My daughters and I took our first long road trip about 6-1/2 years ago. We moved from Cleveland, OH to Columbia, SC when my girls were not yet 2 and 4. We packed up the minivan and drove for about 12 hours. I had a built-in DVD player, put pull-on type diapers on the girls (they were both potty trained) just in case we couldn’t get to a rest area in time, and hit the road at about 4am, in the cold winter snow.

First Family Road Trip Memories

I knew by leaving in the middle of the night they’d be asleep until mid-morning, and I had DVDs to distract them. What I didn’t have was other ways to distract the girls. They didn’t have tablets then, and they couldn’t read BOOKS. While they did have lots of paper, crayons, pencils, and markers I eventually found melted crayons all over the middle seat area of my vehicle.

And our trip wasn’t even halfway over before my 1-year old started saying her road trip mantra: “Are we there yet?” – the four words I never, ever want to hear when driving.

Family Road Trip Games #Cars #RoadTrips

Today our road trips are much better. The girls are 8 and 10 and they have tablets and other handheld electronic games which distract them. They’re both good readers and can generally entertain themselves…until they can’t.

Ultimate Road Trip Games Rescue

Earlier this month we took a 9-hour trip back to Cleveland (this time from Charlotte, NC, our new home) to surprise my grandmother for her 90th birthday. We even took our 1-year old Maltipoo with us. And we had a blast!

What’s the difference? We were gifted a copy of the Ultimate Road Trip Games and the three of us had a good time with it.

Ultimate Road Trip Games Book - collection of travel games for kids #Cars #RoadTrips

First, the Survival Kit is fun – and handy. We’ve already gotten a decent emergency road kit from jumper cables to bottled water (it’s the only time I buy bottled water), flashlights to OTC medications, a cell phone and car charger, snack foods and BOOKS, to a small tool kit and blankets. But it was interesting to note what we DIDN’T already carry – like pillows, a clipboard, and a camera. I’m not sure that I’ll keep those items in my car on a permanent basis but they’re good ideas when you’ll be in the car for any kind of long-distance driving.

Plus, the travel games are so creative! Sure there’s a mixture of some oldies like “Bug” where you’re trying to be the fastest to find the older Volkswagen vehicles and “Hangman” where you’re trying a guess a word (and it helps if the word-creator spells it correctly in the first place). But it also includes new games like “Rock Paper Soccer,” which is a game where you take turns moving towards the opponent’s side on a grid-type game, and it incorporates the well-known “Rock Paper Scissors” game that my kids have been playing for years. “Crack the Code” is fun because it will teach both girls to use clues (albeit obvious ones, especially if you’re older) to decipher the secret number. This game is addictive although it did take my 8-year old a couple of games before she really “got” it. I wish we had printed more grids of that game. I secretly wish I could have been playing it as well . . .

Ultimate Road Trip Games Book - collection of travel games for kids #Cars #RoadTrips

You’re not going to be able to entertain your kids for the entire trip, and hopefully they’ll take a couple of long naps throughout. But, this collection of travel games for kids go a long, long way towards a peaceful road trip when tempers can start to flare, especially towards the end when you’ve been cooped up in a vehicle for several hours. It was also fun discovering new games together and coming up with different versions of the games.