Road trips are an essential part of summer, especially family road trips. Beach trips and other adventures wouldn’t be possible without them, but we all know that the feat of getting there usually isn’t the most fun part of the trip. Hours and hours of sitting in a cramped car with your siblings constantly invading your personal space can feel like a torturous, indefinite expanse of time, but it doesn’t have to feel that way. Here are some things to do that might help your long car ride feel like part of the vacation instead of just means to an end.
1. Make stops along the way
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The worst part about road trip is the feeling of wasting time. When you break up the hours along the way by taking breaks from the road, it makes the waiting more bearable. No, I’m not talking about stopping to check out the world’s largest rubber band ball—something worse than toughing it out in the car.
Plan your trip around meals. Figure out where you’re going to be at lunch, and find a restaurant where you can sit down and eat. (Bonus points if it’s a local place.) Also, if you’re going to pass through an interesting city or landmark, it’s worth it to check it out for a little while. On a family road trip a couple of years ago, my family and I passed the Buffalo River, and, much to the annoyance of my sisters and me, my mom made us stop and check it out. We sat and watched people kayak and skipped rocks in the river, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Then, the 10-hour trip didn’t seem so terrible.
2. Scavenger hunt
We’ve all played the alphabet game, the license plate game, and 20 questions on long road trips, and we all know they get really old really fast. (I mean, has anyone ever found a word that starts with the letter X in a reasonable amount of time?) A scavenger hunt is a fun alternative to these games because there’s no getting stuck. If you can’t find something on the list, you can just keep going. There’s an endless supply of scavenger hunts online, and this article gives tips and suggestions for making your own. Sure, it might be kind of dorky, but it will keep you occupied and give you some good laughs. And if you’ve got a competitive family, it could be really fun.
3. Listen to an audiobook
There are those inevitable hours during a road trip where everyone is either tired of talking, or you’ve run out of things to talk about. You could turn on the radio and listen to those same 10 or 12 songs over and over again and then beg your parents not to turn it to the 70’s music station. Or you could listen to an audiobook. There are a lot of great audiobooks that will keep you interested and keep you from getting bored while the time passes. The best choices are suspenseful or funny books; these won’t get dull or put you to sleep. You might even find an audiobook that’s the length of your trip, so when it’s over you’ll be at your destination and have read a great book!
4. Game apps
If you’d rather stick to games and such, there are lots of phone apps that are a blast on road trips. One of my favorites is Ellen DeGeneres’s “Head’s Up,” which is a guessing game with endless exciting categories to choose from. Other fun apps include “Mad Gab” and “Taboo Word Game.” All of these games are for groups of people and are always super funny, so they’re perfect for family road trips.
Road trips don't have to be boring. With the right planning, it can feel like another great part of the vacation.
