Boredom-busting Road Trip Games

Traveling with a little one can often be a difficult and tiring experience, especially when you are going on a road trip. it is important to have a repertoire of stimulating road trip games or activities for those times when you are on the go – whether you are in the car, in a hotel, or even out and about at a zoo or park!

Many parents nowadays rely on technology such as iPads and tablets to keep their little ones entertained, especially when they are out and about. Although it might work well to keep them quiet, extended exposure to the screen is not good for a child’s eyesight. Also, looking at a screen offers a limited sensory environment and no physical exertion. The right non-tech activities will help nurture creativity and imagination while also teaching your child effective communication strategies, and deepening the bond between you and your child. Plus, fun activities make the time go by much faster, and you will be much less likely to end up with an unhappy, bored child.

Handpicked Traveling Activities

To make life easier for parents, we have handpicked 25 of the best non-iPad traveling activities for young children and toddlers. Some activities are games, and some are small arts and craft projects that can be done on the go. Most of the road trip games are easy and quick to pull together. And all of them are sure to keep your little one entertained for hours of fun wherever you are. Many of these games can be played on other types of travels as well, i.e. air travel.

1. Name That Song

This activity will help develop your toddler’s listening skills while passing the time. You can use popular children songs/nursery rhymes or to make it more challenging, try some classical music that your child is familiar with.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. One person hums a familiar song, such as “London bridge is falling down”
2. The other person guesses the song. If this person gets it right, this person gets the next turn at humming a song.

2. I’m a Little Bee

This is a great road trip game to play during breaks to incorporate some physical activities. You can make up different potential variations, i.e. you can be the earth and your child can be a spaceship.

Age group: 18-30 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. You sit or stand in one place, pretending to be the flower.
2. Your child pretends to be the bee who can fly and buzz all around you and return for pollen!

3. What’s Happening?

This activity is best for entertaining kids during art exhibits. Encourage your child to use his imagination. Your child will also develop vocabulary and literacy skills with this activity.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 1 hour

Materials needed: None

1. At an art exhibit, find pictures that depict people. It’s more difficult to do this activity with abstract paintings.
2. Ask your child to make up a story based on the artwork he sees. You child imagination might go wild!

4. Handy Dandy

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 5-10 minutes

Materials needed: A small object

1. Place a small object like a coin or a piece of candy in one of your hands.
2. Hid your hands behind your back, and tell your child you are moving the object from hand to hand.
3. Make fists with your hands and show your child. Hole one hand higher than the other.
4. Say the following phrase and as your child to guess which hand is holding the object: “Handy dandy midley moe, which one you pick, the high or the low?”
5. When your child picks the correct hand, he gets to keep the object or let him take a turn at hiding it.

5. Story in a Bag

This easy road trip game can spark your child’s creativity and encourage her to create her own stories.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: Paper bag, 5-6 small objects

1. Place 5-6 small common objects into a paper bag. Items could be keys, bell, comb, flower, etc.
2. Ask your child to remove the items from the bag. He can either look at all of the items at once, or have him remove the objects one at a time. Help him create a story using these items.
3. Consider having your child draw pictures for his story. Or, you can write down his story so you can reread it together at a later time.

6. Who’s Calling?

This activity will help develop your child’s talking and vocabulary skills.

Age group: 30-40 month

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: Toy phone/ powered off phone

1. Give your child a toy phone or a powered off phone.
2. Ask your child to pretend to call a friend. Listen to her conversations, many times, she would imagine the other person’s part as well.

7. Cars On the Road

Here’s a fun way for your child to play with his toy cars in the car without losing them under the seats. When your child tires of roadway play, he can also use the tray with magnetized letters and toys.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 25 minutes

Materials needed: Cookie sheet or metal tray that you can stick magnets to, toy cars, adhesive magnet discs, masking tape

1. Attach the magnets to the bottom of each toy car.
2. Let your child drive the magnetized cars all around the tray.
3. If wanted, you can use masking tape to outline roadways on the tray.

8. Category Favorites

Not only does this road trip game helps pass the time, as well as help your child with categorization skills and vocabulary development.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Take turns with your child being the leader. The leader will name a category, i.e. TV show, fruits, ice cream, etc.
2. Players take turns naming their favorite things within the category.

9. Beach Creation

This is a great way to help your child preserve memories from a road trip or vacation.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 30 minutes

Materials needed: A small tin or container, small shovel, wet sand, seashells, driftwood, and other medium-sized beach items, Plaster of Paris, water

1. Have your child shovel wet sand into the container to fill it about a third of the way.
2. Let him select the items to be added to the cast. Leave some space in between the items.
3. Show your child how to press the items so they are securely stuck in the sand without being buried.
4. Mix water and plaster of Paris according to directions.
5. Spoon the mixture over the sand and shells so it reaches the rim of the container.
6. Let the cast dry for a few days, then gently remove from the container and rinse off.

10. Bubble Catch

This travelling activity is a fun and cooperative game that you can play with your child. You will have pretty pictures when you are done!

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: 2 small pack of bubble solution with wands, food coloring, 2 sheets of light-colored construction paper

1. Add one drop of food coloring to each bubble solution.
2. Let your child gently blow bubbles towards you. Hold out the sheet of paper to catch the bubbles. Take turn blowing and catching.
3. When you are done, you will have a picture made by bubble residue.

11. DIY Beach Towels

This is the activity for your child to show his creativity and create something that he will enjoy using.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: Fabric paints in different colors, pie tines (one of each color), sponges, scissors, large light-colored towel

1. Empty each color of fabric paint into a separate pie tin.
2. Cut the sponges in beach-themed shapes like seashells, fish, stars, etc.
3. Show your child how to dip the sponges into the paint and then press onto the towel.
4. Let the towel dry completely before using.

12. Who Am I?

This road trip game will promote your child’s problem-solving skills. For older children, you extend the categories to include people or objects.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. One player thinks of an animal. The rest of the group asks yes-or-no questions. For example: “Are you big?” “Do you fly”
2. The person who guesses correctly gets to be the next animal.

13. Birds That Fly

This game is very much like Simon Says, where the objective is to fool the player(s). For younger players, just stick with true directives.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Call out an animal and an action for your child to imitate. For example, you can say, “Bunny hops,” your child should hop like a bunny.
2. There are many variations of this game, i.e. frogs that hop, birds that fly, horses that gallop, etc.
3. Try to fool your child once in a while by calling out silly directives like “fish fly.”
4. Take turn calling out an animal and an action.

14. Stick-On Yarn 

Your child will be amazed at how the yarn will stick. Excellent road trip game for little ones!

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: 1 piece of cardboard, 1 large sheet of sandpaper big enough to cover the cardboard, white craft glue, a variety of yarn pieces in different colors and lengths

1. Glue the sandpaper onto the cardboard to form a solid working surface.
2. Have your child arrange the yarn on the sandpaper. The yarn will stick on its own!

15. What Did You Say?

This silly activity will enhance your child’s listening skills.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Read a picture book with your child.
2. As you are browsing the pictures, point to different objects and identify them. Make sure your child pays attention.
3. On occasion, intentionally misidentify a picture. For example, you can point to a picture of a banana and say “apple”.
4. Have you child stop you when she catches you make a mistake. Ask her to say the correct word.

16. Shape Hunting

This road trip game is great in developing your child’s visual discrimination skills as she searches for shapes. This will help her with reading when she is older.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: Construction paper, scissors

1. Cut out different shapes (i.e. circle, square, triangle) from the construction paper.
2. Work with one shape at a time. Show your child the shape, and tell her she is going on a shape hunt to find other items that are of that shape.

17. DIY Paper Chain

This DIY paper chain is a fun activity for children during road trip breaks.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 20 minutes

Materials needed: Lightweight bone paper in different colors, scissors, craft past sticks

1. Cut out strips of paper approximately 1 inch wide and 4 inches long.
2. Show your child how to apply a dab of paste with the paste stick and close each strip to make a link.
3. Help your child attach the links together.
4. When your child has completed a long chain, you can hang it up to decorate the room.

18. Riddle

This riddle activity will promote your child’s problem-solving skills. You can play it anywhere, any time while traveling.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 25 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Give simple riddles and ask your child to guess the answer. All the answers should be a part of the body. Here are a few examples:
   • You use me to draw and write. (Hand)
   • I eat food. (Mouth)
2. Vary the complexity according to your child’s age and ability. You may also ask him to think of some riddles for you.

19. Make A Collage

Be mindful when doing this activity with young toddlers. Some small items may pose a choking hazard.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 25 minutes

Materials needed: 1 piece of cardboard, clear contact paper (twice the length of the cardboard), a variety of collage materials (i.e. felt, twigs, buttons, etc.)

1. Spread the contact paper flat on a table, sticky side up. Remove half of the protective paper.
2. Smooth the cardboard over the sticky part of the contact paper. Fold the protect half over with the protective paper still on.
3. Let your child arrange the collage items on the cardboard.
4. When he is done, he can remove the paper from the top half of the contact paper and fix it on top of the design to keep the design together.

20. I Spy

This is a classic guessing game. Your child will develop observational skills and problem-solving skills as he plays.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. One person picks an object in the surrounding environment to all players. She then says the following chant, “I spy with my little eye something that is …” (i.e. big, green, fuzzy, etc.)
2. Other players try to guess what that person has spied. The first person to guess correctly then takes a turn as “spy”.

21. Echo Me Back

With this easy road trip game, your child’s auditory memory will improve. Using words with similar sounds will also help her with auditory discrimination.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Say something and ask your child to repeat what you say to her.
2. Start very slowly and simply, then gradually add complexity. To make it more fun, you can say nonsense words, words that rhyme, or silly phrases.

22. Here Comes Daddy/Mommy!

This is a great road trip game to play when you are waiting to meet someone, like Daddy, on your trip. Depending on who you are waiting for, this game can be called “Here comes mommy!”, “Here comes baby!”, etc.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: Variable

Materials needed: None

1. While waiting for Daddy, watch the other people who are walking past.
2. Start the game by pointing out someone who is clearly NOT Daddy- the less like Daddy, the better. Say “Here comes Daddy!” enthusiastically.
3. The other person responds by pointing out someone who looks even less like Daddy, and say the phrase “noooooo, here comes Daddy!”
4. Continue until Daddy arrives.

23. Creative Reenactment

This travelling activity will help your child with story comprehension, memory, and creativity.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Read a beloved picture book with your child.
2. As you read, have your child act out the drama.

24. Zoo Animal Spotting

This fun game is great if you are visiting a zoo on your trip. It will enhance your child’s interest and observational skills.

Age group: 18-40 months

Duration of activity: 1 hour

Materials needed: Square poster board (8” x 8”, ruler, marker, small pictures of animals, white craft glue, clear contact paper, dry-erase marker)

1. Mark off 6 equal squares on the poster board using a ruler.
2. Let your child select 6 pictures of animals that he will find at the zoo.
3. Glue one animal picture in each square.
4. Cover the board with clear contact paper.
5. Bring the board and dry-erase marker to the zoo. Show your child how to mark off each animal that he sees.

25. What’s Next?

This game is a great activity for long road trips, plane rides, or when you have to wait somewhere.

Age group: 30-40 months

Duration of activity: 15 minutes

Materials needed: None

1. Build a story as a team. Each person takes turn by adding a sentence to an evolving story. No one player can have control over what will happen next.
2. Your story can be something like this:
   • Parent: There was a bunny who…
   • Child: loved carrots.
   • Parents: One day, this bunny was hungry and…
   • Child: went to the supermarket to get food.
3. Once you are doing with your story, you can have your child draw it out. Or alternatively, you can write down her story so you can reread it together at a later time.