Long journeys in your own car or rental car often mean stress for adults and yawning boredom for children. unless you know the real travel games! We know 14 great games for on the road that will make the vacation trip fly by.
| Creative and practical travel games for kids |
travel games for toddlers
travel games for school children
travel games to take with you |
"how much longer?", sounds every 5 minutes from the back seat while trying to concentrate on the road. What seems like a long time to us is an eternity to children. No wonder little angels easily turn into whining tormentors on hour-long car rides. Travel games are a great idea for bored kids and annoyed parents on a road trip. We’ve collected 14 exciting travel games that are fun for kids big and small, and don’t require any toys at all. All they need is a little imagination and creativity!
Travel games for toddlers
These travel games are suitable for children from 3 years.
1. Guessing melodies
One person starts humming a familiar melody (e.g., a song). B. A children’s song or the theme music from a movie). The other players have to guess the melody. Whoever succeeds first is the next to go.
2. I see what you don’t see
The classic travel game for toddlers. One player picks an object that everyone can see and describes it with the sentence: "I see something you don’t see and it’s – blue/ green/ red" (depending). the others now have to guess which object is meant.
3. color game
An alternative to "I see something you don’t see" is the color game. They simply name a color and the little ones have to discover things in that color. The winner is the one who has found the most.
4. Telling stories
"once upon a time, there was a little princess and a brave little sailor who went on a journey together …" you set the beginning, their children carry on. Everyone continues the story until they can’t think of anything else, and then says the name of another player who must continue. This is how it goes round and round until an end is found. A very nice travel game that relieves boredom and encourages creative thinking.
Travel games for school children
These ideas are aimed at schoolchildren aged 6 and up. many of them are also suitable as travel games for adults!
5. fortune telling
An exciting highlight among the travel games for the car. Before you set off, think as a group about the things you might encounter along the way and write them down on a piece of paper (z. B. "castle", "lake").
during the trip, everyone has to keep their eyes open and let them know when they find one of these things. You get points for every prediction you make. Simple predictions like "cow," "red roof," "police car" are rewarded with 1 point. For more difficult predictions like "5 black horses on a meadow", "3 trucks in a row" you get 2 points. Whoever has collected the most points at the end of the journey is declared the fortune-telling king.
advantage: the game can last for the whole trip. Besides, it promotes the concentration ability of your kids.
6. Tea kettle
The tea kettle game is an age-old classic, not only among travel games, but also in school.
A player thinks of a term that has several meanings, e.g., "pear. B. "pear" and "(incandescent) pear". Now the different meanings have to be described, e.g. B. Like this: "you can eat my kettle and you need my kettle in the house". Whoever guesses the term gets points. The fewer clues he used, the more points he gets.
7. Place Signs Game
You are passing a place, for example oldenburg. Now it’s a matter of collecting more place names that start with "O", e.g. B. Oberhausen, olpe etc. each player names a place until no one can think of anything else. Then move on to the next place near you.
However, even the most relaxed parents eventually get tired of the angelic squealing of their offspring. In this case, there is also a silent version of this travel game for older children: the children write down all the towns they can think of. At the next break, the parents add up the points. You can agree on "rewards" beforehand: for 15 cities you get an ice cream at the next gas station, for 20 a comic, for 30 a toy at the vacation resort.
© kamasigns – fotolia.Com
8. What happened?
One of the most exciting travel games: "What happened??"requires ingenuity from you and combination skills from your children. They make up a story or think of a story they know, but only tell the ending.
A well-known example: "a man lies dead in the desert. His clothes are scattered around him, and he is holding a match in his hand. What happened?"
Your children must now guess how this ending came about. For this, you ask them questions that have to be answered with "yes" or "no". With at least two players and one storyteller, each player may ask questions until one of them is answered no. Then it’s the next player’s turn.
Tip
9. Who or what am I?
A player claims to be another person, object or city. The others must now find out who or what the player is by asking yes-or-no questions, z. B. With "are you human?", "do you have red hair?", "are you sitting in this car?". Whoever guesses correctly first is next in line.
10. license plate bingo
For this travel game you will need notes and pens.
Each player writes down 10 or 20 different license plates (by city) on a piece of paper. A game leader (z. B. The co-driver) names the license plates of the passing cars. If a license plate is mentioned on the player’s slip of paper, the player may cross it out. The first person to cross out all the place name signs is the winner.
11. I pack my suitcase
And again a well-known classic among travel games. A player thinks of one thing he needs on vacation, e.g. a toy. B. A bathing suit. He starts the game with the sentence "I’m packing my suitcase and taking with me … a pair of swimming trunks". The next player thinks of another item and adds it with the sentence "I’m packing my suitcase and taking with me: a pair of swimming trunks, a beach ball". This is how the list is continued in turn. If someone forgets a thing in the list or gets the order wrong, they are eliminated.
12. Find words
Probably you have played this travel game in the car many times before. The players must discover license plates that form words, e.g. B. "MA-MA", or "PA-UL". The winner is the one who found the most.
13. Travel rally
This travel game requires a little preparation, but it’s a lot of fun and lasts for the whole car ride. They prepare questions for their rally at home, z. B.;
- Which city do we pass first?
- How many kilometers are between X and Y?
- What is depicted on the coat of arms of federal state X?
- What is the name of the rest stop where we last stopped??
Correct answers are rewarded after the trip. For example, the child/children may decide what to do on the first day of vacation.
14. Palm reading
This travel game has two advantages: it is relatively quiet and you don’t need a piece of paper or a pen for it. One player writes letters in the palm of another player’s hand, one after the other, to form a word. The other player has to guess this word. Best suited for two or more children in the back seat.
Travel games to take along
The 14 travel games are great, but sometimes you don’t have the time or the inclination to get creative? So why not pack a few games in travel format?. The range of travel games for kids is huge. We have sent you our top 5 favorites picks:
- The classic: 8 magnetic travel games from schmidt
- The tricky: puzzle cards with erasable pencil from usborne contract
- The educational one: guessing fun on the road from tiptoi
- The iconic: city land river in the practical travel box
- The creative: travel coloring book from the usborne treaty
© gawriloff – fotolia.Com
Do not forget to take breaks
With these 14 travel games for the road, you can help your kids pass the time in the car and develop their mental skills at the same time. However, car games are no substitute for regular breaks in the fresh air.
Even if the kids don’t have to go to the bathroom, they should take a break of 5-10 minutes at least every 2 hours, where they can let off steam. ideal for this are of course rest areas with playgrounds. If there are none in sight, just suggest a race or short game of tag. or equip yourself from the start with toys like a rubber twist or skipping ropes, with which you can let off steam in a small area.
You’ll see: after a break, the kids will be more relaxed and perhaps even slumber peacefully for part of the journey.
Note
In this sense we wish you and your family a lot of fun on the next trip!
