Travel Activities for Kids

Busy Kids Make Happy Travelers During a Family Vacation

May 3, 2009 Julie Londrigan

A road trip is a common approach to the family getaway. Bored and cranky kids in the backseat are a common feature of such a trip. You can prevent chaos in the car during your family trip when you plan activities to entertain the children.

Imaginative Travel Activities for Kids

Plan travel activities for kids that help them use their imaginations. Here are two ideas to get you started:

• Dream Vacations: Give a notebook and a pen to every child and tell them they have a half an hour (or less, depending on the ages) to create their very own dream vacations. They can design anything they want as long as it relates to family travel. Encourage them to draw pictures, describe their ideas in writing or both. An ice cream bar in the hotel room, a playhouse that converts to a bed, anything goes as the kids develop their dream vacations.

• Story Starters: Let the kids take turns writing parts of a story. A parent will start the story, providing the basics. For the best results, use your own family trip as the backdrop to the story. Hilarious adventures await as everyone takes turns adding a little more to what you have started.

Travel Games

Travel games go hand and hand with family travel. Traditional favorites include:

• The Alphabet Game: A my name is Arthur, I like to eat apples, B my name is Beatrice, I live in Boston . . . Players must remember the previous responses in addition to making up their own for the next letter of the alphabet. Players who recite the information incorrectly must drop out of the game. Last player in the game wins.

• License Plate Bingo: Make your own bingo card on a piece of paper and write the names of various states inside the squares. When you pass a car whose license plate matches a square on your bingo card, mark the square. The winner is the first player to cover squares in a straight line, diagonally across the card, or the four corners of the card.

Travel Toys

Family travel can become tedious on long trips. When you've exhausted your less commercial travel activities for kids, it is time for travel toys. Fidgeting, quarreling kids will quickly change their moods when they are presented with one of these fun options:

• Magnetic Travel Games: Discount stores and souvenir shops are great places to look for magnetic travel games such as checkers or chess.

• Travel Size Games: Travel size versions of many traditional favorite board games are available in toy stores and discount stores. The games are smaller and usually contained in such a way that they will not spill in the car.

Keep your family vacation enjoyable by preparing ahead of time. A stash of creative travel activities for kids, classic travel games, and a few manufactured travel toys will help distract everyone from the monotony of the interstate.