What has saved car trips from chaos and boredom for decades? A road trip scavenger hunt, of course. With these four free printable game boards, you can keep the travel scavenger hunt tradition going and have fun, too.
I know because I grew up as a military child, served myself in the military and am now married to an active duty military member. So you can imagine the days and days I’ve spent driving across the country (and then back again).
I grew up as a military child driving all around the country with just an AM radio and spotty reception. I drove from California to Arkansas by myself with a 2-year old and a 5-year old and only a cassette tape deck for entertainment.
I have tens of thousands of road trip miles experience of finding ways to keep everyone happy and entertained on long car trips. (We can talk about the tens of thousands of air miles experience I have as a child and keeping children entertained on a plane another time).
It really is possible to keep everyone entertained on a road trip and you can even build wonderful memories together at the same time.
What to Do Together in the Car on a Road Trip
The key to surviving in the car on a road trip is to prepare. If you’re going to be trapped together in a small space for a long time, it’s important to find things that you can share together, enjoy together, and create memories together with.
- Bring music that everyone can enjoy together.
- Each person can pick a favorite artist or group of songs.
- Bring music that relates to the area you’re driving through.
- Bring music that everyone can sing along to.
- Bring audio books that will interest everyone.
- Look for books that relate to the area you’re driving through to make the trip really come alive.
- Play games designed for car trips:
- The free road trip scavenger hunt game below.
- The free license plate game – coming soon.
- Bring games designed for travel.
Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
How to Print This Scavenger Hunt Game
- Download this printable Road Trip Scavenger Hunt pdf for free.
- Click on the link above. When the document opens, you can right click on it and save the document to your computer.
- You can print the game cards on computer paper, but I recommend card stock paper because it holds up much better to the reality of a road trip and to the excitement of the scavenger hunt.
- If you’d like to be able to use the scavenger hunt sheets over and over again, you can laminate them with this affordable and easy-to-use laminator. I’ve shared about how I use a lamintator to make daily routine cards for my children.
- Print these Road Trip Scavenger Hunt game cards as many times as you’d like for your personal use.
How to Play this Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
- Establish if the children are playing as individuals or as teams.
- If you have children of different ages playing, consider pairing younger children with older children or an adult so that all the children can play.
- You can even play as one team with everyone searching for the items on one road trip scavenger hunt game board together.
- Establish if the players are required to find every item on the game board or if they are to find as many as they can in a set period of time.
- Since you’ll be in the car for a long time, you can pause the game and pick it back up later in the trip, if you’d like.
- Look over the list of items on the scavenger hunt boards. If you don’t expect to see all of them on the route you’re taking for your road trip, you can play the Road Trip Scavenger Hunt game like you play Bingo, which means finding all the items in a row or column to win.
- Decide if you’re playing for bragging rights or a prize.
- If you choose to play for prizes, you can bring small prizes or be creative with other prize options.
- You can have the prize be something like choosing the next audio book or the next song to play.
- The prize can also be choosing where to eat lunch or first choice of beds at the hotel.
- If you choose to play for prizes, you can bring small prizes or be creative with other prize options.
- Since the scenery changes mile by mile, you can use these same road trip scavenger hunt game boards over and over again and the game will be new each time.
Scavenger Hunts are so much fun to play and share together. If you enjoy family games, you have to check out the more than 20 scavenger hunt ideas I’ve created for both children and adults. Yes, I’ve created even more since this image was designed!
For more travel tips and ideas from my tens of thousands of miles of travel experience:
- Preparing Your Car for a Road Trip
- Travel Packing Checklists
- Traveling with Kids – The Must Haves
- Tips for Packing a Suitcase Like a Military Family
- 6 Reasons You Need a Trip Planner
- Going on a Trip House Prep Checklist
- Summer Travel Tips from a Military Family
Pin for later so you can find this Road Trip Scavenger Hunt for your next trip.
I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.
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