The Way to Play Road: Our New Play Time Discovery!

My son started playing with cars a lot just before he turned 3 years old. He had a garage and liked to see the cars go down the ramp, but he wanted to know where they could go next. He’d ask us to create tracks so he could play and make his cars go around. We made them with wood planks, or we would draw a city on some taped papers. One day we came across the way to play road and decided it would be our birthday gift for him, and I’m so glad we did!

He still is little to grasp its full potential, and he just creates random patterns and circuits that never close. He loves to put all his cars in line and make traffic jams. I am sure this will be one of those toys that will grow with him, and we’ll be playing with it often in the coming years. We’ve taken it with us during the holidays, and we’ve had a lot of fun! This flexible road is simply amazing.

The story behind the way to play road

So, the waytoplay road is an open-ended toy that will allow your children to create toy roads and worlds that have only lived in their imagination until then. It is a flexible race track made from child-safe rubber, fantastic for endless fun. It is a collection of road segments, race tracks, parking spaces, and crossings in different sets that can be combined.

The road was created by Dutch designer, inventor, and father, Sybren Jelles. As a child, he loved playing with toy cars outdoors, and he started waytoplay for his son Joep in 2003. This passion led down a road of evolution to the flexible weatherproof toy road that we can all enjoy today.

We got the King of the Road bundle with 40 pieces, and you have tracks to create many circuits. You get 16 curves, 16 straights, 4 intersections, and 4 roundabouts. A total of 648cm of fun.

Why do we like way to play roads?

There are many good reasons why we enjoy and encourage our children to play with it…

• An open-ended tool with endless possibilities
• It is an exciting invitation to creativity.
• A fantastic complement to other toys
• It can be challenging and helps with problem-solving; not all combinations lead to a closed-circuit… so it takes time to figure out how to make your circuit fit and close.
• A flexible toy that can be used on land and underwater
• Durable and unbreakable (although my son did bite one piece pretending it was pizza, and now we have his teeth prints as a reminder.
• Very easy to clean.

It is fantastic.

Where can you play with a way to play road?

We decided to take the road out for a run during our summer holidays, and honestly, you can play with them anywhere. The tracks indeed hold better together on a hard surface, but check out all the terrains we’ve played on – it’s still been fun.

On a wooden floor…

By the pool…

Underwater inside the pool…

Running through the grass…

At the beach – on dry sand…

… or on wet sand (be careful, if the waves come in, they might take some pieces away… luckily, they didn’t go far)

Over and under the Wobbel board…

On carpets…

We still need to try it up the bathtub and bathroom walls. It’s on our to-do list 😉

As you can see, we’ve had a fun summer 😉

Again, it works best on hard surfaces because it holds in place much better… but you can make them work anywhere your imagination takes you.

How do we play?

My son loves puzzles, and he saw it as a way to build an extensive track piecing the segments together. Unfortunately, he is still tiny and can not figure out how to design a close-ended circuit… but maybe he will in time if that is what he envisions.

Since it was a little difficult for him at first, I started creating small circuits and decorating them to inspire him (and let’s face it, I was having a great time). Next, my 5-year-old daughter likes to give me a hand creating the world around the track, with trees and loose parts. And later, my son plays or wants to generate a bit of chaos.

After watching us, my son started decorating his tracks with the Grimms houses, some animals and just placing as many cars as possible to create a traffic jam. We play with all his vehicles, be it wooden, metallic, or plastic… if they have wheels, they can go on the road 😉

Our favorite complements

Playing just with the track is loads of fun, but combining it with other toys is just fantastic. (I think I enjoy this part too much 😅 ).

We use Grimm’s wooden rainbow, the Bilibo seat, or the Wobbel board as bridges and tunnels.

For people, we use Grimms rainbow friends, Tomtems from Grapat, Janod story characters, or any superhero or princess that my children like to add to the party.

As for other decorative elements, we use Grimms semicircles to create small worlds or terrains within the world…

the Grimms’ houses as buildings around the town or city and Grimms’ rainbow cones or Janod’s trees as trees…

and finally, loose parts like the Mandala pieces from Grapat make it more elaborate and beautiful…

You can play and add whatever you have around! We still have not combined it with our train tracks, but I’m sure we’ll be doing so very soon 😉.

What is the flexible road made of

The roads are said to last a lifetime. On their website, they say that it is practically indestructible, even for children! It is made from the highest grade flexible PVC, and it has passed testing to the most demanding norms.

Waytoplay roads have been tested and are free of BPA, cadmium, PAH, lead, and Phthalates. It is also safe for those with silicon allergies.

So the roads are durable, waterproof, safe, and flexible… the perfect ally for hours and years of play.

Where to buy?

I haven’t seen them in many toy stores, but I have been able to find them in stores online, and waytoplay has an online store that delivers worldwide. It is the store with more waytoplay toys and sets you’ll discover: waytoplay store. You’ll find everything here! (we bought ours on Amazon though 😅)

If you like to buy more things from other brands at once, of course, you have Amazon, but depending on the country, it might not have what you are looking for. So I am sharing other web pages I have bought from while living in the UK and Spain (some are local, but others have international deliveries). For this reason, I’m listing all in case one can be most helpful to you.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases (which doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it helps me get this blog going). If you prefer not to buy from here, I have also listed other stores where you can find the roads. I do not get a commission from them, I want to be transparent and let you know ☺️. You choose what works best for you.

Store with International deliveries

Amazon – Find the King of the Road here. (If it doesn’t appear, check out the sister page for your country or region).

Scandiborn.com – They have different sister pages around the world. See links below

Smallable.com

Store with delivery in the EU

Scandiborn – You can find all the Waytoplay roads available here.

Store with delivery in the UK

scandiborn.co.uk – Scandiborn’s site in the UK

Store with delivery in Spain

mumuchu – Fantastic online store. You can find their waytoplay roads range clicking on the link.

What a discovery we’ve made with the way to play road!

If there is one final thing I can say about this unique toy, creating tracks and worlds and playing with it made me feel like a child again. And this was key to having more fun together as a family. I highly recommend it. You’ll love it.

If you’d like to have a look at other gift ideas for a 3-year-old, check out this post 😉

Please share with us your ideas, how you play with them and what your thoughts are! We’d love to know!

Happy playing!*

P.S. Since I wrote this, we’ve been playing a lot and we’ve created many roads. Check out these posts for road design ideas!