When I was a child, we took nearly all of our family road visits in huge vans, usually complete with several rows of seating, cup holders galore, and more seat belts than people, it appeared. We had a big family, though, and what we paid for in very high fuel prices and scratched vinyl interior, we made up for plentifully in space and comfort.

But, those days are gone, as well as large families have a multiplicity of alternatives in relation to family-friendly cross-country travel. When this particular large family required to get from Kansas City to California to Seattle and back again, there were issues to contemplate above and beyond packaging and hotel bookings: how do we get there, and how do we get there without going broke?

Lately my family members and I drove cross-country to visit my in-laws, and we preferred to rent a Sports utility vehicle to do drive with. Yet my fiance and I did not need any Sports utility vehicle. We needed a Sports utility vehicle which was gonna take us from place A to place B on the lowest dollar – the most fuel efficient SUV we can find.

We tried several models before driving off in a Toyota Highlander, all brilliant and gleaming and new-smelling. And let me tell you, we weren’t dissatisfied when it came to the petrol efficiency – we made it almost a tank and a half past what an ordinary tank would have gotten us on the highway. But, being the most fuel efficient SUV on the road isn’t the only thing that the Toyota Highlander has working for it.

The rear seat was huge enough to keep all our four children’s joyful, and the Digital video disc player it came with meant several hours of calm time passing – considerably longer than books, Gameboys, or board games would have gotten us quietly. The fiance profoundly loved not needing to halt all that frequently (I say ‘all that often’ because, when you travel with a family as big as mine is, halts are inevitable and should just be taken in stride), as well as I was surprised when I woke up from a nap to find we’d made it almost double so far as I had estimated.

Altogether, there’re only a few cars I could envision asking for once again for another road trip – both for the petrol efficiency and otherwise. Economic assistance isn’t the only thing which the Highlander had us feeling giddy relating to by the time we turned the car back in – the gas efficiency on the car even left us clicking our heels about the lower carbon footprint we were capable to leave on the planet.

My fiance and I are eco-minded people, or at best attempt to be, and there have been many times we have been unable to drive places because the price of gas was not only financially but emotionally off-putting. But, as one among the leading fuel efficient SUVs, the Toyota Highlander kept those emotions far, far away from us and we were in a position to enjoy the full extent of our getaway – also taking an unplanned side trip or two – without worrying that we were harming our planet much more than need be.