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10 Fun Games to Play in the Car With Family, Friends and Kids!

Family road trips could either be great fun or a taxing ordeal with impatient kids. They’re bound to get bored and frustrated being cramped in a tight space with all their siblings. Fortunately, games are an excellent way to pass the time when you’re all stuck in a car together. Fun car games can distract the kids and keep them entertained on the long journey. So, delve into our impressive list of exciting games to play in the car for the whole family!

Road Trip Games That Guarantee Fun for Kids and Adults Alike!

People enjoy road trips because they enjoy the experience of them. Traveling in your car offers you more freedom and adventures. You can take off beaten paths and go wherever there’s a road. It brings you closer to nature also. Needless to say, you might like it so much that you might even consider living in your car full-time and adopting it as a lifestyle. Truly, road trips are all about the journey and not the destination.

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However, if you’re getting constantly bugged by impatient kids who won’t stop screaming, your pleasant road trip can easily turn into a nightmare. To prevent that, we have some really interesting car ride games for you!

1. Road Trip Bingo

You’ll need to make some advanced preparations to play this game while planning your road trip. However, it’ll be worth the effort since it is an extremely fun car game for kids. It’ll keep them engaged during the ride. So, don’t forget to include this in your weekend trip packing list!

What’s the Game? Players get a sheet with various items, objects, signs, etc they’re likely to see during their journey. The first one to cross off a line in any direction (up, down, across, diagonal) gets a special prize! And the first one to cross off all the items on the board wins the game and an even bigger prize!

How to Play:

  • Print out sheets containing a bunch of things and places you’re likely to see during a road trip. Arrange them in a grid format like a regular game of bingo. Keep in mind that each sheet should have a different arrangement otherwise, all the kids will win at once!
  • Instruct the children to keep an eye out for all these things and cross them off the list as soon as they spot them. It’s better to announce when you spot each item as well. But no cheating! If you missed an item, you cannot cross it off just because someone else said it.
  • The first one to cross a line gets a special prize. However, the winner is the one who crosses off the entire grid first.
  • You can use snacks as prizes.

2. I Spy with my Little Eye…

A classic guessing game to play in the car! I Spy also keeps the players engaged and attentive when the ride gets boring.

What’s the Game? Players have to guess what the other is thinking based on the first letter of the object.

How to Play:

  • One player spots something and says the phrase “I spy with my little eye something beginning with …” (insert the first letter of whatever the answer is).
  • This object can be anything on the road or inside the car. However, the uncompromising rule is that it should be somewhere in the immediate environment.
  • Other players have to guess what it is. All the players take turns making the others guess.

3. The Licence Plate Game with a Twist

The typical Licence Plate game only requires players to spot number plates from different US states. However, here’s a more fun version of it.

What’s the Game? Make up interesting stories based on the characters on the number plates.

How to Play:

  • Simply, look for the license number on cars around you and try to come up with a one-liner story based on the characters.
  • For example, 6TRJ244 – Six Tomatoes Rode a Jeep to forty-four states. Or, FN278YZ – Felix Nova, 27 years old had 8 Yowling Zebras.
  • There are no restrictions on being silly! In fact, the sillier the story, the better it is! Have fun and fill the journey with endless laughter.

4. 21 Questions

This is one of the most popular games to play among friends and family on any occasion but especially during a road trip and camping out in a camper van. It is easy enough for even younger kids to play.

What’s the Game? A guessing game based on 21 questions. If you can successfully guess the item after getting hints from each question, you win!

How to Play:

  • One player thinks of a person, place, or thing; all the others have to guess what it is.
  • Other players take turns asking a simple question with a definitive yes or no answer. Player 1 has to answer truthfully.
  • Players will get hints based on these answers and whoever guesses correctly wins the game.
  • However, if no one can guess correctly after 21 questions, player 1 wins.

5. Scavenger Hunt

This game is somewhat similar to bingo. And you’ll have to prepare for it before the road trip. Based on the difficulty level, it can be one of the most fun games to play in the car!

What’s the Game? Players have to complete a list of tasks throughout the journey. The first one to accomplish all of the tasks wins.

How to Play:

  • Brainstorm and come up with a list of creative, interesting, and exciting tasks all players can do. A good list should contain easy as well as difficult tasks that would be fun to do. They can include, finding, collecting or, doing things.
  • For example, find something that starts with the first letter of your name, take a picture of a squirrel, make a video of the whole family in the car, find a souvenir under $1, etc.
  • Print out some sheets so that players can cross off the tasks they have completed.

6. Triple Threat

Another entertaining game to play in the car with family is Triple Threat. It works best when it is adults vs. Children.

What’s the Game? Adults give some random words to the kids and they have to make a story based on it.

How to Play:

  • Give three random words to the kids. For example, monkey, housing, potato or snow, revolution, pie, etc.
  • They have to make up a short story that includes all three words.
  • Likewise, the kids will give three random words to the adults and they’ll have to make up their own stories.
  • Whoever’s story is the silliest and gets the most laugh wins!

7. Would You Rather

This is one of the best road trip games ever. It’s interesting and gives you a chance to get to know other people well based on their choices.

What’s the Game? Someone asks a choice-based question and everyone takes turns answering and justifying their choices.

How to Play:

  • Prepare an extensive list of questions. They can be serious, thought-provoking or funny, and silly.
  • For example, would you rather be a frog or only hop around as a human? Or, would you rather get the superpower to see 10 minutes into the future or 100 years into the future?
  • Everyone takes turns answering and choosing one of the two things.

8. Chain Story

Another creative way to generate laughter during a long road trip is to do a chain story exercise.

What’s the Game? Simply, start a random sentence that the other players have to complete to continue the story.

How to Play:

  • One person starts a random sentence. For example, once upon a time, there was a cute tree…
  • Another person continues, … who loved to bathe in the rain and eat sunshine… and so on.
  • It doesn’t have to make sense. You can add anything to the story. Bring in spacecraft or an evil army of raccoons and whatnot. Everyone is free to continue the story however they want.
  • However, it is best if it’s funny!

9. Road Trip Jokes

Got bored of playing games? Take a break and spend some time telling each other funny jokes. It’s no secret. Laughter is the secret remedy to getting rid of fatigue and revitalizing your mood. So, don’t forget to arm yourself with some hilarious road trip jokes to cheer up the whole family and avoid dozing off even if you have the best car to sleep in!

10. Regional Food Master

Lastly, this is probably one of the best road trip games to play in the car. Why? Because of snacks!

What’s the Game? To collect the best, most yummy, and scrumptious local snacks from all the states, areas, and towns you travel through.

How to Play:

  • At the start of the journey, everyone gets a limited allowance. You must use this allowance to get the best local snacks from each stop you make along the way.
  • Keep in mind, it has to be a local snack, not a famous brand one.
  • Towards the end of the road trip, each player gets judged on the quantity, taste, and authenticity of their collected snacks. The winner gets awarded the title “Regional Snacks Master Chef” plus gets all their favorite snacks at the next stop!

Conclusion

This is not the end. There are tons of other fun and exciting games to play in the car during lengthy long trips. Some include; Word association, Name that tune, Hypotheticals, Name the most, Punch buggy, etc. Truthfully, there is no limit to the number of ways you can make your trip more enjoyable and entertaining. So, play these games and have a wonderful journey!

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Alisha Shabbir
Alisha Shabbir is a Student, Content Writer and hopefully, a Future Bestselling Author, whose sole passion is to create content that's not only Aesthetically Pleasing but also Progressively Life-Changing. Currently, she has all her resources focused on producing content that improves the quality of life. She writes on a broad range of topics which cover different aspects of life and tackle various issues When she's not working, you can find her buried in Books, lost in Music or Procrastinating on her assignments.

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