Car Games - Fun Travel Activities

Long trips can often become monotonous. Fun travel activities for kids are often needed. Here are seven fun travel activities or games that you can play in your car while traveling:

1) Alphabet Word Search: Each person starts looking for a written word beginning with the first letter of the alphabet, then calls it out and then looks for a word with the next letter in the alphabet. Once you call out a word, opponents can't use that particular word, but they can use the same word found somewhere else. The person to find a word using the last letter of the alphabet wins. You should exclude license plate numbers. However, if playing with children, a handicap can be created for the adults by only allowing children to use license plate numbers.

2) Alphabet Item Search: This is like the first one, but you are allowed to use items that you see. Once a particular word is used, nobody is allowed to use that word or item again. For example if someone says "Automobile" for letter "A", then nobody could use "Car" for the letter "C".

3) Discovery: Select an item that your opponent is familiar with. Your opponent will then ask questions till he or she figures out the item. Switch sides. Person that asks the least amount of questions wins the game. Best played with about 3 rounds each.

4) Memory Sentence: First person says a word, next person adds one word to the sentence. This continues, till one person can't continue the sentence anymore. The sentence must be grammatically correct, but it doesn't have to make sense. For example: "The apple flew over the dark mind that had an eagle over the illogical movie...." would be an acceptable continuation of words. Even though, the sentences are usually completely illogical, it is quite fun, and this game can often go on for over a hundred word before someone falters.

5) Race to 100: This is a two player game. Say a number between 1 and 10, next person adds a number between 1 and 10 and says the new number. Switch back and forth, each person continuing to add a number between 1 and 10 until one person can call 100. This is a fun game for a while until someone figures it out. You can spruce up the game by changing the range of allowable numbers to add. For instance, the second round could be numbers between 1 and 13.

6) Memory Game: First person chooses an animal or plant that starts with the letter "a" and then says he is thinking of it. For instance, if he choose an acorn, he would say "I am thinking of an acorn." The next person will then add an animal or plant that starts with the next letter of the alphabet to the sentence. For example, he could say "I am thinking of an acorn and a bird". This will continue with each person alternately adding a noun to the sentence, until someone misses something on the list. If the list goes to the letter "z", then call it a tie.

7) Story Telling: This is more of an interaction, than a game, but sometimes it can be fun. Someone starts telling a story going on for a paragraph or two. The next person continues the story where the previous person left off for another paragraph or two. The idea is to make the other person laugh with a curious or surprise twist to the story. Continue switching back and forth for a while until someone gets tired of it or the story fizzles out.

So the next time you travel, try these social oriented car games out. Don't be afraid to make changes to rules, or to adjust for the skill level or intelligence of the participants. Traveling can become a fun time to stretch the imagination and try out new ideas.

Just remember, the main idea is to have fun while traveling.