Traveling can be stressful, especially with children. But getting away from home together is a great opportunity to spend time with your children and bond with them. Kids might get bored and restless without the entertainment they are used to, but there are many travel games that will hold their attention, games the whole family can enjoy too.
The license-plate game is a classic road-trip pastime. The person who spots the most diversity of state license plates during the road trip is the winner. Kids really enjoy this, and they learn about different states.
Counting cows is a great game if you are driving out in the country. This can mean actual cows, cows on billboards, or cows on cars. Every time a player spots a cow they must have it verified by the other players, to cut down on cheating. You can have the kids write down how many they see, or you can appoint a scorekeeper. The person who sees the most cows is the winner.
Car bingo is played by printing out a bingo card for each player. Each card shows a different variety of pictures. Instead of printing numbers on the cards, print out pictures of things you might see along your route. For example, you could fill the card with pictures of a bridge, horse, cat, pink house, skyscraper, ice cream truck, motorcycle, yield sign, and and so on. Every time a picture is spotted they can cross off the picture or put a cut-out shape on top of it. The person who crosses off a row of pictures first wins. It's fun and easy, and it will keep the kids looking out the window.
Airplane travel can be tricky. Your kids are cramped into uncomfortable seats and they have to behave; otherwise you will get nasty looks from the passengers and the flight attendants. But flights can be turbulent-free with the right games. Classic card games such as Old Maid, Crazy Eights, and Go Fish can easily be played on an airplane tray table. Bingo, Battleship, checkers, chess, Guess Who?, or electronic games that can be played on a Game Boy, PlayStation, cell phone or iPod also work well. When traveling by plane you do not want to bring along small board game pieces that easily become lost. Many classic games can be found on electronic devices or printed out.
