Summer road trip? Car games to keep you smiling

So, you’re about to embark on the Great American Family Vacation. At some point, there’s a good chance everyone in your car will get a little squirmy. (Hey, it happens to the best of us.) If you want to banish boredom, why not try a few of these family-friendly car games on for size?

Name that Tune
Flip through a series of radio stations and see who can name a song title or artist first. This can be fun when you have several generations in the car … kids are apt to be most familiar with current tunes, but parents and grandparents can often rack up plenty of points with oldies and classic rock stations.

Name that TV Show
One passenger hums the theme song from a TV show, and everyone else attempts to guess the name of the show. The first person to guess correctly hums the next tune.

20 Questions
One passenger secretly thinks of a mystery person, animal or object. Other passengers then take turns asking yes-or-no questions. (Can it fly? Is it something you eat?) After the players have asked 20 questions, each player makes a guess.

Alphabet Game
Beginning with the letter A, have each player look for a word on a road sign or billboard that starts with that particular letter. Each player then proceeds through the alphabet, finding words for each letter along the way. (Cities with lots of billboards make this game especially fun!) The first person to reach Z wins! (For Q and X, you might choose to allow words that simply contain the letter – but it’s your choice!)

License Plate Game
Each passenger keeps a running list of state license plates spotted along the way. To make things simpler – and to help little ones brush up on their geography – you could print maps of the United States for each passenger. Players then mark any states they see on their maps. The person who spots the most state plates wins.