Good old fashioned road trip games

Remember the days of the family vacation when the entire family piled into the car and hit the road for two weeks?  According the New York Times, the American road trip is making a rebound.  It may be a shorter four- or five-day road trip versus the two-week road trip of the past, but it still counts.   

Road trips in general offer a families a chance to unplug from social media and their devices. They can also build memories. Here are some good old fashioned road games that are sure to keep you and your loved ones entertained on your next road trip.

20 Questions

One player thinks of a person, place or thing. The other players then ask that player up to 20 yes-or-no questions to figure out what the person is thinking about. Whomever figures it out wins, unless nobody figures it out by the 20th question. If that happens, the player who thought of the person, place or things wins.

I spy

The classic game "I spy" is yet another guessing game. In this game, one person looks around the car and chooses an object. They decide which of the object's characteristics will serve as a clue and then say, "I spy, with my little eye, something that is _____." For instance, if he or she chooses a banana, the phrase would be, "I spy, with my little eye, something that is yellow." The other players then take turns guessing the object until someone figures it out and wins.

Geography

In this game, the first player thinks of a location that can be found on a map. The location can be anything — a continent, city, mountain or landmark — it must be found on a map. The first player says the location he or she has in mind, and then the next player has to think of a location that starts with the last letter of the named location. For example, if the first person says, "Florida," the next player must name a location that starts with the letter "A." The players take turns naming locations until someone takes longer than 10 seconds to come up with an answer. That person is out of the game, and the game continues until one player wins by being the last one remaining.  This can also be played with numerous other topics.

My Cows
This one only works if you're driving through rural areas, but it's great for long drives. When driving past a farm with cows, the first person to spot them calls out "My Cows!" and makes a quick count/guesstimate of how many he or she got. The object, of course, is to "collect" the most cows. If the car passes over a bridge, whoever spots it first gets to erase another player's cows. The erase landscape object doesn't need to be a bridge; it can be a graveyard or anything else you might pass periodically on a road trip well-supplied with cows.  Instead of counting cows, you could also count windmills, horses, oil derricks or whatever you and your fellow players decide!

If you aren’t driving you can also play Guess the Phrase with your fellow passengers.  It is also commonly known as Hangman or Snowman.

The rules for this game may vary. One player comes up with a secret phrase and the other players keep guessing letters one at a time until the phrase is completely spelled out on paper or until the player who guessed the phrase draws a complete figure (whichever happens first). Each time the players guess a letter that isn't in the phrase, the player who came up with the phrase draws a body part of the man (first the head, then the torso, then an arm etc.). If the guessing players guess all letters in the phrase before a complete character is drawn, they win. If not, the player who drew the man wins.

What are some of your favorite road trip games?