Three hours on the road, two children in the back: the right pocket game changes everything. Here is our survival kit, age by age.
Every summer the same question crosses the shop: "What can I bring to keep the children busy during the trip?" Good news: the best travel games are often the smallest, and the cheapest. Provided you follow three rules, then pick from the right shelf for each age.
What makes a good travel game
- Light and compact: it fits in a seat pocket or in the child's own little backpack.
- Self-running: the child can play alone or with a sibling, without a permanent referee in the front seat.
- Nothing that strays: puzzles and building sets stay at home; a piece under a train seat is lost to science. When travelling, favour cards, notebooks and everything that closes shut.
The classics with no equipment
Before any equipment, the great classics ask for nothing: counting yellow cars, spotting the letters of the alphabet on road signs, yes-no games, first one to see the sea. They break up the long stretches, and save the pocket games for the real desert crossings.
Under 2: everything attached, nothing on the floor
For the very young, rule number three is a matter of survival: everything that can fall will fall, and the twentieth rattle pick-up happens in exactly the yoga pose you imagine. The answer is called a busy board: a soft activity panel where everything is sewn or clipped on: pull-tabs, peekaboo mirror, pop-up flower, squeaky panda. Twelve occupations, zero objects on the floor, and a format that unrolls on a lap.
Baby Activity Board Peek & Pop - Sensory Busy Board
2-4 years: colour, stick, cuddle
At this age, alternate short activities. The colouring book dedicated to the trip (with its felt pens in a zip case) remains the safest bet:
Animal Coloring & Activity Book
Add a pouch of stickers, world champion of the weight-to-attention-span ratio, and a pocket companion for reassurance at the stops: a small-format plush makes both journeys, the trip and the cuddle.
Tintin's Milou Plush Toy - 8 cm
A useful marker for the car: some children get queasy as soon as they look down. For them, colouring and stickers can wait for the train or the plane; on the road, go back to the observation games above.
5-7 years: cards, queens of travel
The fold-down tray of the train or the plane is a game table in disguise, and a deck of cards is endless for zero bulk. The Tintin deck does two things at once: you play, and you meet the cars from the albums again.
Tintin Playing Cards - Cars from The Adventures of Tintin
Happy families keeps a whole sibling group busy; the Incollables version adds questions on three levels, so young and old play the same game.
Happy Families Quiz Game
And a beautiful deck of 54 illustrated cards covers the whole repertoire: war, old maid, and solitaire games on the tray table.
54 Card Game - Arrhenius
8 and up: pocket strategy
Trio is learned in two minutes and played in short rounds: ideal between two stations, and children beat the adults fair and square.
Trio - Deduction Card Game
For long journeys, the compact 2-in-1 chess and draughts set is designed exactly for this: a small wooden board, with grooves along the edges that hold the pieces even when the train brakes. Two games in a single piece of luggage.
Chess & Checkers 2-in-1 Travel Set - Compact Wooden Board
The ideal game bag, by age
- Under 2: an all-attached activity board, the comforter (and its double), a fabric book.
- Ages 2-4: a colouring book with its pencil case, stickers, a pocket plush.
- Ages 5-7: one or two card games (war, happy families), a notebook and pencils.
- Ages 8 and up: a clever card game (deduction, speed), a compact chess set, a travel journal to fill in.
The best travel game is still the one you bring out on the terrace once you arrive: the journey passes, the ritual stays.
About the author: This article was written by the team of L'Oiseau de Paradis, a Parisian toy shop founded in 1932. Four generations in the service of childhood and authentic play.
