Road Sign Alphabet Game
How to play: Start by finding a word on a road sign that starts with A—then move on to B, and so on, until each player has found a word for every letter of the alphabet. The trick is that once a player calls a word, it can’t be used by other players. The winner is the player who reaches the end of the alphabet first!
Guess the Song
How to play: Pick one player to start. They must sing (or speak) a line or two of lyrics from a song, and then everyone else has to try and guess the song’s exact title. For example, if you said, “Paint my nails cherry red, match the roses that you left. No remorse, no regret, I forgive every word you said,” the player who guessed “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus would be right! Each correct answer earns a point, and the player with the most points wins. Want to make the game harder? Try talking in a monotone rather than singing.
Guess the Movie
How to play: Calling all film buffs! Have one player think of a movie (ideally one that most other players would be familiar with). Then, they must briefly explain the movie’s plot—but do it as vaguely and poorly as possible. Everyone else must guess what the movie is, and the player who guesses correctly gets a point. However, if nobody guesses right, the player explaining the plot gets a point. For example, “Man fights his cousin, saves his home” could be a vague description of Black Panther!
Telephone
How to play: First, assign one player to be the “storyteller” who starts things off. The storyteller must whisper a short, made-up story to someone else—and then that player must do the same thing, reciting it as best they can to a different player. Keep doing this until everyone in the car has heard the story; the last person to hear it must say it out loud. Odds are the story will change a lot over the course of Telephone, so enjoy the wacky end result!
Fortunately, Unfortunately
How to play: Start the game by saying something that begins with “Fortunately…” (a positive comment or declaration of some kind). Then, another player must say something negative beginning with “Unfortunately….” Keep going from player to player, taking turns with “Fortunately” and “Unfortunately” statements. You can play this as long as you like! For example: “Fortunately, this highway has plenty of rest stops.” “Unfortunately, rest stop bathrooms are gross.”
While You Were Sleeping
How to play: If someone in the car takes a nap, that’s your cue to play While You Were Sleeping! Work with everyone else as they sleep to make up a story about something the sleeping person missed. Then, when they wake up, give a dramatic retelling of the story—with everyone offering lots of specific details to make the whole thing seem believable! For example, you might invent a story about getting lost and running across the creepiest rest stop ever or picking up a stranded celebrity and driving them to a mechanic.
Cows on My Side
How to play: The rules are simple: when you see a cow on your side of the road, just call out, “Cows on my side!” Each time you do, you get a point. Then, when you see cows on the other side of the road, call out, “Cows on your side!” If you do it before the person on that side of the road can, you steal their point. There’s also a special rule for cemeteries. When you see one, yell, “Ghost cow!” to steal all the points from the other side.
The Price is Right
How to play: See who can guess the price of regular unleaded gas at the next upcoming gas station! Whoever guesses the price to the nearest tenth (or just comes closest) gets a point—and the next time you stop for gas, the player with the fewest points gets to buy snacks for everyone else in the car.
Eat the Rainbow
How to play: At the beginning of the trip, make a plan to stop at 7 different gas stations along the way. Your mission at each station is to find a snack food that’s a particular color of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Get one snack item at each station, and try to find all the different colors by the end of the trip! Bonus Game: Regional Food Master. While playing Eat the Rainbow, you could also compete to see who can find the most regional snacks (basically, food items made within the same region as the rest stop). Whoever gets the most wins!
20 Questions
How to play: Have one player think of a person, place, or thing (without saying what it is). Then, everyone else must take turns asking yes or no questions to try and figure out what mystery thing the first player is thinking about. Whoever guesses correctly wins a point—or, if nobody guesses correctly after 20 questions, the player answering questions gets the point.
Did You Hear That…?
How to play: Start the game by asking players, “Did you hear that ____ happened?” Ask them pop culture or current events-themed questions that could be true or false. Everyone can say, “That didn’t happen,” “That happened,” or “Tell me more.” A player who correctly guesses that something did or didn’t happen gets 2 points—but if they’re wrong, you steal 1 of their points and get 2 extra. Additionally, each time someone says, “Tell me more,” double the points awarded for the statement.
Would You Rather
How to play: Ask everyone in the car a question beginning with, “Would you rather…?” Each question should have two funny, strange, or even challenging scenarios to choose from. Then, let each player pick which of the two scenarios they’d rather deal with! It’s a fun way to explore one another’s personal preferences on a road trip. For example: Would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse or a robot apocalypse? Would you rather always have a full phone battery or a full gas tank? Would you rather run into an alien or Big Foot? Would you rather be royalty 1,000 years ago or an average person today?
Would I Lie to You?
How to play: Start by making a claim about yourself; it can be truthful or a lie, but don’t say which. Then, let everyone else ask two questions to get more information about your story. After that, they must guess whether it’s a lie or the truth. Anyone who guesses correctly gets a point! Have everyone take turns as the one making a claim (so each player gets a chance to guess as well).
Two Truths and a Lie
How to play: This is similar to “Would I Lie to You?” On your turn, make three statements: two truthful and one a lie. The other players must try to guess which statement is the lie! If they’re right, they get a point—but if they’re wrong, you (the deceiver) get the point instead. Keep playing until everyone has a chance to be the deceiver. Example statements could include: I’m a vegetarian. My mom and I have the same middle name. I was in a commercial when I was little. I’ve eaten a bug before.
Most Likely To
How to play: Ask a question that starts with “Who is most likely to…?” Each player has 3 seconds to call the name of the person they think best fits the statement (out of the people playing, of course). There’s no winner here; it’s just a fun way to see how well you know each other! For example: Who’s most likely to actually be a spy? Who’s most likely to take a week to respond to a text? Who’s most likely to forget about dinner plans? Who’s most likely to survive in a horror movie?
Match the Lyrics
How to play: Have one person start by singing a line from a song. Then, another player must connect one lyric from that song with the lyrics from another! Keep going around the group until someone makes a mistake or can’t think of any matching lyrics—then start over. For example: You might start by singing, “Don’t stop believin’, hold on to that feelin’...” and someone else might follow up with, “Don’t stop me now, ‘cause I’m having a good time…”
Categories
How to play: First, choose a category (like snack foods, TV shows or movies, books, or flowers). One player must name something that starts with the letter A and fits in the category. The next player must name something with the letter B. Keep going around the group until you’ve covered the entire alphabet, if possible! For example, if your category is TV shows, the first player might say, “Abbott Elementary,” and the next might say, “Breaking Bad,” and so on.
Road Trip Trivia
How to play: Before the trip, figure out what cities or towns you’ll be passing through and assign one to each player. Players must act as “experts” of their assigned city and do a little research (using their smartphone if needed) on information they could use as trivia questions—like population, landmarks, dining options, or anything else the city might be known for. Then, when you’re passing through a player’s city, they have to ask everyone else trivia questions! For example, you might ask questions like, “How many people live in Bakersfield, California?” (about 413,000) or “What department store originated in Rogers, Arkansas?” (Walmart).
Road Trip Bingo
How to play: Preparing a bingo game before a road trip is easy! Just draw your own bingo cards (5x5 grids on paper) and give one to each player. Then, have everyone fill in their bingo card squares with different things they might see on a road trip—like fast food restaurants, types of cars, and gas station chains. Each time players see something on their bingo card, they can cross off that square. Just make sure there are enough pens or markers for everyone. The first player to get five bingo squares in a row wins!
The Counting Game
How to play: The goal of this game is to see how high you can count—without any planning or organization. One player must randomly call out the number 1 to start the game. Then, another person (also at random) must call the number 2, and so on. Keep calling out numbers in order—but if two players speak simultaneously, everyone has to start over. Players can’t leave more than a 5-second pause between numbers. Typically, the goal is to reach the number 20—but you can make the goal as high as you want!
The Name Game
How to play: The Name Game is a classic; begin by naming any celebrity you can think of. The next player must name a celebrity whose first name starts with the first letter of the previous celebrity’s last name. For example, if someone said “Taylor Swift,” the next could say “Selena Gomez,” and then “Greta Gerwig,” and so on. However, if someone says a name with the same first letter in the first and last names (like Greta Gerwig, Janet Jackson, or Mandy Moore), reverse the order of the game.
The License Plate Game
How to play: There are lots of different ways to play this game. One common way is to look for a license plate from every state in the U.S. (or license plates from different countries if you’re in Europe, for example). Another version of the game involves picking a letter of the alphabet and seeing how many license plates you can spot with that letter! Want to add another layer to the game? See if players can use the letters on a license plate to make an acronym (and turn that acronym into a sentence). For example, the license plate “12C JOB” could be “Twelve Big Cats Jump on the Bed” (or something similar).
Spot the Car
How to play: If you and your fellow players don’t mind a little car-watching, try this game! Have one player pick a specific type of vehicle. Then, everyone must try to spot that vehicle on the road—and the first person to point it out gets a point. For example, you might have to keep an eye out for an RV, sports car, or police car, or even a particular brand (Ford, Cadillac, and so on).
Mad Libs
How to play: Print out some free MadLibs before your road trip, or use a free site like WordLibs on your smartphone to play instead. All you and your fellow road trip buddies have to do is fill in nouns, adjectives, and verbs (as specified) to create a hilarious, off-the-wall short story!
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