Car games can help to make long trips bearable – even fun! All these games can be played by young and older children, no props required.

Games for car trips

• Alphabet game

  This can be played as a team or individual. Each player finds one thing outside or in the car that starts with every letter of the alphabet – in order - from A-Z.

• Colour Game

  Each player chooses a colour. On the count of three, everyone looks for passing cars in that colour, and the first person to find 10 is the winner. Choose a different colour for the next round.

• Number Hunt

  Everyone picks a number between one and one hundred and tries to find it on number plates, street signs or shop windows.

• Reverse Eye Spy
  

  Make a list of things to find – hard or easy – and the first person to ‘spy’ them is the winner! Items can be hard (postman) or easy (white fence).

• The Friendly game

  Each player waves at the cars, buses or trucks on their side of the car. If their wave is returned, they score a point. A sour look scores nothing.

• Doubles 

  Each player looks for double numbers in license plates. High doubles (99) score more points than low ones.

• Pick a Subject

  The first person names a country (e.g. France), and the second person names a country that starts with the last letter of the previous word (e.g. Egypt). Subject can be changed to celebrities, animals, cities, relatives…

• Cows

  Each person counts the number of cows (or horses, sheep etc) passed on their side of the car. If they pass a cemetery they lose all their points. The person with the highest points at the end of the trip is the winner.

• Twenty Questions

  A classic game for car trips – or anywhere, really! Think of something under the category animal, vegetable or mineral. Other players then ask 20 questions – either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – until they guess correctly. 

• Two facts and a fib

  One person says three ‘facts’, e.g. “I haven’t eaten chocolate for a month”, “I came first in my maths test”, “I washed my hair this morning”, and the others decide which one is the fib. You’ll probably learn something new with this one!