Going on a road trip and having an adventure vacation can be loads of fun! Stopping at memorable places and tasting various dishes from different restaurants can create an exciting and unforgettable experience, all while taking selfies and posing next to landmarks. And that’s just half of it! For the most part, you get to bond with your companions for hours inside your vehicle, which of course, sounds exciting too, for the first few minutes.

Enjoy Your Road Trip

However, depending on your destinations and traffic conditions, staying inside your cars during a long trip can get tiring and slightly dull. But it doesn’t have to be! Keep the hype up for you and your friends and make your journey by car just as fun with these suggested activities:

Turn the music up!

Great for both music lovers and casual listeners, you can definitely keep everyone inside the car entertained by blasting your favorite tunes! If you love going to karaoke rooms or singing your heart out in the bathroom, why not get inspired by James Corden’s segment and do a little carpool karaoke with your friends or family. You don’t have to be a celebrity guest to have as much fun as they do! Doing this is the perfect opportunity to show off your vocal prowess and hidden rap skills while having a good time. Just make sure that the volume and music genre are okay with everyone.

Prank your friends

If you and your buddies feel a little bored from sitting and staring at the same trees for a couple of miles, you can help cheer them up by doing some harmless pranks. The possibilities are endless as long as you ensure that it’s not harmful or won’t cause any trouble! Halfway to your destination, you can pretend to have left something essential, let the frustration and panic marinate for a bit, then tell them it was a joke. If you want to get extra creative, you can break the silence with a prank phone call using an online soundboard. You can come up with your own script, pretend to have your phone on “loudspeaker,” and watch the horrid reactions of your friends as you either fight or pretend to be scammed (or others, it’s all up to you!) by a person on the other line. These tips can get you all to have a good laugh.

Listen to (and join) a trivia game

While it can be entertaining to hear or watch a contestant fumble with their answers in a game show, it would be great if you get to play the same game with your loved ones too! Find your favorite game show podcast (as a suggestion, you can check out the Family Road Trip Trivia Podcast) or video and play an episode while the phone is connected to the car’s speakers. Not only can you collectively laugh at the contestant’s answers or reactions but also have some fun pretending to be the actual contestants. This can help keep the passengers’ minds occupied while opening new conversations as you move towards your destination. Don’t forget to remind the one driving that the priority of focus is on the road, though!

Play road games

If you’re not into trivia games, there are also other trip-safe games that you can try. Most of these are probably familiar as you’ve probably played them with your parents or siblings when you were young, but hey, these can still be fun as adults! Anything to relieve you of your boredom, right? Check some of these games here:

• 20 Questions – This one’s pretty straightforward. One player thinks of a person, place, or thing. The challenge is for the other players to guess this word by asking yes/no questions. For example, you can think of the word “Lady Gaga,” and the other players will ask questions like, “Is this a person?” “Is it a real person?” and others. You can continue playing until 20 questions have been asked or until someone guesses the correct word.
• Category game – For this game, the group chooses a category that they agree on. For example, you can select “car brands” or “punk bands.” The players then take turns to mention something that belongs under each category, giving them around 10-12 seconds to think of one without repeating an already mentioned word. If they fail, they’re taken out of the round, or another category is mentioned.
• Guess the song – Time to incorporate and flex your music taste for this game. You or any one of your friends plays a snippet (around 2 seconds would be good) of your chosen song, and the rest attempt to guess what that song is just from a single beat or the abruptly cut lyrics.
• I Spy – Finally, we have the classic go-to car game. Players take turns looking for something outside the car and provide general descriptions for this selected thing/person. They start with “I spy…” and mention these descriptions. For example, “I spy something round, gray, and tall.” The other players will then guess what exactly it is that the person saw.

These are simple games that you can try out, especially if you’ve all run out of things to talk about or do. You can even bring up the competitive nature of you and your friends/family by coming up with a simple consequence for the loser or thinking of a prize to give to the winner too!

Get creative with your camera

No, you don’t need to become a legitimate Youtuber for this one (but of course, if you want to, go ahead!). Pretending to be on film or making a documentary for a professional channel can be fun, especially if there’s no pressure to create spot-on content. For example, you can create a parody of survival shows or cooking shows and use items found in the car as makeshift show essentials. You can tone down the humor and create a road trip vlog that you can upload to your social media accounts or just keep in your devices to look back to after a couple of years. If your friends are cool with it, you can even try doing challenges on Tik-Tok (as long as they’re safe to do).

At the End

There are other more personalized ways that you and your friends/family can have fun while being on the road, but if you ever run out of ideas, you can always refer to this list and select an activity. Next time you go on a road trip, engage your friends and family and have a good time together before reaching your destination; just make sure that the one assigned to driving remains focused on the road. Stay safe and have fun!