A road trip scavenger hunt is a list of things to spot from the car, and at your stops, that everyone hunts for at once: call out an item when you see it, check it off, and score points by how hard it was to find. The list below has 25 items sorted by difficulty, ready to copy onto paper or print.
How to play
- Give every player the same list, or read it aloud and let each player keep their own tally.
- When you see an item, call it out and point. The first caller claims it, and nobody else can check it off.
- Easy items score 1 point, medium 2, hard 3.
- At the destination, add up the points. Highest score wins.
The list: 25 things to find
Easy (1 point each)
- A red car
- A bridge
- A cow or a horse
- A gas station
- A school bus or a yellow bus
- A flag on a pole
- A water tower
- A truck with more than ten wheels
Medium (2 points each)
- A motorcycle
- A car pulling a trailer or a camper
- A train
- A windmill or a wind turbine
- A police car
- A sign with a number bigger than 100
- A dog with its head out of a car window
- A tractor on the road or in a field
- A billboard for a restaurant you’ve never heard of
Hard (3 points each)
- A license plate from 1,000 miles away
- A car towing a boat
- A hot air balloon
- A covered bridge
- A car with a canoe or kayak on the roof
- A person on a horse
- A lighthouse or a castle, real or on a sign
- A car the same color and model as yours
If you want this as a printed grid with a different card for each player, the road trip bingo generator makes playable cards you can use on a phone or print.
The proof rule
Scavenger hunts in a car have one problem that lists at home don’t: by the time anyone else looks, the item is gone. “I saw a hot air balloon” with no witness starts a fight.
The fix: hard items need a witness or a photo. Another player has to see it too, or a passenger has to get a photo before it disappears. Easy and medium items are on trust. Hard items are worth three times as much, so it’s fair to ask for proof.
Versions by age
Ages 4 to 6
Use the easy list only and play as one team. Swap words for simple drawings next to each item so pre-readers can check them off.
Ages 7 to 11
The full list, with points. Kids this age like being the scorekeeper, so hand one of them the pencil.
Teens
Add five hard items of their own before the trip and keep them secret. Secret items score 5 each if found, and nobody knows what anyone else is hunting.
Tips for all-day drives
- Rest stops, gas stations and diners are part of the hunt. Allow items spotted there, since that’s where you’ll find the dogs, the motorcycles and the far-away plates.
- Swap list items for the region. On a coastal drive, add a seagull and a surfboard. In the desert, a cactus and a dust devil.
- Let the hunt run in the background and play other games on top. When someone spots a hard item mid-round, everything pauses for the shout.
When the list stalls
By afternoon, only the hard items are left and the hunt goes quiet.
Two fixes. First, a second chance round: for the next 30 minutes, every item scores double. Second, a swap: each player can trade one unfound hard item for a new one of their choosing. If the car needs a faster game for a while, I Spy or the license plate game will fill the gap while the hunt waits.
