8 Fun Games to Play on a Road Trip to kill Boredom
Planning to drive in a car for long hours? You don’t have to be bored while on the road. Here are the fun games to play on a road trip.
A few weeks ago, I was on a rather long and fun road trip with a couple of friends.
However much we connect really well and always have something to talk about regardless of the topic, sometimes we just found ourselves out of things to talk about and no one wanted to be seated in a super silent car for long hours.
So instead of just watching the road and counting cars that overtook us, we decided to do some road trip car games.
The advantage of participating in road trip games in the car aside from killing boredom is that you don’t realize how long the journey is when you’re occupied even when it is actually long.
Psst… Not sure how to plan a road trip? Check out this step-by-step guide to planning a road trip.
But before we look at the road trip games, there are some road trip essentials you shouldn’t leave behind to make sure that you have an amazing trip. Below are a few!
- This car roadside emergency kit: This literally one of the most important road trip essentials. It will be very useful if your car breaks car or gets an issue!
- Car charger: If playing music on your phone is part of the ways you plan to stay entertained while on the road trip, then make sure that you take this car charger to make sure that you don’t run out of battery.
- Hands-free phone mount: Don’t risk your life by holding your phone while driving! Instead, take this Hands-free phone mount to mount your phone on the dashboard car.
- Portable Bluetooth speaker: Music is essential on a road trip and the best way to keep up is by taking this Portable Bluetooth speaker.
- Travel pillow: A travel pillow like this one will keep you comfortable on those long road trips.
These are just a few of the items to pack for a road trip but you can check out my complete road trip packing list to know all the essentials to pack.
Now that we know some of the essential items to pack, let’s look at some of the games to play on a road trip that will help you kill boredom while driving.
Read more: What to pack for a hostel stay
Road Trip Games For Adults
1. The Good Old Truth or Dare Game
You all probably know this game and if you didn’t play it as a teenager with your friends, the chance has presented itself to you once more as it’s one of the car games for a road trip.
With this game, players always want to go to extremes just to dare their opponents but just make sure that all the dares that are presented can be safely done within the car.
I will admit that I suck at dares and I always got the most daring situations while the dares I gave were just easy and ” purely lame”.
I also have to admit that I had not prepared one bit for this game, but if you don’t want to suck at this road trip game as I did, get your dares ready.
The truth part I’d say is the easiest but it can also be disappointing depending on which questions you ask.
So before you ask for the truth, be sure you can handle it- even the ugly one.
How it is played
The dare part: Mention something and dare your playmates to do it.
The truth part: Ask a question that your playmates should answer truthfully
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2. The Alphabet Game
If this doesn’t strike you as one of the fun road trip games, then you’re in for a huge surprise.
Test your on-spot abilities by playing the alphabet game.
How it is played
Come up with categories you want to play with.
For whichever category you come up with, the first player names something starting with A, the next one B, and so on up to Z.
When that category is done, choose another one.
For example; some of the categories we played with were;
- Naming Animals starting with different alphabetical letters.ie, A- for antelope, B- for buffalo, and whoever answers the most correctly wins the game.
- Identifying a country for each alphabetical letter.
- Or even make it more challenging by only naming items/things that can be visually seen from the car for each alphabetical letter.
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3. The Ask Yourselves Questions Game
This is not only one of the games to play on a road trip but also a means of getting to know each other more.
How it is played
Start the game by asking each other easy questions about things that you might want to know.
As the road trip goes on, make the questions even deeper and personal if the playmates are up for it.
Some of the questions to ask while on a road trip.
The easy questions to start with as a way of warming up.
- How big is your family
- What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done in your life
- When was your happiest moment in life and why
- What are you most excited about this road trip
The deeper and more personal questions you can ask
- Are you happy in life
- What is your deepest regret in life
- Did you have a fun childhood
- Have you ever been brokenhearted
- What is your greatest fear in life
You can formulate as many questions as you want or even refer to my long list of fun road trip questions. Just make sure they won’t result in any sort of disagreements between your playmates.
Read more: How to plan a trip like a pro
4. The Sign Language Game
Caution!! This game should not include the person driving as it involves using both hands and you don’t want to crash just for the sake of the game.
So if you’re only 2 people in the car, you can skip this game.
How it is played
The first player thinks of something and reproduces it by using only sign language.
Other players interpret what the action means.
This can be a tricky road trip game as you have to think of ideas whose actions can be executed while seated.
5. Summarize The Movie Game
This is one of the best road trip games that we came up with while driving.
I’d like to think that we invented it as I’ve not heard about it before (I know, I am bragging a little bit here).
How it is played
Come up with categories of the movies you would like to summarize.
The idea is for each person to come up with a movie in a genre selected.
Summarize the entire movie in less than 10 minutes. You should be able to tell the entire storyline and make sure that the playmates understand what the entire movie is all about.
When we played this game, I ended up almost telling the entire movie (for over 20 minutes) and I lost since it should be told in under 10.
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6. Would You Rather Game
By the time we played this game, I didn’t realize that it was the one we were playing.
We just started giving each other alternatives and it wasn’t until the end of the game that I actually realized that we were playing the “would you rather game” all along.
How it is played
Give your opponents 2 alternatives and ask whether they would rather be A or B.
For example;
- Would you rather use Android or ios
- Would you rather live in a big city or in the countryside
- Would you rather travel by train or by ship
I am sure you can come up with other fun alternatives depending on the kind of playmates you have.
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7. Punch Buggy Game
This is one of the best travel games that go way back in the day.
Even though it can be easily confused as a kid’s game, it is one of the games to play in the car for adults as well.
It’s a fun road trip game just to loosen up and stay awake.
How it is played
Decide on the “thing” you want to look out for and whoever spots it first punches the opponent.
Just because I said punching doesn’t mean taking out all your anger on your playmates. This is a fun game, so, reduce the energy in the punch.
Since it is on the road, the best things to spot out could be a car of a specific car or even a certain animal if the road you’re driving on has some.
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8. The Picnic Game
This is one of the cool games to play in the car that requires you to think really fast and be good with words.
How it is played
The first player comes up with a sentence, the second player adds a suitable word and the game goes on like that.
For example,
The first player says, ” When I travel, I always carry my ______, the second player fills in the appropriate word and also adds a question that rhymes with the answer he gave. The person who fails to keep it flowing is evicted.
Final Thoughts on Road Trip Games
There you have it, folks, those are some of the games to play on a road trip.
Are there other games to play while driving that you know of?
Share them with me and I’ll add them to my list of road trip games. Enjoy your road trip and stay safe.
More travel tips to help you plan your trip
- How to plan a trip from scratch
- How to travel the world on a budget
- Things to do before traveling abroad
- Camping tips for beginners
- Hiking tips for beginners
- Backpacking tips for beginners
- Tips for staying in a hostel for the first time
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Very nicely done post. Great ideas here. Will refer the next time we go on a road trip. 🙂
Thank you, Ankita. I am glad you found all the ideas useful- These are games I’ve tried out myself so I’m sure you’ll enjoy them when you go for a road trip.