Best games to play while on a road trip

[Fredddie]

I'm talking about games that the driver can do by theirself while on a road trip.

My favorite is logging what license plates I see throughout the day.  This is a better 2-player game since you can just have the passenger do the logging.  I should compile some stats and assign points to rare states like seeing a Delaware plate in an Arizona parking lot.  I also like playing a modified version of I Spy where I look for a word (usually on semi trailers) starting with the next letter of the alphabet.

What other solo games do you play to keep yourself attentive?

[Scott5114]

I like to do the mental math of milepost - exit number = distance if I know the milepost. I suck at mental math so it can take me a good minute or so to work it out in my head.

[hotdogPi]

One game I played for years: I started by trying to find the number 1, then 2, and so on. When I got to three digits, it took an average of four days to find each number. I stopped when I reached 1000, which was maybe 5-6 years ago or so.

[epzik8]

I did one a while ago going to Myrtle Beach where I logged the amount of time between each stop and then calculated the average length of time spent driving in between stops.

[GaryV]

We used to play "The Alphabet Game", trying to find words on billboards starting with A, B, C ...  (Quaker State ads were a favorite. We usually let any X-shape that we could find, like something on a structure.)

My dad used to find a truck or other prominent vehicle ahead of him and try to estimate how many miles it would take to pass it.

[MATraveler128]

I always hunt for license plates on road trips. I travel to Pennsylvania numerous times a year and have seen every state including Alaska and Hawaii. It's a great way to pass time.

[webny99]

-License plate spotting
-Alphabet game (find A, then B, then C, etc.; letters must be outside the vehicle)

[index]

I always hunt for license plates on road trips. I travel to Pennsylvania numerous times a year and have seen every state including Alaska and Hawaii. It's a great way to pass time.

I seem to have seen more Alaska plates in my life than plates from other contiguous states. I've seen more Alaska plates than the Dakotas and Vermont, for one. I have never seen a Hawaii plate, though.

[Scott5114]

One game I played for years: I started by trying to find the number 1, then 2, and so on. When I got to three digits, it took an average of four days to find each number. I stopped when I reached 1000, which was maybe 5-6 years ago or so.

I don't think I could remember what number I was on for long enough to play that.

[kirbykart]

The license plate game

[1995hoo]

I don't play solo games when I'm driving. Just not something I've ever done. When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

[Henry]

Another great game is counting vehicles of the same make and model as your own. Unless I'm mistaken, the Equinox is the best-selling Chevy model today, so I'm basically guaranteed to see quite a lot of them.

[formulanone]

I don't play solo games when I'm driving. Just not something I've ever done. When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

We actually tried a variation with fantasy place names last year, but it only lasted about 30 minutes.

The other variation we tried was that you couldn't use a place name with the same ending letter as the initial one.

[kirbykart]

I don't play solo games when I'm driving. Just not something I've ever done. When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

Sounds fun!

[1995hoo]

I don't play solo games when I'm driving. Just not something I've ever done. When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

Sounds fun!

My brother and I enjoyed it when we were kids. I think I'd find it boring now. But then, we played that game quite a few times as kids, so it's understandable why my interest waned.

[frankenroad]

I don't play solo games when I'm driving. Just not something I've ever done. When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

We also played that game growing up, and I played it with my kids when they were growing up.

[Fredddie]

Not to brag but I saw a Maine plate that wasn't on a semi trailer today. That's a rare one one central Iowa.

[CtrlAltDel]

Risk. Sure the pieces move around, but you can just consider that the fog of war. 

[Bruce]

Another great game is counting vehicles of the same make and model as your own. Unless I'm mistaken, the Equinox is the best-selling Chevy model today, so I'm basically guaranteed to see quite a lot of them.

Bonus for the same color. Someone with a clone of my car almost crashed into me the other day.

[kirbykart]

Risk. Sure the pieces move around, but you can just consider that the fog of war. 

Twister is better for the car 

[chrisdiaz]

Not even on a road trip, I love playing the license plate game. When I'm walking through my college parking lot to class, I can usually count at least 15 different states that I see.

[Scott5114]

When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

I've heard there's a group of people who have been playing that game nonstop since 2016 and show no intention of stopping anytime soon.

[invincor]

My family would always play the Alphabet Game too, using road signs or billboards.  The sign either had to be facing us directly or on an intersecting road either side of us, but not a sign facing backwards.  Also, if someone grabbed a letter they needed off a sign, no one else could also grab from that same sign.  So, if you were stuck on Q and we passed a liquor store, you'd better hope someone else who needed L or I or U or O or R at that moment didn't see it first. 

What type of road we were on would always play a factor.  On a 2-lane highway, you were never far from a J on "JCT' signs or a "Z" on "No Passing Zone," but good luck finding an X.  On a freeway, the X was no problem because it's in "exit" but you'd more rarely see anything with a J in it.

[1995hoo]

When I was a kid, on road trips our family often played that geography game where one person says a place name and someone else then has to give a place name that starts with its last letter (e.g., I say "Cochrane," you might respond with "Estonia," my brother might then say "Annapolis," etc.). That game would sometimes go on for over an hour.

I've heard there's a group of people who have been playing that game nonstop since 2016 and show no intention of stopping anytime soon.

We could have played it for longer than we did except we eventually got bored.

[Roadgeekteen]

I guess I'm young enough that by the time I came along these road trip games have been replaced by smartphones and game consoles.