Tame Your Little Monsters with 'The Car Treasure Trail' Game!

As part of our 15 games to entertain kids on long car journeys series to help you survive an upcoming trip in one piece, we teamed up with our friends at Visit Cornwall to create a great free downloadable observation game for children aged five and up.

In a nutshell...

Think 'Blockbusters' but with cars! Colour in the cars on the game sheet before you embark on your journey. Each time you spot a car of that colour, you can work your way around the streets of Cornwall to reach the finish before anyone else.

This will stop you getting asked "are we nearly there yet?" for...

About 30 minutes, depending on what sort of road you are on.

LOL factor: 

Medium. Excitement starts to build towards the end!

Required Mensa levels:

Very easy. Anyone aged 5-105 can enjoy The Car Treasure Trail.

Instructions:

Before you set off on your journey, download and print off a game sheet for each player. Start by colouring all the cars on your sheet, with the first car matching your own car's colour. The rest of the cars can be coloured in any way you want, except that no more than four cars can be the same colour.

Once all the players have coloured in their sheets, the game can commence. The aim is to be the first to reach the finish by moving from car to car. You can only move one car at a time, and only when you see a real car of the same colour on your sheet.

You can choose to go along any route, but once you follow a certain road, you can't turn back. You can only go forwards by seeing a real car of the colour that's next on your sheet. Players mark their progress by drawing a line from car to car. The winner is the first one to reach the finish.

Tips and variants:

• Print off more sheets to play more than one game, or have each player point at where they are along their route so you can re-use the same sheets. You could also add our Lincoln and Wiltshire versions into the mix for variety.
• Instead of allowing free play whereby players can see as many cars as they want until someone reaches the finish, structure the game more by getting the players to take it in turns and have one or two minutes to see a car of the colour they need.  If they don’t see a car in their time allocation, it is the next player’s turn.
• If you are on a motorway, then play the game with cars you overtake or that overtake you, so the players don't reach the finish line too quickly.

Looking for more car games?

You can see our full list of games to entertain kids on long car journeys here, providing you with plenty of ways to keep the kids occupied no matter their age or the length of your journey.