13 Fun Road Trip Games for Adults

Before the days of smartphones and tablets, people used road trip games to have fun in the car during long journeys.  Instead of being glued to a screen, you can learn more about your friends or family and create some fantastic new memories.  They are a great way to stay occupied and share a few laughs while on the road!  To help you get started, here are a few of the best road trip games for adults.

Never Have I Ever…

This classic game also works well for car trips.  A person in the car makes a simple statement starting with “Never have I ever…” and anyone who has ever done that action in their life must take a bit of a donut.  Play continues around the car in a clockwise direction. Just a word of caution, however. We recommend letting everyone play except the driver so that they will be able to pay attention to the road. We don’t mean it in a discriminatory manner, just in the sense that safety is too important to be forgotten. Or if the driver really wants to play, we recommend saving the donut bite for later so that they won’t have to take their eyes off the road or their hand off the stick shift.

Six Degrees of Separation

Six degrees of separation is a theory that everyone in the world is connected via six or fewer relationships.  In this game, one person names two different film or television stars and the other people in the car must try to find a link between the two in six steps or less.  For example, you might say William Shatner and Hale Berry.

They are linked by:

William Shatner starred in Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock starred in Practical Magic with Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman starred in Australia with Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman starred in X-Men with Halle Berry!

See where this is going? You can take either two celebrities you like and then link them as fast as you can. Just don’t pick two stars that have starred in the same movie. That would ruin the game in most scenarios unless it’s something very obscure and forgotten by most of the population.

21 Questions

This game is great fun for people of all ages. Have a passenger think of a person, place, or object. The other passengers then have 21 questions to find out what they are thinking of. Questions should only be asked once. The questioner who correctly guesses what the person thought of gets to start the next round. You can try all sorts of characters, objects, and what not to think of. The more obscure what you’re thinking of is, the more frustrating or pleasant the game can be. It depends on who you’re playing with and on their taste.

Don’t Say It!

This is a simple game that tests the memory of players during a long car ride. Pick 5 common words that passengers are not allowed to say during the journey.  They should be common words used when traveling like “arrive”, “look” or “car”.  Whenever a person says one of the five words they are penalized in some way — either they donate a coin to the “road trip snacks fund” or they have to perform an annoying task like filling the car with petrol or running an errand. You can think of lots of ways to “punish” the one who isn’t paying attention and says one of the words in question.

Fictional Families

This is a great game to get your imagination going during the car ride. Simply pick out a vehicle that is sharing the road with you and have everyone take a good look at the occupants. Everyone should then collaborate to give these people an imaginary back story based on how they look, what kind of car they drive, and how they are dressed. Some really funny backstories can be invented if you’re creative enough.

Image via Unsplash

Human Jukeboxes

This is a great game if everyone in the car loves music.  It is started by one passenger singing a line from a well-known song.  The next person must connect the last word from that lyric to another song. For example:

“Love, love me do, you know I love you…”  (The Beatles)

“…Give love a bad name…” (Bon Jovi)

“…That’s not my name, that’s not my name!” (The Ting Tings)

Would You Rather

Another simple and funny road trip game that will help the time go faster. Simply think of two strange or disgusting activities and ask your fellow passengers which one they would prefer to perform. For example, “Would you rather have no arms or no legs?” Everyone should put some thought into their responses and have a couple of funny reasons why they made the choice.

The Movie Game

This is a great game for people who love movie trivia.  It starts with a person mentioning the name of a random actor.  The next person has to answer with a film that this actor starred in.  The next person has to answer with the name of another actor who starred in the film and so on.  The key to winning is thinking of obscure movies and actors.  If someone gets an answer wrong, they are out of the game until the next round.  For example: “Sean Bean” — “Game of Thrones” — “Lena Headley” — “Judge Dredd” — “Karl Urban” — “Star Trek”

Fortunately/Unfortunately

This game requires a bit of creativity, but it can be quite fun for adults to play.  The first person thinks of something fortunate about the trips or what has happened that day.  It can be something true or something fictional.  The next person must follow it up with some unfortunate event tied to the first event.  For example:

“Fortunately, we are going to arrive at our destination sooner than expected!”

“Unfortunately, it has been invaded by the Chinese military”

“Fortunately, we all like Chinese food!”

“Unfortunately, they have no fortune cookies”

Couples Padiddle

In this game, participants have to call out “Padiddle” every time they see a vehicle with a headlight out.  The last one to say padiddle has to do something for the other person.  In the couples version of the game, this might be to give them a kiss or give them a neck massage.

Image via Unsplash

Hot Seat

This game involves one person in the group being asked five questions by anyone else in the car.  The person in the hot seat has to answer at least 4 out of the 5 questions. We like this game because it can be as wholesome or as roast-like as anyone wants it to become. Again, depending on the type of people you’re playing with, you can go over the limit or play it safe. It’s up to you and the others in the car how much you’ll be laughing during such a bout of banter.

Radio Roulette

As you drive across the country, you will keep finding new (and unusual) radio stations with some interesting and entertaining content. Radio roulette involves randomly choosing a new radio station every 10 minutes so you get to hear what is out there.  You might find yourself listening to everything from smooth 80s jazz through to evangelical Christian radio! You can even try inputting random frequencies on the radio tuner and see what you’ll get when you’ll have driven three miles past the point where you set the chosen frequency. We bet you’re already thinking about all the different possibilities!

Explain a film plot badly

This is another fun game for film buffs!  In this game, one person explains the plot of a film very badly and the other passengers attempt to guess which film it is.  For example “A boy befriends a bearded hermit and two gay robots, goes into space, snogs his sister and kills his dad”.  Know the answer?  Star Wars!  Here’s another one — “Bloke punches himself. Encourages others to punch him. Leaves his job. Shaves his head. Bad influence on Meatloaf”.  That’s right, it is Fight Club!

So try a few of the above road trip games for adults — you’ll be surprised by how fun the journey becomes! Want more road trip games? Check out our bonus list of 35 family road trip games.

Featured image via Unsplash

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