10 Top Car Games For Road Trips

Beat road trip boredom with these tried and true car games.

Need ways to occupy kids (and adults!) during a long drive south? Keep spirits high with our 10 favourite car games. We’ve got portable travel games, addictive apps and old-school road trip car games that require no gear at all. Ready? Let’s play!

Portable travel games:

Cool car game #1: Eeboo’s Road Trip Bingo

Who’ll be the first to spot a cow? Or a truck? Or a gas station? This basic version of the travel classic is geared at younger kids and is small enough to stow in the glove compartment. For 2-4 players.

Cool car game #2: Amaze

Use your stylus to navigate a series of maze challenges. Moving the red bars can help clear your way – or send you into a dead end or endless loop.

Cool car game #3: Totally Gross: The Game of Science

Even non-players will listen in on this trivia game, where winning hinges on knowing the functionality of snot, which amphibians are cannibals, and other tidbits of chemistry, biology and the natural sciences. For 2-4 players.

Addictive apps for your smart phone or tablet:

Cool car game #4: Battle Fleet

This Canadian-designed game is similar to the classic board game Battleship – but without any tiny pieces to lose. Battle Fleet is set in WWII, with American and Japanese fleets facing off in the Pacific theatre. For iPhone and iPad.

Image provided by the Apple App StoreCool car game #5: Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Earn a point if you’re the first to spot a car pulling a trailer. Or a sheep. Or the word “coffee.” This multiplayer app keeps score and prompts each random search. Set the game to include objects, words, or both. For iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

Cool car game #6: Road Trip Bingo

This one or two-player version of the classic game is ideal for keeping kids occupied while the adults talk upfront. For iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.

Old-school, no-gear-required road trip games:

Cool car game #8: Alphabet animals

Name an animal. The person next to you has to come up with an animal whose name starts with the last letter of the animal you just named. And so on, around the car. So for instance: cheetah, Humboldt squid, duck, kestrel, etc. until someone’s stuck. That person is eliminated, and the game continues until you’ve got a winner. To keep it fair, first person eliminated picks the topic of the next round. Try place names, foods, singers, athletes, etc.

Cool car game #9: 20 questions

Pick a mystery item. Each person in the car gets to ask a question (the first one being: “Is it an animal, vegetable or mineral?”), and then take a stab at guessing what the item is, until 20 questions are exhausted. Successful guesses earn one point, as does picking a mystery item obscure enough to remain a mystery.

Cool car game #10: License plate stories

Anyone can decode a vanity plate like SURFNG, but what about creating a backstory for a standard plate like BFEJ 681? Try: “Best friends eat Jello at 6 until they’re 81.” Silly, right? Everyone gets a new license plate, selected from the cars around you.

Got any more road-trip car games? Let us know in the comments below.

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