55 Road Trip Games To Play In The Car (with kids & family)

Looking for fun car games to play on long car rides?

I’ve put together a list of the best road trip games to play in the car with kids and family that will keep everyone entertained.

Choose your favorites and plan ahead to ensure your next road trip is fun and goes by quickly.

Family Road Trip Games To Play In The Car

1. The Name Game

This is a fun trip car game that the whole family can enjoy. You start by saying the name of one famous person.

The next player has to think of a name of a person (that everyone in the car knows) whose first name starts with the first letter of the previous person’s last name.

For example, Kylie Jenner -> Jake Gyllenhall -> Gary Busey, and so on.

You can play this family game with names of animals, food, or even cities.

2. Alphabet Game

Our kids really enjoy playing this classic alphabet game.

Starting with the letter A, everyone takes turns going through the alphabet.

To advance to the following letter, players must find an item starting with the next letter in their car, on license plates, or on road signs.

3. Story Game

In this fun car game, everyone takes turns adding just one word to the previous word to make up a story. It’s fun to see where the story goes.

You can choose to increase the number of words someone can say to make the story go a bit faster. Any way you play the game, you’ll end up with a funny, weird, or silly story.

You can also play this game with Story Cubes. These StoryCubes are great for telling stories wherever you go.

Watch this fun video on how to use story cubes:

4. Rule Game

This is a favorite road trip game! In this game, everyone makes a nonsense rule, like:

• “whenever you see a cow, you must moo loudly” or
• “every time we see a red car, everyone must knock on the window”

The last person to do the action gets a point. The person with the most points by the time you get to your destination loses.

5. Car Bingo

Car Bingo is a perfect game for car enthusiasts.

Make a list of vehicle types and print out a list for everyone before starting your journey.

Whenever someone sees a car that’s on the list, they need to shout it out to then be able to tick it off their list. See who can cross all the cars off their list first!

You can download all three Free Car Bingo Printables for your next trip here.

6. Car Cricket

If you’re familiar with cricket, this counting game will be easy to understand.

Select car colors for each number of runs a person can earn during their inning.

• Green = 6 runs (or points)
• White = 4 runs (or points)
• All Other Colors = 1 run (or point)
• Black = out

When it’s your turn to play, you count the number of runs you get for every car color that passes you.

When a black car passes you, you’re out, and the next person starts their innings.

The first person to get to a certain number of points (you decide depending on how long you want to play the game) wins.

7. Question Only

Everyone in the car can only communicate using questions.

Players take turns asking questions, and the first person to answer with a statement, instead of a question, loses.

The responses don’t have to make sense.

It’s quite a challenging game as you automatically want to answer a question.

8. Hypotheticals

Here’s another excellent family bonding game. Ask everyone to answer some hypothetical questions like:

• “Which country would you like to visit?” or
• “If you could only ever eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?”

Road Trip Games For Two

1. Guess The Song

Whenever a new song comes on the radio, the first person to guess the song gets a point.

You can also randomly change stations and guess whatever song is playing.

2. Kiss, Marry or Kill

This is a fun game to get to know your travel buddy better.

Take turns naming three people who are alive, dead, or fictional.

They then have to choose who they would kiss, marry, or kill.

4. Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock paper scissors is a quick and easy game to play with two people.

You can keep score, pause the game during the drive, and pick up again whenever you feel like it.

Whoever has the most points at the end of the journey wins.

5. My Car

You can play this game with two or more people.

Everyone chooses a color, and you get a point for every car you see in that color.

It’s an easy game for even the youngest travelers to play, and it keeps everyone focused on the road.

Solo Road Trip Games

1. Fish Ring Toss

Popular games like Fish Ring Toss and Basketball Aqua are great retro games for kids to pass the time alone in the back of the car.

2. Brainbolt

Keep your kid’s brains active and improve their concentration. Ages 7+ Brainbolt is a fast-paced game where you must press the color buttons as quickly as possible after they light up.

Watch how to play Brainbolt in the video below:

3. Magnetic Travel Tangram Puzzle

Challenge your kid’s creativity with this fun brain teaser game. Copy different pictures by using the magnetic shapes provided.

4. Hidden Pictures Travel Fun

There are many Hidden Pictures books to choose from, which will keep any solo traveler entertained for hours.

Choose one that’s age and interest appropriate for your child.

🤓You might also enjoy discovering some different and engaging Car Trivia Games to fuel your next road trip adventure!

Road Trip Trivia Games

1. Trivia Questions

Trivia questions are great for long road trips.

Not only are they often educational, but they can be fun road trip games too.

You can either create a list of trivia questions upfront or let your kids ask questions, and if you cannot answer them, they get to Google them.

Example trivia questions can include:

Science Trivia Questions

• What is the largest organ in the body?
  • Answer – the skin
• What is the rarest blood type?
  • Answer – AB negative

Animal Trivia Questions

• Which animal’s fingerprints look exactly like human fingerprints?
  • Answer – A Koala
• What is the only mammal that can fly?
  • Answer – bats

2. Road Trip Trivia

Every state you drive through has an interesting history.

Have a “host” ask questions regarding the state or city in which you’re all traveling during a round of Road Trip Trivia.

Remember that Google is your friend, so use it to search for interesting facts and answers.

🤓 Here are more Road Trip Trivia Questions & Answers to make your next road trip even more enjoyable.

🤓 You can also try these Trivia Questions For Teens.

Road Trip Travel Games

1. Local Food Master

Try to find the best local snacks at every pit stop you take.

Not only do you win points, but you get to enjoy some fantastic snacks along the way.

2. Uno

Uno is a fun card game for all ages and easy to play anywhere.

You can get this classic travel game in a travel-friendly tin and play it on your next car trip.

3. Mad Libs On The Road

Excellent word game with a good laugh.

You write in missing words on each page to create some hilarious stories.

4. Loaded Questions On The Go

Travel version of the classic game of “who said what.”

It’s a great travel game for ages 8+ for 4-6 players.

Simply read out a question from the question cards, and everyone writes down an answer.

There are no right or wrong answers – just for fun.

5. Apples To Apples On The Go

This is a portable version of the wild card and party game that provides fun for four to eight people on the go.

Choose the card from your hand that best matches what the judge played.

If the judge picks your card, you win.

6. Shotgun

Shotgun is a perfect travel game for your next long drive.

Recommended for players 12+, you can play with two or more players.

Read the cards out loud, and players compete to score points.

For example: “First person who gets a wave from someone outside the car gets two points.”

7. Tic Tac Toe (or Noughts & Crosses)

Great portable travel game where you don’t waste lots of paper.

Simply roll the cubes to place a naught or a cross and try to get three in a row to win.

8. Auto Bingo

These are great travel Bingo cards to play on car rides.

The cards are reusable and have a fingertip shutter slide window to mark off items you’ve found on your bingo card.

9. On The Go Games

These portable classic games include six pen & paper games for your next road trip like Bingo, Hangman, and TicTacToe.

With six fun games to play in the car and 120 sheets, this car ride game will keep your kids occupied for a while.

These easy-to-pack travel camp games are also great for your next camping trip or summer camp.

Road Trip Games App

1. Mad Libs

MAD LIBS allows players to fill in key parts of a story using words from particular parts of speech.

Because players don’t know what the story is about when they choose words, their choices can seem ridiculous and hilarious in context.

2. Zombie Road Trip

Download any Zombie road trip games before heading out and stay entertained for the journey.

Road Trip Video Games

There are many portable video games that can be played on road trips.

With the processing power available on the Nintendo Switch, there are many great games to download and play on the road.

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Pokemon Sword and Shield

Road Trip Question Games

1. Would You Rather

Take part in an epic Would You Rather game.

Put together the weirdest or most difficult questions you can think of (or find online).

2. Get To Know You Questions

Your kids get to ask you questions that they may have wanted to know but never had your complete attention to ask you.

For example, they may want to know what the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done was (i.e., skydiving or swimming with sharks), the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten, or if you’ve ever had your heartbroken.

3. Twenty Questions

You start the game with someone thinking of something in their mind.

Everyone else must ask ‘Yes or NO answer’ questions to find out what it is.

For example, “Is it manmade?”, “Is it made of metal?”.

If they cannot guess what it is after 20 questions, the person tells them what it was and gets a point.

If someone guesses correctly, they get to think of the next thing, and play starts again.

Check out this Number Question Game guide.

Never Have I Ever

Everyone holds up five fingers.

One person says something they have NEVER done.

The rest of the players either keep their finger up (if they have never done this either) or put one finder down (if they have done it.)

The first person to put all five fingers down is out.

Check out these Never Have I Ever Questions For Teenagers.

Road Trip Games for Tweens

1. What Am I Counting?

A person starts counting something aloud as soon as they see it, but don’t say what they’re counting.

In this fun guessing game for kids, the other players must try to guess what the person is counting.

It could be cars passing by, trees, road signs, or even cows.

As soon as someone guesses correctly, it’s their turn to start counting any object they choose.

2. Alphabet Categories Game

Pick any category like sports, food, boy names, or movies, and then everyone must name a thing in that category in alphabetical order.

Someone loses if they cannot think of the following item within 10 seconds.

They can then start a new game by picking another category, and play begins again.

3. Cows On My Side

We usually play this classic road game by saying “Cow!’ or “Moo” whenever we see a cow on our side of the road.

You get a point for every time you say it first.

If you see cows on the other side of the car, you can shout “Cows on your side” and steal their point.

4. Going On A Picnic

In this memory game, a person says, “I’m going on a picnic and will bring…” and then list an item.

The next person must list the first person’s item and then add their own item.

As the list grows, the loser is the first person who cannot correctly list all the items.

5. I Spy

Probably the most played classic game for road trips.

One person says, “I spy with my little eye…. something beginning with the letter…”

Players take turns asking yes or no questions until they guess correctly what the item is.

The person who guesses correctly then takes a turn to ‘spy’ something that the others must guess.

6. Scavenger Hunt Game

Create a list of common sights you would encounter while driving, such as horses, a mileage sign, a motorcycle, a barn, a police car, and a Ferrari.

Feel free to tailor it to your route if you know it well.

Each person tries to cross off as many items as they can spot during the scavenger hunt road trip.

7. The Quiet Game

Each person sees how long they can remain silent, and whoever speaks first loses.

This is a great game to play with your kids when you need a moment of peace and some quiet time.

8. Broken Telephone

The child whispers a story to someone else.

A second person whispers the same story – as close as possible word-for-word – to a third, and so forth.

The last person to hear the story repeats it to be heard by all.

Some parts of the story are lost during the translation, and the resulting garbled message usually makes one laugh.

9. Bug Punch

This is a silly game that tweens love to play as they get to punch whoever is sitting next to them whenever they see a VW beetle and say “Punch Buggy” first.

10. What Color Is It?

One person lists things with the same color, and the kids must guess the color.

For example, you can say “Apple, leaf, creme soda” until the kids yell out ‘Green!”

Word Games To Play In The Car

1. License Plate Game

Make up the meaning of the letters on each license plate you pass.

For instance, CAD could stand for “Chris Ate Dumplings,” and MLT could be “Michelle Likes Tim.”

2. The Rhyme Game

Anyone can start by picking a word, and then everyone in the car has to take turns to say a word that rhymes with it.

Whoever is stumped or repeats a word first loses.

3. Word Association

This is an infinite word game, where one person says any word they think of.

The next person has to come up with a word associated with it.

The game ends when someone cannot come up with an associated word within a set time frame.

For example, you can start with the word “dog -> walk -> feet -> socks -> smelly…”

4. Spelling Bee

For this classic word game to stay fun, you should choose age-appropriate words for kids to spell out in the car.

They can get points for each word spelled correctly.

5. Word Finder

This is probably tricky for younger players, but adults enjoy the challenge.

You start with a word like ‘boggle,’ and you need to find as many words as possible that you can make from those letters.

Words would include: globe, blog, lobe, ogle, egg, ego, beg…

6. City, Country, River

Choose a letter from the alphabet and nominate someone who has to come up with a city, country, and river that start with the letter.

For example, ‘N’ could be New Orleans, Norway, Nile.

7. Word Trail

Word Trail is a car word game focused on compound words.

The rules are pretty simple: Players take turns naming compound words that begin with the previous ending word.

For example, a sequence could run like this: “barnyard – yardstick – stick figure – figure skating…”, etc.

Zombie Road Trip Games

There are several Zombie Road Trip Games to download on the Google Play store and play offline on your next car ride.

From the original Zombie Road Trip, where you try to avoid a zombie hoard coming for you, to Zombie Hill Racing, Zombie Road Racing, Zombie Derby & Zombie Derby 2, where you drive to survive the post-apocalyptic world.

Printable Road Trip Games

Road Trip Word Search

Find all the words associated with a road trip and circle them.

Download and print this Free Printable at home before you go on your next road trip.

Note: words can be spelled backward too. 

Useful Roadtrip Items

1. Kids Travel Tray

These travel trays are not only useful for snack time but are great for playing games, drawing, coloring, and even watching movies.

2. Motion Sickness Chewables

If you’ve ever had motion sickness, or if your kids suffer from it, then you know how essential these chewables are.

3. Road Trip Snacks

Road trip snacks are non-negotiable and you will need plenty of them.

Stock up on your favorites to be sure to keep those tummies fed and mouths momentarily quiet.

Road Trip Games Summary

If you’re planning a long road trip and looking for some fun road trip games to keep everyone entertained, then you should plan ahead.

Choose some of the best games to play in the car to ensure no one gets bored.

Grab plenty of snacks, turn on the music, get comfortable and enjoy the ride.