There is perhaps no vacation more “classic” than the good old-fashioned road trip. Loading the entire family up in the car and hitting the open road for some far-off destination can be just as much fun as your destination itself. Many people find the idea of being stuck in a car for 10 or more hours to be boring, but if you fill that time with enjoyable activities, it can not only help the time go by faster, but it can create a lifetime of memories for you and your friends or family. Here’s a look at some activities to help pass the time on your next road trip.
Being crammed inside a car for hours on end can be a challenge when it’s only adults in the car. When you add young children to the formula it can quickly turn into a nightmare!
The key is to provide plenty of activities to keep the kids busy. Most of the activities on our list will apply to passengers of all ages, but if you’re going to be road-tripping with young children, go the extra mile (no pun intended) and pack an extra bag full of things like stuffed animals, their favorite toys, etc. It would probably be a good idea to load up an iPad with some of their favorite cartoons.
Also, don’t forget the snacks, and remember that you’ll likely need to take breaks more frequently when you have younger kids in the car, so try to plan your stops in locations with interesting landmarks or other activities so that the trip to your final destination doesn’t seem so daunting.
If your road trip is an especially long one, you may be planning to stop overnight while you’re on the road. For many families or groups of friends, that means forking over a hundred bucks or so at a roadside motel, but you can make the task much more entertaining and save money in the process.
All you have to do is throw in some camping gear when you pack up the car for your trip. Most people consider camping a vacation in and of itself, so if you can stop overnight at a campground while you’re driving to your final destination, it’s like you’re getting double the vacation!
If you have the room, toss in a small tent and some basic camping gear, then plan your trip so that you roll into your first night’s stop with enough time to set up a camp and maybe even get a fire going.
The other benefit of camping during your road trip is that booking a campsite is usually far cheaper than booking a room in a hotel (and far more fun!).
One of the great things about a long road trip is that it will likely take you through parts of the country you normally don’t get to see. If you’re lucky, those parts will provide a serious change of scenery by offering up such sites as mountains, lakes, massive forests, and even deserts.
It’s important to take some time and reflect on how amazing these natural environments are. You’ll get a sense for just how small you are in the big scheme of things, and you’ll develop a new appreciation for how important it is to protect these environmental treasures.
Taking a selfie or two to provide a little visual proof of the size comparison is highly recommended, too!
Now, we’ll get into some more specific activities you can do to help you pass the time during a road trip. We’ll start with stocking up on good audiobooks.
Reading is a pretty obvious pastime when it comes to road trips, but reading a physical book while riding in a car comes with some challenges. For example, reading at night with no light can be an issue, and many people can’t participate in the activity at all without getting severely carsick.
The audiobook solves many of those problems. You can “listen” to a book, day or night. Plus, it’s one of the few activities that the driver in the car can actually participate in. If you choose a title that all the passengers agree on, it can keep everyone occupied at once.
However, if you happen to be the only horror fiction fan in the car, it’s nothing that a set of headphones can’t solve!
The license plate game is one of the oldest road trip games in existence. Playing this one on a long road trip is practically a rite of passage.
If you’ve never played, the rules are pretty simple. Everyone in the car gets a small notebook, and the passengers try to spot as many license plates from different states as they can while traveling and jot them down in their notebook. There are even apps you can download on your smartphone that will help you keep track of the plates you see.
At the end of the trip, tally up how many states you managed to jot down. If you missed some, keep your eyes open during your return trip home!
Here’s another game that’s very simple, but still guaranteed to keep everyone in the car occupied. The object of the game is to find every letter in the alphabet while traveling, but you can only use letters found in road signs.
That might sound like a simple enough task, but you’ll find that K’s and Q’s aren’t as common as you might think! You can also find all numbers, 0 through 9. Add even more of a challenge by making it a rule that all letters must be checked off in order.
There are countless other variations on the game, but as you can see, the alphabet game is a great way to battle the boredom on a long road trip.
If you’ve ever browsed through the gift shop at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, you know that there is no shortage of games and activities—the majority of which seem to be custom-built for long road trips.
You’ll find games like magnetic chess and checkers, as well as volumes of crossword puzzles and other similar games. And who could forget the Wooly Willie toy and the countless faces you can give him using a magnetic pen and iron shavings?
Oh, and those audiobooks we mentioned earlier? Cracker Barrel stocks a library of audiobooks that you can rent and trade between the numerous restaurant locations. It doesn’t hurt that the food is pretty tough to beat, too!
Here’s another game that everyone in the car can play, and it’s great for passengers of all ages.
To play, pick a passenger to start out by saying, “I’m going on vacation, and I’m bringing…”, then they pick a single, random object (for example, “a toothbrush”). The next player does the same thing, but they must name all of the objects mentioned before them, plus add a new item.
The game progresses until a player forgets one of the items, at which point you can start the game over, or move onto any of the other 9 entries on our list.
Many of the games and activities we’ve mentioned on our list so far have been what can be described as “analog.” They’re old-school activities that really don’t require too much technology.
Our last two entries on the list are for those of you who just can’t help but bring along your phones, tablets, and/or computers along on your road trip.
The “Theme Music Game” is a great way to pass the time, and it can get downright hilarious. To start, a passenger picks a different theme or crazy “situation.” Then, each passenger in the car uses their phone to find a song that they feel best corresponds to the theme or situation and takes turns playing clips of that song for everyone else.
You’d be surprised how much fun such a simple game can be!
Part of the appeal of taking a long road trip is to get away from the hassles of modern life, but there are many of us who simply can’t sever ties with our Netflix or Hulu accounts.
The good news is that as long as you have a data plan and network connectivity to support it, you can catch up on some serious movie and TV watching on a long road trip.
Your driver will obviously be out of luck on this one, but the other passengers in the car can all watch whatever they want to their heart’s content.
As much as we love the old-school games and activities, we also have to admit that watching movies and TV shows are some of the best ways to make a long road trip go by faster.
Taking a long road trip can be a daunting task, and for many, it can come with enough stress that it often prevents the vehicle from ever pulling out of the driveway. But with the proper planning and entertainment arsenal, a road trip can be one of the most memorable trips you ever take with your family or friends. We hope this list of road trip activities helps persuade you and your family to rack up some miles in the future.
