Tired of your kids being on their screens all day – even when you’re road-tripping? Here are a few old-school alternatives.

For those of us born before the digital age, there wasn’t terribly much to keep us entertained on a family road trip. What we mostly did was engage with everyone else – a novel idea these days.

Want to bring a bit of old-fashioned fun back to your next family driving holiday? Here are four ideas – and there’s not a screen in sight.

  1. 20 Questions

    An oldie but a goodie. Each person, in turn, thinks of a famous person – one that everyone, no matter their age, will know. The others can ask 20 questions that take a yes/no answer to try and find out who the famous person is.

  2. Numberplate bingo

    You will need paper and pens. Everyone writes the 26 letters of the alphabet on a piece of paper. Every time they see one of those letters on the numberplate of a passing car, they can cross the letters off. The first one to cross off all the letters of the alphabet is the winner.

  3. The last letter word game

    Pick a theme – it might be animals or food or three-letter words if you have younger children. The first player says a word related to that theme – say, tiger, if the theme is animals. The next person has to say a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word played. Like rabbit, in this case.

  4. Memory game

    You’ll need to come up with an opening line for this game. For example, “I’m going on holiday and I need to bring…” Each person tries to complete the sentence, remembering the previous word: “I’m going on holiday and I need to bring sunglasses,” “I’m going on holiday and I need to bring sunglasses and a towel.” There’s no right or wrong answer: let your kids be as crazy as they like.

Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd (“Viva Energy”) has compiled the above article for your general information and to use as a general reference. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken by Viva Energy in compiling this article, Viva Energy does not warrant or represent that the information in the article is free from errors or omissions or is suitable for your intended use.