Twenty team games that unlock one at a time, plus a Solvang walking tour. Split the car into two teams, shuffle them during the trip, and track every player's points. Every game you finish reveals a letter of a secret message, and nobody sees the next game until you play this one.
Getting the game ready…
Use your family Google account, or get a one-time link by email. You stay signed in for 90 days.
Pick the name your family sees on the scoreboard, and add a photo. Snap a selfie or pick one from your photos.
Everyone who has signed in is on the roster. Split into two teams. Teams get reshuffled during the trip, and every point a team scores counts for each player on it. The real prize is the top spot in the player standings.
Tap a player to move them to the other team. Tap "New name" until you find team names you like.
Each finished game reveals one letter, colored for the team that won it. Think you know the message? Solve it early for 5 bonus points.
Play the games in order. Use the scoreboard for points during each game. When a game ends, tap who won at the bottom of its card. That reveals a letter and unlocks the next game. Each card is tagged so the driver never has to look away from the road.
Pulled over for gas, food, or a stretch? Draw a card. Pit stop games sit outside the quest, so play as many as you like. The winner gets 2 points.
Play the first five seconds of a song. The first team to shout the title gets the point. Teams take turns picking songs, so each side can hunt for tracks the other side won't know.
Scoring: 1 point per title, a bonus point for naming the artist too.
Pick a letter and a category, like "S" and "foods." Teams trade answers back and forth. If a team stalls for five seconds or repeats an answer, the other team takes the round.
Scoring: 1 point to the team left standing.
One team whispers together and picks a person, place, or thing. The other team gets 20 yes or no questions to figure it out. Sitting in separate rows makes the secret huddle easy.
Scoring: 2 points for a guess within 10 questions, 1 point within 20, otherwise 1 point to the team that stumped them.
Before you leave, build a list of things you'll pass on your route and give each one a point value. The first team to call it out gets the points. Here's the list we used driving up the California coast to Solvang:
| Oil pump jack | 1 |
| Out-of-state license plate | 2 |
| Surfer in the water | 3 |
| Offshore oil platform | 3 |
| First ocean view | 5 |
| A windmill | 10 |
Tip: make the rarest thing on your route worth 10 so the game stays close until the end.
The first team to collect plates from 10 different states wins. Your home state doesn't count.
Scoring: 5 points to the winning team.
Each team makes up three statements about themselves or the family. Two are true and one is made up. The other team has to pick the lie.
Scoring: 1 point for spotting the lie, 1 point to the other team if the lie survives.
One team sets a line, like "6 red trucks in the next 10 minutes." The other team bets over or under. Great filler for long freeway stretches.
Scoring: 1 point for the correct call. Swap who sets the line each round.
Find every letter from A to Z, in order, on road signs, billboards, and license plates. Each letter has to come from a different sign. Q, X, and Z make the last stretch tense.
Scoring: 5 points to the first team to reach Z.
On a count of three, each player on a team blurts out any word. Then both players try to say the same word, using the last two words as clues. Keep going until you match. Both teams race at the same time.
Scoring: 1 point to the first team that syncs up.
A passenger reads the three letters on a nearby license plate out loud. Both teams race to make a phrase using those letters as first letters, in order. "KDB" could be "Kids Demand Burgers."
Scoring: 1 point to the first phrase that makes sense, a bonus point if it makes the other team laugh.
Name a start word and an end word with the same number of letters, like COLD to WARM. Teams change one letter at a time, and every step has to be a real word: COLD, CORD, CARD, WARD, WARM. Both teams work it out loud in their own row.
Scoring: 2 points to the first team to finish, 1 more if they did it in the fewest steps.
The scorekeeper reads a riddle. Teams get one guess each per riddle, and the first right answer wins. Tap a riddle to reveal the answer.
A piano.
A towel.
Footsteps.
A needle.
A bottle.
Your age.
A cold.
A map.
Scoring: 1 point per riddle. Once you run out, each team writes riddles for the other.
Heading to Solvang, the Danish village in the Santa Ynez Valley? Save these for the last hour of the drive and the walk through town.
The scorekeeper reads each question and both teams huddle. Lock in an answer before anyone taps to reveal it.
Sunny field.
1911, by Danish immigrants, many from the Midwest.
The Little Mermaid.
The stork.
About one-third the size.
Hans Christian Andersen.
1804. Mission Santa Inés is one of California's 21 missions.
Ostriches, at Ostrichland.
The 1930s. It started in 1936.
Scoring: 1 point per correct answer. Both teams can score on the same question.
The scorekeeper reads a Danish word you'll likely see in Solvang. Teams guess what it means in English. Close counts.
Hi.
Thanks.
Welcome.
Cheers! (a toast)
A cozy, warm, content feeling.
Literally "apple slices." In Solvang, round pancake balls with powdered sugar and jam.
An open-faced sandwich on rye bread.
A buttery, pretzel-shaped pastry.
Scoring: 1 point per word. A bonus point to the team that orders æbleskiver first in town.
Hans Christian Andersen was Danish, so his stories are fair game. One team describes a fairy tale in exactly five words. The other team guesses the title. Try The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier.
Scoring: 1 point for a correct guess. Using a word from the title costs the describing team a point.
Once you park, the teams split up and race to snap team photos with everything on the list. Every team member has to be in the shot. Meet back in 45 minutes and compare.
| A Danish flag | 1 |
| A thatched-look roof | 2 |
| A stork on a rooftop | 2 |
| A windmill | 2 |
| A plate of æbleskiver | 3 |
| The giant red clog | 3 |
| The Round Tower | 3 |
| The Hans Christian Andersen bust | 4 |
| The Little Mermaid statue | 5 |
| Your team posing like the statue | +2 |
Scoring: add up the list. Teams back late give up 1 point per minute.
For strolls around the village. Some last the whole week.
Storks sit on rooftops all over Solvang. Every time you're out walking, the first team to call a new stork claims it. Keep a running count for the whole stay. A stork you already counted doesn't count again.
Scoring: 1 point per stork. The team with the most storks on the last day gets 5 bonus points.
Each team picks a different Danish pastry from a different bakery and brings it back for a taste test. Everyone rates every pastry from 1 to 10 without knowing which team bought it. Rotate bakeries each day until you crown the best pastry in town.
Scoring: 1 point to the team whose pastry scores higher that day.
Pick a stop from the walking tour below. One team has to lead everyone there with no phones, using only street signs and memory. The other team times them.
Scoring: 2 points for arriving with no wrong turns, 1 point with one wrong turn. Switch leaders for the next stop.
Anyone can yell "Freeze!" once per walk. Everyone has to stop and hold a pose like a statue. The first person to move or laugh costs their team a point.
Scoring: 1 point to the team that holds the longest.
A loop starting from WorldMark Solvang at 280 Alisal Road. Head north on Alisal, wander west along Copenhagen Drive, come back east on Mission Drive, and end at the mission. Each stop has a team challenge worth points. Tap a stop's checkbox when you get there. Museum hours change, so check before you go.
436 Alisal Rd, at Mariposa Dr
A one-third scale copy of Copenhagen's 17th-century Rundetaarn, which was built as an observatory. It sits behind other buildings, so look for the short path from the sidewalk.
Team challenge: each team guesses how tall the original tower in Copenhagen is. Closest wins. (Answer: about 35 meters, or 115 feet.) 1 point.
Alisal Rd and Copenhagen Dr
One of Solvang's windmills, right where the shopping streets begin. Bit O' Denmark nearby is the oldest building in town, a former school more than 100 years old.
Team challenge: best team photo recreating the windmill's blades with your arms. The other team judges. 1 point.
Walk west on Copenhagen Dr
The main walking street, lined with bakeries and half-timbered shops. Solvang Restaurant is known for æbleskiver. Danish Mill Bakery sells kransekake, a tower of almond ring cakes.
Team challenge: first team to find a stork on a roof along this block. 1 point.
1663 Copenhagen Dr, at 1st St
A big red Danish clog in front of the Solvang Shoe Store. It's one of the best-known photo spots in town.
Team challenge: each team guesses what size shoe the clog would be. The shop staff might settle it. Otherwise, the most creative team photo with the clog wins. 1 point.
West end of Copenhagen Dr
Thatched-style roofs and another windmill. The visitor center is nearby if you want a paper map.
Team challenge: Hamlet is a Danish prince. Each team acts out one famous line from the play. The other team guesses which one. 1 point.
1624 Elverhoy Way, a short detour south
A museum of Solvang history and Danish heritage, in a building styled after an 18th-century Danish farmhouse.
Team challenge: each team finds one surprising fact inside and quizzes the other team on it. 1 point per correct answer.
Mission Dr and 1st St
A small green park with a bust of Hans Christian Andersen. A good spot to rest and eat any pastries you picked up.
Team challenge: play a round of Fairy Tale Five on the bench. 1 point per correct guess.
Upstairs at The Book Loft, 1680 Mission Dr
A small museum about the life and work of the Danish writer behind The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid.
Team challenge: find the year Andersen was born. First team to say it to a parent wins. (Answer: 1805.) 1 point.
Mission Dr and Alisal Rd, northwest corner
A replica of Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid statue, in a fountain at Denmarket Square.
Team challenge: best team pose copying the statue. 2 points, since she's worth the walk.
1760 Mission Dr, a few blocks east
Founded in 1804, more than a century before Solvang. It's one of California's 21 Spanish missions, and one of its bells dates to 1804.
Team challenge: each team guesses how many years older the mission is than Solvang. Closest wins. (Answer: 107.) 1 point.
South on Alisal Rd to WorldMark
Head back down Alisal Road. For a longer day, Hans Christian Andersen Park is north on Atterdag Road, with a castle-like entrance, a playground, and a loop trail.
Team challenge: Lead the Way home with no phones. 2 points.