Long car trips can be a fun family experience or a trying couple of hours. If you want to avoid the latter, play road trip games. With everyone included, you can enjoy family bonding, while time flies by with the passing scenery. Don't have any road trip games up your sleeve? Try one of these.
1. License Plate Game
There are a number of road trip games you can play with license plates. Choose the variation you want to play depending on the amount of people in your car and general age bracket.
Alphabetical Plates: Start with A and go all the way to Z, pointing out each letter on license plates as you go. You can only use one letter from each plate, and once you reach the end, look for doubles. This is better for younger children who can't spell but know their letters or are learning them.
License Letter Scrambler: Everyone will try to make the letters of passing plates into words. This is better for time in traffic, as plates on fast driving vehicles will be hard to spot long enough to make a word. This is good for a large group: everyone try to make a word and see who actually can.
Out of State Plates: How many out-of-state plates can you spot? If traveling between multiple states, this can be played more than once. Keep track of every one you spot to see if you can get them all.
2. Camp-Related Spelling Bee
Get everyone ready for camping with a spelling bee. This game requires no preparation or score keeping. When someone gets a word wrong they're out, and last one to spell a term correctly wins. Some good word groups include:
- Trees: Maple, pine, mulberry and chestnut.
- Camping gear: Tent, camper, lantern and flashlight.
- Camping activities: Hiking, swimming, identification and fishing.
- General terms: Wilderness, forest, trail and hydrate.
3. Wilderness ABCs
This makes the list of educational road trip games because it's simple: someone names something in the wilderness that starts with A, the next person says the first item, following with an item that starts with B, so on and so forth. This is best played with older children who can remember more.
4. Slug Bug
This is one of the most classic road trip games, and keeps children entertained for hours. Every time someone sees a VW bug they tap the ceiling and get a point. However, there are a dozen variations you can play that make it harder, easier, and more fun. Some of those variations include:
- More points for colors like yellow, brown or orange.
- More points for old VW models versus new ones.
- Half points for an old VW bus versus a regular VW bug.
5. Who Am I?
The concept is simple: choose a person, and give three clues to who that person is. While you can choose anyone, ranging from celebrities to historical figures, make it more entertaining by choosing family members. It's the personal details you use that make it one of the funniest road trip games to play.
Reserve a campsite.
Jessica Sanders is the Associate Online Editor for ReserveAmerica.com. After many years of camping and hiking in the Northeast, she's exploring what the West has to offer and sharing all of her knowledge with you. She's a s'mores master, campsite connoisseur, writer, runner and lover of all things outdoors. Follow her on Google+.
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