Road Trip Apps for Kids

Sarah Combs

Car trips are like the ultimate test for any family, all of that time cooped up in a car can result in some serious: “I’m bored!” situations.  Beat the road trip woes by checking out some of these awesome apps for kids. They’re guaranteed to keep your weary travelers happy and engaged for hours. 

Apps for Toddlers


Buildo Rescue Sticker Book: It's essentially a digital sticker book done very, very right. It's a total creative sandbox where kids can create elaborate scenes, complete with sounds and side-scrolling action. This may look like it's made for little dudes, but there's potential for fun for every age and gender.

Jellytoon’s Birthday Countdown: This adorable little story is just too cute. The characters are more than lovable and there's enough content to keep kids entertained and engaged for at least a decent while. A side bonus is that this app even has the potential to be slightly educational. There's a read to me and read by myself feature and you can click on each of the words to hear them pronounced as many times as you'd like. Overall, definitely a great addition to any road trip.

Talking Tom Cat: There’s something about this app that is absolutely irresistible to little kids. Tom is a cat that responds to your actions, whether that means petting him, poking him, feeding him, or playing with him, he goes along with it all. He also repeats everything that you say, which provides never-ending entertainment potential for kids.

Apps for Kids

Cut the Rope: A beautiful game with adorable characters and a gorgeous user interface. It plays off of really interesting and intricate physics puzzles. If Pixar had made a blockbuster app, this would be it.  Although this app has been popular on Apple’s app store for a while, it is new to the Android Market.

Meteor Math: This is kind of a modern day take on Math Blaster, which I absolutely loved playing as a kid. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is where I learned the majority of my math skills, just as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego taught me all I know about geography (and no, I don't know that much about geography). Meteor Math offers lessons and games in subtraction, addition, multiplication and division. Even though it's educational, I definitely spent way too long playing with it, and I'm an adult, so kids have to love it too, right?

World of Goo: 

This started out as a really cool, indie kind of PC game that was just too cute for words. But it doesn't just have looks, it has brains as well. Anyone in the family who loves puzzles will be absolutely enamored with this little game where blobs of goo are far more interesting than ever before. (Were they interesting before? Not sure.) This transfers so well to tablets and smartphones, it's as if you're holding a whole world of goo in your hands.

Sarah Combs is a writer for Famigo.com, a startup based in Austin, Texas that helps families find and manage mobile content. She has reviewed more toddler apps than she cares to admit, and will continue until the best ones are easily discovered by families.