We have a lot of matchbox-style cars.  We don’t have much by way of tracks — no fancy “road rug,” etc.  This PlayTape from InRoad Toys is awesome, because it lets the kids exercise their creativity, it’s highly portable, and it isn’t permanent so you can change your mind about wanting track in a particular location.

It comes in several iterations.  There’s one-lane tape, two-lane tape, brightly-colored road tape, “muddy road” tape, and even railroad track tape.  It comes on rolls of straight track, and there are sticker packs of curves to go along with them.

My 6-year-old and 4-year-old loved this.  They made a track right in the middle of the hallway (not a great long-term location for cars, but fun for a little while).

They started out with a pretty basic track, and later moved on to a more complex version, with a loop.

The tape is basically like a masking tape or washi tape.  It’s a paper tape with a low-tack adhesive so it’s easy to tear (no scissors needed — a big plus when young children are using it!) doesn’t typically mar surfaces, and removes easily when you’re done with it.  If you want to keep it for a while, I recommend you not put it in a high-traffic area (like a hallway) where it’s going to get walked on regularly.  But you’re not limited to floors.  You could easily make tracks on a table, for instance, or even vertically on a wall.

The curves are simply stickers.  You peel them off the backing and stick them where you want them.  They come in tight curve and broader curve options.  We just have one here, in two different road widths.

The kids have been playing with the same track for almost a week now, even though the edges are starting to curl up from getting walked on all day every day.  When it gets really ragged, we’ll peel it up and throw it out, and that will probably be just about long enough for the kids to have gotten bored with it and be ready for a new design.

The only thing we didn’t like was that the roll of tape didn’t stretch as far as we might have liked.  (It ran out pretty quickly.)  Fifteen feet isn’t as much as you might think.

These make good stocking stuffers.  Or they’d be fun in a gift basket — a few track “pieces” and a couple of inexpensive matchbox cars.  These would probably even be a workable gift option for someone who’s stuck in bed for a while, as the stickers can even be applied to bed rails, bedside tables, or lunch trays.

PlayTape Black – Single Roll 30’x2PlayTape Black Road 30’x4PlayTape 2” Tight Curves 8 PackPlayTape Blue 2PlayTape Classic Road, PurplePlayTape Off Road 2 inch X 15 ft. roll