Traveling Games!

Ahhhh...this question it a great one! It's brought back many happy memories, since growing up most travel was by car, and now it still is. We used to play those games too, plus a few others. Do you remember the rat fink craze of the 60's (I'm dating myself now..lol)? They had a language that was based on re-arranging letters in normal words. Words beginning with consonants would reposition them to the end of the word, and add an 'A' to it, with the 'A' being a hard sound. SLOW DOWN would become OW-SLA OWN-DA. We would take turns trying to quickly read street signs or billboards that way, and it got very silly. Traveling frequently through several states, we also used to have fun with the various wordings on common signs. A favorite was signs for restrooms. One state deems the word 'restroom' or 'bathroom' to be offensive. So, their signs read, "sanitary facilities ahead". You have to wonder if you miss that stop, if the next opportunity would be, "unsanitary facilities". Here in Oklahoma, I see highway signs for 'free bathrooms ahead'. Since we could use another one at home, I'd like to stop and get one.....

I used to play the color game. My sister and I wuld choose a color and who ever saw the most cars in there color would win the game. It was a lot of fun.

we play the alphabet game. You start at a and go to Z in order. You can take the letters off signs from the first letter of the words, off cars, buses etc and off license plates. Has to be the first letter of the word or any letter off a license plate. You can also only take one letter off the license plate sign or what not. We've also played travel bingo - horses cars campers etc. It came as a travel set my mom bought when i was a kid.

When my grandchildren were younger, they loved to pick out a specific make of car and then see who could spot the most first. On bus tours, we play Bingo, but it's with a different twist. We have a card on paper with things to find. As we see them on the road, we mark them. Then, the first to BINGO with the things they have seen get a prize. It is real fun.

When the kids were smaller and we traveled we would see which one could find all the letters of the alphabet in road signs. It passed the time and they always hoped for a junction sign when J came around and the X and Z were hard ones too. Last year me and hubby went on a weekend trip and we played it ourselves!

Reading this post made me nostalgic. When we were still kids, me and my sisters do exactly that game! We would either make out words from the license plates or have a contest on who among us could add up the total of the numbers on the plate.

As it happens... yes, I do! ha ha ha. I always had to find a way to stop my youngest thinking about the travel sickness he suffers, especially on road vehicles. He's ok with trains but nothing else. We've played some number plate ones, like going through the alphabet, A - Z, or numbers, starting and 1 and working up. Also, you can make names from a number of registration plates, as well as what you said... phrases. We've also gone through pub names that we've passed in alphabetical order, collected river names, town and city names in alphabetical order, and when it's dark, we've devised other games where you don't have to see the items, like pop singers, song names, songs with place names, like San Francisco, etc, etc, etc. There are so many you can play. Brightest Blessings and Happy Farming, Grandpa Bob!

we play alot of games witht he kids. one is purple tree i hate that game it is like punch buggy. most people know that one. when you see a purple tree you yell purple tree and hit the person next to you. same thing you see a bug car the little vw beetle and pucnh the person next to you. like i said i hate that game loved it when i was a kid though got to hit my mom all the time. lol. we do abc game. have to find things that start with the letters like start with a and say asphalt, b bike , etc. or find the letter. have to see the letter to say it and start with a who ever finshes first wins. then we do the noun and verb, adverb etc game have to find the word. then i spy. 20 questions. then we do the sentence game to where first person says a sentence about something they see then the next person has to make a sentence using the first sentence to run off of. like there is a guy driving down the road talking on his phone not paying atttention. then the next person says when a blue truck drives by way to fast. then the next person sees a dog and says while the poor dog is trying to cross the street and cant. so on. you have to see the main noun to use it in your sentence.

Well If I travel by bus i would like to play games on mobile.If i travel by train for a long trip i like to play chess,chinese checkkers ,read books and magazines. .

We would also go through the alphabet and find things for each letter. Also when there are clouds we would find shapes or animals. We also like to play I spy but with that one you gotta either see something way ahead or be quick finding it or better yet, slow down and enjoy the scenery.

Sometimes we play games like that when we travel, most of the time we'll try to see how many different license plates we see. I know some friends of mine do that when they travel, they keep count of how many different ones each family member sees, and who says it first, gets the points, its fun, and it does make the time go by fast. I'm not good with traveling too far, so anything will work for me..haha.

I play the same games as you. I try to make words out of the letters on the license plates. I also play the how many license plates from different states games too. I sing a lot, and read the signs. Sometimes, I count how many cars passes us that have pets in them. Anything to help pass the time.

We do this all the time. We also look at signs and try to find the alphabet. The first person has to find A on a sign and the other person would then have to find a B on a sign and so on, before you reach your destination. We also try to find funny names of towns, city's, streets, etc. on signs. we also try to find funny personalized license plates.

I like the chain game, where one person starts by saying a word, and then the next person has to say a word the starts with the last letter of the previous word, and the game continues until someone gets it wrong, then that person is out of the game and the next person has to find a word that fits instead. The game is won when there is only one person left, or when the majority decide that you win!

You call that game funny we all call it annoying.

I still like Chinese Checkers, Snakes and Ladders, Chess as travelling games

Hi Grandpa Bob! Wow, that is another good idea to have fun while traveling. Usually the kids and I have a singing game on the road. The first one will sing at least one line or two and the last word of the song should be the first word of the song that the next in line will sing and so on..and sometimes, we just play other games that they learned from school. Then after they get bored with the games they will usually eat and sleep in the car, this always happen when we are traveling long distance. Take care and have a great day! loveslot..faith

We used to play the slug bug game. Where you seen one of then VW bugs and you lugged who ever you was sitting next to. It was fun and your arm got soar. Like Blue slug bugs no slugs back. Your friend onlydia

hello grandpa bob when that my family and myself might happen to be traveling somewhere on vacation or when that we go visit family out of town, my boys like to play I Spy while that they are riding along. lol it is such a fun game for children to play while riding along. I Spy is like a hidden object game, where that one child will Spy something, then the other child has to find what object that the other one has found. then give quick descriptions of what the item or object might be as to hints about the item that they are talking about. lol have you ever heard of the I Spy game before? thanks for sharing. take care and have a beautiful evening.

Well, don't forget about the fun punching game, slug bug. Who can forget that one. I got my sons hooked on that game a few years ago when we were traveling across country. I think each of them complained about how sore their arms were shortly after we got to our destination. They were eager to find those bugs. Another game to play is the state symbol game, how many times you see the shape of the state you are in or driving through. For example the state high way signs with the shape of the state, etc. One of my kids was over a thousand when we drove through Texas for the first time.