44 Road Trip Toys (That Won't Drive You Nuts)

Erin P. said:  This is one of my favorite portable and mess-free toys for car rides! Your little one can doodle away with the water pen. When the water dries, the image disappears and he or she can start all over again!

Erin P. said:  This is a great road trip activity to keep older children entertained and engaged. They can look out the window to see how many state license plates they can spot. It can be played as a one-player or two-player game with two different color-coded markers for keeping score. The best part is that all of the pieces are attached to the board!

Joseph Kelley said:  A fun twist on a matching game! This is a fast paced family game where you must pick out the matching symbols out of a large group of symbols. Great for a when you have some kids who are reading and some who aren't because there are no words in this game. The storage tin makes it a great game to take along for a road trip.

Erin P. said:  

Mad Libs are just as funny as you remember, so why not pass on the fun to your child? They will get lots of laughs out of the silly stories they create by following the directions to fill in the blanks with different parts of speech.

Shila said:  My kids (4 & 6) really love to doodle, so they each received Boogie Boards on our last road trip. It's very lightweight & thin. The LCD writing surface is pressure-sensitive, so you can doodle with the edge of your fingertip or the stylus pen that comes with it. When you're done, the high-tech 'erase' button instantly clears the screen. Also good for playing Hangman or Tic-Tac-Toe games.

Tip: The stylus pen is appropriately sleek. Tie a colorful ribbon around the pen, so if it drops on the car floor, you can find it easier!

Shila said:  I like giving my kids (4 & 6) road trip toys that get them in the zone and focused on a fun project. These paint by sticker books do just that. They are simple, yet rewarding. They also take up little space, make no mess, and can generally be found at an affordable price.

Beth Wood said:  Wikki Stix will keep your little traveler busy on your trip! These wax covered sticks of yarn are soft and pliable to use and they stick to each other to make 3-D sculptures. You can twist them, bend them, stick them on paper to make shapes and much more. The travel set comes in a carrying case and includes a book of ideas!

Shila said:  Give your children a disposable camera and let them capture memories from their own point of view! When you return from the road trip, take the kids to get the film developed, then reminisce on the fun! Despite living in an electronic world, disposable cameras can still be purchased at almost any local photo center like Walgreens or CVS.

Erynn said:  When my boys were smaller, they loved felt boards, and we even made our own shapes and characters. Now, you can buy pre-made sets to take on road trips or use at home. Fantastic for creative storytelling and reinforcing colors, shapes, and more.

Erin P. said:  Musical and noise-making toys are great, but my husband and I can sing along with most of our toddler's toys, so the occasional quiet toy can be very refreshing--especially when you're all in the car together! This bright and playful toy includes six buckles in a variety of clasp styles. It helps toddlers develop fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. This is also a great toy to keep stashed in your diaper bag for stroller or shopping cart entertainment!

Vanessa M. said:  Aren't magnets the best toys for car rides? The magnetic pieces stick inside the storage tin, making a compact lap top activity that keeps kids entertained. Time will quickly pass as kids use the colorful magnetic pieces to dress and accessorize characters over and over again.

Katie G. said:  When I saw these a couple years ago at an Amish store I knew I just had to get them for my kids. These were the exact cards my brother and I played with when we were kids (before the days of DVD players and iPads). Each card has different items you may see along the road, such as interstate signs, construction signs, police cars, etc. When you see something on the card, you shout it out and slide the red window across the item. Fill across, up and down or diagonal to get Bingo. To make the game last longer, have the kids fill up the entire card. My kids still love playing this several years later.

Shila said:  This book acts as an atlas for kids, with easy-to-read, simple road maps, roadside attractions, national parks and more for each state. I like that kids can learn where we're going, and how to map it. The book also includes fun facts & really beautiful pictures. I think this atlas really helps kids soak in all that's great about traveling & being "on the road."

Sunshine Girl said:  Kids love tape, and painters or masking tape are easy to remove/clean up. Tear pieces and stick everywhere; play a labeling game; make your own stickers by drawing in the tape; the possibilities are simple and endless.

Kristy Pepping said:  I have a toddler and two school-aged kids and they will all play with these sticker books. These sticker books are reusable, come in several themes and are easy enough to peel off for toddlers.

Beth Wood said:  This provides traveling kids with lots of fun through classic games like tic tac toe, dots and boxes, hangman, fortune teller and more!

Beth Wood said:  This set of conversation starter question cards travels well in a portable case. Engage in conversations with your family for hours with the help of these topic starters.

Erin P. said:  Don't worry--Color Wonder markers only appear on Color Wonder paper! You won't turn around to find that your son has whiskers or that your daughter has a face tattoo! This is a great travel toy because the sturdy case can double as a lap desk.

Kristy Pepping said:  One of my favorite road trip tips is to bring along a storage clipboard like this. It holds paper or coloring books in place and provides a hard surface to draw or write on. It has ample room for storage, so no losing crayons or markers along the way!

Erin P. said:  We have gotten so much use out of our magnetic drawing board. The kids can write or draw on it and then use the knob to wipe the screen clean. It is a great car toy, and has also been a perfect toy for our son to use while waiting during our daughter's gymnastics class. Since it's quiet and travels well, we generally keep ours in the car nowadays for times such as these. (Personal confession: I used it quite often to doodle possible names when we were expecting our third baby!)

Kristy Pepping said:  These little books come with one marker each that won't mark on anything around it. It is clear, but when you put it on the special paper, it adds color. These books come in several themes to appeal to different interests!

Erin P. said:  These are great compact (and quiet!) travel toys, perfect for developing fine motor skills.

Kelly R. said:  This creative hands-on book is a great quiet time activity for young kids. It is filled with interactive components (zippers, buttons, buckles, etc) for fine motor and sensory play. The entire book zips closed to safely contain all of the pieces, making it a perfect toy for car or plane rides!

Kelly R. said:  Squigz are silicone building toys that use suction cups to stick to each other, to the windows, to a table, to your forehead...you get the idea. They make excellent mold-free bath toys because they don't take on water, and also work great for entertaining kids on airplanes or road trips.

Stephanie W. said:  This simple toy is every toddler's dream (and might even keep you entertained, too!). It's as easy as it looks- push the different sized "dimples" in, and once you've done it, turn the toy over and start again! Though it's simple, it will truly keep your 1-year old entertained for full minutes at a time- which is a lot for a little one! It's also a great, quiet toy for travel.

Lisa R said:  Simple and cheap: a bag of chunky beads and some pipecleaners can kill hours in the car without taking up much room. My 3 year old likes trying to thread the beads and make her own creation before asking a grown-up to help with finishing touches (best when grown up is sitting next to the car seat). Once finished, it's like having a whole new doll house family to play with in the car.

Kristy Pepping said:  This travel toy is great because you can simply flip over wood tabs to play a game of memory. Everything is attached so no issues on losing small pieces in the car. Plus, it comes with interchangeable cards so it provides different games each time.

Search for items commonly seen on a road trip (stop signs, trees, airplane, dog, etc.). Mark off the items as you find them...first to fill a row yells BINGO! Our family plays individually or together to fill one sheet. We enjoy this one so much we keep it in the glove compartment!

Lisa R said:  This friendship bracelet book is a classic, and is perfect for a road trip because there is nothing that can spill! The kit comes with all of the supplies needed to make the items in the book. Once a project gets going, there isn't a lot of reading or searching for supplies.

Erin P. said:  For toddlers and kids who are learning to read, electronic storybook readers are fun toys for the car. There are several sets available in all different themes.

Erin P. said:  Our kids just got this for Christmas, and it has been a big hit! Our four-year old proudly delivers the correct number of balls to each animal (sometimes with a little help)! It's a great toy for counting and number recognition! We will definitely be tossing it in our road trip entertainment bag this summer.

Erin P. said:  The LeapFrog Leaptop is a great toy for road trips. It has multiple modes for lots of entertainment! The modes include ABCs, messages, games, and music. You can even customize it to help your child spell his or her own name. Our son likes use it "to go to work and send emails." More recently, he has learned how to spell his name and watch it appear on the screen. Another easy one to pack along!

Sunshine Girl said:  Make road travel educational and fun with Brain Quest flash cards with over 1000 questions on various subject matters for grade levels pre school-12. They come in compact box held together by a ring making it easy to use and store in the car. These are great for road trips and long waits in the car.

Shila said:  Magic ink pen books come in a variety of themes and are great road trip toys because they make no mess at all in the car. These ones are great for bigger kids who may appreciate a little more skill with secret decoder activities and brain challenges.

Sarah Calamita said:  My kids love to have pop it races to see who can complete all of them first!

Gina I. said:  With 80 brain teasing puzzles to solve, kids can stay engaged even during those long road trips. The Flexi Puzzle is one piece, so you don't have to worry about small objects getting lost under the seats. One of the perks of this toy is that it is noise free so you can have a little peace and quiet!

Erin P. said:  Toddlers use the magnetic wand to bring each of the colored balls to its coordinating home on the turtle maze. We are big fans of any road trip toys in which all of the pieces are contained. No need to worry about losing any of these tiny pieces! Great for the car!

Amy S. said:  In my opinion, very few toys really work as car toys—I want them to be neat and easy to wrangle, relatively simple yet compelling enough to capture my kids’ attention for more than three minutes. These magnetic dinosaurs with interchangeable parts fill the bill for my toddler toys. They inspire creative construction and imaginative play, and are snap to clean up.

Shila said:  These rainbow scratch-off notebooks are great for many road trip activities like doodling, practicing writing letters, playing games like Hangman or Tic Tac Toe, tracing designs, and more! Notepads are made with a durable black material that scratches off to reveal hidden colors underneath. Note: be mindful that the scratch off shavings will inevitably fall to the car floor to be vacuumed later!

Katie G. said:  Scramble up the cube, hand it to your kid and let them go. I bet it will take them all of the 7 hour road trip to solve it (or maybe not). At least they'll have fun trying and it will keep them busy for hours.

Shila said:  Rainbow Loom bracelets are made from intertwining fingertip-sized rubber bands. Appropriate for most elementary-aged skill levels, they make good crafts for road trips because they keep creative kids in the zone. It makes for a nice period of quiet time in the back seat, too.

Kelly R. said:  A fun travel game that will encourage kids to keep their eyes off the screens and out the windows. This is great for the whole family, and helps to pass the time on longer road trips. In a sort of scavenger hunt style, a deck of cards lists things that players are challenged to find. Play by the rules (players earn points for each completed card) or play cooperatively to try to make it through the deck as a team.

Erin P. said:  Create cute little felt friends with this kit! Make sure that your kids have some sort of flat surface to work on because some of the pieces are a little small.

Kelly R. said:  My kids like this single player brainteaser game that has over 100 different challenges where you need to fit all of the twisted playing pieces onto the game board. A great travel toy because it is compact and all of the pieces fit into the case.