Road Trip Games for Two: 17 Car Games With and Without a Phone

The best road trip games for two depend on who's driving. When one of you has the wheel, stick to talking games the driver can play by voice: 20 questions, the license plate game, the alphabet game, would you rather and Ghost. When you're both passengers, parked at a rest stop or done for the night, add a pencil game or a two-player phone game. Our pick for that is Torpedo, because it needs no signal: two of you can play a sea battle on one iPhone, play the computer, or link two iPhones with no internet at all.

We make Torpedo, so we're biased, and it's #1 here for one specific job: offline play for two passengers. Every other pick on this list is a game we'd recommend to a friend, and none of them is ours.

1. Torpedo: the best offline game for two passengers

#1 · Our pick

Torpedo: Sea Battle 2 Player

Free with optional purchases · iPhone, iPad & iPhone Duo · iOS 17 or later

Long drives cross dead zones, and many two-player phone games stop working without a signal. Torpedo keeps playing. In the back seat, pass one phone between you: you place your fleet, hand it over behind the handoff screen, and your partner places theirs without seeing yours. If you each have an iPhone, Nearby connects them directly over Wi-Fi, so you can each hold your own phone across a motel room or a picnic table with no bars at all.

It's the same sea battle you may have played on squared paper (the paper version is #12 below), with the rules you grew up with: a 5-ship or a 10-ship fleet, ships that may touch or must keep apart, and a hit that earns another shot or not. When your partner falls asleep, the computer plays fair: the listing promises it never peeks at your board. Everything it does offline is on our features page.

Why it made the list

• Two players share one iPhone or iPad, and a handoff screen hides each fleet while you pass it over.
• It plays the computer with no connection, from Beginner to an Expert that learns where you like to hide ships.
• Nearby links two iPhones or iPads over Wi-Fi, peer to peer, with no internet and no account.

Keep in mind

• It runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or later.
• It's free with ads. Remove Ads or the optional Admiral Club subscription turns them off.
• Online battles, battles by turns and SharePlay need an internet connection.
• It's for passengers. The driver plays the talking games below.

Quick picks: road trip games for two

One rule before you start: games for the driver

The driver plays with their voice only. No reading, writing, scrolling or tapping, and no searching the roadside for something to win a point. NHTSA's research note on distracted driving in 2023 counts 3,275 people killed in crashes involving distracted drivers that year, and it lists talking to passengers among the distractions, next to phones and the radio.

So keep the driver's games light, and let the driver drop out without losing in heavy traffic, rain, merges or an unfamiliar city. On iPhone, the driver can set the Driving Focus to turn on by itself in a moving car, which silences or limits notifications. Every phone game in this article is for passengers.

Talking games the driver can join

2. 20 questions

One of you thinks of a person, place or thing. The other gets 20 yes-or-no questions to find it. The writer Hannah More described teaching it at a London dinner party in 1786, and it became an American radio panel show in 1946 (Wikipedia), so nobody needs the rules explained. For two adults, narrow the pool to things you both know: "someone from our wedding," "a place we've stayed," "a meal one of us cooked badly." It turns into a memory game.

21 questions is a different game with a similar name: you take turns asking each other any personal question, and the other person has to answer. It works on a quiet night drive when you want to talk more than compete.

3. The license plate game

The license plate game is the classic American car game: spot plates from as many states as you can before you arrive. The passenger keeps the list, on paper or in a notes app, and the driver calls out plates they notice in the normal course of driving.

For two people, pick a format before you leave:

1. Team play. Set a target ("20 states by Albuquerque") and bet the next coffee on it.
2. Head to head. Each plate counts for whoever calls it first, and each state counts once.
3. Plate sentences. Use the letters on a plate as the start of a phrase: "KTW" becomes "Kevin Took Waffles." The funniest line wins the round.

On the interstate you'll fill the list faster than you think. Alaska and Hawaii are the plates people brag about.

4. The alphabet game

Find each letter from A to Z, in order, on signs, billboards, trucks and exits. Race each other, or work together to reach Z before the next town. Q, X and Z decide most games; "Exit" and "Taxi" help with X, and a "Quarry Road" sign is worth celebrating.

The driver shouldn't hunt for letters. If the driver plays, give them a version with no looking: name an animal (or a band, or a city) for every letter, A to Z, taking turns. Get stuck for five seconds and you lose the round.

5. Would you rather

One of you offers two options and the other picks one and explains why. The reason is the interesting part. For couples, make the questions about your actual life: "Would you rather spend a year in Lisbon or Denver?" "Would you rather redo the kitchen or take the trip?" Try to guess your partner's answer before they give it, and keep score on who guesses right.

6. Word chain (Geography)

Name a place. The next player names a place that starts with the last letter of yours: Texas, Seattle, El Paso, Ohio. You can't repeat a place, and you lose if you take more than about five seconds (Wikipedia). Places ending in A pile up fast, so whoever learns a few A-starting names (Albany, Akron, Austin) usually wins.

Change the category every round to keep it fresh: movies, foods, bands, anything you both know.

7. Ghost

Ghost is a spelling game for two or more players that needs nothing at all (Wikipedia). You take turns adding one letter to a growing word fragment. Every fragment must be the start of a real word, and whoever completes a word loses the round. Agree on a minimum word length first, usually three or four letters.

If you think your partner has no real word in mind, challenge them. They name a word or lose the round. Each lost round earns a letter of G-H-O-S-T, and spelling the whole word means you're out. It's the best pure-talk game for two adults on this list: no luck, short rounds, and a lot of arguing over whether a word counts.

8. Cows on my side

Each of you owns one side of the car. Count the cows on your side as you pass them. If you pass a cemetery on your side, you lose every cow you've counted. House rules vary, so settle yours before the first pasture: whether horses count, and whether one of you can claim a herd that sits straight ahead.

It's made for exactly two players, and it's at its best in farm country, where one pasture can swing the game. The driver counts only what they see at a glance and the passenger keeps the tally.

9. Song association

One of you says a word, and the other has five seconds to sing a line of a song that has that word in it. Then they give the next word. "Rain" gets "Purple Rain"; "purple" gets "Purple Haze." It works well when you share a taste in music, and the driver can play because all it needs is a voice. Loser picks the next playlist.

10. I spy

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with…" and the other player guesses. On a highway, things pass too fast, so limit the game to what stays in view: the sky, the inside of the car, the road ahead. It's simple, which makes it a good game for the tired last hour.

11. Road trip trivia

The passenger reads questions aloud and the driver answers, then you swap when you change drivers. Use a trivia deck from home, a trivia book, or a list the passenger saved before you left. For a two-person version, make your own questions about places on the route: the passenger reads a road sign or the next town's name, and the driver guesses something about it before you check at the next stop.

Pencil games for passengers and rest stops

12. Sea battle on paper

Each of you draws two 10×10 grids, lettered A to J and numbered 1 to 10. You hide a fleet on one grid and call shots at your partner's fleet on the other: "C7?" "Miss." The game needs a pencil and squared paper, so it works when every battery is flat. Both players have to mark their grids, so it's a game for two passengers or a diner booth, never for the driver.

Our guide to sea battle on paper has the grid, the classic fleet, a way to keep each other honest, and a free printable sheet you can throw in the glovebox before you leave. If you'd rather not draw grids, Torpedo is the same game on one phone.

13. Road trip bingo

Make or print a 5×5 card for each passenger with things you'll see on the way: a red barn, a water tower, a motorcycle, a state line sign, a dog with its head out the window. Mark them off as you spot them, and the first full row wins. Make the two cards different, or you'll both shout at the same barn.

Phone games for passengers (no signal needed)

Every game below plays with no cellular data, which matters on long rural highways. Open each one once on Wi-Fi before you leave so updates and any purchases are done. All four are passenger-only.

14. Lichess

Lichess is a free, open-source chess app with no ads (Lichess). Its App Store listing includes over-the-board play with a friend on one phone, plus a chess clock (App Store), and since a March 2026 update it also plays the computer offline at 12 levels. Chess games run long, so it suits the slow middle of a drive.

Keep in mind: online games and live broadcasts need a connection. Test over-the-board mode in airplane mode before you count on it.

15. The Battle of Polytopia

Polytopia is a small civilization game: explore, build cities and fight the other tribes. Its App Store listing says it can be played offline and includes Pass & Play, so two passengers can share one phone and take turns. It's free, and extra tribes cost $0.99 to $1.99 each.

Keep in mind: matchmaking with players around the world needs internet.

16. MONOPOLY: The Board Game

The official MONOPOLY app costs $4.99 with no ads, and its listing says you can play friends offline with Pass & Play on one device, or AI opponents with no connection. A full game on a phone runs long, which fits a long road trip.

Keep in mind: two-player MONOPOLY can drag. Agree on a time limit, and count the richest player as the winner when it runs out.

17. 2 Player Games: Offline Games

This free collection from Jindoblu puts both players on the same screen at once: air hockey, ping pong, pool, snakes, sumo, tic-tac-toe and more (App Store). Each mini-game is short, which suits the last 20 minutes before a stop.

Keep in mind: it contains ads, and Remove Ads costs $6.99. Two players on one small screen works best on an iPad or a larger iPhone.

Needs a signal: GamePigeon, the popular iMessage game pack (App Store), sends each move through Messages, so it stalls in dead zones. It's still great for the stretches with coverage. For more games that don't need a connection, see our list of the best offline iPhone games.

How to plan games for a long drive

1. Match the game to the road. Spotting games (license plates, cows, the alphabet) need traffic, signs or farmland. Talking games work anywhere, including at night.
2. Switch every hour or so. A game that's fun for 30 minutes gets old by 90. Rotate between a spotting game, a word game and some quiet time.
3. Download before you go. Update your phone games on home Wi-Fi and open each one once. Bring a car charger, because two phones playing a game drain fast.
4. Pack paper. Squared paper and two pencils weigh nothing and cover sea battle, bingo and Ghost scorekeeping.
5. Let the driver quit. Any game should pause the moment the road needs full attention, with no penalty.

Traveling as a couple? Our games for couples guide has more ideas for date nights and long-distance stretches, and the best 2-player board games are worth packing for the motel.

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