Besides the two kids in the back seat, 75% of the time my road trip is a solo-adult adventure. This has it’s pro’s and con’s but it wouldn’t be without my trusty road trip companion: my Toyota Sienna.

I’m not one of those people who name their vehicle, so this mom minivan is just known as “my car” and it’s a pretty sweet ride. I have been very happy with my Toyota minivan, some 42,000 kilometres later.

Yes, we are currently maxing out the mileage on our minivan, that’s how much I love a road trip. We have a 2017 Toyota Sienna.

Need some road trip tips?

• Tech-Free Toddler Road Trips will CHANGE YOUR WORLD
• How to keep young kids happy on the road. 
• My Cloth Diaper Roadtrip Stash.
• Breastfeeding essentials Traveling
• 2 under 2 Roadtrip Mistakes
• 5 Things that suck about travelling alone with Toddlers
• Eastern Canada Roadtrip

What I love about my Toyota Sienna

Sure it’s a mom minivan, but it’s awesome and here are the many reasons why I think everyone needs a Toyota Sienna for their mom minivan (or their next road trip adventure).

This is a totally unsponsored opinion. I don’t know anything about vehicles and this isn’t my normal job. I write about cloth diapers typically. 

Rear Facing Car Seats & 6 Feet Tall Drivers

We had our hearts set on a Honda Odyssey, but when one finally landed on the lot, we installed the kids Clek car seats rear facing… We didn’t even leave the lot on our test drive because my husband could not fit behind the wheel of a 2017 Honda Odyssey with a rear-facing Clek.

That is entirely how we ended up with a Toyota Sienna.

The Toyota minivan was the van that would fit our long-legged bodies and long length car seats without any problem.

The Sienna is roomy and that’s an understatement.

Roadtrip perfection for all the things and more.

One of the reasons, as a family of 4, that we have a minivan and not an SUV or large car is because we live on road trips. We drive to Vancouver at least 4 times a year, and travelling long distances is something that runs deep in our lives. This makes a spacious, comfortable minivan one of the best choices for us.

It’s like having a pickup truck but better. We had a pickup truck, and I hated that beast. 

I’ve even fit two kids, and 5 adults in this minivan for excursions into Vancouver. It’s a little squishy, but we make do. Ususally, I try to put the kids in the back seat, so that the adults can enjoy the comfort of the captain chairs in the middle row.

It goes. 

On our trip to Eastern Canada, we rented a Dodge Caravan for 3 weeks, and that minivan didn’t go.

I’m not a car person, so my explanation of this will be weak, but basically, the Toyota Sienna just goes and it goes beautifully. It accelerates without effort and just speeds along the highway like a dream. I’ve put over 40,000 kilometres and not once been angry at it.

I was angry at that Dodge Caravan in the first day because for the sake of all minivans just accelerate to highway speeds.  I was angry at the Dodge a lot that week. 

Sliding Doors

Sliding doors are life.

Minivans might not be cool to the SUV loving minivan resisting mama, but that’s because your children dont throw open doors and you’re not a plus size mama trying to squeeze a child out of an inner city parking lot while squished between 2 BMW’s.

If there is a reason to buy a minivan it is because of automatic sliding doors. It’s because my kids can climb in and out solo, and because I can open the doors from a distance and close them from even further. It’s because I can squeeze between fancy cars and can have the space for all those car things.

If SUV’s had sliding doors I might get one, but they don’t.

Toasty Warm & Perfectly Chilled

Have you ever driven in a vehicle that failed at heating and cooling? I have.

I can think of many vehicles that I have driven in the frigid Canadian winters and frozen to death. Not in my minivan. Seriously, I’m about to embark on a winter road trip adventure tomorrow and I have absolutely no worries the kids and myself will be perfectly warm/cool on our trip.

The Sienna can handle it.

Also, it’s got a killer filter because I drove through Wildfires this summer and my lungs will felt wonderful after that 5-hour adventure.

4 Wheel Drive

My husband says this needs to be on the list and that I don’t appreciate how wonderful this is to have in a Canadian winter.

I usually learn my lesson when I take his car out for an errand on a cold snowy night and remember that fishtailing is serious and it’s easy to do a spin on a corner without 4 wheel drive. yikes. 

All the car jammer aside, my Sienna is the best road trip companion a solo mama traveller could ask for.

We’ve done a lot of trips, and a lot of kilometres. When I open the side doors goldfish and Duplo blocks always fall out, but that’s just a sign of good times and happy adventures.

In the mom groups, I constantly see people asking for minivan recommendations, and you’ve got to go test drive the Toyota Sienna. When we were in the market for a minivan space the Sienna offers was not even comparable with our experience of the Honda Odyssey. I know Odysseys’ are the end all and be all, but this mama says that her Sienna is her best friend.

I think you should try a Sienna, you might just like it.

Also a big shout out to  Valley Toyota in Chilliwack. The service department has been very good to me over the years. I’ve had a few freak outs and little panic attacks that my van wasn’t working properly, and they’ve always helped me out with a smile… and yeah I did get a flat tire already and I blame Starbucks for their terrible construction site practice. 

If we are talking accidents, I also drove way too close to a pole and scratched up the entire side of my vehicle. It got fixed… $4500 later. #notthebestdriver?

That’s it for this post, but in case you’ve wondered why it is that I travel so often, I wouldn’t be able to do it without my Sienna. #notsponsored #sponsormeplease?