Long car journeys & an 18 month old; any recommendations to keep him entertained?

[LoopyLa]

Please can I have some recommendations for tried & tested toys/modes of amusement during car journeys for an 18 month old? He doesn't watch any tv (despite my best efforts ;-) ) so I suspect iPad with films/DVDs is out of the question!

Have you seen the Galt Water Magic colouring books? Keep a big supply of small things in the front with you (assuming you are a passenger!) and post them through to the back at regular intervals - my experience is that most things get a few minutes' attention, then dropped on the floor and out of everyone's reach!

Nursery rhyme CDs. Will drive you mad though!

Agree my dd loves music cds and can sing along from maybe 16m.
Fun to see her leg tapping along.
We also give books which we keep in the car

Best thing I found was try and time journey well. Long nap, then long break for lunch. Then if you're lucky another nap.

Car stuff at that age...depends if someone sat in back too. Mine loves drawing and has a hand sized magnetic drawing pad with pen attached. Lots little books. His bob builder digger. Quite liked song cds at that age.

Got into DVD s after 2 really.

Lots breaks if you can is my top tip.

We did a long car journey (5 hours) over Easter and despite us timing it for nap time he only slept for an hour

Sorry posted too soon. Ds has a habit of throwing things so I got s couple of little books with velcro straps and attached these to the car seat and they kept him occupied for 5 minutes. The only thing that really works is one of us sitting in the back with him.

We've done a long drive (10 hours) every year for our holiday. Absolutely agree with timing - when ds was smaller, we'd leave very early (like 2am!) so that it was still part of his night-sleeping time.

Things that kept him occupied:
Books with buttons to press that make noises/play music - yes, it drove us mad but ds loved it.
I also put together a small bag of little toys or things to play with which he hadn't seen before, so there was a lot of novelty value as I pulled something new out of the magic bag and passed it over to him.