Top Travel Games and Activities for Kids

Are We There Yet?

Summer's all about spending time together as a family and heading off to fun, hot places like the beach, the mountains, amusements and more. 

However, all that fun often involves long hours of sitting in the car waiting to get to that mystical "THERE." Here's our growing database of travel games, activities and toys your kids will enjoy on the road to infinity and beyond.

Find and Seek Games
1.  I Spy (Ages 3+)
2.  Punch Buggy (Ages 3+)
3.  On a Hunt for a Number, aka the Alphabet Game (Ages 4+)
4.  Count the ... (Ages 4 to 7)
5.  Bridges and Tunnels (Ages 4+)
6.  A is for Armadillo (Ages 7+)

Creative Travel Games

7.   Get Goofy and Laugh (Ages 3+)
8.   What's in the Clouds (Ages 3 to 6)
9.   Scattergories on the Go (Ages 4+)
10. Telephone Storytelling (Ages 4+)
11. The Picnic Game (Ages 4+)
12. The Professor's Cat (Ages 5+)
13. Around the World (Ages 6+)
14. License Plate Lingo (Ages 7+)
15. Building Words (Ages 9+)
16. Buzz (Ages 9+)

Getting to Know You Games

17. What's your favorite (Ages 3+)
18. Would you rather (Ages 3+)
19. Mad, Sad, Glad (Ages 4+)
20. What if? (Ages 4+)
21. Where do you do it? (Ages 4+)
22. Down Memory Lane (Ages 5+)
23. 2 Truths and a Lie (Ages 7+)

Photo by Benedict Francis based on Creative Commons Law

Guessing Games

24. 20 Questions (Ages 2+)
25. Treasure in a Bottle (Ages 2-4)
26. Name that Tune (Ages 3+)
27. Mother Goose's Mixed Up Words (Ages 3-6)
28. How Far Away is That? (Ages 4+)
29. True or False (Ages 4-7)

Simple Activities with Just a Piece of Paper

30.  Print out coloring or activity pages from websites like Education.com or Crayola.com
31.  Print out a map of the US and check off each state that you find a license plate for
32.  Free Roadtrip Bingo print-outs from MomsMinivan
33.  Write a letter to grandma or a friend. Write a journal entry.
34.  Travel Scavenger print-outs from Moms Minivan
35.  Take a crayon, stick a coin underneath a sheet of paper and make a coin rubbing

Travel Toys for Baby

36.  Plastic linking rings: Sassy Lively Links $3
37.  Boardbooks: The Cheerios Play Book $8, We're Going on a Bear Hunt $8, Mini Movers $5
38.  A multi-sensory toy: Lamaze Freddy the Firefly $10 or Baby Whoozit $10
39. Musical fun: Water Flutes Tub Tunes $10
40. Building blocks: Mega Bloks $22
41. Drawing boards: Travel Doodle Pro $15 or Aquadoodle Travel N Doodle $15
42. Flexible Ball: Oball $8 , Gertie $3.25 or Skwish Classic $12.25
43. Imaginary Play: Fingerpuppets $8+

Toddler/Preschooler Travel Toys

44. Pre-packaged Activity Kits: My Busy Kit, Toddler TravelKiddy
45. Activity books: Klutz Fun with Felt $13, Sticker books $10, iSpy
46. Magnetic Fun: Melissa & Doug Dress-up Kits $10+, Pattern Block Set $16
47. Drawing: Aquadoodle Travel N Doodle $16, Crayola ColorWonder Kits $7+
48. Building Fun: Dado Squares $23, Automoblox $29
49. Imaginary Play: Toobs $10, Fingerpuppets $8+

Travel toys for Kids (K-5)

50. Magnetic Fun: Magnetic Poetry $15
51. Activity Books: Love the ones from DK Publishers $10, Mad Libs for Kids $4+
52. Educational Fun: Brain Quest $9
53. Travel Games for Kids like Hangman, Battleship, Connect 4, Sorry
54. Building sets: Cadaco's EnviroBlox $13
55. Origami kits $10+
56. Travel journal or scrapbook $17
57. Where's Waldo books
58. Pre-packaged activity kids: TravelKiddy

"Active" games

59. Handclapping games like Miss Mary Mac
60. Rock, Paper, Scissors
61. Thumb Wrestling
62. Have a sing a long. Ones with hand and body motions are great for little kids.

Bring out the electronics

63. Read, play games, watch a movie on the iPad
64. Handheld game players iPod Touch, Nintendo DS, Leapfrog Leapster
65. Watch a movie on a portable DVD player
66. Listen to music or an Audiobook for Kids
67. Take some pictures or a video

Photo licensed via Creative Commons from Flickr/bionicteaching.

Snack Time

68.  Snacklaces (Ages 2-6) - Pack a ziplock with froot loops and cheerios (or something similar) and a shoe lace for beading. After they make the necklace they can eat it! I challenge my older child to make an appropriate patten. Its a good 20-30 minutes for 3-6 year olds. (From mrsc69)

69.  The Goldfish Game (Ages 2-6) -  Give your child a pile of goldfish crackers and tell them that yours going to tell him a story that's going to tell him exactly when to eat. If your child's starving, you'll probably want to save this for another time. The story can be about a fisherman that sailed the waters catching fish. "The fisherman sailed out one morning and with his fishing poles caught 2 fish to eat. [cue your child to eat 2 crackers]." Stories can include multiple fisherman or fishing with a net.

More Fun Ideas

70.  The Quiet Game - An oldie but a goodie.

71. Quarters: My mom used to start the trip with us each getting a roll of quarters. Every time we acted up (or annoyed her) we lost a quarter. This was a great way to make us behave and provided spending money for us while on the trip. I probably had enough for a piece of gum. :-) (from happyonvacation)

Related articles:

• Best Travel Trays for Kids
• Toys on the Fly
• Preparing Kids to Travel

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