International travel is still on-hold for Canadians, and we all need to follow those rules to keep us safe and healthy, but our provincial borders have opened which means… hello open road and road trips! If you don’t have it already, check out our free printable summer road trip checklist, which has everything you need to enjoy a road trip including road trips games!
We’ve put together our top 5 road trip games to make sure you’re prepared for your summer 2021 road trip!
The Licence Plate Game
A tried and true classic, this game often tends to be more difficult than it seems it should be. The Licence Plate Game requires you to keep a keen eye out on all the vehicles passing by. All you need to play is decent vision and some focus. Passengers play by pointing out plates from each province. As soon as a plate is called out, it cannot be claimed by anyone else. The first person in the car to collect all 10 provinces wins with bonuses awarded for spotting plates from any of the 3 territories! You can also play this game if you dip down into the United States, looking out for all 50 states.
Alphabet
This lesser known game is a fun one, and a great choice for family road trips when you have little ones who are learning to read! To play, everyone in the car makes their way through the alphabet by finding items around them that correspond with the letter they get. For example, the driver would start with “Airplane,” the next player could look to outside traffic and play “Bus,” and so on. Items can either be spotted outside or inside of the vehicle, and to level up the difficulty, you can try making your rounds more specific. Here are a few to consider:
- Road Signs only
- Restaurants only
- Gas Stations only
- People only
- Vehicle makes/models only
- Animals only
Punch Buggy
This is a road trip classic, but make sure it doesn’t get out of hand! This game should be played with guidelines so that ‘how hard someone punches’ isn’t a part of scoring points. Most know the jist of this one – when you see a Volkswagen Beetle, the first to spot it, lightly punch the person next to them, and yell out “PUNCH BUGGY”, gets a point. General rules say that you can’t punch a person back if they beat you to it, Volkswagen dealerships are off limits, and we recommend avoiding hitting the driver. For both safety reasons and the likelihood that if you bother them enough, you could end up stranded!
Road Trip Bingo
This app is available on most devices and provides fun, interactive visuals or you can go old-school and use a pen and paper, filled out ahead of time or on-the-go. You can also purchase pre-filled cards and holders, so there's no prep work required! If there are enough devices for each person, then passengers can play individually, or you can team up. Either way, the front passenger (if available) and the driver should always play as a team to avoid distracted driving, otherwise the driver should avoid playing altogether.
I Spy
Another much-loved classic for anyone who’s tried to keep children busy, we spy with our little eye – a game that saves you from headaches. For those unfamiliar with it, this mystery game requires each player to come up with a riddle in the form of “I spy with my little eye, something that is ________.” Players use descriptive words such as colours, shape, or a vague noun. Everyone takes a turn being the riddler, while the other passengers try to guess what the riddler is referring to in their surroundings. For each correct guess, passengers score a point! You can even grab an I Spy book or some cards before you head out on the road, specifically tailored towards road trips. This will take the guesswork out of ideas, making the game flow more easily around the car!
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Each of these games provide opportunities to be creative and adapt as needed for the passengers in your car. Things like the amount of points needed to win a game, and the time a person has for their turn can be tweaked. The most important thing to keep in mind however, is the driver’s ability to safely get you all where you’re going! If at any point the driver asks for the game to be altered, paused, or stopped entirely, it is crucial to listen. In other words, the driver’s rules trump everything else.