10 Roadtrip Games the Whole Family Will Love

If you’re looking for ways to keep the family entertained on your next road trip, why not try playing some classic car games? Here are some of my family’s favorites.

I grew up in central Minnesota and my grandparents lived in Michigan. So each summer we would take the 12-16 hour drive to visit them. We would take I-94 down through Wisconsin till we met up with I-90 to go through Chicago. Sometimes we would stop in Wisconsin Dells and sneak into a hotel for a quick swim.

This was the late 90’s through early 2000’s. We didn’t have portable DVD players or cell phones so us kids had to figure out how to entertain ourselves in the car.

I didn’t know all of these when I was a kid, some I did learn later on, but I still love to play them during a long road trip and I can’t wait to teach them to my neices.

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1. License Plate Log

This one is less of a game and more of a project. The goal is to see how many different state license plates you can spot throughout your trip. Keep track in a notebook or on your phone. Bonus points for spotting Alaska and Hawaii plates! After a while, you’ll start to recognize different state plates just from the design.

You can either work on this log for the whole summer or log individual trips. Each year on the first day of summer I would start my license plate log and work on it till school started again. I grew up in a tourist area so I could get most of them when we went grocery shopping.

2. Alphabet Game

Starting with the letter “A,” find each letter of the alphabet on billboards and road signs (when I play, words on cars and license plates are off limits). Once a sign has been used, it cannot be used by another player. This game is great for passing the time and noticing hilarious billboards along the way. My sister and I would get pretty aggressive with this game. Depending on where you’re driving you can get stuck on some letters for a long time.

3. The Cow Game

Every time you spot a field of cows, point it out and claim “my cows.” Estimate how many cows are in the field and keep adding them every time you claim cows. Whoever has claimed the most cows by the time you reach your destination is the winner. To make it more challenging, when you pass a cemetery, exclaim “Killed your cows” and force other players to start back at zero.

I played this with some college friends on a spring break trip and they kept making new rules and by the end we had zombie cows, robot cows, and a whole host of other barnyard animals.

4. Road Trip Bingo

You can buy reusable travel bingo cards on Amazon. You can find country- or city-themed ones, depending on where you’re driving. There’s also like a million bloggers offering printables of their own personal road trip bingo. Even travelchannel.com has a free printable.

5. Banana

This one’s easy, and more basic observation than a real game. Spot yellow cars and claim them by loudly yelling “Banana.” Whoever claims the most yellow cars by the end of the trip wins. Bonus points for spotting yellow Volkswagen Bugs!

6. Slug Bug/Punch Buggy

When you spot a Volkswagen, yell “Slug Bug” and punch the person next to you in the arm. Just make sure to say “no backs” so they don’t hit you back. There are a ton of variations on this like “Cruiser Bruiser” for PT Cruisers, and “Coke Poke” for Coca-Cola trucks.

My step-dad was obsessed with Volkswagens so we were always on the look out for them anyway. This game often got really, competitive among my family.

7. I Spy

One player chooses an object within view and says “I spy with my little eye something that is [color].” The other players then take turns guessing what the object is until someone correctly identifies it and chooses the next object. This one is good to keep everyone from getting bored when you’re stuck in traffic.

8. 20 Questions

One player thinks of an object, and the other players take turns asking yes or no questions to try to guess what it is. The player who correctly guesses the object gets to choose the next one.

9. The Picnic Game

The first player says “I went on a picnic and I brought [something that starts with the letter A].” The next player repeats the phrase and adds something that starts with the letter B, and so on, going through the entire alphabet. If a player forgets an item or repeats an item that has already been said, they are out.

10. Would You Rather?

One player poses a “would you rather” question, such as “Would you rather have a pet dragon or a pet unicorn?” The other players take turns answering the question and explaining their reasoning. Then, another player poses the next question.

What are some of your favorite car games? Let me know in the comments!