Road Trips with Kids – It Is Possible!

Road. Trips. Are. Exciting! The open road, your favourite music playing, snacks of various kinds and amounts you’ll never eat at home – and most importantly – your favourite people as travel companions. It all sounds so great on paper, or in the movies, but the harsh truth is that family road trips can also get stressful at times: the long hours in the car, siblings arguing, the “are we there yet?”, the other repetitive questions… the list can be long.

But it doesn’t have to be a nightmare, here are some ideas for “On The Road” activities that can turn the way to your vacation to one fun experience… maybe even as much as the vacation itself:

The Alphabet Game

Pick a topic (animals, flowers, countries -whatever comes to mind)  and starting with A, let each person in turn name an item from that topic that begins with that letter of the alphabet. To make things more challenging, ask each person to recite all the items that have been named so far, as they go along. When you reach Z, begin again with a different topic.

Counting Games

Assign each member of the family something specific to count along your route. Think sheep, VW Beetle cars, trains, police cars, horses, flags, etc. Sum up each person’s score at every rest stop to see who has the most points.

Blowing Bubbles

Kids (and some adults!) loooooooooove bubbles. Get them a cheap bottle of bubble mixture and let them blow bubbles out the car window! Just remember, in the balance between laughing, bubble blowing kids and crying over spilled soap mix, is delicate. 

Windows as Canvas

Did you know that whiteboard markers can be used on windows? A packet of coloured markers (make extra sure they are dry-erase not permanent markers!) for drawing and a pair of gloves for erasing are all your kids need to have some car-trip fun.  If you don’t have gloves, an old face washer will do the trick. These can also be used to play games such as tic tac toe or hangman on the windows.

Play an Audio Book

Children’s audio-books are a fantastic road trip activity. The Classic Kids stories, nursery rhymes, and even Harry Potter books are all available in audio-book form. You can even try them out first to see how the kids like them with a free Audible trial.

Play 20 Questions” or “What am I”

Each person takes a picture card of an animal, food or common object and places it on their forehead. They ask the others questions and have to try and guess what they are. You can also find Ellen DeGeneres’ App version named “Heads App”, which doesn’t require cards.

Heads App on The App Store |  Heads App on Google Play

Spelling Bee

You surely remember this game from when you were a kid – say a word and the kids take it in turns to spell it. You can find lots of word ideas at myspellit.com.

Become a travelling band

This one’s challenging – but we couldn’t bear to hide it. Bring musical instruments to play along with the radio: it can be as simple as tambourine, a microphone or even use the steering wheel to drum on. Family karaoke is another fun car riding time spender. You can film it, and who knows?… you might go viral!

Happy Road Tripping!