Heading out on a long journey or road trip is always exciting, but keeping everyone entertained can be challenging. When making plans, consider how long your journey is going to be and who you’re travelling with, then plan some activities in advance. There are lots of different road trip games you can consider, so here’s our top 5. Some are more well-known than others, but all worth considering to keep the trip in your hire car fun!
Photo by: Monkey Business/Adobe Stock
1. Would You Rather?
Find out more about the people you’re travelling with through this game. Give travellers two options and ask them to pick their preference, explaining their choice. Consider weird and wonderful choices such as “Would you rather… fight a horse-sized duck, or 10 duck-sized horses?”, “Would you rather… have a finger for a tongue, or tongues as fingers?” and “Would you rather… always have to tell the truth, or always have to lie?”
2. The Alphabet Game
There are many versions and interpretations of this name. Our favourite is where a person picks a category and then others must alphabetically list related items within that category. To make it more of a competition if you have children in the car, pick a topic and allow them to write a list of each related term. Alternatively, you could encourage them to work together to compile their list.
For example, you could pick fruit, and the alphabetical list would have to comprise of different fruit; apple, banana, cherry etc.
3. I Spy
An extremely common and popular game, it’s suitable for all ages and helps get brains active while encouraging an interest in the surrounding area.
4. 20 Questions
A person starts by randomly thinking of a specific object or person- the rest of the travellers then have 20 questions to figure out just what it is that the person is thinking of. To make it just a tad more difficult, the questions you’re allowed to ask can only be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
5. License Plate Game
As with the alphabet, there are different interpretations of this game. Should your road trip be across America, make a game out of trying to spot as many license plates from the different states as you can.
Another version is taking a license plate and using the last three letters to form a story. You can use the first of the three to inspire the main character’s name; the second, an item or animal; and finally, an activity.
Alternatively, you can try to work your way through the alphabet and find a license plate that begins with each consecutive letter.
Photo by: Monkey Business/Adobe Stock
What are your favourite road trip games?
Do you play any of these games in a different way? Are there other games you can play in the car that you enjoy? What do you do in your hire car to pass the time on long journeys? We’d love to hear your suggestions – let us know in the comments.
If you’re planning to take a road trip, you might like our ‘Zest tips for an epic road trip’ or ‘Tips for planning a European road trip’.
Want to take a road trip but not sure where to go? Consider these:
- Driving Route 66 – An American Road Trip
- Spanish Road Trip – Discovering San Juan de la Pena
- Climb Ev’ry Mountain – Three Unforgettable Austrian Road Trips
- East Canadian Road Trip – Montreal and New Brunswick
- Touring South Africa’s Garden Route
- A Road Trip Exploring Australia’s Coastal South West
Written by Jessica Juby.
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