Are you looking for fun small road trip travel toys and games for your toddlers, elementary-aged kids or tweens? Are you searching for ideas that do not involve your kids staring at a piece of electronics? If you answered yes, then this is the perfect list for you!
When our family first began traveling I had no idea what or how much I needed to pack for my kids to entertain them. So I just began buying any highly rated travel game, activity book or small travel toy that I could find. I bought way too much! And in the end, over half of what I had brought, our kids never touched. And I felt like the other half of that was used only once. All of this stuff made our car feel cluttered and I didn’t like how it all took up our precious car space.
I’m here to help you not make the same mistakes that I did. I want to show you what I’ve learned about what makes a good road trip toy. And I want to share with you all of our favorites!
First, What Makes a Good Road Trip Toy?
- For me, a good road trip toy needs to be small, light weight and provide hours & hours of fun.
- Toys that have lots of small pieces tend to be more of a headache than they’re worth.
- If a toy does have several pieces, have a sealable bag that you can easily store them in.
- Look for road trip toys that don’t encourage throwing. (We learned this one the hard way.)
- Instead keep those toys in a separate spot where they can be used in a park or on a big grassy field during your trip.
- Road Trip Toys are less stressful if they are not messy.
- For example Play-doh or certain art activities.
- We even stay away from markers for our young kids while on a road trip. Extra messes just lead to extra stress, and that’s definitely not what you need while on vacation.
- Look for games that are easy to play while sitting next to another person in a car.
- For example, many card games are hard to play with 3 kids sitting next to each other in a car. They always think someone is looking at their cards and cheating, and sometimes they’re probably right.
As our family began to travel, I started paying attention to what small road trip toys were played with, how often they were chosen and for how long. There are many travel toys that are great to play with for an hour, or fun to play with just once, but what I was looking for was the toys that children go back to again and again. Toys that would entertain them for hours on end. These are the types of road trip toys that I wanted for our own personal road trips, and below, I’d love to share with you our absolute favorites!
THE BEST TRAVEL TOYS FOR TODDLERS TO TWEENS
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And Don’t Miss Our Posts on Fantastic Books for Kids
MANIPULATIVES (FIDGET TOYS)
1. Micro Cubebot Brain Teaser Puzzle – Our #1 Travel Toy!
I Love Cubebots! And they are the best travel toy purchase I’ve ever made!
This toy comes packaged in the shape of a cube. From here it can be unfolded and manipulated to make almost any shape your child wants! These Cubebots have provided hours upon hours of fun for our kids on long road trips. They are small enough to fit easily into any purse or even into your pocket which makes them perfect to take into restaurants or to have on hands while waiting in line somewhere.
Cubebots come in a lot of different colors too. This was great for our family because that meant that each of our boys could pick out their own colored bot.
This is Our Favorite Road Trip Toy!
Cubebots have been a favorite in our family since our youngest was 5 and continue to be a favorite even of our now 13 year old. I love being able to invest in a toy that my kids won’t outgrow too fast.
Cubebots are always the first toys that my 3 boys ask to bring on any trip and I think they are the perfect travel toy for toddlers and yet are even fun for teens to fiddle with!
Click Here for More Information About This Amazing Travel Toy!
Best for Ages 3-15 Years
2. Its The Jeliku Toy – Our Favorite Pocket Travel Toy for Younger Kids!
Although this toy doesn’t look like much at first, this small, flat square provides and hours and hours of fidgeting fun for my kids. We first got this toy when my youngest was 3 and my oldest was 8. They loved playing with it so much that we had to by more!
This manipulative toy is great for small hands that just want something to fidget with, but it is also great for older children whose imaginations may surprise you with all of the things this small toy can be transformed into. And I love that it can easily fit into your pocket. This makes it so easy to take anywhere that you think your kids could possibly get fidgety! (ie. standing in line, airplanes, restaurants, etc.)
For our family it’s been 7 years since we first discovered this incredible toy and my children still always make sure that I’ve packed it before we hit the road!
Click Here for More Information About This Great Pocket Travel Toy!
Best for Ages 3 – 10 Years
3. WikkiStix Rainbow Pack – Our Favorite Art/Creativity Manipulative!
My kids can spend hours making different designs with these colorful and bendable sticks! These sticks are not messy and I love how children can create different designs over and over again with them.
Tip: I like to bring a sandwich bag with us to keep them in after they are opened since it is hard to get them back into their original package.
Click Here for More Information About this Creative Travel Toy!
Best for Ages 3 -12 Years
WikkiStix Travel Kit
If you’re looking for a travel kit for your Wikki Stix, then check out this awesome kit!
This kit contains 144 Wikki Stix in 8 Primary & Neon Colors, a 12 page idea booklet and a cool carrying case.
4. Rubik’s Magic Star – The Road Trip Toy Everyone Asks Us About!
This fantastic road trip toy, made by Rubiks, is not actually a Rubiks Cube, but an unbelievable fidget toy! It comes as two interlocking sets that can be manipulated together like a fidget toy or taken apart to make amazing designs.
This is one toy where you’ll want to click on the image here or title link so that you can watch the video of just how cool this small toy really is!
This is our most asked about toy and we absolutely love it!
Best for Ages 4+
(yet even my middle schoolers love this!)
5. Coogam Metal Wire Puzzle Set of 16 With Pouch
Our Favorite Travel Brain Teaser!
The object in each puzzle is to figure out how to separate the 2 pieces. At first it looks impossible but with a little time you’ll realize that it can be done!
These puzzles are perfect for any child over the age of 6 and are great even for adults to try! I know my kids loved seeing me struggle to figure out one that they had already mastered. (Just don’t throw away the solution keys because some of them are quite hard to figure out.)
I also love that since there are 16 puzzles I can hand out just one or two to each child and save the rest to bring out at a later time on our trip.
Click Here Here for More Information About This Fun Brain Teaser!
Best for Ages 6 to 18+
6. SHASHIBO Shape Shifting Box – A Hit Road Trip “Toy” With Tweens!
An Award-Winning, Patented Fidget Cube w/ 36 Rare Earth Magnets
Are you looking for the small “toy” that tweens and teens will love? Check out this fantastic manipulative cube that can transfer into over 70 shapes! It’s hours of mind-challenging fun.
There’s 12 fantastic designs to pick from, and therefore each child can choose their own unique style too!
My children have loved these highly-rated cubes and I hope yours do too.
Best for Ages 8+
7. Infinity Cube Fidget Toy – Our Top Small Mindless Fidget Toy
It Fits in the Palm of Your Hand!
This is a fantastic mindless fidget toy.
Now, you can’t make fun designs like some of the toys mentioned here or solve puzzles like others, but it is fantastic when you just want something to keep you hands busy.
We have several of these wonderful fidgets toys, and our kids love to use them while traveling, but also while doing homework or even while just watching t.v.
They are a wonderful toy to have on hands and everyone in our family loves them!
Best for Ages 3-18+
8. Flexi Puzzle – Our Top Puzzle Fidget Toy
The Flexi Puzzle is a puzzle stick that comes with a booklet that has 4 levels of difficulty and 80 challenges. Although my kids enjoyed the challenges, they actually prefer to play with this toy as a manipulative and turn it into whatever their imagination wants.
This toy has provided hours of fun on long car rides and again I love how small and portable it is!
Click Here for More Information About This Great Manipulative!
Best for 8-15 Years
9. Coogam Travel Tangram Puzzle – Our Favorite Puzzle Activity Book
This is a fantastic tangram puzzle set with 7 magnetic pieces and 360 different puzzle challenges to solve!
With both easy and harder patterns to solve, this tangram activity book is hours of fun. Plus the solutions are on the back of each challenge, so there are no more frustrations from “unsolvable” puzzles.
Best for Ages 4 and up
10. ThinkFun Minecraft Magnetic Travel Puzzle Logic Game
Perfect for Minecraft Loving Kids!
Perfect for Road Trips and for any Minecraft lover. This is a fantastic travel Minecraft activity book that comes with 40 challenges (Beginner to Expert Challenges) where the ender dragon is trying to prevent you from traveling through the worlds of Minecraft. Challenges are placed in your path, trying to stop you. Can your child solve it and advance on their journey?
We love this Minecraft activity book! It’s hours of fun and it’s the perfect activity book to bring along on any road trip.
Best for Ages 8 and up
11. Eye Find: A Picture Puzzle Book (Chicken Socks) – Our Favorite Seek & Find Activity Book!
This is my favorite seek and find adventure for younger kids!
In this book you find 15 puzzles and 3 cool searching tools that allow you to magnify, search through patterns and see in the dark (my favorite)! I can’t count how many times my children have read and re-read this book. And it’s so much fun every time!
Click Here for More Information About This Awesome Seek & Find Book!
I found that my kids liked using this book best from about ages 4-8 years.
12. Mad Libs on the Road – Our Favorite Mad Libs for Road Trips!
In this Mad Libs there are 20 stories that are Road Trip Themed.
This book also has a great option where you can play solo as well. I also really like how there is a cardboard insert in this book. This makes it so much easier to write on if you are in a car on a road trip or sitting in a hotel while on vacation.
This Mad Libs is recommended for kids ages 8-12 years.
Click Here for More Information About This Great Road Trip Mad Libs!
Other Mad Libs Favorites:
Vacation Fun Mad Libs
Best for Ages 8-12
Super Silly Mad Libs Junior
Great if your child is younger.
Best for Ages 5-8 years.
13. Seek and Find Books
I Love Seek and Find Books and Think They are Great for Road Trips!
I especially love how these books can be used by multiple kids at different times, because you don’t write in them, but can also be used by multiple kids searching together. Seek and Find Books can be found in just about any character that your child likes! Listed below are our kids favorites.
Where’s Pikachu? A Search and Find Book
Our family Loves this Pokemon Seek & Find paperback Book!
Search for Ice-type Pokémon on the cold, snowy mountains. Look for Rock-type Pokémon in Alolan caves. Plus see if you can spot Pikachu in ever scene!
If your children are anything like mine, this book will provide hours of fun as they try to find all of their favorite characters! This is a great book for any Pokemon lover!
This book is recommended for children 4 years and up.
Click Here for More Information About This Pokemon Search & Find Book.
Can You Find Them All!
Lego Star Wars: These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For
This is a perfect paperback for young Star Wars fans to search for all of their favorite characters!
My children love this book and love looking at it over and over. Not only do they like looking for all the hidden Star Wars characters but they also love looking at everything that’s going on in each scene (which is a lot!) This book can provide hours of fun! And since it’s thin and a paperback, it’s perfect to bring on a vacation or anywhere on the go because it doesn’t take up much room.
This book is great for children ages 4 years and up.
Click Here for More Information About This Great Star Wars Seek & Find.
Star Wars Where’s the Wookiee 2 Search and Find Activity Book
This is an awesome search and find paperback book for kids and adult Star Wars Fans alike! The drawings on each page are so detailed and full of fun images and goodies to find that this book is sure to provide hours and hours of fun.
This was a definite hit with my kids on our last vacation!
This book is great for 7 years and up.
Click Here for More Information About This Great Book for Slightly Older Star Wars Fans
Where’s Waldo? The Totally Essential Travel Collection
This is the ultimate seek and find book for any “Where’s Waldo” Fan! Featuring seven classic adventures and over 172 pages of seek and find fun, this book will definitely provide hours of entertainment. I also love how compact this book is making it easy to take with you anywhere.
This book is great for age 6 years and up.
Click Here for More Information on This Great Where’s Waldo Book.
GAMES
14. Spot-it (for ages 7-11) or Spot-it Jr (for ages 4-7) – Our Favorite Family Travel Game!
Spot-it and Spot-it Jr are award winning games and the perfect travel toys for toddlers to teens to bring with you on your next family road trip!
This game is small and so portable. Easily throw it into your purse to take into a restaurant or just leave it in your car for hours of entertainment on a road trip. Spot-it comes in a hand sized metal tin that has a snug fitting lid. The cards inside the tin have 8 different pictures on them.
How to Play
To play the simplest form of the game, two cards are turned over and each player searches for the picture that the two cards have in common. Each card has just one picture in common with another card. The player that spots it first wins that round. It sounds so simple but believe me it takes a really quick eye to win. This fast paced game is a ton of fun and is challenging enough for both kids and adults. This is one game that I always make sure is in our bag when we go on any road trip!
Click Here for more information on this Family Favorite Travel Game
15. Travel Scavenger Hunt Card Game for Kids:
This scavenger hunt game is a ton of fun! The pictures are very clear and colorful and the items are things that you will probably encounter on a road trip. I love how this game encourages kids to look around at their surroundings and what they are passing.
This game is recommended for ages 7 and up.
Click Here for more information on this fun Scavenger Hunt
16. Uno – My Childhood Favorite Road Trip Game
This is one of my favorite card games to play with my kids! It’s a blast to play and you can easily play it anywhere. I also love how this travel tin makes it sturdy for traveling and being on the go.
Uno is recommended for ages 7 and up.
Click Here for more information on this Family Classic Game.
We Also Love These Award Winning Games:
17. Rory’s Story Cubes: A Multiple Award Winning Game
18. Rat-A-Tat-Cat: Mensa Award & Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Best Toy Award
19. Bananagrams: A Multi-Award-Winning Word Game
Additional Non-Electronic Items to Bring:
20. A JOURNAL
Now I know what you’re thinking, a journal isn’t really a travel toy. But in my mind it kind of functions in the same way as a lot of travel toys and activities. A journal/ notebook allows children to freely express themselves, be creative and can provide hours and hours of entertainment.
I like to buy a plain spiral divided notebook with pockets for each of my children on any road trip we take. I then designated each section in their notebooks for different activities. The pockets in their notebook are great for storing stickers or a few small papers that are important to them.
Here’s a Great Way to Set Up Your Child’s Notebook:
The First Section is for Their Journal.
- One thing I’ve noticed with my kids is that they will write enthusiastically in their journals the first couple of days on a road trip but then they start to lose interest.
- They think that they have to write everything down that we do each day and it completely overwhelms them.
- When I realized that this was happening I started coming up with journal prompts to suggest to them after the first couple of days. This helps them focus on just one or two things or thoughts for each day. They can then write about their trip and not get so overwhelmed in the process.
I like to use prompts like:
- What was your favorite thing we did today?
- Name one thing that you learned today?
- How are the people here the same/ different from you?
- What is something new that you have eaten on this trip?
- What new animals have you seen?
- or What are you looking forward to doing when you get back home?
On the last page of their journal section I have them create a page or two for any list that they may want to keep track of on their trip.
–For example, they may want to keep track of what animals they see and how many of each they find on your road trip.
The 2nd Section of Their Journal is for Creativity.
- This section is where they can create their own stories or even just write down random thoughts that are in their head.
- For younger children I also like to place sticker sheets in the pockets so that they can easily have fun decorating the pages in their notebook.
- In this section children can also use the paper to draw anything that they want. They can draw about what they are seeing on your trip or even have fun drawing random creatures from out of their imagination.
- For example, my youngest became obsessed with submersibles after visiting the Monterey Aquarium in California. He wanted to design his own and his notebook was the perfect place to jot down all of his ideas and make all of his drawings.
- On this same trip he came up with an entire story about creatures from another planet. It was in his notebook that he could write his story down and draw what these creatures looked like.
- I love how a road trip gives children plenty of time to think in the car during your long drives. And I love how a notebook gives the perfect place for children to express these thoughts.
The 3rd Section of Their Journal is for Playing Games.
- This is a great place where children can play games like Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman or Dots.
- You can even pre-draw several Tic-Tac-Toe boards on one page, start a Hangman page and make up a couple of Dots games to help get them started.
All in all, the goal of your child’s notebook is to make it fun!
Timing
The last thing I want to mention here is about the Timing of Toy Distribution on a Long Road Trip.
Kids tend to get overwhelmed if every toy and activity you’ve bought for their trip is pulled out on Day 1. I have found that spreading out when they get their new activities helps and gives them something to look forward to. For our family, I like to bring out new activities on long driving days or on days that we don’t have a lot going on. Our kids love being surprised by these new things to do in the car and it really helps make those long car days more fun!
I Hope You Have Enjoyed This List of the Best Travel Toys for Toddlers to Teens!
Have a Great Road Trip!
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1 comment
Wonderful ideas and suggestions! I can see why the boys have a great time on their trips – besides seeing so much and doing neat things!