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Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Keeping Kids Busy during Long Road Trips

By Christel M. Hoydic June 2, 2016
Editor's Note: Here are a few more ideas to make that summer road trip less painful and much more fun...while still keeping it low-tech! Click HERE for my recent article for even more low-tech road-trip fun!

Every year we take our annual road trip to the lake house. A much-needed relaxing, fishing, boating, electronics-free weekend. The only negative part about this trip is the 6-hour car ride to and from the lake. With a 5-year-old, this can elicit many "Are we there yet" questions, whines, and moans. So packing the car bag with many activities and snacks to keep him busy was our main priority.


It was simple to create a scavenger hunt on Microsoft Word. I included things that I was sure we were going to see on our trip. I printed it out, put it on a clipboard, and provided the crayons. You can easily personalize these for your trip to the store, grandma's house, or your very own road trip.

Here are some of the things you can put on your scavenger hunt list:
  • Cow
  • Motorcycle
  • Bus
  • Bridge
  • Police Car
  • Bike
  • Lake or Pond
  • Horse
  • Gas Station
  • Person on their Cell Phone
  • Store
  • Stop Sign
  • Horse and Buggy
  • Plane
  • Truck
  • Convertible
  • Ambulance
  • Tractor
  • Motor Home
  • Barn
  • Traffic Light
  • Flag
  • Person Wearing a Hat
  • Speed Limit Sign
  • Blue Car
  • Construction Site
  • Tall building
  • Deer Crossing Sign
Other things that we did to keep us busy and involved spending fun quality time in the car are:

Eye-Spy - picking object, animals, and people where the other person has to ask questions to figure out the answer!  

The Alphabet Game -
Eye-Spy quickly turned into the alphabet game where we had to find a word for each letter of the alphabet.

I'm going on a picnic -
Each person said an item that they are going to bring to the "Picnic", and we went around in a circle to see how many you can remember! Keep going until you have a big mess of items!

Silly Stories -
this was so much fun when one person started the story, and the next person continues after a few lines, and so on.  

Dance Parties -
Just being crazy, cranking up the music, singing & dancing. Making memories and passing the time!