You've decided to save time and money on a holiday in the UK, also known as a staycation, but travelling with young children can be challenging at times! You're just setting out, it feels like you've barely even left the street you live on, and the chorus starts up from the back seat: "Are we there yet?"
Apparently, even an hour or so's drive is an unthinkable amount of time to keep yourself amused if you're a child. You can hardly blame them really. All they know is that between the comforts of home and the excitement of a holiday is a long stretch of sitting around without a lot to do.
That's why we've put together this list of some favourite staycation car games to amuse the kids on long journeys. You don't need to bring anything special along to play them, and there should be something to suit your kids however old they are. Some of them are even a little bit educational - but don't worry, we won't tell them if you don't.
Animal Name Game
To start this car game, the first player says the name of any animal. The next player then has to think of another animal whose name starts with the last letter of the previous animal (so "camel" might be followed by "leopard" which might be followed by "dog", and so on). To stop things getting stale (or stuck in a loop), they can't use the same animal name more than once. It's a simple game which also makes a good way for kids to practice their spelling. If you're taking the dog on holiday with you, you could start off with dog.
The great thing about this car game is that you can make it about anything your children are interested in, as long as it's something there are a lot of. If they know the names of more Pokemon than they know real animals, no problem (unless you're trying to join in too... you're on your own in that case).
Counting Cows
This is a fun car game if you're headed somewhere rural, but maybe don't try it on the motorway unless you want to deal with a carful of disappointed children. The game is basically what the name suggests - kids count (out loud) all the cows they see pass by on their side of the car, scoring a point for each one. It's a great way for children to perfect their counting skills, as they'll have to count pretty fast when you drive past a field filled with cows!
You can make this car game a race to reach a certain number of points, or just suggest that whoever has the most points when you arrive is the winner (which makes it a good final distraction when you're getting close to your destination).
An additional rule you can use is that if a graveyard passes by on one side of the car, the player on that side loses all their points if the player on the opposite side shouts "your cows are buried!" You may want to leave out this slightly morbid addition if very young children are joining in, but older kids will likely get a kick out of it.
If you're not likely to see cows along the way, another classic car game has the kids each pick a car colour and count how many they see.
Alphabet Memory Game
In this car game, one player starts off by saying "A is for..." followed by a word starting with A. The second player then repeats it, but has to add on "B is for..." with a word starting with B. The game continues in this way, running through the letters of the alphabet, with a player being 'out' when they can't remember what one of the letters stood for.
For younger children, this is a great way to practice the alphabet and also let them try out their vocabulary, as well as being a brilliant memory challenge for any age. (Even if you're not joining in with the kids, you might need to listen in occasionally to prevent arguments about what a word stood for, so expect your own remembering skills to be put to the test too.)
If your children are slightly older and just coming up with random words isn't interesting enough, you can make the game a little more challenging and fun by giving them a theme to stick to. For example, they might have to list food to bring on a picnic (apples, bananas, crisps...) or come up with a string of descriptive words for an imaginary cat (angry, big, cute...). They'll have to think about it a bit more and you can also get some giggles out of imagining the size of the picnic or what the cat might look like!
Numberplate Game
This car game is really just a way to spark the imagination rather than a contest with winners and losers, making it ideal if something competitive is more likely to be the cause of tantrums than a nice way for your kids to pass the time.
All the players have to do is take the three letters at the end of a neighbouring car's numberplate and try and make up a funny sentence or phrase using them as the first letter of each word (for example, "ABC" might be "Annoyed Big Cat" or "Aliens Buy Cola"). They can make up as many as they like trying to make each other laugh, and when they get bored of those letters there are always plenty of other cars to pick from.
Who's Next Door
Another imagination-based car game, this one is especially good if you're caught in traffic and surrounded by other cars. Have the kids sneak a glance at the people in the neighbouring vehicles (tell them not to stare), and then have them make up details of who they might be and what they're doing - the more ridiculous the better! Encourage them to come up with silly names, jobs, hobbies, and take a guess at where they're driving today.
Once you've made it to your staycation destination, whether you're staying at a child-friendly holiday park with onsite children's activities or in a country cottage or lodge, enjoy summer fun with the kids and remember these games for the journey home.
