11 Cheap and Easy Ways to Entertain the Kids in a Hotel Room

Picture this, you’ve spent the entire day out hiking a new trail, skipping rocks in the lake, and seeing everything you can see. You arrive back at the hotel just wiped out and ready for bed. But…you have four wild and crazy boys that love hotel rooms! What would you do with them? The easy answer is let them watch t.v., but if you have spent any time in a hotel room you know that there are not very many cartoons or kid appropriate shows on t.v. at nighttime. (unless of course you are at a hotel near Disney that offers the Disney channels). We’ve come up with a list of 11 unique, cheap, and easy ways to entertain kids in a hotel room. Some of these require a few items from home, but some you can set up with items only from the hotel room.

1.Games

There are so many different games that can be played in a hotel room! Of course you can pack your favorite board games from home. But, if you forget those, here are a few ideas of games you can play without any planning!

• The classic, I Spy With My Little Eye
• Simon Says
• ABC Game- This game works best with at least elementary age kids that know their alphabet. You go person by person, starting with the letter A. The first person needs to find something that starts with an “A”. The second person needs to find something that starts with a “B”. And, it continues until you get to Z!
• Going on a Picnic-This game is similar to the ABC Game, only, the items you name are things you would bring to a picnic. And, each person needs to repeat each item before them without skipping any. For example, the first person says, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples with me.” Then, the next person says, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples and broccoli with me.” The next person has to repeat all that and add on according to the alphabet, so they say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, broccoli, and cookies with me.” The game continues until someone can’t remember the items before them.

2. Paper Airplane Races

Nearly all hotel rooms have small notepads that they provide. Or, you can plan ahead and bring paper. Using the hotel notepads creates tiny airplanes, which are perfect for a hotel room! If you want to plan ahead for this idea, you can bring tape to make better airplanes. We laid a towel across the floor and everyone threw their airplane in hopes of crossing the finish line!

3. Ninja Obstacle Course

There are so many ways you can do this. If you failed to plan ahead and bring anything to set this up, you can just be creative using the furniture in the room. The desk could be a tunnel, hopping from one bed to the other could be “crossing a canyon”, pillows could be used a safe places in lava if the ground is lava.

If you want to plan ahead, you can pack crepe party paper and string it across the room or between the beds. Or, even just a spool of string can be used to create obstacles.

4. Balloons

On our last trip, we threw a package of balloons in the suitcase in case we needed entertainment. You can use the two hotel beds as playing areas and the middle space as a “net”. Balloons are just great fun for any age! And, the best part is that they are so small that they pack easy and are super easy to clean up if you pop them!

5. Playing Cards

Playing cards also pack easy since they are small. And, there are so many games to play with them. You can play War, Slap Jack, Crazy 8’s, Spoons (if you bring spoons), or Go Fish just to name a few! We also tried building a card house on our last trip. Unfortunately, the cards were too new and slippery that they wouldn’t stand up after the roof of the first layer. But … we are taking that as a challenge and will try to build a house each trip we take! I’ll update this post once we build an impressive card house!

6. Dance Party

Dance parties can be super simple or even more elaborate if you want. It can be as simple as playing music from your phone or the hotel alarm clock. Or, you can bring a speaker and disco light from home to really play up the dance party. If you bring a disco light, you can turn the hotel room lights off for some extra fun!

7. Glow Sticks

Obviously this will only work if you bring glow sticks. But, there are so many ways to play with glow sticks too! You can keep them long and skinny and use them as swords in a battle. You can throw a bunch in the bathtub and turn off the hotel lights to make bathtime more fun! Wearing them as bracelets can act as a tiny nightlight for the nighttime. In the morning, once the glow is gone, you can make them circles and play the next idea with them – tossing them like a frisbee into the trashcan.

8. Trash Can Basketball

After you finish flying your paper airplanes, you can crumple them up to create “basketballs” and shoot some trash can hoops! This was a favorite game for my 2 and 4 year old boys! Clean up is the easiest on this one, since you just keep playing until all the “balls” are in the basket!

9. Bowling with Hotel Soaps

Some hotels have more soaps/lotions that they leave for you. The hotel we stayed at only provided shampoo and conditioner, so our bowling games went pretty quick! But, we have been to hotels that provide more soaps. We happened to have a few super balls in our backpack, but if you don’t have one you can be creative and use the paper airplanes turned into basketballs as a bowling ball!

10. Bubble Bath with Hotel Soaps

Once you are done bowling with the hotel soaps, you can squeeze all the bath gel and shampoo into the bathtub for a big bubble bath! My boys all love bubble baths!

11. Pillow Fight

Of course, you can end the night with a classic pillow fight! Hotels often provide multiple pillows. If you have a room with two beds, you can create a team game over the space between the beds.

I hope that some of these ideas help you out in your hotel free time! We try not to have too much down time in a hotel room since we like to experience as much as we can, but there is always some free time. Comment below with other ways that you entertain your kids when you travel!