This list of the best road trip games for adults will keep you entertained when stuck in traffic or during long stretches of unchanging scenery…
Jennifer and I love the open road but there are times when the scenery is, well, redundant. In these long, unchanging stretches, we like to play road trip games.
It’s funny because sometimes we resort to games we played as children, like 20 Questions and even I Spy. I think I’ve even gotten a few Punch Buggy slugs from my passenger.
But we’ve learned about or thought of several road trip games for adults that keep our brains working (and our arms less sore). I’m going to share them with you now!
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5 Best Road Trip Games for Adults
Some of these are road trip versions of board games, while others we just picked up or thought of along the way.
And it’s possible the ones we “thought up” are actual games we just picked up on but didn’t know the name of. So, we made up our own title for the game. Let us know if you're familiar with these games and play along in the comments at the end!
1. Synopsis Showdown
We call this one Synopsis Showdown, though I think many people have played a version of this game. The game is to describe your own synopsis for a popular book or movie and your travel partner has to guess what it is.
You can be literal or silly with your descriptions. Some examples are:
Synopsis: A young girl dresses as a boy to protect her father and ends up protecting an emperor.
Answer: Mulan
Synopsis: A witty young woman butts heads with a stubborn rich man until they realize they love each other.
Answer: Pride and Prejudice
Synopsis: A man twirls a baby around and holds it above his head while people cheer.
Answer: Dirty Dancing
What’s great about this game is there are many ways to describe the same book or movie, so it can really go on and on, no matter how expansive your mental collection is.
2. Movie Mashup
Movie Mashup is similar to the Synopsis Showdown game, but it takes it to the next level.
In this game, you think of a movie title that begins where another title ends, and then give a mash-up of their descriptions. (You can play with book titles, song titles, or TV shows, too.)
I know that sounds confusing. It’s easier to give examples than try to explain it further, so here you go:
Movie Mashup: A caped adventure in Medieval times.
Answer: The Dark Knight's Tale
Explanation: A caped adventure is The Dark Knight (Batman movie). Medieval times is A Knight’s Tale (with Heath Ledger).
Movie Mashup: A mobster gives his daughter away to be married.
Answer: Godfather of the Bride
Movie Mashup: A girl dresses up as a soldier and puts on that red light.
Answer: Mulan Rouge
See how that works? It’s hard to think of these at first but you’ll really start to get the hang of it. Just start by thinking of one movie title and see if you can tag on another movie title at the beginning or end.
3. Road Trip Trivia
The easiest way to play Road Trip Trivia is to steal a deck of clue cards from any of your favorite trivia board games. Just take the cards from Trivial Pursuit or Cranium and keep them in your glovebox.
Then, whenever you hit a boring stretch of road, the passenger can pull them out and read the cards. What’s great is both passenger and driver can play, since the answer to the clues are usually hidden on the back of the card.
If you don’t have trivia cards with you, don’t worry! Here are 20 Travel Trivia Questions for you.
4. Name That Tune
Thanks to music streaming apps, this game is really easy to play on the road. Or, you can just shuffle your favorite playlists.
The first person to Name that Tune once it starts playing, wins! You can play a few different ways. Like, for instance, you have to name the artist, too. Or, the first person to sing along to the words wins.
I suggest choosing playlists or Pandora stations from whenever you were a teenager and young adult. It’ll bring back a lot of fond memories while playing a fun game.
5. Scattergories
This is another board game turned road trip game. The board game comes with a letter die, lists of categories, and notepads, but you can really just make them up on your own.
This is how the road trip version of the game works:
- Pick a category (i.e. cities, cars, movies, etc.)
- Pick a letter of the alphabet
- Take turns naming things in the category you chose that start with that letter of the alphabet.
- The person who can’t think of something loses.
Example: Cities that start with the letter ‘M’
Player 1: Memphis
Player 2: Minneapolis
Player 1: Montpelier
Player 2: Uhhhhh…. (Player 1 wins!)
Tip: If you find that it’s too difficult, you can expand the game to where the answers begin or end with the letter you chose.
Road Trip Games for Adults: Play Along with Us!
Let us know if you’ve played any of the games on our list of road trip games for adults or have suggestions of your own.
Plus, leave your own Movie Mash-ups and Synopsis Showdown clues in the comments below for our fellow RVers to guess the answers to! I’ll get you started…
Synopsis Showdown #1: A boy makes an ass of himself every time he lies.
Synopsis Showdown #2: A man falls in love with his sister and fights his dad to the death.
Movie Mashup #1: A big-nosed boy runs away from the law singing bluegrass songs.
Movie Mashup #2: A dark horse falls in love with a cursed prince.
New ebook from Mike and Jennifer Wendland – the Natchez Trace
The Natchez Trace Parkway will capture your imagination, soothe your jangled travel nerves, open your mind and inspire you with the history that unfolded along its 444 miles.
Each of the 7 Days of the ebook has:
- Suggested Mileposts to explore
- Places to Eat in each area of the 7 sections
- Campground descriptions and links
- Links to all the special places and information
- Links to videos that show more in detail
- and a lot of highlighted information for each section
PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a printed, hard copy guide.
Whether you want to follow the footsteps of explorers, discover natural beauty, or visit historic sites, the Trace has something to grab your attention and leave you eager to see what’s at the next milepost.
You can see why this is one of our favorite US routes to explore. We’ve traveled it a half dozen times!
May 01, 2022at11:34 am, Lynn Jeffers said:
The “game” that got us laughing on our last trip through the Nevada desert was “Name that Jelly Belly!” I had bought a giant container of Jelly Belly’s from Costco, and would hand them to him, one at a time, and make him figure out the flavor! By the end of the trip, I could identify all the colors by sight without looking at the little chart!
May 03, 2022at10:34 am, Team RV Lifestyle said:
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing this one – Team RV Lifestyle