 Are you gearing up for a family road trip this spring break or summer? To prevent the constant question “Are we there yet?”, here are 15 FUN road trip activities to keep your family entertained! I’ve rounded up the best screen free road trip activities for kids!
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Road Trip Activities for Kids That are Screen Free!
Truth be told, I have a vested interest in today’s blog post. Next month, my family and I are headed on a 15 hour road trip for spring break. This will be our longest time in the car. While my kids are actually really awesome road warriors, my husband and I have decided to set a little more guidelines on this particular road trip. We do not want them to be buried in screens (video game consoles and ipads)! Half of the fun of a long distance trip is the journey and we don’t want our kids to miss out on this experience.
When I was younger, I remember road trips involving the alphabet game and license plate games. Plus, some singing, following along a map and just staring out the window as well! While I sure do appreciate the ability for my kids to watch a movie or play a game to pass the time, it is all about balance. I’ve rounded up some awesome ideas for road trip activities for kids and families!
With Easter just around the corner, these would be perfect for the Easter basket!
How to Entertain Kids on a Long Road Trip
Are you heading on a long car trip with kids soon? Now is the time to get ready for your road trip with a few activities up your sleeve. There are so many fun road trip activities for kids. Your kids just might not even notice how long they have been in the car!
Play Car Games
There are so many car games that are perfect for a road trip. Our favorite game, one that we actually keep in our car all the time is this Hangman game. I love that it comes with everything you need to play game after game–no pen and paper required.
This set of Road Trip Bingo Cards (from my shop)is so fun! I have to admit that I had this game when I was a kid! This is a printable file that you can save and print as many copies as you would like. I would suggest attaching the bingo cards to some clipboards.
Spot It! games are great because even the younger kids can easily understand the game! We own several in the Spot It! series and this Road Trip edition is our newest set!
If you want to have some great conversations, these Road Trip Table Talk cards would get the dialogue started! Pass out cards to each family member (except the driver!) and take turns asking questions to everyone in the family!
There are so many fun road trip games to pick from! The great thing about these games, is that many of them also are perfect for when you have to wait at a restaurant or a long line at a tourist attraction!
RELATED POST: Getting Ready for a Family Road Trip
Easy Crafts and Art Activities for the Car
There are a ton of arts and crafts activities that are also great for road trips!
We have gone through many sets of these Crayola Water Color Coloring Pages. You do not have to worry about a mess as the markers do not show color on anything but the coloring pages!
Now that my kids are getting older, I make sure the car is stocked with a lot of activity books and coloring pages! Here are some of our favorites. My daughter just got the Wreck this Journal book for her birthday and she LOVES it!
These writing tablets are so multipurpose. While it looks like an electronic device, it is actually a writing board that does not require batteries! You can draw, practice letter art, play a game of tic tac toe, you name it! They can easily be thrown into a purse or bag for on the go activity!
Listen to Podcasts/Audiobooks
My husband loves listening to audio books on our car trips. But I think it would be fun for the whole family to listen to an audio book. You can borrow these from your local library! Listening to an audio book while working on a coloring book or craft will be a great way to pass the time on a trip!
I also love listening to Podcasts but there are actually some great podcasts for kids. I have bookmarked this awesome list of Podcasts for Kids and I plan to do a review on them once we have listened to them. Stay tuned!
Of course, good old fashioned books are a great way to pass the time too! We always head to the library to stock up on books before a trip. I definitely recommend finding books related to the place you are going! Last year, we went to Washington, D. C. for spring break and the kids each got an age appropriate book about D.C for Easter.It is a nice way to get the kids involved in the trip planning and to learn about your destination!
Keep the Snacks Coming
I can not neglect to mention that snacking is a perfect way to pass the time on a long trip. While it might seem like another thing to worry about before a trip, I really enjoy coming up with road trip snacks. We pick out some things that we normally don’t eat plus I throw in a few healthy snacks (that they have to eat when the other foods run out!). Some road trips I give everyone all of their food at once and they keep in their own lunch bags.
But for longer trips, I ration out the food otherwise they will have eaten through everything in a matter of hours!
We love these Snackeez for our road trips! You can keep a drink AND your snack in one container!
Tiffany from Lake Life State of Mind has DIY Road Trip Snack Baskets that are perfect for keeping your kids’ bellies full! The best part is that everything can be bought at the Dollar Store!
My car always needs a good vacuum after a long trip!
RELATED POST: How to Get Organized After a Vacation
Road Trip Activities for Families
What do your kids to stay busy on family road trips? I’d love to hear your ideas!
We have the bingo cards and we have a Melissa and Doug license plate game that we love. I will look into some of these other ideas!
This is perfect. We are taking the grandkids on a road trip. No screens in our car
Road Trip Bingo Cards are still available!!! I LOVED that game when I was a kid. And you have made my day with this info. Thank you so much!
OH my. I remember the Bingo cards from when I was a kid! We use the Color Wonder sheets with my kids, but they haven’t gotten into it in the car. Sigh…. they’re much happier arguing with each other and fighting over anything they can think of.
This is a great list of games! We spend a lot of time in the car and usually play Ispy or make up stories, but sometimes we need something more. I will have to pick up a few to make drive time extra fun and easy!
Such cute ideas Jaclyn! We may do a road trip over April vaca so I will keep these in mind 🙂
Fun recommendations! I’m definitely adding Hangman and that License Plate book pictured to my list – we’re driving 10 hours from NY to Myrtle Beach this summer! That tablet is fantastic – I have one for Sadie and she LOVES it.
Great tips! I miss the days before screen time often – I know it offers so many benefits, but I fear kids are missing out on a lot. I will be sharing this post for sure 🙂
Those Snackeez cups are amazing!! It looks like the perfect way to keep kids happy and full on a road trip. I love all of your wonderful ideas!