Traveling with kids, especially to distant places, can be taxing for parents. Keeping them occupied during the travel time – whether, on a plane, train or automobile can be a real challenge. Your little ones may become impatient, your toddlers may or shall we say WILL bug you, while the older kids can get irate with boredom. Read on for games and family travel secrets to help simplify any journey.
As parents, we do our best to keep them occupied. Saying this, after countless hours of I Spy you may run out of ideas and games to keep them entertained. But never fear! we are here! Thankfully, a lot of great activities, toys, and games have been made available for a family road trip, airplane travel, and many more. Not only games, but books are also a great way to keep the kids entertained. And on that front check out the 7 Great Travel Books for kids. These Travel books for kids will surely open your children's eyes to the geographical and social diversity of every corner of the world.
Here are our 30 best family travel games to play along with fun activities and toys children will definitely enjoy.
Wondering how to make road trip fun with kids? Read here.
If you're flying on a plane and wondering what are the top toddler toys for airplane, read here.
Table of Contents
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Card Games
Uno
You can never go wrong with one of the classic card games available worldwide. Known as one of the best travel games for kids, Uno cards are simple yet entertaining! To win this game, all you have to do is get rid of all the cards you have before your opponents do.
The beauty of card games like Uno is that you can play with them anywhere you are. Also, children love this travel game because it can be played by children of all ages. The fun and bonding will keep kids entertained!
Guess in 10-Cities Around the World
Similar to 20 Questions on our list of Easy Games, this game is a more specific version that challenges the children's thinking capacity while on the long journey. The players need to draw clue cards and guess every round until they correctly identify one of the 52 metropolitan locations included in the cards. While this game is entertaining and keeps the children at bay, they also know about the world's culture.
Guess in 10-Cities Around the World is a family-friendly and educational game that would surely keep children of all ages entertained in the car. Kids love this great game, especially the older kids!
Sleeping Queens
Sleeping Queens may be one of the fairly new road trip games, but children love it so much! And who would believe that this game is designed by a 6-year-old? Amazing, right? Travel toys like Sleeping Queens involve 79 cards, and the main goal is to wake as many queens as possible.
Today, Sleeping Queens is considered one of the best family travel toys sold in the market. This travel game will help your children strategize and develop the finest tactics they have while keeping them entertained too!
Quiddler
Do your children like word-based games? If so, then this great game is perfect for your kids! This fun travel activity, just like travel scrabble and Bananagrams, also involves making out words with the letter cards you are given. The more creative the word, the higher the score you will be getting.
Hailed as one of the best travel games for kids, Quiddler also enhances your children's thinking capacity. Getting this toy is like hitting two birds with one stone! You can have them occupied during the whole family road trip while improving their vocabulary.
Travel Blurt
Looking for a party game that the children can play anywhere? Travel Blurt is perfect for you. This game involves word recalls with fast pacing. This game would indeed have everyone laughing out loud while on board. Travel Blurt can be played in teams or as individual opponents. This game also comes with a handy travel case, so bringing this game would never be a problem for the family. Your toddler can simply grab and go with this toy. The scorecards are also magnetic, which makes this game even more travel-friendly whether in the car or plane.
Wig Out
Wig Out is one of the most in-demand and best family travel games in the market lately. This travel toy involves new and exciting characters that you will quickly match. No skill is required for this game, but it is still entertaining to play while on road trips with children, especially the little ones and toddlers. Wig Out only takes less than 5 minutes to play and can be played over and over again. This game only needs two players but can be played with the whole family too. This excellent family travel game would surely have your children busy on the plane!
Rat-A-Tat-Cat
If you are looking for a fun and entertaining game that is also educational, Rat-A-Tat-Cat is the game for you and your children! We included this game in this list because it has won awards, so you can say it is genuinely beneficial for the children. Rat-A-Tat-Cat involves trading cards with other players until you get the lowest sum of the four cards you have. The catch is only two of your cards are visible, so you have to take the risk and take note of your face-down cards' values. Children love travel toys like Rat-A-Tat-Cat because this makes the journey worthwhile!
Spot It!
This fun family travel game includes different themes that come in an easy-to-grab small circular tin. This tin contains all the 55 cards needed to play the game. Spot It! is a fun travel card game best played while lounging in hotels or before flights to keep the children busy. Between two cards drawn, there will be one symbol that matches. The first one to spot it first is the winner. This is a memory game designed to improve the players' cognitive and fine motor skills while keeping them entertained.
Interstate Highway Bingo Cards
Tell your children to take a break from the gadgets they have been holding since the drive started! Let them play with Interstate Highway Bingo Cards that the children and the whole family will enjoy. This travel game involves spotting different sceneries and whoever gets five pictures in a row is the winner of the game. This travel-friendly game is straightforward and amusing too!
Cheat
This fun card game is one of the simplest road trip games. The players need a regular deck of cards, and the fun can now begin! Each player puts a card face down, starting with aces, followed by 2, and so on. Any member can call "cheat" on any player. If they are correct, the cheater will pick up the pile of cards, but they will get all the cards if they are wrong.
This game may sound simple, but it is one of the best family travel games globally. It gives the family satisfaction and enjoyment like no other. This game is suitable for older kids who can already memorize numbers.
Board Games
Travel Scrabble
Families have long been recommending this great toy available in the market. Ages 6 and above love to participate in this simple game. This fun travel game is easy for young children because all they have to do is create words from the letters they are given. Travel scrabble comes in different handy and portable versions that can easily be carried around whether you are on board in a plane, train, or car!
Scattergories
The classic 1980s board game has now been transformed into a card game that will surely keep the boredom away from when traveling with kids of all ages. This travel game comes with two decks of cards – one letter deck and one category deck, which will absorb your children into the game.
This family travel game is made by Gamewright and is perfect for children ages eight and above.
Zeus on the Loose
This game is made and manufactured by Gamewright is another card game you should be adding to your list of road trip games. This game involves characters from Greek mythology and mathematics. Since this travel game is both entertaining and informative, it is indeed a big hit among families who like to travel, whether by plane or train.
Travel toys like Zeus on the Loose help you gain more knowledge while on road trips and airplanes. This travel toy is indeed a great idea that children will love and get on board with.
Yahtzee
The travel version of this Yahtzee is known as one of the greatest travel activities for children to distract them. The five dice need to be rolled, and the players must complete each category for them to garner points.
What makes this toy travel-friendly is that it is portable and can be played anytime and anywhere. It also allows the children to strategize and learn while traveling.
Family Charades In-A-Box
Similar to charades, this also involves acting out different scenarios. However, this travel game comes with a deck of cards that contains different pictures that the players will act out. These pictures come in varying levels of difficulty to choose from. This is one of the most engaging travel games for toddlers.
Charades will help the children bring their creativity and imagination. This travel game for kids will keep them engaged and busy throughout the whole travel time.
Rory's Story Cubes
This game is one of the hottest travel games at the moment. This convenient and hassle-free game can be played anywhere by the children. This dice game includes cubes that the children can place in a small pouch. This travel game's main feature is storytelling, which can help your children's creativity and artistry.
This game also has no wrong answers. The children can tell a story based on the picture where the dice will land. As one of the best family travel games available, it shows so much promise especially when traveling with kids during road trips.
Math Dice Junior
Math Dice Junior is one of the best family travel games and toys that will keep the children educated and amused altogether. The 12-sided target dice is rolled along with the other dice. These will dictate the numbers you will add, subtract, multiply, and divide until you get the correct number.
This travel game will most likely benefit and help your older children improve their mathematical skills while staying put in the long travel. Toddlers around ages two to three would have difficulty playing with this toy.
Puzzle Games
Coggy by Fat Brain Toys
Coggy by Fat Brain Toys is designed to entertain children while building their visuospatial skills. This travel game is known to improve your children's thinking. Isn't it cool to have a game that would keep the children at bay and enhance their skills both at the same time? This is why it is known as one of the coolest travel games for toddlers.
The players need to match the cards with the same pattern. This travel game's gears would make a satisfying click that would also give sensory input for children stuck in a long ride.
Bananagrams
Bananagrams are meant for families with children who like to play with words while on the road. This competitive road trip toy involves arranging the tiled letters they draw. It is somewhat similar to the board game Travel Scrabble.
This is one of the best travel games for kids because it is entertaining, but it is also educational and informative. Bananagrams also comes with a banana-shaped case that makes them handy and easy to carry!
Travel Tangram
One of the top ways to engage them during the long journey is through the use of puzzles. Travel Tangram is said to be the best travel toy for toddlers, but adults can also play because the book has 360 shape possibilities that also different in the level of difficulty.
This puzzle set comes with seven flat pieces in different shapes termed "tans." The players are meant to put the tans together to form a particular shape. This develops the children's ideas and imagination because the catch is that the tans should not overlap with one another. Travel tangram is another toy that the kids will surely enjoy during the road trip.
Kanoodle
This family travel game comes with 12 puzzle pieces with more than 200 challenges with different levels of difficulty. Kanoodle, one of the best travel games for kids today, is very hand because it comes with a pocket-sized case you can carry around everywhere you go.
The children will pick a design included in the game, and they can start connecting the beads into their desired format. This puzzle may be used to create both 2D and 3D puzzles. This travel game will surely entertain the children on the road!
Flashing Cube
This game manufactured by Winning Fingers is probably one of the newest and best travel games for kids today. This travel game is a combination of the well-known games Simon and Bop it. It is travel-friendly because it is just a handheld electronic cube that the children can easily carry around in all the places. This game helps with speed and memory and is known to provide sensory stimulation. 6-year-old kids and up would benefit from this toy.
Qwirkle Travel
Qwirkle, one of the latest travel toys for toddlers, has a full-size game, but the company made a handy and compact travel version for the family for travel purposes. This game involves tiles similar to Scrabble, but Qwirkle Travel includes different colors and shapes. Points are earned when the tiles with similar attributes are laid together.
This travel toy for kids will help them form strategies and enhance their thinking skills and fine motor skills while enjoying the family vacation or even during road trips.
Wikki Stix
Wikki Stix is one of the best travel toys for kids because it is convenient. Known as one of the best travel toys for toddlers, they can just grab and go this toy. As the name implies, Wikki Stix includes bendable sticks that can be brought anywhere your toddler goes. They have to bend the sticks according to the shape of the puzzle indicated in the kits.
Parents have also been recommending this travel game because it keeps them entertained wherever they are – plane, hotel lobbies, airports, and many more.
Easy Games: No Materials Needed
20 Questions
20 Questions is one of the greatest activities and games because it does not require any board or cards to be played, and it is entertaining! This game is a great fit if you have a child, especially a toddler, who likes to ask endless questions during car trips. This game involves one player who will be thinking of a specific person, thing, or place. The other players would then take turns to ask questions only answerable with yes or no. Make sure to correctly pick the chosen word the first player chose before using all the 20 questions.
I Spy
I Spy is another classic and one of the best family travel activities to play with the whole family. All the players take turns to pick a specific thing around them. The player will say, "I spy with my little eye..." Then, the players will describe whatever they picked. The other players now take turns to guess the chosen object. Travel games for kids like I Spy will surely maintain the children's attention because it is fun and easy to play. No materials or tools are needed for this travel game, but it will entertain everyone!
Cow on My Side
Cow on My Side is another activity to play while in the car driving through farms and the countryside. Once you spot cows on your side during your road trip, shout, "Cows on my side!" Each time you see cows on your side and shout, you garner a point. You can also steal points from the other players when you see and call, "Cows on your side!" Cows on My Side is one of the simplest activities on this great list, yet entertaining and fun to play. This game will surely help the family endure the long drive, especially your toddler.
Would You Rather
Would You Rather, another great and classic travel game, has been played by thousands of families for the longest time. With this travel game, one player would come up with a question with two potential outcomes. After another player answers, it will also be their turn to come up with a question. This game will surely keep the children entertained because the possibilities of the questions are endless. This enhances their thinking capacity, along with their imagination. This travel game for all ages is surely a hit!
License Plate Game
License Plate Game is one of the best family travel games out there because this requires only your children's eyes and just pen and paper. Ask your children to spot and list as many license plates as they find. The players must not record the same plates! Whoever comes up with the most number wins the game. This travel-friendly game will be enjoyed by competitive siblings who want to keep the boredom away while traveling!
The Alphabet Game
Aside from I Spy, Would You Rather, and Uno cards, the Alphabet Game is also one of the classic travel activities. This game does not require any board or pieces. The players will find a word that starts with every letter of the alphabet. One player starts and goes on until they finish the whole alphabet and begin again. The players can make it more challenging by adding a time limit. This free travel game is enjoyed by many families and kids of all ages. The Alphabet Game is also known to lessen the boredom children feel during road trips and airplane travel.
Let's Play Travel Games
And there you have it, folks! We have laid out the 30 best travel games and best travel toys for kids to play with anywhere that will keep them entertained. Whether your family is in the airplane or car, whatever ages your kids may be, these best travel toys and games are here for you and your children! If you are traveling with kids, fret no more! This list of ideas of activities are tried and tested by thousands of families and will surely be a hit once you try them out. Entertain the kids for a hassle-free long journey!
We hope you have found these recommendations helpful. If you have enjoyed this article, please share it with your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors down the road. Traveling with your little ones is not only fun but memorable, and that is why you should travel with kids.
Have a wonderful day wherever you are and safe travels.
When you go on a road trip with your toddler, bring a travel stroller with you that does not take up all the space in the trunk of your car. This leave you plenty of room to pack all your essentials and games with you.
