Best Family Travel Card Games to Make the Road Trip Go Smoothly

When you think of fun travel card games for the family, you might say Go Fish or Crazy 8’s or Old Maid. But what are the new and exciting games that your kids will want to play again and again.

Our family discovered a few new card games called Sleeping Queen, Too Many Monkeys, Slamwich, On The Dot and Stinky Pig for around the house and definitely on the go travel. Let’s run down the best card games for families.

Sleeping Queens – A Royally Rousing Card Game

In Sleeping Queens, players deal out 5 red cards for each player and set up the Green queen card in the middle and let the fun begin. Collect Knights, Magical Wands, Dragons and Sleeping Potions. The object of the game is to collect five queen cards to win the game.

A few fun rules to make the game more challenging. The Strawberry Queen is immune from Sleeping potions and Knights. Once you wake the Strawberry Queen up, she is yours for the rest of the game. The Rose Queen has the special ability to take another queen with her- so if you pick the Rose Queen you can take another queen for your collection (remember you are trying to collect five to win). Also, you can not simultaneously hold both the Cat Queen and the Dog Queen because they fight like cats and dogs.?

Our family has really enjoyed this game and we often have Sleeping Queen marathons. This game is definitely our family’s best card came of 2018.

Also, you can use arithmetic to get rid of cards. For instance, if you have a ten and two five cards, you can say “5 + 5 equals 10” and ditch those three cards. Our kids love this, however, younger kids might need adult help with this portion. Lastly, because the game can accommodate 2-5 players, this game is perfect for our family, either a pair of us can play or our entire squad!

Too Many Monkeys – A Totally Bananas Card Game

In this game, Primo the Monkey is fast asleep until his friends swing by for a surprise pajama party. You must help Primo chase away primate pranksters by flipping and swapping cards in numerical order. The elephants and giraffes want to crash the party, so watch out!

If you are lucky, you might draw a wild monkey card to clear out the room in one clean sweep. The first player to get Primo back to bed wins. Our family loved this game and it has become another favorite travel game for the whole family.

On The Dot – The Super Spotted Brain Teaser

A challenging brain teaser card game with 64 pattern cards and 16 transparent tiles that you use to create the pattern given on the card. Play by yourself or up to 4 players.  The game is brain teaser for sure.

You flip, rotate and overlap the transparent squares. The challenge is- How do the tiles fit together?  Our family enjoyed racing each other to solve the pattern cards and collect 5 to win.

Slamwich – Slap On The Fun

If you are hungry for some fun- try this one. Our children love playing Slamwich at school. This game has you flipping and giant loaf of cards to build slamwiches and double-deckers. Ham, cheese, tomato… Slap! What is your favorite any of slamwich?

Beware! You’ll have to catch thieves and stop hungry individuals along the way. Be there first and win the of pile card. Become a Super Slamwich hero by collecting all the cards.

Stinky Pig game- Pass Him Fast…. It’s a Gas!

Stinky Pig is a favorite at our house. Pass the stinky pig quickly and don’t get stuck holding him when he toots. This is a fast-paced game that you must hurry to roll the die and avoid getting a token. Start the game by holding the stinky pig in one hand and the die in the other.

Press the pig’s belly – when he starts singing roll the die. The die will tell you which direction to pass. Left, right or Pig Face (roll again). Remember to roll and pass fast. The pig, at some point, will “pass gas” and you don’t want to be caught holding him. Our family decided to add another rule to this game. If the pig stops singing but doesn’t toot, then play start again and no token is given. Also, we found that 3+ players was the best.

What are your favorite ways to pass times on road trips over the holidays?