Is your little one obsessed with race cars? Does he create roads everywhere? Then he’s just like mine 😅. I always carry cars in my bag just in case, and his favorite thing to do when he comes home from school is to get his Waytoplay Grand Prix set and build a new race track for all his cars to compete. Of course, Mama has to participate, too, because if not, it is not as fun 😉. Have you tried playing with these flexible tracks? Let me show you why we like them so much.
In this post:
- Our story with our Waytoplay roads
- Why do we like Waytoplay roads?
- About Waytoplay and Grand Prix
- Race track ideas
- Toys to complement the race tracks
- What is the Waytoplay road made of?
- How to store them
- Where to buy Waytoplay?
- Waytoplay road idea designs to help you enjoy the Grand Prix set
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself, and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you; when you buy through the links, we may earn a small commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks!
** Oh! And if you buy from the Waytoplay website with the code thefairyglitchmother10 , you also get a 10% discount. How cool is that?
Our story with our Waytoplay roads
Around his 3rd birthday, my son was playing a LOT with cars, and we thought it would be a great idea to get him the Waytoplay King of the Road set. It was fantastic. Although, in hindsight, he might have been a bit too young (as I was building the roads for him) and probably would have appreciated it even better at 4. He is now 3 and 3/4 and building his own roads during playtime, which is fascinating to watch.
We spent the whole summer playing with them and taking them with us everywhere. We played indoors, outdoors, on the grass, by the pool, inside the swimming pool, at the beach – you name it! It was so much fun! (And I think I had the most fun creating all the sets to surprise my children to play with).
In the months following, I wrote a couple of blog posts about what a discovery it was for us, how we played with it, and road design ideas for our King of the Road set – as we couldn’t find them anywhere. (Here are the links, and I’ll post them at the end again in case you want to have a look 😉). Waytoplay loved what we had done and decided to send us some roads and cars as appreciation. One of them was the Grand Prix set, and my son has loved it ever since. We are racing all the time now!
Why do we like Waytoplay roads?
We love these roads for many reasons, and I encourage my children to play with them regularly (although my son is the one that enjoys them – my daughter is not into cars 😅). However, what I like most about them is that it is:
- An open-ended tool with endless possibilities
- Invites creativity
- Encourages imaginative play
- It complements great with other toys.
- It can be challenging and helps with problem-solving
- A flexible toy that you can use on land and underwater, indoors and outdoors, and under any weather condition (sun, rain, snow – yes, we’ve tried them all 😅)
- Durable and unbreakable
- Very easy to clean (this is a bonus)
It is wonderful.
About Waytoplay and Grand Prix
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 combine. In addition, with the Grand Prix you have special prints related to race tracks.
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.
The Grand Prix is a set with 24 pieces, and you have tracks to create many circuits. This set has special ‘Grand Prix’ prints: Curbstones, Start-Finish, and Pitlane. These designs are printed on both sides of sixteen curves, and eight straights—a total of 384 cm of fun.
Race track ideas
It’s time to see some race track designs! I’ve taken the liberty to name them to differentiate between them because there are more than 20 here, making things easier for me. All race tracks have a minimum of two straights (one Pitlane and the Start-Finish straight). I think that if we didn’t have at least these two tracks it wouldn’t feel like a race. I’ve tried to place them together but on some occasions, they are not (but honestly, my son loves them just the same 😅).
We’ve made up these names as a family because the design reminded us of something or we were just being silly.
I hope you will like them!
Types of road designs:
- Basic shapes
- Perfect-fit closed-circuit race tracks
- Closed circuits with overlaps
- Open race tracks (not closed for laps)
Basic shapes
Here are just a couple of straightforward closed-circuit designs that you can make that include straights: the square, the oval, the triangle, and the octagon. Of course, you can make shorter or longer versions of these.
Perfect-fit closed-circuit race tracks
These designs are just fantastic. I like combining curves and straights to make race tracks. The cars can go on forever here, doing as many laps as they wish.
Closed circuits with overlaps
I try to avoid these as much as possible because my son doesn’t like overlapping tracks, but they were too lovely not to share. Maybe your little one is not as picky as my son 😅
Open race tracks (not closed for laps)
Races do not always occur in closed circuits and don’t start and finish in the same place. For this reason, we have these designs that are super fun as well.
Toys to complement the race tracks
The track by itself is great, but if you want to add a bit more magic, here you have some ideas to make your race setups even more fantastic.
Cars
Use any cars you like, but race cars fit even better on the race track. Our favorite cars for racing are:
- The Waytoplay cars (tuned them with slim washi tape and stickers).
- Melissa and Doug Race cars.
- Disney Cars mini cars.
- Playforever.
Bridges and tunnels
Creating tunnels and bridges is also a fun part of it. My son loves having cars go under these obstacles, and if he could, he’d have them all over. We use the Grimms Rainbow, Connetix tiles, and Lubulona houses with a Grimm’s board on top.
Spectators
What would a race be without spectators to cheer on the cars? So we use our little peg dolls from Grimms, Grapat, Lubulona, or even our Grapat mandala parts to make crowds. I created some bleachers with the Grimm’s natural boards, and they are just the cutest.
Scenery
Add houses, trees, lakes – you can use anything you like. I like using many loose wooden parts from Grapat or glass pebbles, and the Connetix tiles are very versatile. For houses, we use Lubulona houses or Grimms houses.
Please take my advice and decorate the inside of the track because your little one will most likely move around it and knock everything over. It has happened 😅
What is the flexible road made of?
The road is made from the highest grade flexible PVC, and it has passed testing to the most demanding norms. They are said to last a lifetime. Even on their website, they say that it is practically indestructible, even for children!
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.
How to store them
Keeping the tracks flat is essential whether you store them in the original box (like we do) or store them in a cart or other containers.
Because they are flexible, they get deformed if they are not stored flat, and it takes some time to recuperate. As a result, the pieces will not fit as nicely as possible, which could lead to some frustration (I know, you don’t want a three year old frustrated because the track is curved) 🙈.
So, always keep them flat for more fun for everyone. The track will appreciate it as well 😉
Where to buy Waytoplay?
I haven’t seen them in many physical toy stores, but I have been able to find them in stores online, and Waytoplay has an online store that delivers worldwide. You won’t find a store with a more extensive selection than their own: waytoplay store. You’ll find everything here!
They’ve been kind to give me a discount code for you, so if you use the code thefairyglitchmother10 on their store, you’ll get a 10% off your purchase. Yay!!
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. Additionally, although I haven’t bought from them, I am also listing some stores from Australia and the US (based on customers’ comments and opinions on Instagram). If I were in those countries, I would definitely try them out.
Store with International deliveries
Waytoplay.com – The original store where you can find all the waytoplay road sets and cars
Amazon.com – Check out the sister page for your country or region.
Smallable.com – You can deliver worldwide and they have most of the waytoplay roads.
Store with delivery in the EU
Smallable.com – You can find all the Waytoplay roads available here.
Store with delivery in Spain
Veobio.com – Is a fantastic online store. You can find their waytoplay roads range by clicking on the link.
Store with delivery in Australia
Oskarswoodenark.com – A wonderful shop from down under filled with a fantastic selection of open-ended toys and lovely brands.
Waytoplay road idea designs to help you enjoy the Grand Prix set
I honestly believe this is one of those toys that will be with us for a very long time. The Waytoplay roads are simply incredible. This is a lovely set to start with, or to complement with your other sets. Since my son’s 3rd birthday we’ve been playing with it a lot during the nine months. (If you need other gift ideas you can have a look here). Probably my children’s children (if they decide to have children) will be able to play with them too as they are super durable 😅 .
Probably I’m the one having the most fun setting up roads by piecing the segments together and decorating them as small worlds 😅 🤣 but my children love to join and drive their cars anywhere we go. Of course, once my son has finished playing, he likes creating a bit of chaos before tidying up. It’s all part of the experience.
But I must say, that my children now play with it more because they’ve seen me play and create many roads for them. Now they are creating and having fun. We must invite them to play 😉.
I hope that putting this together will help other families get started and enjoy the Grand Prix set. We had trouble coming up with closed circuits, so I am guessing we are not the only ones out there with this problem. 😄 I hope this will be useful to you and your family!
Happy playing! 🌟
P.S. Oh! And if you liked this post, you might also like these other posts about the roads and others filled with creative play ideas 😉 I hope you’ll like them!
