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Summer was made for road trips. According to TravelPulse, about 63% of Americans plan to take a road trip this summer.* My family is no stranger to road trips. My in-laws live about 8 hours from us, and my family lives about 7 hours from us. Between holidays and summer visits, we make several road trips every year.
Are you planning a family road trip? Keeping kids entertained without screens can be a challenge. Here are the best road trip activities for kids—including books, puzzles, and creative ideas that will keep boredom away for hours. I wanted to share some of the books and screen-free activities my boys have enjoyed most and have kept them occupied across the miles. I’ll put links to everything at the end of the post.
Sticker Books
There is a variety of sticker books available for all ages. When my boys were younger, we’d get simple sticker books they could do without assistance from the front seat. Dollar Tree has a great selection of these in their toy/education aisle. These Brain Game sticker books are the current level of sticker books my boys have been doing on road trips. Each picture could take 30-60 minutes to complete, so it’s not something that can be finished quickly. It requires focus to line the stickers up precisely, and it’s fun to see the picture come together as they work on them.
Search and Find
There’s a lot of options for search-and-find books as well. Where’s Waldo is a classic that entertained me as a kid and entertains my boys now. I love it when there is overlap between books my boys and I enjoy. One of the fun things about Where’s Waldo books is that they have a secondary list of people or objects to find on each scene. So even if your kid can spot Waldo in a heartbeat, there’s another challenge available to spot the additional items.
We also have this search and find book which is a great road trip option. Kids use a whiteboard marker to circle the items on each page. They can erase their circles with a tissue when they’ve finished a page. This is a great option because it’s re-usable and easy to share.
Atlas / Road Trip book
One of my boys loves knowing the route so he can track our progress on our road trips. A basic road atlas is a great option to help kids see where they are on the map. National Geographic also has several road trip books to pick from as well. This one provides information on every state, plus games, activities and interesting facts.
Spot the Difference / Hidden Pictures
These are some classic road trip options. Once again, Dollar Tree has a great selection of both kinds of books. I usually like to stock up on a few for every road trip. They’re cheap, don’t take up much space and are entertaining for kids. Highlights for Children makes a variety of Hidden Picture books, from easier options for younger kids to more challenging ones like this, which claim to be “the hardest hidden pictures book ever.”
Coloring Books
Coloring books are a time-tested road trip option. I usually gather an assortment of crayons or colored pencils and put them in a Ziploc bag, along with several coloring books. My youngest is very creative and loves coloring and art, and lately he’s really been into color by number coloring books. These are good for road trips because again, they take a little more time and concentration than basic coloring books, so it helps to pass the time.
Water Wow! Books
When the boys were younger, Water Wows were one of my go-to road trip activities. You fill up the little brush container with water and the kids “color” on the pictures and the water magically colors the pages. One of the best parts about Water Wows is that they create little or no mess compared to regular paints. The water is minimal, so even if it spills out of the brush, it’s not the end of the world. The water eventually dries and the picture resets back to its starting point, so the child can do the book again or kids can trade books for more variety.
Audio Books
Audio books are the perfect screen-free activity for road trips! See if there’s one your family will all enjoy together, or if your kids have devices, download a book or two for each child. We use the Hoopla and Libby apps that connect to our local library, so we can borrow them for free for about three weeks. Helpful tip for those that need it: the audio book is playable on your house’s Wi-Fi, but to work in a vehicle, you may need to download it to a specific device. I found that out the hard way on a road trip last year.
Bonus suggestion: Adventures in Odyssey (audio drama)
This is not a book, but it’s also one of the best road trip options out there. Each episode is about 25 minutes long. As a kid, my brother and I would usually get a set for Christmas. We would listen to them in the car on repeat, especially on roads trips to my grandparents’ houses. My cousins were into Adventures in Odyssey too, and recently one cousin told me that as a kid, she measured the distance of a trip based on how many episodes she could listen to in that trip. I love that. You can get a free 14 day trial too.
Links to books mentioned:
Brain Games sticker by number – Animals
Brain Games sticker by number – Birds
Where’s Waldo: The Fantastic Journey
National Geographic Kids Ultimate Road Trip Atlast
Highlights: The Hardest Hidden Picture Book Ever
Large Print Animal Kingdom color by numbers
Crayola colored pencils, 50 ct
Adventures in Odyssey free trial
What are your favorite road trip activities for kids? Share your best travel tips in the comments!
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