What are the best car journey games for kids?

There is a particular silence that falls about forty minutes into a long car journey. It is followed, quite quickly, by a small voice asking how long now. The answer is not a tablet. It is a game, ideally one that needs nothing, because everything you pack for the car ends up under a seat.

So, what are the best car journey games for kids? Here are twenty, grouped by age, all played out loud.

What are the best car journey games for kids?

Talking and spotting games, and twenty of them, none needing a screen. They work because the whole car can play, including the driver (by voice only, eyes on the road), and nobody has to look down at a page or a phone. The caveat is that age matters more than the game. A seven year old will happily play Twenty questions for half an hour; a three year old needs something they can win in under a minute.

Rotate games before they go stale. Three games for twenty minutes each beats one game dragged out for an hour.

What car games can toddlers and young kids play?

Five simple ones, for roughly 3 to 6 year olds. Keep the rules tiny and let them win often.

1. I spy, in colours. Swap the letter for a colour: “I spy something green.” Much fairer for children who cannot spell yet.
2. Yellow car. A point for every yellow car you spot. Points, not punches; the playground version ends in tears.
3. Cows on my side. Each side of the car counts cows (or sheep, or horses) in their window. A churchyard on your side wipes your score, if you want to keep the old rule.
4. Guess the animal. One person makes an animal noise, everyone else guesses. It escalates fast, and that is fine.
5. Sing and stop. Sing a song everyone knows and stop dead without warning. Whoever carries on singing is out.

What are good car games for 7 to 10 year olds?

Seven games that need a bit more thinking, a few of them very British.

6. Number plate words. Take the three random letters at the end of a plate and make a word that uses them in that order. FMR could be “farmer” or “framer”. Shortest word wins.
7. Plate spotting. UK plates since 1 September 2001 have two letters for the region, two numbers for when the car was registered, then three random letters.^[2] The numbers tell you the age: 26 means March to August 2026 and 76 means September 2026 to February 2027.^[2] First to spot the newest plate wins.
8. Alphabet hunt. Find A to Z, in order, on road signs, lorries and shop fronts. Q and Z are the hard ones; agree in advance whether a lorry counts.
9. Car bingo. Before you leave, each child writes six things to spot: a tractor, a red post box, a horse box, a caravan, a bridge, a dog in a car. First full card wins.
10. Twenty questions. Think of anything. Others ask up to twenty yes or no questions to guess it. Start with “animal, vegetable or mineral?”
11. Fortunately, unfortunately. Build a story one sentence each, alternating good news and bad. “Fortunately the dragon was friendly. Unfortunately it was hungry.”
12. Would you rather. Two impossible choices, everyone has to pick and defend it. Fly or be invisible. Only eat pasta or never eat pudding.

What are the best road trip games for teens?

Five games with a bit of edge, for 11 and up. Teenagers will play if the game is clever and nobody calls it a “fun family activity”.

13. Just a Minute. Talk on a subject for 60 seconds without hesitating, repeating a word or wandering off topic. Anyone can challenge.
14. Categories. Pick a letter. Everyone names a country, a band, a food and a film starting with it. Duplicate answers score nothing.
15. Who am I? One person thinks of someone famous, real or fictional. The rest ask yes or no questions until someone gets it.
16. Song chain. Name a song; the next person names one whose title starts with the last letter of the previous title. Hum a bar if challenged.
17. The Minister’s Cat. A Victorian parlour game. Go round describing the minister’s cat with adjectives in alphabetical order: an angry cat, a bossy cat, a curious cat.

What car journey games can adults and couples play?

Three that work with just two people, and the driver can play every one by voice.

18. Two truths and a lie. Say three things about yourself; the others spot the lie. Surprisingly revealing after twenty years of marriage.
19. Ghost. Take turns adding a letter to a growing word. If you complete a real word (of more than three letters), you lose the round. If you are challenged and cannot name the word you were building, you lose too.
20. Desert island picks. Three albums, three books and one luxury. Defend every choice.

The rule for adults is the same as for children: nothing that asks the driver to look at a phone, a map or a scorecard.

Do you need printables or an app for road trip games?

No. Printables and apps are fine for some families, but every one of these twenty works with nothing at all, which means nothing to lose, charge or print. There is a practical reason too. For car sickness, the NHS advises looking at a fixed point such as the horizon and not reading or using electronic devices, and suggests distracting children by talking, listening to music or singing.^[1] Talking games fit that advice neatly. This is general information, not medical advice; a pharmacist can help if car sickness is a regular problem.

If you want something between games, audiobooks for kids are the other great screen-free car companion.

How do you keep car games going on a long journey?

Plan for boredom, not against it. A few things help:

• Let children choose the next game. Ownership buys you twenty minutes.
• Mix loud and quiet. Follow Guess the animal with Categories, not with Sing and stop.
• Leave some silence. Not every mile needs entertaining. Staring out of a window is a perfectly good use of a journey, and a bit of boredom does children good; our piece on how to let your child be bored explains why.
• Keep a list on your phone, read by the passenger. It saves the “I can’t think of anything” pause.

For the rest of the holiday, our half term activities and screen-free activities by age pick up where the car leaves off. And if you like a deck of prompts in the glovebox, The Four-Minute Cards were made for exactly these in-between moments.