Chris and I are still on vacation and we love to get to most of our vacations by driving.  Call us crazy, but we enjoy the time alone.  And when you’re driving long-distance from Connecticut to Florida (by way of a stopover in Myrtle Beach, SC.,) you need something else, besides witty conversations and fart jokes, to make the time go faster.  We play a lot of different car games to pass the time and thought we’d share our games to get you on the road again.  All of these games can be played by anyone, 8 and up and can be modified to encourage younger players.

License Plates

This one is easy, just collect all the different state license plates that you see.  We usually start with this one because you can get the first 15 to 20 states really quickly.  You’d think that Alaska and Hawaii would be the hardest ones to find, but on the east coast, Wyoming is the hardest.

Grocery Store

This is a memory game and needs 2 or more players.  The first person starts by saying “I went to the grocery store and bought _______ (something that starts with the letter A.)  The next person has to repeat and then add an item that starts with the letter B and so on.  We play numerous versions of this game including the record store, general goods store and the liquor store.  Other variations include bands, actors or movies and tv shows.

Question Games

First, there is the old standby of 20 Questions.  One person thinks of something and the other(s) have to take turns asking questions to narrow down the choice.  We also play a different question game, this is the one in which all your sentences have to be in the form of a question and they have to follow the specific story line.  For instance, if the first question is, “What’s the weather forecast for today?” the next question needs to be something like, “Didn’t you see the rain?”   It shouldn’t be, “Did you know my shoes are blue?”

Geography Games

There are a couple of different games in the geography category.  We usually start with the Last Letter game.  Someone starts by saying a place (city, state, country) and the next person’s answer needs to begin with the last letter of that answer.  If the word is Indiana, then the next answer could be Alabama, but not Kentucky.  To make it more difficult, you can set restrictions like it can only be states, or cities or countries.  We also play the capital game by naming a state or country and the other having to give the capital.

If all else fails or gets boring, we also carry a Trivia book with us and use it as a fallback when we get bored with these games.  If you know of other car games that haven’t been mentioned, please feel free to share, we can always use new ones.  In the meantime, I hope you get to enjoy a vacation this summer.  Below are some pictures from our current vacation.  The Skipah demanded pictures, so here they are.  Next up, we travel to Panama City Beach, FL to get even warmer!