Thanks to Drive STI for providing a vehicle for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.
I can’t believe it’s already been 3 weeks since we returned from our big family vacation to Sanibel Island, Florida. We had such an incredible time at this special place, and we certainly hope to return to take in more of the sights and more of the incredible nature (I got within 15 feet of a manatee and within 1 foot of a shark. Got a picture of my swimming buddy just before the fisherman returned him to the ocean.).
Sanibel Island is one of those destinations that isn’t super easy to get to if you don’t already live nearby. It’s so far down into Florida that it’s tough to make that drive for most folks. Therefore, you need to fly into the Ft. Myers Airport (a smaller airport which tends to have slighter higher fares…boo) and then you need to drive 40 minutes to get to the island. Since it is a long barrier island, you may need to drive another 10-30 minutes to reach your final destination. Totally doable, but having a vehicle is a necessity.
We spent the week testing out the 2016 Kia Sedona, and friends, having such a wonderful and road-trip PERFECT vehicle really added to the fun of the trip. I want to highlight some of the great features of this particular vehicle so that you can consider requesting it for any rental car needs you might have this summer, or if you happen to be in the market for a minivan, I want to show you reasons why you simply MUST give this vehicle a test drive.
The 2016 Kia Sedona starts at just $26,400 though some of the features I will be showcasing are add-ons. The DVD player in the back seat was noticed by my kids straight away. We didn’t realize our vehicle would have this feature or else we would have brought along some movies for the kids. So be aware of that great feature if you rent this vehicle for a trip!
We also just LOVED the cameras that helped us get in and out of our parking spaces. We had some tight squeezes, and since a van is considerably larger than the car we normally drive, this kept us from making any critical errors. 😉
And y’all, that trunk space was FANTASTIC! We loaded up on groceries for the entire week on the way from the airport to the island, and the trunk easily held all of our groceries and all of our luggage, which left ample leg room for all of the passengers.
The fact that the windows rolled down was super exciting to the girls (and honestly I’ve never seen this feature in a van, though maybe it’s more normal now than I realize? Either way, we loved it!). And we all enjoyed getting to customize the cooling for our specific areas of the car, especially since I run hot and my husband runs cold (and in the front of the van the seats had heaters and coolers. Say what?!).
We were also totally thrilled to discover not one, but TWO sunroofs. We certainly had to take advantage of that opportunity with a silly pic, and we also enjoyed that awesome sea breeze while we drove around the island.
We were very happy in this vehicle, and every member of our family of 5 felt really comfortable in it, including Grammio, who rode in the far back and said it was actually spacious and quite nice back there.
From the excellent navigational system, to the kid mirror above the rear view mirror (specifically designed to help you see the shenanigans happening in the back of the van), to Sirius radio playing just the type of music we wanted to hear (classical for our week of calm), the 2016 Kia Sedona was the most impressive vehicle Tim and I have ever had the pleasure of driving in our 19 years as drivers.
We miss the beach for sure, and we knew we would, but we never expected to miss a vehicle so much. The Kia Sedona was the best way to travel to the best vacation ever.
