Car games for kids - the substitute nanny on a road trip

So you’re about to hit the road. You’ve planned your Cape Town trip for months, done all your research, confirmed your bookings, packed all your bags, collected the car from the car hire company, and you’re ready to go. But what about your list of car games for kids?

Any parent knows that a pleasant journey can easily become a nightmare if the children aren’t entertained. Armed with a few well-known car games, your fun-filled holiday can actually begin the minute you leave home.

Types of car games for kids

Acting games

Games that require acting will keep your kids entertained for hours. A favourite acting game is called Actor.

The aim of Actor is for each player to have a chance to mime an emotion using only their face. The fun is that there are hundreds of different emotions to portray, and only a limited number of ways to pull a face. Examples of emotions include anger, love, sea-sickness, and horror. There’s no limit to the number of emotions that can be used in the game.

Guessing games

Guessing games are very popular car games for kids and adults. A fun game for everyone is What’s that noise? In this game, each player has a turn to make up a short story in sound. For example, it could be the rumble of a train coming into a station, the doors opening and closing, the guard's whistle and the noise as the train sets off again. The other players have to guess what is happening in the sound story.

Word games

Tongue-twisters are always entertaining because no matter how well you know them, you’ll still make mistakes. Especially when you try to say them five times, as quickly as possible! Here’s a list of good old tongue-twisters that’s worth teaching your kids:

• What noise annoys a noisy oyster? A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster.
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
• Red leather, yellow leather.
• A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.
• The sixth sheikh's sixth sheep's sick.

With entertainment for kids being such an important part of a road trip, we thought we would be one car rental company that includes a list of car games for kids in the “glove compartment” of our site for your convenience.