Searching for road trip games for couples? I hope this post helps!
On a road trip with your partner?
Has the initial excitement worn off and boredom crept in?
Well, I feel you.
Having recently driven 20,000kms around Australia with my girlfriend, I’ve been in this predicament many many times before!
It’s in these moments that road trip games for couples come into their own.
They help you pass the time, get to know each other better, and have some fun while you’re at it. Want some ideas on what to play?
Check out these 20 car games for couples.
Here we go then: 20 fun car games for couples!
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20 Top Road Trip Games for Couples
Long car ride games for couples are a perfect way to alleviate monotony and kill some time when you’re on the road for hours on end with your partner.
I’ve done some digging and put together 20 of the best. I hope they help!
1. Would You Rather
A classic game whether you’re in the car or not, “Would You Rather” involves asking someone (in this case, you partner) to choose between two competing outcomes or scenarios.
For example, “would you rather have legs for arms or arms for legs?”
If that sounds too tame for your liking, feel free to make the questions as gross, sensitive, or personal as possible! For instance, “Would you rather French kiss someone’s sweaty armpits or have a naked man with a hairy butt sit on your face?”
Play for as long as you want, or until it’s no longer fun! Bonus points go to whoever asks the most difficult questions to answer.
Check out this post for more “Would you rather” question ideas.
2. 21 Questions
Another classic conversation starter, playing 21 Questions involves asking your partner…wait for it…
21 questions to get to know them better.
Those questions can involve anything and everything! In fact, if you felt like it, you could even combine this game with “Would You Rather?”
Here are a few examples:
- What was your favourite superhero growing up?
- You’ve got 1 year left to live. How do you spend it?
- What would you dream house look like?
Click here for more road trip questions like these.
Top tip: Don’t let your partner off the hook too easily. Asking “why?” at the end of each question will keep the game going for longer.
3. The Story Game
Of all the talking games to play in the car, this is one of my favourites.
Simple yet entertaining, The Story Game involves building a funny tale of adventure, romance, or sheer filth from the ground up.
Flip a coin to see who starts.
Whoever wins says the first line of the story (usually beginning “Once upon a time”). Their partner then says the next sentence. And so on and so forth.
For example:
- “Once upon a time there was a couple in a car.”
- “Devilishly good looking, they were on their way to the airport when…”
- “They passed through a small town full of derelict houses.”
- “The houses were crumbling and overgrown with weeds, yet…”
- “Held a certain charm that compelled the good-looking couple to…”
While You Were Sleeping is one of the best couples road trip games for whoever’s doing the driving!
4. While You Were Sleeping
This particular road trip game for couples is designed to entertain the driver.
Basically, while your boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse is asleep in the passenger seat, you’d create a story (i.e. a brazen lie) in your head to tell them when they wake up.
You’d start it by saying something like “you’ll never believe it, but while you were sleeping…” and continue from there.
Maybe you saw their favourite celebrity in the car next to you.
Perhaps you took a wrong turn and are now going completely the wrong way.
…And so on!
The goal? First, to see how gullible they are and, second, to make them believe something crazy happened.
Bonus points if you get reactions like “No way!” or “Really?!” or “Are you sure?”
5. The Singing Lyrics Game (Cute Couples Games)
Love blurting out the lyrics to your favourite songs? You should enjoy this particular game for long car rides.
It’s nice and simple once again…
One person sings a lyric from a song of their choice. The other then has to guess the song. If they get it right, it’s their turn to sing!
Alternative #1: Make things harder by singing each song to a different tune or by speaking the words (i.e. without the tune) instead.
Alternative #2: Play the song through the speakers and have them guess what it is.
6. The Actor Game
“Brad Pitt”
“Troy”
“Orlando Bloom”
“Pirates of the Caribbean”
“Keira Knightley”
…That, in a nutshell, is the actor game.
One person says the name of an actor or actress.
The other names a film that actor/actress was in.
The first person would then say the name of a different actress/actor in that film.
And so on. Keep it going for as long as possible! If your partner can’t name an actor or a film, then you get a point.
Of the 20 long car ride games on this list, the next one is up there with the best…
7. Would I Lie to You?
This couples’ road trip game is based on a game show here in the UK.
At a certain point in the show, one member of each team (there are 2 in total) reads out a personal story that’s usually either funny, embarrassing, crazy, and/or incriminating.
For example, “I once had to abandon my car in a safari park after a baboon climbed through the sunroof, lay down on the back seat, and fell asleep.”
It’s either “true” or a “lie”.
And the other team has to ask questions to work out which it is.
Why not do your own version of this game in the car? Take it in turns to tell a personal story and let the other figure out whether they’re lying or telling the truth.
You get a point each time you guess correctly.
8. Fortunately/Unfortunately
Fortunately/Unfortunately is a storytelling game that should a) make you think and b) give you both a few laughs in the car.
Here’s how it works:
One person starts off a story with a sentence.
Their partner then continues with a sentence of their own, but it must begin with the word “unfortunately”.
The first person then says the next sentence, beginning with the word “fortunately”.
Their partner says the next, beginning with “unfortunately”.
And so on! Keep going until you get bored, the story’s going nowhere, or it gets a bit too ridiculous to continue with.
E.g. “The man in the truck had just graduated from college.” “Unfortunately, he hadn’t done as well as he’d hoped.” “Fortunately, he believes there’s more to life than getting good grades.” “Unfortunately, his dad didn’t agree.”
9. Degrees of Separation
One person in the car names two categories, movies, objects, or celebrities. The other then has to say consecutive simple statements that connect the two.
The fewer statements, the better!
The first person then has a go. If they can connect the words in fewer statements, then they win the round.
For example:
If the words were “The Eiffel Tower” and “Star Wars”, you could say:
“The Eiffel Tower is in Paris”, “Paris was where the film Moulin Rouge is set”, “Ewan McGregor starred in Moulin Rouge”, “Ewan Mcgregor plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars episodes 1, 2, and 3”.
Your partner would win the round if they connected the two in 3 statements or less.
Next up: some awesome talking games to play in the car!
10. Categories (Alphabetical)
This is probably one of the road trip games for couples you played as a kid, alongside “I Spy”.
But it’s a classic! So I thought I’d include it all the same.
Super straight-forward, someone picks a category and then you go through the alphabet, taking it in turns to assign relevant words to each letter.
A standard example might be “capital cities”.
‘A’ could be Athens, ‘B’ could be Berlin, and C could be Cairo…and so on.
Bonus points for more obscure answers! Don’t have an answer and your partner does? They get a point.
11. The Wordsmith
Here’s a quick-fire game that’d be great (or awful, depending on how you look at it) for competitive couples:
Partner A says a word, Partner B follows up ASAP with a related word, Partner A does the same…and so on, until somebody messes up.
For example:
“Italy”, “pasta”, “carbs”, “diet”, “health”…
12. Jukebox
Looking for more opportunities to sing your heart out on the road?
Try the Jukebox game.
Partner A starts singing a song of their choice.
Then Partner B has to take a lyric from that song and link it up to another.
This continues for as long as you can both keep it going! The first person to stumble? They lose the round.
For instance:
- “I wish that I could fly, into the sky, so very high” (Lenny Kravitz, Fly Away)
- “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high” (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Somewhere Over the Rainbow)
- “Where the skies are so blue, sweet home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sweet Home Alabama)
FYI, if you’re looking for song ideas, check out this list of awesome adventure songs.
Want some “get to know you games for couples”? Number 15 and 16 in the coming section should do the trick.
13. The I’m Going on Holiday Game
Ready to harness your inner 8th grader?
It’s time to bring out the “I’m going on holiday game”.
A fun memory game, you take it in turns to say an item (that you might take on vacation), stating every other item that came before it as well.
For instance:
Partner A could start with “I’m going on holiday and I’m taking a bikini.”
Then Partner B might follow up with, “I’m going on holiday and I’m taking a bikini and a passport.”
Then Partner A may continue, “I’m going on holiday and I’m taking a bikini and a passport and some sunscreen.”
…This continues until someone can’t remember what they’re taking.
Want a culinary alternative? Try “I’m baking a casserole and I’m going to need [insert ingredient]”. Keep adding ingredients until someone makes a mistake.
14. Who Am I?
This is another of my favourite road trip games for couples.
You can play “Who Am I” in a few different ways. However, for our purposes, I’ll go through a simple, stripped-back version.
Without telling your partner who it is, take it in turns to come up with a famous person (either living, dead, real, or fictional).
It could be an actor, a sporting hero, someone from the television, a politician, a character from a cartoon, and so on and so forth.
You’d then ask each other yes or no questions to figure out who it is!
For example: “Are you alive?” “Are you a man?” “Are you on the TV?”
If you ask a question to which they answer “yes”, then you can ask another one.
If it’s a “no”, then it’s their turn to ask you something.
15. Two Truths and a Lie (Great Get to Know You Games for Couples)
Two Truths and a Lie is another of those fun car games for couples that’ll help you pass the time and get to know each other even better!
To play, you simply take it in turns to come up with two truths and one lie about yourself. Your partner then has to figure out which is the lie.
16. Never Have I Ever
This was a popular drinking game in my uni days, but I reckon it’d be fun to play in the car as a couple too…without the booze, of course.
The aim of the game?
To learn something about your partner (the more embarrassing or incriminating it is, the better!).
To play, take it in turns to say something you haven’t done before.
For example, “Never have I ever drunk so much I blacked out”.
If you were playing a drinking game, you’d drink every time you’ve done the thing they said. In the car, you can assign any consequence you want.
One way to do it would be to have 5 “lives”.
Every time you’ve “done the thing”, you’d lose a life. The first person to lose all 5 lives has to do a forfeit at the next rest stop.
Oh, and feel free to make this as filthy as you like!
It never took long for the games of Never Have I Ever we played at uni to revert to bedroom antics…
Word games for long drives don’t get much better than the next one…
17. Busta Rhyme
Of all the word games for long drives on this list, I think this one could be the best.
Toss a coin to decide who starts.
Whoever wins then has to say a statement. Any old thing will do, but something funny would go down a treat.
Their partner then has to say something that rhymes with the last word.
For example:
- A: “This car journey’s starting to get boring”.
- B: “You’re damn right, I’ll soon be snoring”.
- ·A: “Don’t worry, I’ll give you forewarning”.
…And so on, until someone messes up. Then start again!
18. Trivia Games
Trivia games are an awesome way to kill some time in the car.
There are many different ones available too, each with their own rules and/or covering particular topics. Click here to discover some of the best.
In the meantime, why not ask each other some simple trivia questions?
Here are a few:
- What is cynophobia? (A: the fear of dogs)
- What animal is in the Porsche logo? (A: a horse)
- What’s the largest ocean on the planet? (A: the Pacific Ocean)
- Who was married to Yoko Ono? (A: John Lennon)
- Who does the wolf dress up as in the short story of Little Red Riding Hood? (A: her grandmother)
19. Explain Film Plots Badly
Love watching movies with your partner?
Well, you should love this car game for couples.
It’s simple: pick a well-known movie and describe the plot. Your partner then has to guess what it is. The twist?
You have to do it as awfully as possible!
For instance: “A small boy with hairy feet tries his best to destroy a family heirloom.”
The answer? Lord of the Rings.
Click here to see some ideas on Reddit if you’re running short on your own.
Looking for some good films to watch when you arrive at your destination? Here are some climbing documentaries and hiking movies that I love.
20. Strip Padiddle (Road Trip Games for Adults!)
Want to spice things up in the car?
The final option on this list of road trip games for couples should do the trick.
There’s only one rule:
Whenever you see a particular “thing” on the drive, you shout “padiddle” and put your palm on the ceiling.
The person who does it last has to remove an item of clothing.
It’s up to you to decide what that “thing” is!
It could be a yellow car, for instance, or a car with a headlight out.
Of course, the more common it is, the faster you’ll shed your clothes…
Try These Couples Road Trip Games
It’s amazing how different the reality of road trips can be from how you imagine them, right?
In your mind’s eye, it’s all sunshine, rainbows, and good vibes.
You forget what it’s actually like to spend hours on your butt with very little to do!
Thankfully, there are plenty of games for long drives that can help you pass the time if/when boredom hits and you’re counting down the miles.
Are you on the road with your partner right now?
Well, I hope the road trip games for couples in this post will help out in this way. Give them a shot and it shouldn’t be long before you’re having some fun in the car again.
Still looking for things to do? Click here for 45 ideas on what to do on a road trip.