Car Journey Games for Kids: 25 Screen-Free Ideas

The secret of good car journey games for kids is rotation: cut a long drive into chunks of about an hour and switch between spotting games out of the window, word games, and a quiet spell. The 25 games below need no screen and, for most of them, nothing at all. They work for the drive to Granny's at Christmas, a half-term trip or the long haul to the coast in August, for children of roughly 5 to 12.

One rule before anything else: the driver drives. They can listen and laugh, but a passenger runs the games, and no game should ever need the driver to look, point or write.

An hour-by-hour plan for a long car journey

To a child, “five hours” means nothing. Five hour-long stages, they can count. Before you leave, draw the route on a sheet of paper with the big towns and the planned stops, and let them tick off each stage. Then match the games to the moment:

• First hour: everyone is fresh, so start with spotting games: plates, colours, signs.
• Second hour: word games and riddles.
• After the first stop: a quiet spell with an audiobook or music, before any new game.
• The last stretch: short “first to spot…” challenges, with the sign for your destination as the final prize.

Plan proper stops, too. The Highway Code recommends a break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving: everyone gets out, runs about, has a drink and goes to the loo. The games always go better after a run round the services car park (holding a grown-up's hand).

Spotting games

1. I spy. With younger children, use colours (“something green”) and pick things that stay in view: the sky, a hill, something inside the car.
2. Car colour chase. Everyone chooses a colour and counts the cars of that colour for ten minutes. Picking a rare colour is a gamble.
3. Number plate games. UK plates have two letters, two numbers and three letters. Make a silly phrase from the last three (KTP: Kangaroos Teach Pilates), add up the two numbers, or hunt for the newest car: the numbers show when it was registered, and a plate with 76 dates from September 2026.
4. Pub sign bingo. Before you leave, write down six pub names you are likely to pass: the Red Lion, the Royal Oak, the White Hart, the Crown, the Plough, the Swan. Tick them off on country roads.
5. Services countdown. On the motorway, everyone guesses how many miles it is to the next services, then checks the blue sign. Closest guess chooses the next song.
6. First to spot. The sea, a castle, a wind turbine, a horse, a tractor, a sign for the town you're heading to. One point each.
7. Cow counting. Each side of the car counts the cows in its fields. Pass a petrol station on your side and you lose your herd.

Word games and riddles

1. The alphabet game. Pick a category (animals, food, footballers, places) and go round the car from A to Z. Q and X can be skipped once each.
2. Twenty questions. One person thinks of something; the others have twenty yes-or-no questions. Start with the classic “Animal, vegetable or mineral?”.
3. Story chain. Each person adds one sentence. For a twist, alternate “Fortunately…” and “Unfortunately…”.
4. Would you rather. “Would you rather have a nose that glows or ears that whistle?” Everyone answers and has to give a reason.
5. I went to market. “I went to market and I bought an apple…” Each player repeats the whole list and adds an item. Harder version: the items go in alphabetical order.
6. The yes-no game. One minute of quick questions, and you may not say “yes” or “no”. Nodding counts.
7. Just a minute. As in the radio panel game, talk for 30 seconds on a subject (penguins, school dinners, socks) without hesitating or repeating yourself. Grown-ups get the full minute.
8. Riddles and hum that tune. Keep a list of riddles in the glovebox, and when they run out, hum a song with no words for the others to guess.

Games with a notebook and pencil

A clipboard on the lap opens up more games on the motorway. If your child often feels unwell in the car, stick to the games that don't need reading or writing.

1. Noughts and crosses, then the bigger version on a 5 × 5 grid where you need four in a row.
2. Hangman, with words from the trip: SERVICES, ROUNDABOUT, CARAVAN.
3. Dots and boxes: a grid of dots, one line each, and whoever closes a box writes their initial in it.
4. The journey comic: six boxes on a page telling the story of the trip so far, with the traffic jam as the villain.
5. The squiggle game: one player draws a squiggle, the other turns it into a picture.

Quiet moments

1. An audiobook or a podcast for children, downloaded before you leave because the signal comes and goes. One episode per stage, and no screen involved.
2. Cloud stories: find a cloud shaped like an animal and tell where it is going.
3. The quiet game: who can stay silent the longest? The winner chooses the next song.
4. Everyone's song: each person picks a song in turn and the whole car sings along.
5. The view in three words: every ten minutes, each person describes what they see in exactly three words.

The small kit to pack

• A clipboard or a hardback book per child, with pencils (no felt tips without lids, no scissors).
• The pub sign list or a bingo card drawn at home, in a plastic wallet.
• A page of riddles and a family quiz written before you set off.
• Audiobooks and a playlist the whole family has agreed on.
• A small surprise bag per child, to open at the halfway stop.
• Water, snacks and a bag for rubbish within reach.
• Nothing heavy or hard loose in the car: anything that isn't stowed can fly forward under hard braking.

A challenge book for the road and the stay

For children of 7 to 12, 100 Screen-Free Holiday Challenges is the travelling edition of our challenge book: 100 challenges, one per page, many of them made for journeys, the beach, the countryside, the campsite and rainy days. Several work in the car or at the stops: Road trip alphabet (an adult writes the letters down and the driver doesn't play), Sign detective, The long-journey comic, Cloud stories, and Five travel lines to sum up the day once you arrive. Travel charades waits for the services. 57 of the 100 challenges need just paper and a pencil, or nothing at all, and a guide for adults gives a hint and an example for every one. Print only the pages for the trip, on A4 or US Letter.

For home and weekends, the everyday edition, 100 Screen-Free Challenges for ages 7 to 12, has 100 different challenges in the same 8 worlds. Both books are in our screen-free activities section.

Two challenge books

100 screen-free holiday challenges for ages 7-12

€9.90

"I'm bored!" on holiday? Here are 100 answers, one per page

100 screen-free challenges for ages 7-12

€9.90

"I'm bored!" What if the answer fitted on one page?

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