10 Ways To Help You Kill Time On the Road

Road trips are a fantastic way for family and friends to have an adventure, and considering it’s getting close to returning to work, school, and college, you may as well find the time for one last trip to celebrate the end of the summer. 

While road trips are exciting, though, the journey can often be arduous, tedious, and frustrating, even uncomfortable. You need to find a way to kill time and make sure the hours fly by as you fly down the highway towards your destination. Whether the trip is two hours or 12 hours, here are some ways you can kill time and keep yourself and the kids entertained until you arrive at your destination. 

Mobile Games 

The mobile game business is enormous, and it feels like there is not a day that goes by without a new game that is sort of the same as an existing game, but also different enough to stand out becomes a hit. Considering you’ll have your phone with you anyway, you can enjoy the wide range of mobile games as well as games that you can play in your browser, such as the Thunderstruck 2 slot free play platform. 

These games will help kill time, and some might even allow you to make some money along the way, which is great for when you need to fill up on gas. Besides online slots, you can also explore all the classics, such as Clash of Clans, Angry Birds, and classics like Snake. 

Video Games

If you’re not a fan of mobile games nor the endless ads that come with them, classic video games are another fantastic way to kill time during your road trip. The likes of the Nintendo Switch have made actual consoles more portable than ever, and there’s always your retro GameBoy to fire up your old Pokemon Red or Blue so you can battle the Elite Four again and emerge victorious. 

While it’s unlikely that your car will have the capacity to install games consoles, you might be able to rig up a system that allows passengers to play during the journey, especially if you go for the classic campervan approach. At least you’ll have space.

Movies and Videos

Movies and videos are a tried and tested solution for passing the time on long journeys. There are so many possibilities that you are spoiled for choice, so consider exactly what you plan on watching at the start of your long journey. 

Maybe there’s a movie that you’ve wanted to watch for years but haven’t gotten around to it. There’s no better time than a road trip. Conversely, you could binge a series that people keep begging you to watch. However, sometimes, you might want to watch something easy, stress-free, and with little commitment, so perhaps your favorite show of all time could be the solution. Prefer social media, then download your favorite Tik Tok, Twitter, or Tik Tok videos on YeetDL to enjoy them on the road without all the roaming costs or connection issues.

You might not want to watch movies or TV for the entire journey, but it’s an excellent way to kill the first few hours. 

Admire the Scenery 

While entertainment seems to be the go-to method for killing time while traveling or taking a road trip, it is not the only way to do so. Considering you’ve taken this road trip to get away from what you do at home, like sitting on the sofa and watching TV all day long, you should take the opportunity to admire the scenery. 

Depending on where you go, you may be introduced to scenery and landscapes that you have never seen before, and you don’t want to spend your entire time staring at a screen. Otherwise, you’ll miss it. Even if you know where you’re going, watching the landscape pass by as you fly down the highway can be a relaxing experience, and it will help psych you up for the rest of your journey. 

Try to Relax 

If you are not in the driving seat, why not relax using one of the new cannabis-based products. ‘CBD gummies’ are one of the latest products to hit the market, and they are growing in popularity thanks to their convenience and range of flavours. Europe is leading the way in terms of legislation and you can Shop CBD gummies in the UK, Germany, France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and many more. As the health benefits include soothing effects for anxiety and stress relief, it may help you relax on a long journey.

Sleep!

For those who can sleep in cars during road trips, it’s often the go-to solution for killing time. Get comfortable, bring your travel pillow and a blanket in case things get chilly, and relax. 

You might need to deal with the rumbling noise of the highway or other people talking, so a pair of wireless headphones won’t go amiss. Also, make sure you download your favorite playlists for offline play, so you don’t waste your days, especially if you’re crossing state lines and incur roaming charges. 

However, you shouldn’t sleep the entire way as this means you may struggle to get to sleep later that night, but taking a nap for a few hours will reduce the length of the journey dramatically. 

I-Spy and Other Games 

I-Spy, Zitchdog, the Alphabet, and License Plate games are all classics that you can turn to when you are bored, which usually happens as you’re entering hour three of a nine-hour (plus) road trip. The beauty of these games is that everyone knows how to play them, and people of all ages can play them, too, so you needn’t worry about saying the wrong thing if there are kids in the car. 

As you are constantly moving, there is always new scenery and fellow drivers to pick from, meaning that there’s no risk of the game getting repetitive. At the same time, the likes of 20 Questions can engage the brain, forcing you to think, often outside the box, before finding the answer. 

Reading

The advent of e-readers has made it easier than ever to indulge in your favorite book wherever you go. If you’re a fan of colossal fantasy epics, it’s difficult to bring each installment with you. Still, with an e-reader, you can jump in and out all from a single device, and many modern e-readers, such as the Kindle Fire, can even support games and other apps just in case you finish faster than expected. 

Of course, not everyone is on board the e-book train, so the classic paper options are always possible if you prefer to physically turn the page. Just make sure they don’t take up too much space, especially at the expense of your road trip buddies’ things. 

Another option is audiobooks. While some readers despise them and don’t consider them reading at all, playing the first installment of a series through the car stereo could create a host of new fans. 

Photography 

Travel photography is something that everything thinks they can do. As long as you have a camera or even a phone with a camera (which everyone does), you probably can be a travel photographer. 

Even if you have no intention of putting them on a blog or selling them, taking photographs of your journey will give you classic memories that you can look back on for years to come, especially if you make this road trip one last hurrah before everyone settles down with families or moves away. 

From the weird to the wonderful, you can capture photos of everything you come across, and you might even get a few snaps of wildlife that you can’t see anywhere else. 

Write About The Adventure

If you’re not one for photography and find that all of the pictures you take are either blurry, poorly framed, or have a thumb covering half the lens, then writing about the adventure in a travel journal is another superb way to kill time on the road trip. 

The beauty of travel journaling is that you can do it wherever you have a pen and paper. You can follow the Kerouac route and transform it into a wild odyssey of adventure with fictionalized names but real people. You can use the more traditional travel writing approach and focus purely on your surroundings rather than the characters you are traveling alongside. 

Whichever method you choose, you can look back on it whenever you feel you’re missing your adventures and remind yourself that, although the journey was long, it was also immensely enjoyable. 

Weird Stops

Every highway has those weird and quirky stops that you must check out; otherwise, you’ll feel you’re missing something. They are usually found in the middle of nowhere, typically with a gaudy neon sign that flickers in the darkness and a lot of tacky statues or souvenirs standing outside. 

While stopping at these places won’t speed up your journey, it will give you the chance to stretch your legs and take a break, which is essential regardless of the journey’s length. This will make sure your driver can get refreshed, or you can swap over driving duties to give them a break. 

If you’ve got plenty of time to kill, you can even stop for a picnic or grab something from the diner down the road and talk about just how weird that place was. 

Flying By

Even though a road trip can be long and exhausting, finding the right games to play to pass the time will ensure you and your family can enjoy the journey. It might feel as if there is nothing to do while stuck in the car, but as long as you bring enough to pass the time, you’ll find that the entire journey will fly by, and you’ll arrive in no time at all ready for the next stage of your adventure.