Car Travel Games

Here are some more car travel games. These are also games that I have invented or modified from other games, so there should be some new ideas here for you. If you came directly to this page, be sure to also visit the page Travel Games.

License Plate Car Travel Games

Four letter word game. You may have played the game with the kids where you try to be the one who sees the most new-state plates first. This game has to do not with where the plate is from, but with the letters on it. Each player chooses a word with four letters. Then everyone watches the license plates of the other cars to be the first to find one that has the letters necessary to spell their word.

Color, letter, number game. Each player chooses a color - any color except the color of the plates for the state you are traveling in. Each also chooses one letter and one number. The first one to spot a plate that has their color-number-letter combination is the winner.

Funny Car Games

Create a joke. This is a simple but difficult game. Somebody chooses a topic, word or phrase, and each player tries to invent the best joke based on that. If the word was door, how long would it take you to make a joke about or involving a door? Okay, two minutes. What's the difference between a door and John's mouth? You can shut the door. This game will really exercise your brain and imagination.

Good news bad news. This starts with anyone saying "The good news is..." Someone finishes the sentence, and adds, "but the bad news is..." and you try to find the funniest way to finish that sentence. Example, "The good news is we're near our destination, but the bad news is..." "We're going the wrong way." "The good news is I lost a few pounds, but the bad news is... " "You were gambling in a British casino."

Word replacement. If you've ever played "Mad Libs," you know how hilarious it can get. You fill in the blanks of a story by asking players for "a noun" or "an adjective" or "a number between 10 and 20," and so on. The wilder the words, the wilder the story when you read it. You can play a similar game with any newspaper or magazine story. Cross off a word or two in each sentence, and ask for words to replace them (don't tell anyone what the story is about until it's done). Be sure all names in the real news item are replaced with the name of someone in the car.

Other Car Travel Games

Who is that artist? Using the radio, you can have a game in which everyone tries to be the first to call out the name of the artist when a song starts. Then change the station, so you don't have to wait through a whole song to continue the contest.

Radio word search. In this game, each player chooses a word. The player whose word is spoken (or sung) first on the radio is the winner. You may want to require words of five letters or more.

Road trip journal. This can be a fun activity for the kids, and create a trip memento that you'll want to keep. Just have each person in the car make an entry in the journal, including pasting leaves, pictures or other things into it. Take turns and sign each entry, so you can later see how different the trip may have been for each person.