RV activities for kids: Living full time in an RV with kids means you’ll always be looking for fun RV activities for kids. Between rainy campground days, small spaces, and toddlers with endless energy, having a list of easy RV activities for kids and RV outdoor activities can make family travel much more enjoyable.
| Activity | Indoor | Outdoor | Rainy Day | Toddler Friendly |
| Legos | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Bike Riding | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Sticker Books | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Chalk Art | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Scavenger Hunt | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Easy RV Activities for Kids Inside the Camper
When the weather isn’t cooperating or you simply want a relaxing day inside, there are plenty of RV activities for kids that don’t require much space. These RV activities for kids are perfect for travel days, rainy afternoons, or quiet mornings before heading out to explore.
- RV scavenger hunt: Create a simple scavenger hunt using items around the camper, such as a flashlight, spoon, stuffed animal, pillow, or favorite book. You can even make it educational by searching for shapes, colors, numbers, or letters.
- Sticker books: Reusable sticker books are perfect for travel days because they are mess-free, lightweight, and easy to store.
- Coloring stations: Keep a small basket filled with coloring books, washable markers, crayons, and printable activity sheets for quiet afternoons.
- Travel games: Pack a few travel-sized card games, magnetic board games, or memory games for family game time inside the camper.
- Sensory bins: Small sensory bins filled with rice, pom-poms, or kinetic sand are great for toddlers and preschoolers. Just use a shallow container to help contain the mess.
- Audiobook time: Audiobooks provide a relaxing break after a busy day of hiking or exploring. Pair listening time with coloring or building blocks for a peaceful quiet activity.
- Magnetic tiles: Magnetic tiles are one of our favorite RV kid friendly activities because they store easily and provide endless opportunities for imaginative play.
- Baking in the RV kitchen: Invite your kids to help make pancakes, muffins, homemade pizza, or cookies. Baking teaches valuable life skills while creating fun family memories.
- Kids’ journal: Encourage your children to draw pictures, write about each campground, collect stickers, or record their favorite adventures in a travel journal.
Educational RV Activities for Kids
- Nature journals
- Homeschool worksheets
- Reading time
- Junior ranger program:
Rainy Day RV Activities for Kids
Rainy days don’t have to ruin your camping trip. These rainy day RV activities keep everyone entertained until the sunshine returns.
- Indoor camping tent: Set up a small pop-up tent or build one with blankets and chairs for an indoor camping adventure.
- Movie afternoon: Pop some popcorn, grab cozy blankets, and enjoy a family movie together.
- Flashlight games: Turn off the lights and play flashlight tag, shadow games, or flashlight hide-and-seek.
- Craft projects: Bring along construction paper, glue sticks, stickers, and pipe cleaners for easy craft time.
- Shadow puppets: Create animals and tell stories using only your hands and a flashlight.
- Blanket forts: Transform your dinette into a cozy reading nook or secret hideout.
- Board games: Play family favorites like Uno, Guess Who, Yahtzee, or Connect Four.
- Baking treats: Spend the afternoon baking cookies, brownies, or cinnamon rolls together.
- Lego building challenges: Challenge your kids to build a bridge, castle, or their dream camper using LEGOs or magnetic tiles. Open-ended building activities encourage creativity and can keep kids busy for hours.
Salt Painting Activity
Looking for a simple and creative RV activity for kids that only requires a few supplies? Salt painting is a fun sensory craft that works great for rainy campground days or quiet afternoons inside your RV.
Supplies needed
- Paper
- Elmer’s glue
- Salt
- Watercolor paints
- Painbrush
Steps:
- Draw a design with the elmer’s glue on the paper
- Sprinkle salt over glue
- Add watercolor drops and watch the colors spread
RV Outdoor Activities for Kids at the Campground
Some of the best RV activities for kids happen outside the camper. Campgrounds offer endless opportunities for exploration, exercise, and imaginative play. These RV outdoor activities for kids are easy to set up and can help keep the whole family active while camping.
- Nature scavenger hunt: Search for pinecones, feathers, colorful leaves, flowers, birds, or interesting rocks around your campground.
- Bike riding: Many campgrounds have quiet roads or bike trails that are perfect for family rides.
- Chalk art: Decorate your campsite with hopscotch, obstacle courses, or colorful drawings using sidewalk chalk.
- Bubbles: Bubble wands are inexpensive, easy to pack, and always entertaining for younger children.
- Playground adventures: Visit the campground playground where kids can climb, slide, swing, and meet new friends.
- Fishing: Spend a relaxing afternoon fishing from the campground pond or nearby lake.
- Collecting rocks:Let kids gather unique rocks they can paint later or add to a nature collection.
- Campground bingo: Create bingo cards with common campground sights like squirrels, campfires, bicycles, picnic tables, and RVs.
- Cooking:
RV Activities for Toddlers
If you’re traveling with little ones, choosing age-appropriate RV activities for kids can help prevent boredom and make travel days much smoother.
- Sensory bins: A small sensory bin can provide hours of entertainment while helping children practice fine motor skills, creativity, and problem-solving.
- Water play: Fill a small tub with measuring cups, funnels, and toys for a simple outdoor activity that’s perfect on warm camping days.
- Toddler friendly, short hiking activities
- Simple chores (cleaning the outside of RV, pulling gray tank)
- Matching games: Matching games are a simple and space-saving RV activity for kids that are perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. If you use a store-bought memory game, homemade picture cards, or everyday objects around the camper, matching activities help build memory, focus, and early learning skills.
- Animal + insect spotting: Animal and insect spotting is one of our favorite free RV activities for kids because it turns everyday campground walks into a fun learning adventure. Kids can search for birds, squirrels, butterflies, ants, beetles, frogs, and other wildlife while practicing observation skills and learning more about nature.
- Building magnacities: One of our favorite RV activities for kids because they are compact, easy to store, and provide endless opportunities for creative play. Kids can build houses, animals, castles, vehicles, and even their own dream RV campsite while practicing problem-solving and fine motor skills.
- Visiting local library: It’s a great way to discover new books, participate in free story times and kids’ activities, and give the boys a chance to explore a new place in every town we visit. If we can’t make it to a library, we also love using Project Gutenberg, which offers thousands of free children’s books and classic stories that you can read online or download before your next RV trip.
- Getting a tasty treat after the library visit is always a win!
RV Outdoor Activities in Nature
Nature provides some of the easiest RV outdoor activities for kids, and many don’t require any supplies at all. From campground walks and bird watching to rock collecting and stargazing, these simple activities make it easy to get kids outside while RV camping.
- Create pinecone animals: Collect pinecones during a campground walk or hike and turn them into cute woodland creatures using simple craft supplies like googly eyes, pipe cleaners, felt, or paint. This creative RV activity for kids encourages imagination, fine motor skills, and hands-on nature learning without taking up much space in your camper.
- Make leaf crafts: Collect colorful leaves during your campground adventures and turn them into fun crafts like leaf animals, nature collages, or homemade decorations.
- Paint collected rocks: Collect unique rocks during hikes or campground walks and turn them into colorful creations with paint, markers, or craft supplies.
- Go bird watching: Grab a pair of binoculars or simply use your eyes to search for birds around your campground, hiking trails, and outdoor spaces. This simple RV activity for kids helps children practice observation skills while learning about different bird species and the wildlife around them.
- Cloud watching: Cloud Watching
- Lay back outside your RV and let your kids use their imagination to find shapes, animals, and characters in the clouds above. This simple RV activity for kids encourages creativity, relaxation, and nature observation while creating a peaceful moment during your camping adventures.
- Keep a hiking journal with drawings and nature discoveries, then use it to record memories from your favorite Asheville kid-friendly hikes.
- Look for constellations while stargazing: Spend an evening outside your RV looking up at the night sky and help your kids search for constellations, planets, and shooting stars. This simple RV activity for kids turns bedtime into a fun learning experience while encouraging curiosity about astronomy and the world around them.
Hi, I’m Trisha.
The lens behind HikeCookShare LLC
We’re a family of five sharing RV life with toddler chaos, cozy moments, and easy family recipes.
I also create SEO-focused content, photography, and Pinterest marketing resources that help businesses connect with their ideal audience
How do you entertain kids in an RV?
Keep kids entertained with simple RV activities for kids like LEGO building, magnetic tiles, sticker books, scavenger hunts, audiobooks, board games, nature walks, bike rides, and campground adventures. Rotating activities keeps travel fun without packing lots of toys.
What games can kids play while RVing?
Kids can enjoy scavenger hunts, travel bingo, I Spy, card games, magnetic board games, campground bingo, nature challenges, sidewalk chalk games, and classic campfire games. These activities are easy to pack and perfect for RV travel.
What do kids do at campgrounds?
Kids can ride bikes, play on playgrounds, go fishing, explore nature trails, join scavenger hunts, make chalk art, collect rocks, play outdoor games, and enjoy campfires with the family.
How do you homeschool while traveling?
Many RV families homeschool using online curriculum, workbooks, educational apps, and hands-on learning through hiking, museums, nature centers, and national parks. Travel itself becomes part of the learning experience.
What are good rainy day RV activities?
Great rainy day RV activities include building blanket forts, playing board games, listening to audiobooks, coloring, baking treats, doing crafts, building with LEGO or magnetic tiles, and enjoying a family movie together.
What are some RV outdoor activities for kids?
Some of the best RV outdoor activities for kids include hiking, biking, nature scavenger hunts, fishing, playground time, chalk art, rock collecting, bird watching, campground bingo, and stargazing. Many are free and require little or no equipment, making them perfect for family RV trips.
RV Activities for Kids Without Buying Anything
- Create your own scavenger hunt.
- Pretend to run a restaurant using the RV kitchen.
- Collect leaves, rocks, feathers, and pinecones.
- Tell campfire stories together.
- Build an obstacle course around your campsite.
If you’re staying at an RV resort or boondocking in the mountains, these RV activities for kids will help create unforgettable family memories.
Keeping kids entertained is one of the biggest parts of successful RV travel. If you’re planning a weekend getaway or living on the road full-time, having a variety of indoor and outdoor RV activities for kids helps every adventure run a little smoother.