dog.” If you’re playing with little kids, you don’t have to go all the way to Z. Start small and see if they can play through M in the middle of the alphabet instead.
The Name Game
Connect the dots between your favorite celebrities with the Name Game. The name game is especially fun if you’re up-to-date on current celebrity news! Say the name of someone famous to start. Then, have the next person name a celebrity whose first name starts with the previous celebrity’s last initial. Take turns doing this and see how far you can go. For example, if you said, “Britney Spears,” then the next person could say, “Sandra Bullock.” If you name someone with the same first and last initial, like Harry Houdini, then the next celebrity’s first name should start with “H.” For a similar game with a bit more variation, try saying an actor’s name. Then, the next player has to name a movie they’ve starred in, and the player after has to name another actor in that movie, and so on!
The License Plate Game
Challenge your observation skills by spotting license plates as you drive. Looking for a way to keep passengers engaged throughout the entire trip? Challenge them to look at cars and spot at least 1 license plate from each of the 50 states. Whoever calls out a state’s license plate first gets a point, and whoever gets the most points wins. Try adding an extra rule and awarding bonus points to the first person who spots a Canadian license. This game is especially fun to play on days when a lot of people are traveling—around holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Labor Day, for example.
Trivia
Test the passengers’ knowledge by asking fun trivia questions. If you have time to prep before the car ride, set up a game of trivia! Create a list of questions based on the passengers' interests, whether it’s cartoon character-themed questions for kids or behind-the-scenes movie trivia for adults. Then, ask trivia questions throughout the drive. Whoever can answer the most questions wins the game! Say you’re asking movie questions. You might ask, “What is the name of Nicole Kidman’s character in Moulin Rouge?” or “Who was the only Lord of the Rings actor nominated for an Oscar?”
I Spy
This observational game can keep people of all ages entertained. This game is another classic, and playing I Spy is super easy! Just take turns spotting something (either inside or outside of the car) and giving a vague description starting with “I spy.” On your turn, let everyone else try to guess what you’re thinking of. You might say, “I spy something green,” to reference a tree-covered mountain in the distance, or “I spy something blue,” while thinking of one of the player’s shoes. The trick here is to pick something that’ll be visible to players as they think, even if it’s outside the car. You don’t want to pick a billboard that the car then immediately passes!
Story Time
Use your imagination to tell a collaborative story on the car ride. One person should begin the story by saying, “Once upon a time,” and completing the sentence. Go around the group, allowing everyone to add a sentence on their turn, and keep taking turns until the story reaches a natural conclusion! You could start the story with something like, “Once upon a time, a young ostrich decided to pack up and see the world…” and let the other players build on that. If you’re worried about taking too long, you might limit the story to 15 minutes or give each player 3 turns (and therefore 3 sentences) to work with. Whether you want to keep the story realistic or toss the rules out the window is completely up to you. You'll be amazed at all the different stories you can dream up!
Triple Threat
This storytelling game allows kids to come up with fun (and wacky) tales. Have an adult choose 3 nouns and announce them to the kids. Then, let the kids go wild! Their job is to create a story together using the 3 nouns, no matter how silly or outrageous. The game will help kids stretch their imaginations and appreciate the simple power of storytelling. Choose random nouns that might not seem related at first. For example, you might say, “book,” “crocodile,” and “parachute,” and let the kids craft a story from there.
Telephone
Play Telephone and see how strange a simple phrase can become. Choose a player to be the storyteller, and have them kick off the game by whispering a short story to another player. Then, that person has to repeat the story while whispering it into another player’s ear. The last person who hears the story should then recite it aloud—so everyone can see how much it changed! While every result is different, most telephone games include some hilarious and muddled final responses.
Scavenger Hunt
Stay alert and see if you can spot a whole list of items during the car ride. Before the road trip, make a list of items that you’re likely to see while driving. Then, let players search for everything on the checklist. The goal is to find and check off every scavenger hunt item by the time the road trip ends! As long as you're confident there’ll be opportunities to spot it, you can choose pretty much anything for your list. For example, you might add things like a red billboard, a McDonald’s sign, or a horse pasture. Come up with a prize if they win! This could be as simple as buying ice cream at the next rest stop.
The Singing Game
Take turns matching song lyrics for a creative sing-along game. For this game, one person starts by singing a couple of lines from a song. The next person must then jump in and connect those lines with lyrics from a different song, matching up the first word of their lyrics with a word that the previous player sings from their song. Continue the pattern until someone messes up their lyrics! For example, if the first person sings, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you…” then you could chime in with, “You are my fire, the one desire, believe when I say, I want it that way!” For a simpler musical game, you could just play “Name the Song” and take turns singing a single song lyric. Everyone else must then try to guess either the song title, artist, or both.
Battle of the Bands
Compete to see whose road trip song picks win the popular vote. To play this fun and easy musical game, pick two players and have them come up with a song each—which the person controlling the car’s music will play. Everyone else in the car must listen to each song and decide which one they liked better. Winning a round of the game earns a point, and the one with the most points wins. Give each player a theme to choose from so their song selections are related—and pick a theme everyone can enjoy! For example, your theme might be “songs about traveling” or “rock songs from the 80s.”
Counting Cows
Compete with passengers to see who can spot the most cows. Are there lots of farms (and cows) on your road trip route? Play this simple game! Each player must simply keep an eye out and yell “Cow” or “Moo!” if they spot a cow. The first person to spot and call out each cow gets a point, and the person who gets the most points wins. Try counting different animals depending on the region or landscape. Maybe the area you’re driving through is known for having lots of deer, buffalo, or eagles.
Map Race
Search a roadmap for locations to win this basic guessing game. Pull out a local road map and have a player pick a place on the map—whether it’s a town, lake, river, or another small landmark. Then, have that player announce what spot they picked without giving any hits to its location on the map. From there, the remaining players have 60 seconds (1 minute) to search the map and find the location!
Backseat Bingo
Bring this classic game on the road with road trip-themed Bingo sheets. This is an especially great game to keep kids occupied in the backseat! Prepare a few different bingo cards containing items, animals, and places that may be spotted along the drive. Passengers can play bingo based on the normal rules, and the first to make a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line on their bingo sheet wins. For example, a road trip bingo card might have things like “scenic view,” “traffic jam,” or “someone falls asleep” on them. Change up the different things that appear on your bingo sheets based on where you are (and where you’re driving). For example, a coastal trip might have “ocean vista” or “passing a beach” on it.
Would You Rather?
Get to know fellow passengers’ preferences by asking funny questions. Take turns asking “Would you rather” questions. Give everyone else 2 options in each question and let them choose one. As the game progresses, pose more bizarre and interesting questions for players to debate as they go! Good questions include: “Would you rather find true love or win the lottery?” “Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?” “Would you rather be able to speak any language or be able to communicate with animals?”
Fortunately/Unfortunately
Practice finding the bright side in every situation with this clever game. Start the game with one person saying, “Fortunately…” and then referencing something positive. The next player will say, “Unfortunately…” and come up with something unfortunate about the previous statement. The goal is to keep moving from player to player, alternating between “Fortunately” and “Unfortunately” statements. Person 1: “Fortunately, I’m about to see Yellowstone for the first time.” Person 2: “Unfortunately, bears have taken over the park and really hiked up admission prices!” Person 3: “Fortunately, I think we can bribe them with a basket of fish.” If someone stumbles or can’t think of something, they get a strike. Once a player has 3 strikes, they’re out. The last person standing wins!
Categories
Test your brainpower by naming related items in alphabetical order. Start by naming a broad category, like capital cities or dessert foods. After that, each player must name items within the category—but the twist is that every item needs to be in alphabetical order. If the player can’t answer within 10 seconds or goes out of order, they’re eliminated, and the last player standing wins! For example, if the category was capital cities, you could say, “Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin…”
Word Association
See how many words you can string together through word association. If you want to keep things a little simpler than Categories, this is the game to play! Have one player say a random word out loud, then have the next player say a word they associate with the first one. Keep taking turns and doing this until someone takes too long or makes a mistake. For example, if someone said “turkey,” other word associations that players might make include stuffing, Thanksgiving, cranberry sauce, cooking, and so on.
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