Journeys can be long and boring for kids, and keeping them amused can be hard and frustrating for adults, so here are some ideas of kids travel games to play to help pass the time;

Alphabet Story
This one is a good imagination game; the first person has to think of something beginning with the letter ‘A’, for example A is an Apple. The next person has to continue the story by saying something connected to the Apple, but starting with the letter ‘B’, perhaps B bought it, then C cooked it, D diced it, and so on. I’m not sure what Z could do with it, but hey, that’s all part of the fun!

Mystery Star
Player one thinks of a famous person, but does not tell anyone who it is. The other players then have to ask him or her questions in order to guess who the Mystery Star is that they are thinking of. Questions like ’Are they male or female?’ ‘Do they play sport?’ ‘Are they a politician?’ are often good starting questions. The winner is the person who guesses the Mystery Star first and then it is their turn to think of a person while the others guess.

First One To See A…
Take it in turns for someone to pick something unusual to spot, for example on a car journey it could be a tractor, yellow car, caravan or red bus. Train journeys could include water, farmhouses, motorways, campsites or animals. Air travel could be slightly harder due to the confined space, but with a little imagination and investigation…

The Shopping List
Ideal for those with good memories (note to parent…kids usually win this one!) The idea is to think about what you have bought at the shops and state it to everyone, for example “I went to the shops and bought an apple”. Then the next person has to say your item, and then add one of their own; “I went to the shops and bought an apple and a newspaper” You keep going until someone forgets the list…

Yes/No Game
This can be infuriating but fun. One person asks questions and the other person or people have to answer them without using the words ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It’s harder than you may think. “Do you like ice cream?” would have to be answered with something like “I do not”; the winner is the person who lasts the longest without saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

10 Second Story
Another story idea; take it in turns to tell a story, but you only have 10 seconds to tell your part and it must follow on from where the last person left off. If you feel 10 seconds is not long enough you could always change it to 20 or even 30, depending on how inventive you want to be.

Knock, Knock Jokes
Ok, when you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all, but if my kids are anything to go by, they never tire of jokes. Children will usually get quite excited about the ‘new’ jokes they’ve invented – even those that aren’t even the remotest bit funny to us!

Word Association
The first person thinks of a word, then the next person has to say a word that they associate with the first persons, then the third person has to say a word they associate with what the second person said, still with me..? Perhaps player one will say ‘Aeroplane’ so player two could say ‘Holiday’, player three may think of ‘Beach’ and so on.

Eye Spy
Or ‘colour I spy’ for younger ones. This age old game can still provide hours of entertainment for children of all ages, and if your youngster is too young to spell, pick things that are of a certain colour, for example “I spy with my little eye, something that’s coloured green”, the others then have to guess things they can see that are that colour until they get the correct one. Be warned though, young children sometimes do not quite grasp the concept of the ‘I spy’ part, we learnt this having spent nearly half an hour trying to guess something that was coloured grey, it turned out we were looking for a spaceship! Patience is sometimes needed…

The Alphabet Game
One of our personal favourites; pick a topic, perhaps football clubs, or players, countries or television programmes, the first person has to think of something in that category that starts with an ‘A’, the second person a ‘B’ the third a ‘C’ and so on. Some letters are obviously more difficult than others, so alternate who goes first so the same person doesn’t always end up with the ‘Q’ or ‘X’!

I hope some of these games have sparked your imagination and will help your journey run much more smoothly. Family holidays are meant to be full of fun from start to finish, so let your imagination take over, and enjoy…