Road trip trivia questions: 120 with answers

Mile 140. The playlist has gone around twice, the snacks are gone, and somebody in the back asks how much longer. This is the moment for a quiz, and the person in the passenger seat is about to become the quizmaster whether they like it or not.

Here are 120 road trip trivia questions with answers, written to be read out loud. They run from easy to hard: places you might drive through, songs from the radio, food from the last stop, animals by the road and a few that start arguments. Read the question, wait until everyone has said something, then read the answer. Under every third answer there is a line of story, for whoever wants to argue.

A ten-question card for tonight

If you only have one stop's worth of time, read these ten in order. The last one is a tiebreaker: closest year wins.

Which U.S. state is nicknamed The Golden State? California.
Which city is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas? Austin.
Which band recorded the classic album Abbey Road? The Beatles.
The Italian carmaker Lamborghini uses which animal on its logo? Bull.
What is the largest country in the world by land area? Russia.
Which U.S. state is nicknamed The Silver State? Nevada.
What color Corvette did Prince sing about in his 1983 hit song? Red.
What was the first sport ever played on the moon? Golf.
What animals were the Canary Islands named after? Dogs.
In what year did Ray Harroun win the very first Indianapolis 500? 1911. Closest year wins.

Easy

Which city is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas? Austin.
What is the capital and largest city of Hawaii, the fiftieth US state? Honolulu.
Which U.S. state is nicknamed The Golden State? California. The eighteen forty-eight gold rush, which drew hundreds of thousands of people west, cemented California's Golden State nickname, which became official in nineteen sixty-eight.
Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift? France.
When the English seized the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in sixteen sixty-four, they renamed it. What is it called today? New York.
In eighteen seventy-one, which major Midwest city was destroyed by one of America's biggest fires? Chicago. The fire's true cause was never confirmed, but the rebuilding boom that followed made Chicago the birthplace of the modern skyscraper.
Who was the first president of the United States? George Washington.
Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, was born in which southern state? Mississippi.
Creedence Clearwater Revival had a hit song called Proud blank. What's the missing word? Mary. Proud Mary was written by John Fogerty and became one of Creedence Clearwater Revival's biggest hits in nineteen sixty nine.
According to the classic folk song, in which city is the House of the Rising Sun located? New Orleans.
Which band recorded the classic album Abbey Road? The Beatles.
Paul McCartney wrote this 1968 Beatles song to cheer up John Lennon's young son, Julian. What's the song? Hey Jude. Paul McCartney originally sang the working title as Hey Jules before changing it to Jude because it sounded better.
Which ABBA song, released in nineteen seventy-six, was the group's only song to top the charts in the United States? Dancing Queen.
Which legendary band recorded the song Paint It Black? The Rolling Stones.
Which animal is the largest member of the deer family and roams the northern parts of North America? Moose. A bull moose's antlers can span up to six feet across, making them the largest antlers of any living animal.
Raccoons can now be found on several continents, but which one are they originally native to? North America.
What legendary creature is described as a large, hairy, human-like being that roams the wilderness of North America? Bigfoot (also accept Sasquatch).
The kiwi bird is a national symbol and is native to which country? New Zealand. The kiwi cannot fly and lays one of the largest eggs relative to body size of any bird species.
Which country gave the world the Chihuahua dog breed? Mexico.
What is the largest animal alive on Earth today? Blue Whale.
What was the name of Toyota's first widely available gas-electric hybrid car? Prius. The Prius launched in Japan in nineteen ninety seven, and Toyota says its name is Latin for prior or previous.
The Italian carmaker Lamborghini uses which animal on its logo? Bull.
In the movie Back to the Future, how fast does the DeLorean need to go to travel through time? 88 miles per hour.
Which German car maker, founded in 1931, is famous for its high performance luxury automobiles? Porsche. Porsche was founded by Ferdinand Porsche, an engineer who also designed the original Volkswagen Beetle.
Which continent is the island of Madagascar part of? Africa.
What is the smallest country in the world? Vatican City.
What is the largest country in the world by land area? Russia. Russia is so wide that it spans eleven time zones.
Which country is the second largest in the world by total area? Canada.
Which mountain has the highest peak in Africa? Mount Kilimanjaro.
Which European Union country has a large part of its land lying below sea level? The Netherlands. About a quarter of the Netherlands lies below sea level, kept dry by an extensive system of dikes and pumps.
In which South American country can you find the mysterious Nazca Lines? Peru.
What is the capital and largest city of Norway? Oslo.
Which North Atlantic island nation has Reykjavik as its capital and largest city? Iceland. Iceland makes almost all of its electricity from geothermal and hydroelectric power.
Kathmandu is the capital city of which country? Nepal.
Which planet in our Solar System is often called Earth's sister planet? Venus.
Stars are made mainly of hydrogen and which other gas? Helium. Helium was actually discovered in the sun's light spectrum decades before it was found on Earth.
What is the official winter sport of Canada? Ice Hockey.
Which winter sport is played on ice and has players sliding stones toward a target while teammates sweep the ice? Curling.
Quesadillas are tortillas stuffed with cheese and grilled. Which country do they come from? Mexico. The word quesadilla comes from the Spanish word queso, meaning cheese.
Bratwurst, a sausage of pork and veal seasoned with ginger, nutmeg and caraway, comes from which country? Germany.
Which country is credited with inventing the dessert tiramisu? Italy.
What food product is the American company Campbell's most famous for making? Canned Soup. Andy Warhol turned Campbell's soup cans into pop art icons with a series of thirty-two paintings, first shown in nineteen sixty-two.
Which country gave the world Cheddar cheese? England.
In the Dr. Seuss book, what food does the character say goes with ham? Green Eggs.
In computing, which animal shares its name with the small device you plug into a USB port to move your cursor? Mouse. The computer mouse earned its name in the nineteen sixties because its shape and trailing cable reminded engineers of a mouse with a tail.

Medium

More than half of the Yukon River flows through which American state? Alaska.
This U.S. state's nickname is The Equality State, and its motto is Equal Rights. Which state is it? Wyoming.
Which U.S. state is nicknamed The Silver State? Nevada. Nevada earned its nickname from the massive silver deposits found in the Comstock Lode during the eighteen fifties.
There's one continent where you will never find a lizard. Which continent is it? Antarctica.
Which city is the capital of Mongolia? Ulaanbaatar.
What is the capital city of New Zealand? Wellington. Wellington is the southernmost capital city of a sovereign country in the world.
Which country is home to Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall? Venezuela.
What is the largest active volcano on Earth? Mauna Loa.
Greenland, the world's largest island, is a self-governing territory within the kingdom of which European country? Denmark. Greenland is the world's largest island that is not a continent, yet fewer than sixty thousand people live there.
Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix was born in which American city? Seattle.
The rock band The Killers was formed in which American city? Las Vegas.
In 1971, which country music star wrote and sang the song Man in Black? Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash wrote the song to protest poverty, war, and injustice, saying he wore black in solidarity with the downtrodden.
Which singer had a huge hit in 1985 with the song Summer of 69? Bryan Adams.
What color Corvette did Prince sing about in his 1983 hit song? Red.
In what year did the very first Disneyland park open in California? 1955. Walt Disney opened the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in July nineteen fifty-five.
French fries may not be French at all. Which neighboring country, famous for its fries, also claims to have invented them? Belgium.
The Caesar salad is a popular dish worldwide, but in which country was it actually invented? Mexico.
Despite its name, German chocolate cake actually originated in which country? United States. German chocolate cake is named after Sam German, who developed a sweet baking chocolate for the Baker's Chocolate Company in the eighteen fifties.
Pigs are famous for using their incredible sense of smell to sniff out which food? Truffles.
What bird is considered the national symbol of France? Rooster.
The Lego Group, famous for its plastic building bricks, was founded in nineteen thirty-two in which country? Denmark. The name Lego comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning play well.
In which country does a kindly old witch fly in on her broomstick to bring children presents on the night before Epiphany? Italy.
The witch Baba Yaga is best known from the fairy tales of which country? Russia.
In Norse mythology, what kind of animal are Odin's two companions that bring him news of the world? Ravens. Huginn and Muninn, whose names mean thought and memory, flew across the world each day to bring Odin news.
Which country is home to the Clydesdale horse breed? Scotland.
The Dalmatian dog breed takes its name from a region in which European country? Croatia.
Counting its high-speed hunting dive, what is the fastest animal in the world? Peregrine Falcon. A diving peregrine falcon can reach about two hundred miles per hour, making it the fastest animal on Earth.
The venomous Gila monster lives in the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. What kind of animal is it? Lizard.
Who was the first American to travel into space? Alan Shepard.
What was the first sport ever played on the moon? Golf. Astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the moon during the Apollo fourteen mission in nineteen seventy-one.
Which spacecraft was the first to fly past the planet Neptune? Voyager 2.
In our solar system, which moon is both Jupiter's largest and the biggest moon of all? Ganymede.
How many moons does the dwarf planet Pluto have? Five. Pluto's largest moon, Charon, is so big compared to Pluto that the two are sometimes called a double dwarf planet system.
What gas makes up about seventy-eight percent of Earth's atmosphere? Nitrogen.
What's the name for the point in Earth's orbit that's closest to the sun? Perihelion.
Which country both hosted and won the very first Soccer World Cup back in 1930? Uruguay. Uruguay beat Argentina four to two in the final, played in front of a home crowd in Montevideo.
In what year did Tokyo first host the Summer Olympic Games? 1964.
The Los Angeles Dodgers used to play in what U.S. city before they moved west? Brooklyn (also accept New York City).
Before moving to Los Angeles, which city was home to the Lakers? Minneapolis. The Lakers name comes from Minnesota's nickname, the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, and the team kept it when it moved to Los Angeles in nineteen sixty.
In Major League Baseball, which team did Babe Ruth start his career with? Boston Red Sox.
Which country has Bratislava as its capital city? Slovakia.
Which country's name comes from the Latin word for silver? Argentina. Argentina takes its name from argentum, the Latin word for silver, after early explorers hoped to find silver there.
Potatoes were first grown in which country? Peru (also accept Bolivia).
In The Sound of Music, Captain von Trapp served in the navy of which now landlocked country? Austria.
Which American city did poet Carl Sandburg call 'Hog Butcher for the World'? Chicago. Carl Sandburg's poem Chicago first appeared in Poetry magazine in nineteen fourteen and praised the city's industrial muscle and working class grit.

Hard

In what year did Canada stop producing the penny? 2012.
Which country is home to more than sixty percent of the world's lakes? Canada.
In what year did Ray Harroun win the very first Indianapolis 500? 1911. Ray Harroun won driving the Marmon Wasp, which carried the earliest known rearview mirror on a race car.
Which Glenn Miller hit earned the first ever gold record, in nineteen forty-two, for selling more than a million copies? Chattanooga Choo Choo.
In John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, what animal symbolizes the family's struggles? Turtle.
At what single temperature do Celsius and Fahrenheit show exactly the same number? Negative 40. The two scales cross at exactly negative forty because that is the one point where the conversion formula solves to equal values on both sides.
How many living species of bears are there today? 8.
Which animal is the closest surviving relative of the giraffe? Okapi.
What animals were the Canary Islands named after? Dogs. The name comes from the Latin Canariae Insulae, meaning islands of dogs, after large dogs the Romans reported finding there.
How many eyelids does a camel have on each eye? Three.
Besides a pack or a colony, what playful collective noun is used for a group of rats? Mischief.
In the wild, what animal is the most common pollinator of the pineapple plant? Hummingbird. Seeds only form in a pineapple after it is pollinated, and they lower the fruit's quality, which is why the pineapples sold in stores are almost always seedless.
How many tentacles does a slug have on its head? Four.
In what year was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first introduced in a story? 1939.
How many years older is Barbie than her boyfriend Ken? 2 years. Barbie made her debut in nineteen fifty nine, and Ken followed two years later in nineteen sixty one.
The world's first industrial cheese factory opened in 1815. In which country? Switzerland.
What nickname do people give beer to highlight how nutritious it is? Liquid Bread.
Charles Darwin lived through a major earthquake in which country, sparking his ideas about the Earth's crust? Chile. The eighteen thirty-five earthquake near Concepcion raised the coastline several feet, convincing Darwin that land could rise over time.
The writer Edgar Allan Poe died young. At what age? 40.
Counting two sisters who died before he was born, how many brothers and sisters did William Shakespeare have? Seven.
Golf legend Tiger Woods has a different real first name. What is it? Eldrick. Tiger's father gave him the nickname in honor of a South Vietnamese soldier he served alongside.
Which drummer did Ringo Starr replace in the Beatles in nineteen sixty-two? Pete Best.
What nickname is often given to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony? Fate.
In what year did Babe Ruth hit sixty home runs in a single season? 1927. Babe Ruth's record of sixty home runs in a season stood for thirty four years until Roger Maris broke it in nineteen sixty one.
In what year was the band the Eagles formed? 1971.
Brazilian football legend Pele retired in 1974 after winning three World Cups. Which club did he join after coming out of retirement? New York Cosmos.
In astronomy, what is the apparent path that the sun traces across the sky called? Ecliptic. The ecliptic is tilted about twenty three and a half degrees to the celestial equator, the same tilt as Earth's axis, which is what gives us seasons.
The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer are each divided into how many books? 24.
What kind of dish is traditionally eaten for breakfast in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam? Soup (also accept noodle soup, rice soup or rice porridge).
In the movie Big Hero 6, Baymax's waddle is often said to be based on the walk of which baby animal? Baby Penguins. Disney's filmmakers tried out several walks for Baymax, from a toddler in a full diaper to a baby penguin's waddle, to make him move slowly and gently.

Where these questions come from

The questions are adapted from OpenTriviaQA and the Open Trivia Database, both shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are adapted from questions the Quizy host asks in the app, written to be read aloud. The 25 October check corrected some of them for this page, so a few questions, answers and facts read differently in the app. This list is shared under the same license.

Every answer and story line was checked again on 25 October 2026, and the lines corrected in that check rest on these pages:

Questions people ask

How many trivia questions do you need for a road trip? About ten for a stop and thirty for an hour. Read them in rounds of ten with a break between, and this list lasts a long day of driving.

How do you play trivia in the car? One passenger reads and the other passengers answer out loud, in turns, so the quiet ones get a chance. Read the answer only after everyone has guessed, and keep the score where everyone can hear it.

What makes a good road trip trivia question? A short question with a one- or two-word answer, about something every passenger has a chance at: places, songs, food and animals.

If nobody wants to read

Somebody has to hold the list, and that person never gets to answer. Quizy can take that job. It is an AI quiz host that reads each question out loud, listens for the answer and keeps score, using questions like these. It needs a signal and a car where the passengers can talk. .

Before you leave

Open this page at the first stop, and read question one before anyone asks how far it is.