8 Best Road Trip Games for Adults

You have your bags packed and you’re ready to hit the open road. Now, it’s time to kick back and relax until you hit your destination right? Well, depending on how long your road trip is, you’re going to have a lot of time to fill. Whether you’re traveling with friends or your family, you want to make sure that at the end of that trip you all return in one piece and still have your sanity. To help keep you entertained and ensure you have a good time, I have compiled a list of some of our favorite road trip games that have helped us get through those countless hours day after day on the road together.

1. Alphabet Scavenger Hunt:

You can get creative with this one. We have tweaked the standard alphabet game in a variety of ways for our road trip. You can be more generic by looking for objects/things outside your window while on the road and the first to find something starting with each letter of the alphabet wins. Be sure to have a list of all the letters handy so you can write those objects down next to each letter. On our upcoming road trip my friend and I (both single bachelors) plan on utilizing this game but have also put our own spin on it, the goal is to do the same but with girls names. As we venture around each of our destinations along our route the first person to introduce themselves to as many girls with names starting with different letters of the alphabet as possible wins! It’s a creative way to try and meet people along the way and strike up some good conversation. A few other alternatives include a joint effort to find breweries which start with each letter of the alphabet and stop by for a drink and while you’re at it aim for trying a craft beer with a name that begins with each letter of the alphabet as well. See how many letters you can cross off each of these lists by the end of your travels. It’s a good way to have some fun and encourages you to be a bit adventurous too.

2. 6 Degrees of Separation

This is the concept that all people are six or fewer social connections away from one another. In this concept you should be able to connect any two people in no more than six steps. You can utilize this idea using your friends and try to connect them to other random people in your life or you can have someone try to connect two famous people or celebrities that you would otherwise think have no connection to one another. This is a great game to help pass the time as it does take some critical thinking and may take a bit more time to get through a few rounds of this one.

3. Forbidden Word

If you are looking for a game that may linger throughout the day then this one's for you! If there are two of you this works well. Each person starts the day off by using a random word generator app or website to come up with a new random word each morning. That person then tries to get the other person to say that word throughout the day. The first person to get the other individual to say their word wins and gets a point for that day. See who gets the most points by the end of the road trip. Try to stay away from simple words or everyday words that will easily come up in conversation. You want to make it challenging so that you have to be creative when trying to coax the other person into a conversation where they may then slip that word out.

4. Cows

This one we came across online and thought it was extremely unique and fun. It’s exactly what the name suggests! You drive along, or ride along if you are the passenger, and if you see a cow you simply shout, “COW”. If you spot the cow before the other passengers and that cow is on your side of the road you get a point, if it is on the other side of the road then that person(s) will lose a point since you stole their cow! You can always tweak it as you wish and be creative with it. We decided to count groups of cows within the same view as just one point as it is simply too difficult to count every cow if you come across multiple cows on the same farm.

5. Road Trip Bingo

Not a new idea with this one, but always a great way to keep everyone in the car involved. You can find many pre-made Bingo Boards online or you can come up with your own for the trip. Get as creative as you want with the squares. You can keep it simple and include things you might see along the roadside such as a specific animal or a particular road sign or you can make it more challenging and include things such as “take a photo with a stranger,” “photo bomb someone,” or “get a guys/girls number.” The ideas are endless.

6. Sweet or Sour

A simple game, all you do with this one is wave to people in other cars as you pass by. If they wave back to you, they are “sweet”. If they don’t wave back to you, they are “sour”. You can play by just keeping a tally as a group and see who wins out, the “sweet” or the “sour” crowd. Or, you can make it competitive and see who is able to tally up more “sweet” responses vs “sour” responses.

7. License Plate Game:

Not a lot to explain on this one! Keep your eyes open and catch as many plates as you can. A quick pointer, particularly look at the semi-truck plates as they often have out of state plates and can help you check off those states much faster. If you are really competitive do an over/under bet with a friend and have a friendly bet riding on the results. We did over/under 47.5 states (I picked under). That may seem like a lot of states but we will be on the road for 37 days in our upcoming trip and covering 17 states so plenty of time to find most state plates.

8. Postcards:

This one isn’t necessarily a game but still a fun idea and a great way to surprise family and friends back home. Simply pick up a postcard at your destinations along your travels and pick someone to send it to. Write a short but sweet message and you’d be surprised by how much this simple act could bring a smile to someone’s face. Your family and friends will appreciate the time and effort you took to send them a quick little but also personalized message and photo from your travels. It’s a long lost pastime but usually costs no more than a couple bucks for each postcard and a few cents for each stamp.

These games will hopefully help pass the time in a fun way and ensure that no one ends up with one less friend or family member after returning from your next road trip. I will be embarking on a 37 day road trip in a couple weeks and you bet we will be utilizing every one of these games along the way!