Road trip bingo cards
Forty things visible from a car window, on cards that last more than four miles. 40 squares are loaded below — enough for more different cards than anybody will ever print — and you can replace any of them with your own.
The cards
Road trip bingo
Card 1 of 2 B I N G O Traffic cone Car the same colour as ours Football pitch Police car Rainbow Church spire Farm animals Bike on a car Cows Caravan Services sign Playground FREE Motorbike Ambulance Sheep Speed camera Windmill Roof box River Castle Learner driver Bridge Roadworks Petrol station Road trip bingo
Card 2 of 2 B I N G O Roadworks Caravan Bike on a car Cows Roundabout Playground A dog in another car Roof box Services sign Bird of prey Tractor Wind turbine FREE Level crossing Aeroplane overhead Football pitch Rainbow Bridge Castle Car the same colour as ours Tunnel Canal boat Windmill Horses in a field Speed camera
Call sheet
Already shuffled — call them in this order, top to bottom, and tick as you go.
- Services sign
- Wind turbine
- Canal boat
- Motorbike
- A dog in another car
- Tractor
- Bus
- Learner driver
- Bird of prey
- Church spire
- Roof box
- Bike on a car
- River
- Bridge
- Rainbow
- Petrol station
- Police car
- Windmill
- Horse box
- Speed camera
- Car the same colour as ours
- Aeroplane overhead
- Roundabout
- Traffic cone
- Level crossing
- Taxi
- Someone asks if we are there yet
- Tunnel
- Farm animals
- Roadworks
- Caravan
- Ambulance
- Horses in a field
- Playground
- Castle
- Sheep
- Convertible
- Lorry with a name on it
- Football pitch
- Cows
Why most car bingo cards fail
They are made of things you see constantly. A card of "a red car, a lorry, a tree" is finished before the first junction, and then there is nothing to do for two hours — which is the opposite of the point.
This list is graded. Some squares go early (a lorry, roadworks, a bridge), some take a while (a windmill, a level crossing, a bird of prey), and a few might not come at all, which is what keeps a card open. The mix is deliberate: a card everybody completes at the same moment is a card that stops working the moment it is completed.
It is also a list you can check from the back seat without arguing. "A castle" is a castle. "An interesting building" is a forty-minute negotiation.
Printing for the car
Print one card per child, not per family — the whole point is that two children are looking for different things, so neither can simply copy the other. A four by four grid suits under-sevens and finishes inside an hour.
A clipboard or a hard book underneath makes it usable in a moving car. Pencils travel better than pens and are less permanent when the car turns a corner.
For a long journey, print two rounds and hand the second one out after the services. A fresh card at the two-hour mark is worth more than a longer one at the start.
Printing road trip bingo for a group
A five by five card takes 24 of the 40 squares here, so no two cards draw the same set — more different cards than anybody will ever print in all. Set the number to the number of players and print once, and "Tractor" will land in a different square on every card, or not appear on it at all.
Every card is checked against the ones already made, so thirty road trip cards means thirty different ones. If the list were ever too short for the number requested, the generator would say so and name both figures rather than quietly repeat itself.
The print stylesheet drops the page furniture entirely, so what comes out of the printer is road trip bingo cards and nothing else — no header, no navigation, no advertisement — two cards to a sheet unless you ask for one or four, and the call sheet last.
Common questions
What age is road trip bingo for?
Four upwards with pictures read aloud, and independently from about six. Younger children do better on a three by three or four by four grid, both of which the generator will print.
How long does a car bingo card take?
A four by four card takes about forty minutes on a mixed route and much longer on a motorway, where the scenery repeats. A five by five card is a full journey.
Can I make the cards for a specific route?
Yes, and it is worth it for a route you drive often. Type in the landmarks you actually pass — a particular bridge, a specific sign, the field with the alpacas — and the cards become a game about that journey.