Holiday Road Trip With The Toyota Sienna

Like most people we’ve already had a busy holiday season. Kora & Logan both have birthdays that sandwich Christmas. My side of the family is long distance so each year we always have a double-birthday party for the kids around Thanksgiving which is close to Kora’s birthday and then another one for Dave’s side of the family at the end of January near Logan’s birthday.

This post is sponsored by Toyota and Toyota Sienna Minivan provided for test drive for 3 months.

So we had a busy couple of days recently. Since we had so much going on we had to pack up a lot of stuff and get ready for the long road trip. That’s why we are excited to receive compensation from Toyota a 3 month test drive of the 7-Passenger Sienna Minivan.

We were thankful for many features of the Sienna this trip. Storage room was a huge necessity and we made use of all the space. Since we brought Yoshi with us and she’s tripled her size since we got her, her kennel takes up a lot of room. No problem for the Sienna. Dave laid the 3rd row seats flat in one motion (so cool!). We packed the back with our luggage, gifts, and other holiday items. As you can see it was pretty full.

The nice part is even though we had the back packed there was plenty of room throughout the rest of the minivan. No one had to ride with anything under their feet or piled up beside them. This made for smiles all around.

You can see the kids pillows in this photo behind them, the kids did that. Before we got going we had them take them down so we could make sure we had full visibility out the back window.

Other features we enjoyed included the Dual View Entertainment System that I mentioned in this previous post: Entertainment for Miles in the Toyota Sienna.

We also enjoyed the great sound. The speakers sounded wonderful throughout the trip and it’s nice that the kids can watch a movie on the pull down screen in back and use their headphones to hear it, while we listen to something different up front. In fact, the Browns were playing on our way home and Dave listened to the game most of the way. Since he likes to listen to it pretty loud, I was happy to use the touchscreen console to set the sound over to his side.

The multiple zone climate control was wonderful as well. I’m always cold and Dave and the kids are always hot. It was so nice that I could turn on my seat warmer or adjust the temperature and fan on my side and not overheat the others. Kora & Logan also like that they can turn the heat up or down from the second row or we can control it upfront. There are multiple vents throughout the vehicle which do a great job of keeping everyone cold, hot, or just right as needed.

Along the way we also liked the navigation system. The map is very easy to see and the highway view is very handy. It splits the screen and on one-half tells you what’s coming up at the next 3 or 4 exits – gas stations, restaurants, rest stops etc. This is very handy especially when traveling with kids.

Another favorite feature is the Blind Spot Monitoring System. Whenever another vehicle is in your blind spot an orange light pops up on the sideview mirror in the image of two cars. This is telling you not to move over just yet, there’s a car in your blind spot. It’s such a handy and helpful feature and makes me feel so much safer when driving.

The Toyota Sienna rides so smoothly and the seats are so comfortable that it was a joy to take it on this holiday road trip. We have been enjoying our time with Sienna and recommend it to anyone looking for new family minivan. We love the storage space, the comfort it provides, the safety features, the entertainment options, and more. It’s been a great vehicle and it’s made it’s way to the top or our wish list for our next new car.