Games you can play in the car! Fun activities to liven up drives and traffic jams
“I want to make boring time in the car fun!” If you’re looking for ideas to make that wish come true, you’re not alone.
In fact, there are plenty of games you can enjoy in the car with family and friends.
In this article, we’ll introduce ideas for car games that turn travel time into something exciting.
From license-plate math games and the classic word-chain game to music-based challenges.
With games that everyone can enjoy together, even traffic jams and long drives can turn into fun memories! Be sure to try them on your next trip!
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Games You Can Play in the Car! Fun Activities for Road Trips and Traffic Jams (41–50)
Prefecture Guessing Game
Cars on city streets come from various places, and you can tell where they’re from by looking at their license plates.
Highways in particular gather vehicles from many different regions.
This is a game that uses the place names written on license plates.
The place indicated on a license plate may be the name of a prefecture or a locality within that prefecture.
The quizmaster specifies a license plate that shows a locality rather than a prefecture name, and players must answer which prefecture that locality belongs to.
The difficulty varies depending on the locality, so how many place names the quizmaster knows becomes a key factor.
Alphabet Game
It’s a game where you enjoy the scenery while riding in a car and try to find specific items along the way.
Split into two teams—people on the right side of the car and people on the left side—each team searches for letters of the alphabet on signs and road markers visible from their respective windows.
You find the letters in order, and the team that finds all 26 first wins.
In places you’re visiting for the first time, it can be a great way to discover what the landscape is like; in your familiar hometown, it can help you notice spots you didn’t know about.
It’s packed with appeal that goes beyond just being a game.
First Impressions Game
The “First Impressions Game” is about choosing “the person who is XX” among the participants.
One person is the parent, and the rest are children, and that’s how the game starts.
The parent gives a prompt like, “Who is the Xth most XX person here?” Then everyone simultaneously points to the person they think fits.
The rule is that the person who gets the most votes loses.
How you choose the prompts is the key to making the game exciting.
As the name suggests, it’s important to answer based on quick, first impressions without overthinking! You don’t need any props and can start right away, so give it a try.
Aburi Karubi Game
The Aburi Karubi Game is a pronunciation-based wordplay game that gets everyone excited.
Players take turns saying “aburi karubi” one time, then two times, then three times, increasing the count each round.
Anyone who slips up is out or gets a forfeit.
It sounds easy, but the rhythm of the phrase “aburi karubi” becomes trickier as the count goes up, and people struggle more.
The moment someone misspeaks often hits the funny bone, and the game moves along at a good tempo, making it perfect as a little spice during traffic jams or long waits.
You don’t need any props, and it’s fun even in tight spaces, so it’s a great one-shot entertainment-style game for road trips.
Japanese Syllabary Order Game
Here’s a fun game called the “Gojuon Order Game,” which was also featured on the YouTube show ‘Takkun TV.’ It looks like even small children can enjoy it, so try playing it in the car on family outings.
The rules are simple: say three-letter words that start with each of the vowels a, i, u, e, o in order.
For example: aisukuriimu (ice cream), iruka (dolphin), usagi (rabbit), emoji, otoko (man)—each word starts with a, i, u, e, o.
You can decide the answering order in advance, or you can point to the next person to answer—either way is fine.
Once you get used to it, try making the words four letters long to mix things up!
Palindrome-making game
This activity is about everyone coming up with palindromes—sentences that read the same forward and backward.
Since it really depends on how many words you know, it might be difficult as a game where individuals think alone and present their ideas.
In that case, making palindromes together as a team can make it enjoyable for everyone.
I recommend writing a starting word on paper and then adding corresponding words to it; this flow makes it easier to smoothly create palindromes.
When you collaborate to complete a long, fun sentence, you can enjoy a sense of accomplishment and deepen your bonds with your teammates.
Flattery Overload Game
In the end, people are happy when they’re praised, right? How about a “praise-overload” game that’s all about hiding those feelings to the max! You shower the other person with compliments face-to-face, and if they so much as crack a grin, they lose.
Since laughter is hard to suppress even when you try, it sounds like it would get pretty lively!
