17+ Best Travel Board Games for Planes & Trains! Traveling with kids is a challenge. With all the lines, waiting, and sitting it can be really difficult to set your kids up for successful, meltdown free trips. Traveling with kids is important, so how do you make traveling smoother for kids? Board games are a great tool to make travel fun, but you have to choose the right board games for travel! All the following board games require very limited space to play and are small/portable. Keep reading to see the best kids travel board games! Click here to see some of the best places we’ve traveled as a family.
[Stephanie’s note: If the voice sounds different it’s because this post was written by Tyler, my husband, and originally published on Kidsloveboardgames.com which is now defunct!]
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Pin this round-up of family board games with this photo or link!
Travel games for kids
When you’re shopping for games, consider looking on Facebook marketplace for secondhand, buying from your local, small board game shop/toy shop, searching on Ebay, or checking Kidizen for used games. These are linked to Amazon for convenience but we’d much prefer you shop secondhand and/or small when you’re able!
Jump to your kids age range? Click a link: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kindergartners, 7 & 8 year olds, Older Kids
Toddlers
1. Clever Cat Memory Game by Tender Leaf Toys
This is a great first matching game for your toddlers, made with all wooden pieces, it’s great for toddlers who aren’t quite ready to handle more delicate cardboard or paper cards. There are only 16 pieces to a set so it’s not your typical sprawling memory game. This is perfect for toddlers and allows it to be set up anywhere you can find a flat surface.
- Number of Players: 2+
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 3+
- What we like best: Wood construction, simple art is perfect for toddlers
- Prerequisite Skills: N/A
- Kids will learn: Memory, identifying animals
2. Take ‘N’ Play Bingo by Play Monster
Another great toddler travel game, Take ‘N’ Play Bingo has awesome animal pictures that your toddler will love, while they learn to match the pictures that come up on the spinner against the animals on their board. The pieces are magnetic which is VERY helpful when traveling!
- Number of Players: 2
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 4+ (probably due to small pieces, please keep this in mind if you are purchasing for a toddler!)
- What we like best: Engaging art and quality construction
- Prerequisite Skills: N/A
- Kids will learn: Matching, identifying animals
Preschoolers
3. Create and Tell Me a Story Cards by eeBoo
Perfect game for kids who love playing games, but don’t like the win/lose aspect of a lot of games. Family members take turns drawing cards and adding to the story The best part about this game is there are lots of different versions depending on your child’s interests (animals, robots, and fairy tales to name a few). As you play this game there are only 2 piles of cards to manage, making it ideal for traveling.
- Number of Players: 1+
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 3+
- What we like best: Re-playability factor is very high since the games is all based on creativity
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to create sentences
- Kids will learn: Creativity, creating sentences, stringing together thoughts
4. Spot it! Alphabet by BlueOrange
This is a great game for keeping energetic preschoolers engaged since the game is all about speed and not turn based. Players compete to see who can spot a matching letter or shape as fast as possible. The metal travel tin is prefect because you don’t have to worry about ending up with a smushed box.
- Number of Players: 2-6
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 3+
- What we like best: Well balanced with older/younger kids because the person who ‘lost’ the last round is using the same card, while the ‘winner’ of the last round has to start fresh
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to match shapes/letters between two cards (but kids don’t need to know them by name)
- Kids will learn: Attention span/focus, letters, shapes, and colors
5. Left Center Right by George & Company
Left Center Right is a great dice game to travel with. Players take turn rolling 3 dice and passing their chips accordingly to their left or right, or sending them to the pot in the center. Note, this one would be tricky in a plane because you need to be able to circle around. It’s perfect for a train car, or while you’re waiting to get on the plane! This soft sided, foldable dice tray is a great addition for playing dice games while traveling.
- Number of Players: 3+
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 5+
- What we like best: Creates tons of suspense around each players roll, metal tin is great for traveling
- Prerequisite Skills: NA
- Kids will learn: Left and right, counting
6. Auto Bingo by Regal Games
Bingo on the Road! Use what you see our the window to complete your bingo card and win. These boards feature helpful pictures so non-readers can participate as well.
- Number of Players: 2-4 (could have more if you had multiple sets of boards!)
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 4+
- What we like best: Slideable bingo markers are perfect for travel and replay
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to match a picture to its real world counterpart
- Kids will learn: Attention span and observation skills
Kindergartners
7. Slamwich by GameWright
Slamwich is, in essence, a more complicated version of slap jack, where players flip cards looking for various combinations and being the first to slap the pile and claim the cards. Fast pace game play is great for this energetic age range. With its small size and just a few piles of cards to manage its perfect while traveling.
- Number of Players: 2+
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 6+
- What we like best: Fast paced, silly concept
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to understand and recognize patterns
- Kids will learn: Pattern recognition, processing speed
8. Pass the Pigs by Winning Move Games
Pass the pigs is a perfect traveling dice game, where the dice are the pigs! Players score points based on how the pigs land, but with each roll they risk going bust and not getting any points. This soft sided, foldable dice tray is a great addition for playing dice games while traveling.
- Number of Players: 2+
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+
- What we like best: Ability to risk it and keep rolling for more points to make a come back
- Prerequisite Skills: Counting to 100, understanding of addition
- Kids will learn: mental math, risk taking, playing the odds
9. Travel Scavenger Hunt Card Game by Briarpatch
This is the road trip game to Never (or at least less frequently!) hear ‘Are we there yet?’ again. Travel Scavenger Hunt is a deck of things to spot on your road trip! From gas stations to certain colored cars or license plate letters it’s the perfect competitive game to get your kids searching out the window instead of whining.
- Number of Players: 2-4
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 6+
- What we like best: Great variety of scavenger hunt clues
- Prerequisite Skills: Beginner reading (there is helpful card art to guide them, but it’s not always obvious)
- Kids will learn: Attention span and observation skills
10. Uno by Mattel Games
Not a lot to be said here, as most people have played some version of Uno. Its a great travel game due to its quick pace and ability for all ages to play and enjoy it. This copy comes in a metal case so the cards and box don’t get destroyed while packed away! Side note, you may have been playing uno wrong your whole life.
- Number of Players: 2-10
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+
- What we like best: Timeless classic that plays well for a huge age range
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to match based on numbers and colors and understand wild cards
- Kids will learn: Numbers, colors, strategic decision-making
11. Kings in the Corner by Jax
Kings in the Corner is played with a regular deck of cards, but it would be a very difficult game to play while traveling….unless there was an awesome card holder to keep the card piles from sliding all over! This game is kind of like solitaire for multiple players where you are racing to play your cards into the middle before your opponent. On your turn you can play as many cards as possible which adds a great twist to the strategy.
- Number of Players: 2-4
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+
- What we like best: Big swings in number of cards remaining each turn, works well as a pass and play on a plane
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to identify and order number
- Kids will learn: Number ordering, card value orders, strategic decision making, basic statistics
12. Guess Who (Grab n’ Go) by Hasboro
In Guess Who players take turns asking yes/no questions to try and deduce which card the other player chose. The travel version is perfect for a heads up game in the car or on a plane!
- Number of Players: 2
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 6+
- What we like best: Watching kids pick up on their opponents questions and use them
- Prerequisite Skills: Reading (unless a parent is there to help)
- Kids will learn: Question forming, strategic questioning
13. Fast Flip by BlueOrange
Fast Flip is like Spot it! plus. The same ‘find it fastest’ style of gameplay, but Fast Flip asks you to count images on the card rather than just find a matching image. This game also comes in a metal tin making it the perfect game to travel with and not worry about the packaging getting damaged in transit! Read our review of Fast Flip Pizza
- Number of Players: 2-8
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+
- What we like best: Fast paced gameplay, easy to shorten the game for smaller time windows
- Prerequisite Skills: Ability to count from one through five
- Kids will learn: Counting, number recognition, attention span/focus
7 & 8 Year Olds
14. Zeus on the Loose by GameWright
Zeus on the Loose is a fast paced card game where players attempt to ‘conquer’ Mount Olympus by holding Zeus at game end (when Olympus total equals or exceeds 100). The deck is a mix of number cards and special cards which can impact the total significantly and throw a wrench in other players plans. Game play is fast and played in rounds so the length can be adjusted to fit your situation.
- Number of Players: 2-5
- Manufacturer Age Recommendation: 8+
- What we like best: Quick games, great brain workout, everyone always has a chance to win until the end
- Prerequisite skills: Counting to 100, understanding of addition and subtraction
- Kids will learn: Mental addition and subtraction, strategic thinking
15. Sushi Go! by GameWright
Sushi Go! is a unique card games where you have to balance not only getting cards that meet your goals, but also preventing your opponents from getting the cards they want. This is a pick n’ pass card game, where you pick one card you want to save from your hand and pass the remaining cards onto your opponents to pick from.
- Number of Players: 2-5
- Manufacturer Age Recommendation: 8+
- What we like best: Challenge of balancing picking cards that help you, and picking cards to thwart your opponent
- Prerequisite skills: Past experience with card games and basic strategic decision making
- Kids will learn: Reasoning, strategic decision making, memory
16. Phase 10 by Mattel Games
If you like Gin, you’ll like Phase 10. The first person to complete 10 challenges wins the game, and if you don’t complete your challenge, you have to try again during the next round!
- Number of Players: 2-6
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+
- What we like best: Challenges get harder as you progress and act as an equilizer to allow other to catch up
- Prerequisite Skills: Understanding of numbers and ability to place them in order starting from a random spot
- Kids will learn: Strategic decision making, odds, number ordering
17. Farkel by Legendary Games
A classic dice game, in Farkel players take turns rolling the 6 dice and deciding which dice to score. After scoring they decide if they want to bank their points or go for more by rerolling the remaining dice. The case is small and hard sided, perfect for traveling. This soft sided, foldable dice tray is a great addition for playing dice games while traveling.
- Number of Players: 2-6
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 8+
- What we like best: Fast paced, great for pass and play
- Prerequisite Skills: Counting to six, understanding pairs and sets, basic addition and subtraction
- Kids will learn: Strategic decision making, odds, mental math
18. Rory’s Story Cubes by GameWright
For creative game play, Rory’s Story Cubes is the perfect fit. While the concept is really simple (roll the dice and create a story using all the pictures) the possibilities are endless and its great to see the creativity that comes out as kids are creating stories. This is also one of our favorite cooperative board games!
- Number of Players: 1+
- Manufacturer Age Recommendation: 8+
- What we like best: Endless possibilities, there are a ridiculous amount of dice combinations possible and when combined with player’s creativity every game is unique and entertaining
- Prerequisite skills: Ability to put a concept into a sentence
- Kids will learn: Creativity and communication
Older Kids
19. Love Letter by AEG
Players compete to try and get their love letter to the person closest to the princess each round without getting caught by their opponents first. Each round goes quickly and play is very interactive. Bonus points because this game is still fun with only 2 players. Travel tip: The cubes that come with the game aren’t needed, you can just use paper or your phone to keep score.
- Number of Players: 2-4
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: Not provided
- What we like best: Great balance of perception and random luck
- Prerequisite Skills: Reading
- Kids will learn: Basic statistics, deductive reasoning, perception of others
20. Exploding Kittens by Exploding Kittens LLC
The basic premise of this game is to use the cards in your hand to avoid drawing an exploding kittens card from the deck. The last kitten (player) left standing wins the game. This game works great as a 2 player game on a plane or in the car, or with more players if you’re playing somewhere you can ‘circle up’.
- Number of Players: 2-5
- Manufacturer Suggested Age Range: 7+ (7 year old could definitely hand this game from a skill set perspective, I put it in older kids because I think the humor aspect would be lost on a 7 year old)
- What we like best: Funny card art and constantly relocating exploding kitten card.
- Prerequisite Skills: Reading
- Kids will learn: Strategic thinking
What’s your go to travel board game?
What are your favorite board games for traveling entertainment? Comment below!
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