According to AAA, 2.5 million people will be hitting the road this holiday season. That’s a lot of time spent in close quarters in the car, and if you’ve got little ones, I bet you’ll hear “are we there yet?” more than a few times. The good news is that car rides can be fun—you just have to be prepared. That said, here are a few ideas—from car games to book ideas to engaging apps—for what to bring on your road trip. (You can leave the ear plugs at home this year.)

If you’re in it for the long-haul (you’re driving from your home in New York to, say, Pittsburgh), try a few ideas from this list of travel-time activities. You’ll find word games, scavenger hunts, map quests and sight-seeing activities that can be executed straight from the backseat with little or no prep needed. To get the whole car involved, try a game like Family Fact or Fiction: Ask each player to say three things about himself — two true and one false. After hearing the three statements, the other players pick which “fact” they think is false. Appoint a scorekeeper who will award one point to each player who guesses correctly. If everyone’s wrong, he’ll give a point to the player who made the statements. This one is sure to get the whole car laughing.

Books are another way to keep kids entertained while on the road. We’ve got a ton of Thanksgiving-themed reads for all ages like The Best Thanksgiving Ever, Milly and the Macy’s Parade, and 10 Fat Turkeys.

Simple crafts are fun to bring on the road as well, like these popsicle puppets, monster bookmarks, or colorful shape patterns. Or, download Thanksgiving printables, break out the pencils and markers, and let kids get busy.

If you want to pack light but you’ve got your iPad or smartphone, try Storia, a free ereading app for kids. Other fun apps include I SPY Riddle Race, Word Girl Word Hunt, or the Scholastic Reading Timer, where kids can time their reading minutes using an interactive stopwatch.

Finally, here’s a video from our Parents team about how to make time spent in the car into a teachable moment.