Best travel toys for kids to take on a long car journey
With a bit of advance planning and lots of good music, a family road trip or long car journey can be a great success. We are spoilt with the range of travel toys for kids which have flooded the market in recent years but there are also plenty of great ways to entertain kids on a car journey which do not cost a penny. In this article I’ve put together some of the best travel games for kids along with lots of ideas to keep the whole family entertained in the car.
Although I sometimes relent and let the kids do some gaming in the car, I usually stick to my guns and keep road trips as a gaming-free zone. I think it’s important for the kids to be aware of the changes in landscapes out of their window (in between a game of Top Trumps!). So I’m always on the look out for the best toys to take on holiday.
Going camping? Check out my list of camping toys here.
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Table of Contents
Free family games to play in the car
If you’re keen to avoid packing too much stuff and you want to keep the kids off devices for as long as possible, there are lots of fun and free ways to pass the time in the car.
I Spy
This game can last a surprisingly long time on our family car journeys. If for some strange reason you’re not familiar with it – the “spier” picks something they can see and everyone else has to guess what they’re thinking of.
Travel bingo
This one requires a bit of prep work. You create bingo sheets, before setting off, of things you might typically see on a car journey. Just bear in mind that if you have competitive individuals in the car, this game could lead to shouting and arguments when someone wins. Not in my car obviously.
Alphabet game
We play various alphabet games and they’re always really popular. The usual one we start with is naming countries which start with each letter of the alphabet. Sometimes we move on to places – towns and cities. And then one member of the family might veer onto names of footballers at which point the game ends for another member of the family.
Animal, vegetable, mineral
This can be quite a tricky game if your children get confused about what constitutes an animal, a vegetable or a mineral but that in itself can certainly help to pass more time!
Car colour games
One of my friends plays Rainbow Cars with her children. It involves finding cars in the order of the rainbow colours. I’d imagine it needs to be played in conjunction with something else or you need to have very patient children…
An easier game (but, as with car bingo, can lead to unhappy children) is to each pick a colour and compete to see who can spot 100 of their car colour first.
Numberplate games
Ask your children to make words or silly phrases using the letters on numberplates. When we got a new car recently, I asked our kids to pick a phrase to remember our numberplate with. Their choice of phrase makes me smile every time I type the letters into a carpark payment machine.
Do a scavenger hunt
Another game which needs preparing in advance, make a list of things to see on a long car journey and the kids can tick things off when they see them. It’s similar to car bingo but less competitive – you can ask your children to work as a team…
Things to listen to on a long car journey
Road trip play lists
When we did our month-long Europe road trip, I created a play list of everyone’s favourite music. I love listening to it again now as it brings back all the great memories of that trip.
Play lists are a great way to keep everyone happy and to sneakily introduce your music to your children’s ears. Our kids got into all the classic 80s rock anthems – Living on a Prayer, The Final Countdown, and so on – after listening to some of my compilations.
When the kids are really little, your favourite tunes can be interspersed between nursery rhymes and other kid-friendly music. You slowly filter out the kiddie stuff over time until you’ve managed to wean them completely off Old Macdonald.
Borrowbox
Borrowbox is the library app. You borrow virtual books – for reading or for listening to – from the library in the same way you would an actual book. The one problem with this is that due to licencing laws, there are often waiting lists for the most popular titles so you need to ensure you’ve reserved books in advance.
Borrowbox is completely free and it is currently the thing which usually occupies our kids on long car journeys. They each have their own device to listen to their own stories. The younger son has one of my old phones which doesn’t have a sim card in it so I do have to remember to download the stories properly before we set off as he has no 4G once we’re on the road.
Looking for children’s travel books? Check out my guide to the best travel novels for children.
Audible
This is Amazon’s version of Borrowbox. It’s a good back up if your kids are desperate for a book which you cannot get on Borrowbox but as it’s Amazon you have to pay.
Lunii Storyteller
I wish I’d been aware of this device when my kids were younger. Lunii Storyteller is an interactive device which allows children to be involved in the creation of the stories they listen to.
Learn a language in the car
I’m currently brushing up my Italian and one of my sons is learning Spanish. There are various apps for language learning. I use Duolingo and my son is on Memrise. They both seem pretty good. If you’re heading to Europe and you want the kids to do the shopping, arm them with a few phrases from one of these apps.
Best travel toys for babies
Keeping babies entertained on a long car journey can be a really challenging business. I remember one particularly tortuous journey across France where we would take it in turns at the service stations to run to the loo while leaving the car engine running in a vain attempt not to wake the baby. We listened to Old Macdonald Had a Farm A LOT on that trip.
There’s a really good range of baby travel toys on the market. The best baby travel toys are the ones which attach to your baby’s car seat so they never get dropped.
Spiral hanging sensory toys
Toys which wrap around the handle of a car seat and have various interesting sensory things dangling in front of your baby’s face tend to be the best toys for a long car journey. They can’t fall on the floor and they’re always in reach.
Shop for spiral hanging sensory toys here
Car seat toys for babies
The next best option of toys for babies on a journey are ones which can hang off the back of the seat they are facing. These tend to suit slightly older babies who have developed some hand-eye coordination.
Musical toys for babies
Providing you can tolerate the noise, musical toys can keep little people entertained for ages on a car journey. It’s also helpful if your baby is sitting next to someone who can pick the toy up when they invariably chuck it on the floor.
Cloth books
Good old fashioned cloth books have less longevity than a noisy toy but they are less annoying and you can often find ones which attach to your baby’s car seat.
Teething toys
Another toy which is liable to end up on the floor of the car, teething toys are nevertheless an essential item on a long car journey for babies.
Travel toys for toddlers and young children
Although toddlers sleep less than babies, they are able to play with a wider range of travel toys. Some of the holiday toys I’ve listed below are more suited to toddlers while others are better for slightly older kids.
Magnetic travel books
There are lots of brilliant magnetic toys on the market. Our kids used to love the magnetic books with vehicles to stick onto various scenes – trains, diggers, and so forth.
Shop for magnetic travel books
Fuzzy felt boards
I can actually remember playing with these when I was a child so it’s great to see they still exist for kids today. Fuzzy felt boards are a great mess-free toy for holidays and car journeys.
Montessori toys for holidays
Montessori has a great range of toys which are perfect for holidays. Montessori busy boards have switches which turn on a range of LED colour lights, great for developing a toddler’s fine motor skills.
Montessori also has travel book type toys which have “pages” of things for toddlers to fiddle with.
Shop for Montessori travel toys
Sticker books to take on a car journey
It makes me feel quite nostalgic thinking back to when my boys enjoyed sticker books. They absolutely loved the Osborne series of “dressing up” sticker books – putting sticker costumes onto figures.
There are sticker books out there for every possible interest and they really are a great toy to take on holiday.
Travel Spirograph
I used to love sitting at the kitchen table making Spirograph patterns. There’s now a handy travel version of this brilliant invention so kids can make beautiful, intricate patterns on the move (so long as the road isn’t too bumpy).
LCD writing tablet
This is a great way to get the kids creative – it’s basically an electronic blackboard where children can write or draw and then rub out their creation at the touch of a button.
Travel colouring books and sets
If you’d rather keep the kids doing proper paper and pencil art, there are some great travel kits for little artists, making it easy to enjoy drawing and colouring on a long car journey.
Shop for travel colouring books
Wax art
Another great way to get the kids creative in the car, Waxidoodle consists of strips of colourful wax which children can use to make shapes and models. Far less messy than Play Doh when you need to clear it off the floor of the car at the end of your journey.
Travel toys for older children
Top trumps – our favourite travel toy for kids
Top Trumps are an all time favourite in our family. We have fast cars, James Bond gadgets, wildlife (my choice, no one wants to play it with me), football players and many more. We also have Plop Trumps, a predictably popular variation which is actually very educational.
Rubik’s Cube
I have to admit that I’ve never been very good at Rubik’s Cube. I much prefer the Rubik’s Snake which is more about creating than solving. Both are perfect toys for a car journey.
Tangrams
Magnetic tangrams are a great option for car journeys – they consist of seven shapes (the “tans”) which can be used to create pictures.
Scratch art
One of my kids loves scratch art. Depending on the age of your child, they can follow a pre-set design to reveal a picture or create their own art and design.
Magnetic board games for travel
Our family have now entered the era of chess and draughts so a magnetic version of these classic games is handy for a long car journey.
If chess isn’t your thing, you can get most of your favourite board games in magnet form these days – Scrabble (my fav), Othello and snakes and ladders all work well as travel toys for children.
Sock Game
Although you can buy this game, you can also make a free version yourself if you happen to have enough pairs of small items lying around your house. The game involves racing to pick a specified object out of a sock. In the original sock game, there are golf tees, dice, marbles and other small things which are surprisingly difficult to find in amongst the many other objects hidden in the sock.
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Do you have a favourite game to play in the car with your kids? What travel toys for children do you take on holiday? Let me know in the comments below.
