We’ve driven some long stretches as a family. Two cross-country moves, driving up and down the East Coast, and now California, plus a DC-to-North Dakota, was a multi-day haul that has taught us which road trip games hold up past hour three and which everyone stops caring about by the second rest stop.
My boys are teenagers now, so what we pack has shifted quite a bit from the early years. Whether your kids are in car seats or earbuds, most of these have enough mileage to keep things civil in our car.
If you’re in the planning phase, grab my free Road Trip Planning Guide before you start packing.
Classic Road Trip Games
A-Z: The Alphabet Game
In our family this goes back to before my boys could read. The goal is to find all 26 letters of the alphabet in order, using road signs, billboards, and license plates.
Start it early in the day when everyone is still fresh. “V” and “U” will slow you down more than you’d expect.
The License Plate Game
This one takes all day, which is exactly why it works.
Print a sheet with all 50 states (or EU countries if you’re doing an international road trip) and give each person their own copy with a different colored pen.
Whoever spots the most by the end of the day gets a treat. The youngest player calls the first one.
Grab a ready-made license plate game on Amazon if you’d rather skip printing.
I Spy
For little kids, keep it to colors and shapes so they don’t get frustrated within two minutes.
The one rule that prevents arguments: you can only spy something that stays visible the whole round. No spying a truck you’re already passing.
A few examples to get started:
- “I spy something blue.” (The sky.)
- “I spy something round.” (A wheel on a semi.)
- “I spy something yellow.” (That road sign.)
I Spy travel card sets on Amazon are a good option for younger kids who need pictures to work from.
20 Questions
Not one for toddlers, but great for tweens and teens because it require zero materials.
My tip: write a bunch of random words on slips of paper before you leave and draw from a bag instead of picking from memory. Otherwise, someone always “changes” their answer halfway through when they realize they’re going to lose.
There are also pre-made card deck versions if you want something that stays in the glove compartment permanently.
20 Questions travel card set on Amazon
Card Games in the Car
Card games work in the car, but you need a surface. We use a backseat organizer with a fold-down tray, which has made the back seat much more functional.
Cards stay organized, everyone has a flat surface, and nothing ends up under the seat.
UNO is the one game we always come back to. I keep a deck in my bag at all times. We’ve played it in restaurants, up at the lake in New Hampshire, on planes, and in the back seat more times than I could count.
The boys rotate between the original, UNO Flip, and DOS.
Pokémon has survived every road trip we’ve taken. With the tray, they can sort cards, build decks, and play each other without everything ending up on the floor.
Magic: The Gathering came along once my oldest got older and pulled his brother in. Same setup, same tray.
Pen and Paper Games
All you need is paper and a pen. A travel game pad makes it easier if you want everything in one place, but blank paper is fine.
Try these games with your kids:
- Tic tac toe
- Hangman
- Bulls and Cows
- Mad Libs (the pre-made booklets are worth it)
- Pictionary
- Dots and Boxes
- Categories
- Close Your Eyes Drawing (one person says a subject, the other draws it with eyes shut — the results are always ridiculous)
More Games Worth Throwing in the Bag
- A few others that have made the cut on our trips:
- Road trip scavenger hunt cards
- Loaded Questions on the Go (good for older kids and adults)
- Carpool Chaos
- Dominoes(the tray helps here too)
Books and Audiobooks
We still bring physical graphic novels, which are particularly great in the car. They’re light, easy to read while on the move, and my boys will stay in them for hours without complaint.
Audiobooks are my thing on long drives. I keep an Audible subscription partly because of road trips.
When I’m driving, I re-listen to something I already know so I’m not distracted. My husband prefers new books, so I keep both downloaded.
Family audiobooks that have held up on multiple trips without anyone begging to turn it off:
- Harry Potter series
- The Princess and the Goblin series
- Percy Jackson series
- Tristan Strong and other Rick Riordan Presents series
- Anne of Green Gables
- Little House on the Prairie
- Artemis Fowl
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
New Audible members can try it free for 30 days — start an Audible trial here.
Knitting and Crochet
I learned to knit and crochet as a teenager, and I pick up a new project during long car rides. It keeps my hands busy, and I’m noticeably less antsy when I have something going.
If you’ve been wanting to learn, a road trip is not a bad time to try. You’re stuck in a seat, there’s nothing else to do, and you can put it down whenever you need to.
There are plenty of YouTube videos that can teach you the basics to get you started, too.
Write letters or postcards to friends and family
When the whining starts in the back seat, I tell my kids to write letters. They’ve written to great-grandparents, cousins, and friends from the road for years.
Knowing someone will actually receive it in the mail, especially if they get to pick out a postcard to send from our trip, makes it extra special.
Rest Stops: Don’t Skip Them
Throw a soccer ball, a frisbee, or a baseball somewhere easy to grab. We toss something around at lunch every time we stop, and everyone feels so much better after getting some of the wiggles out.
Kids need to move, and so do adults.
Parent’s Guide to Screen time in the car
Screens happen in our car, but I’ve learned the hard way that unlimited screen time is a trap.
When we moved cross-country (the first time), we let the boys have their devices for a full day without limits.
When we pulled into Bryce Canyon, my oldest had a full meltdown about being unplugged. He had no interest in getting out of the car. He missed the whole thing.
After that we set a rule that we still use: one hour on, one hour off. Rest stops don’t count. If they complain about it, they lose the next hour.
It sounds like a lot of structure, but after a few trips they stopped fighting it and now they actually look out the window.
The exception is the end of a long day when we still have driving left, and everyone is exhausted. Then finishing a movie is allowed.
Movies are my personal favorite stretch of screen time because I get to pick. They have nowhere to go, so they watch what I want.
Goonies, The Princess Bride, Back to the Future have all made the cut. My husband needs music to drive, so the kids and I use a headphone splitter and watch on a tablet.
Nintendo Switch 2 (launched in 2025), and both boys want to play it constantly. On a road trip, each gets 30 minutes of their screen time on it.
Multiplayer doesn’t work in the back seat because their spots are too far apart, but solo play buys a solid stretch of quiet.
The original Switch still works fine if your kids haven’t upgraded yet.
Tablets are still essential even with teenagers. Download what you want from Amazon Prime Video before you leave, so spotty service is not a problem mid-trip.
Road trips are more forgiving than people give them credit for. You don’t need to fill every minute. Some of the best stretches of any drive we’ve taken were the quiet ones where everyone just watched the landscape go by.
Pack a good mix, build in stops, and the miles take care of themselves.
Plan Your Stops Before You Go
Half of surviving a long drive is having something to look forward to along the way. I always map out a few detours, roadside spots, or national park pull-offs before we leave.
My free Road Trip Planning Guide walks through how I do that.
If you’re still building out your packing list, the Road Trip Packing List and Road Trip Checklist are both good to have before you start loading the car.
Need a rental? I check Discover Cars first because it compares rates across companies in one search.
