Our favorite road trip games that we play when we travel together as a family. Even our teenagers enjoy these!
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Family Road Trip Games We Love
What You'll Find on This Page
I grew up in a road tripping family, and I’ve booked thousands of miles with my children over the years. We even drove cross country from Massachusetts to California when my husband changed jobs.
Travel with three teens and a tween is very different from travel with four little kids, but these games have remained popular the entire time!
Plea
My 17-year-old taught us this road trip game. Everyone enjoys it, and it’s made for some amazing road trip conversations.
In this game, everyone takes turns asking each other questions. Once you answer a question, you choose who to ask the next question. You do have the option to refuse to answer, but then you can’t ask any more questions for a set period of time (we usually do 3 or 4 questions).
This game works best if you have at least 3 people in the car; we usually play it when the entire family is traveling together.
The Alphabet Game
The alphabet game is a classic from my childhood. Simply find the letters of the alphabet, in order. We used to play it backwards a lot when I was growing up, but that’s just too nerdy for my kids.
The Mile Marker Game
This game is as simple as it sounds: just guess the number on the next mile marker! Hint: mile markers are exactly one mile apart. The winner of the previous round gets to guess first what the next mile marker is.
It sounds achingly boring, and it is best played on achingly boring roads. Preferably late at night or early in the morning, when people are tired and more likely to forget how to count by ones. It will either put everyone to sleep, giving the driver some peace and quiet, or it will lead to hilarity, helping to keep the driver awake.
Miles to Destination
Miles to Destination is a more sophisticated version of the mile marker game. Here, you pick a city and guess how many miles it will be away next time you pass a highway distance sign.
We initially thought that these signs were evenly spaced, but they’re not. You can make a guess, but sometimes they are surprisingly close together or shockingly far apart.
Like the mile marker game, this is a game best played when you’re in an area where not much else is going on. When you drive across the country, you pass a lot of areas like that. We usually play both of these games on Interstate 5 that runs up and down the middle of California.
License Plate Game
The license plate game works best in large cities, or across several days when traveling across the country.
Simply try to spot a license plate from every state.
We love this game in traffic jams.
Name That Tune
Name that tune used to require mix tapes or burnt CDs, but Spotify makes this one easy.
Create a playlist or pick one created by someone else. See how quickly passengers can identify the tune.
Just remember not to have the tune names displaying on your car dashboard!
Did you play any of these games growing up? How about with your children now? What road trip games would you add to this list?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I love road trip games! This is a great list!
Two variations we have done:
1. Who’s song? everyone adds the same number of songs to the playlist, and you try to guess who added the songs.
2.How big is the town? I played this as a kid, as we approached a small town we would either guess population or how big it was, usually there was a sign as we exited giving the anwser.
I love both of these! Thanks for sharing them.