General tips
1. Instead of giving things out all at once, have a stash of travel activities that you dole out every 15-30 minutes. Inexpensive toys can often hold a kid's interest for 15-20 minutes before even the simplest thing gets old. (remember to plan a different set, or repack everything for the trip home).
2. Snacks. In your stash of activities, include snacks. Small pieces are often a better choice because it takes longer to eat. A snack size baggie of trail mix will take longer to eat than a breakfast bar that is chomped down in 4 bites. You might want to avoid chocolate just because it's messy (however, M&Ms in a trail mix usually go over pretty well with minimal mess). Snack size baggies of grapes, mandarin oranges, apple slices (dip in pineapple juice and they'll last a week in the fridge without going brown), pretzel sticks or carrot sticks with single size tub of peanut butter.
3. Be sure each child has a place to set their toys/trash when they are moving on to the next activity. We use the snap on lid boxes that have a handle on the lid. They are small enough to be stepped over, but big enough to store a lot of stuff.
4. Travel currency. When going on long trips, we (parents) decide how much money each child is going to get for spending money on the entire trip. We divided that by how many days we will be gone. We use poker chips to equal $1 each (each child has a different color chip). Each day the kids get the set amount of poker chips (make sure they have a coin purse or container to keep them in). If they want candy at a convenience store, they hand over a chip. If they disobey, hand over a chip. When we get to the actual destination (tourist spots, Grandma's house, whatever) they can spend whatever they have on keepsakes. If they don't have the "cash" to buy what they want, they don't buy it. They must earn it first. If they spent it on candy and sodas instead of eating the healthier snacks and water that we brought along, then they do without that "must have item" at the gift shop.
5. Keeping a record of where you were...postcards. As a scrapbooker, I like to journal what we do each day so that I can scrapbook the trip in chronological order when we get home. To help with this, I buy a postcard at each stop (wherever we spend the night). At the end of that day, I journal what we did in that location (spent driving, where we stopped to eat, amusement park,...) and then I actually mail it home (remember to take postcard stamps with you). When I get home or shortly thereafter, I have a day-by-day record of what we did.
Little ones
1. Crayola Wonder markers. These markers are fabulous! They only write on the special paper. They can be dropped on the car seat or floor, used purposely on the door or window, or even a sibling, and they don't leave a mark other than on their special paper or coloring book.
2. Magnadoodles. These draw and erase toys are flat and solid enough to not need a table to set them on.
Older kids
1. Games - Pack a game box for long trips. Think of things that can be played with just what you hold rather than what is laid down on a table (1-handed solitaire, travel bingo - buy or print your own with a different card for every member in the car, window cling tic-tac-toe)
2. Dice Games - you can even take dice games in the car if you use a "dice holder" to do the rolling with (you don't want those little things flying all over the car).
3. National travelers - print an alphabetical list of all 50 states. Make your chart so that each state (or it's abbreviation) is in a box on a grid leaving plenty of room to make marks inside the box). Each time you see a license plate from a different state than where you, put a hash mark in the state's box.
4. Map it. Print out a map for each child in the car and give them a highlighter. You can circle the day's destination with a red pen and each leg of the trip, the child highlights where they've been (but the red circle tells them where you're going).
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