Toyota called us a while back and invited us to California to drive their 2013 Toyota Venza, a crossover vehicle designed to primarily meet the needs of the active baby boomer.

They flew us to Santa Monica where we enjoyed a beautiful night of dining overlooking the Santa Monica pier. In the morning we drove the 2013 Toyota Venza up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara for lunch on the pier, and then to El Capitan Canyon where we spent two nights of glamping (glamorized camping).

Our days were filled with hiking, bicycling in the mountains, kayaking in the ocean, wine country driving tours, dining in a winery’s barrel room, S’mores around the campfire at night, all ending with a final night’s stay and dining in a posh Beverly Hills hotel.

Wow! We had a blast. Here’s a short video highlighting our experience:

Note: if you can’t see the video, click here.

There are 79 million baby boomers in America. Baby boomers love to travel. And I just read the other day that baby boomers control 70% of the nation’s total net worth, and adults 55+ account for one-third of all trips in the United States.

Those are staggering numbers, and clearly one of the reason’s that Toyota USA wanted us to experience this vehicle and then share the experience with you, our audience.

The 2013 Toyota Venza just might be the perfect baby boomer road trip machine!

Carol and I have been driving German luxury vehicles for over a decade, and to be honest with you, would not have given the Toyota Venza the first consideration. Not because we had anything against it, it just wasn’t in our field of view.

Frankly, we hadn’t even heard of the Toyota Venza until we started seeing their recent commercials on television. You know, girl sitting at home, playing on her computer, looking at puppies, while her baby boomers parents are out having a blast on their bicycles with friends.

Well, having now spent a few days driving the 2013 Toyota Venza, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t mind having one of these babies in my garage.

10 Things Baby Boomer Travelers Will Love About the 2013 Toyota Venza

1. The 2013 Toyota Venza was designed from the ground up as a “reward” car for active, empty nester boomers. Every feature is designed so that boomers might pursue travel and culinary interests, as well as active leisure interests such as golfing, cycling, shopping, skiing, and hiking.
2. The interiors are beautifully crafted and will suit even the most demanding of luxury buyers.
3. Although all-wheel drive is available, it is built on Toyota’s largest car frame and offers superb riding comfort with a low center of gravity to give it a fun driving style.
4. With reclining rear seats, the 2013 Toyota Venza is a splendid automobile for 4-passenger baby boomer trips, and has ample room in the rear cargo area for all of your luggage.
5. Because it is built on a car frame, getting in and out of the 2013 Toyota Venza is a breeze. It’s not too high, it’s not too low, it’s just right and easy on the knees. The same holds true for your luggage. You’re not going to have to lift your 50-lb suitcases above your waist. Simply stand up, and put ’em in. Sweet!
6. With 7 standard air bags, the Venza is a IIHS Top Safety Pick.
7. The Entune Multi-media System is very cool. It will integrate with your smartphone and supports mobile apps, such as Bing, OpenTable, and movietickets.com, along with accessing useful travel-related services, such as live weather, traffic, fuel information (location and price), stocks, and sports, and even iHeartRadio’s 750+ stations, and Pandora’s personalized music service. Plus, there’s onboard navigation and so many more technologies, it would probably take me a week to explain them all to you.
8. We like the available all-wheel drive for when we’re cruising around on back-country roads, or perhaps when we encounter snow in the mountains.
9. There’s six bottle holders and four cup holders, and rear-seat passengers are certain to be comfortable with plenty of room, air-conditioning vents, rear-seat adjustable personal reading lamps, three 12-volt outlets to keep computers up and running, as well as an available rear-seat DVD system.
10. The V6 model has standard 20-inch five-spoke aluminum allow wheels which contributed to the vehicles overall sweet styling. We liked it!

I suppose there are some who will say that this article sure felt like a commercial for the 2013 Toyota Venza.

Well … in some ways, it was.

Toyota is convinced that they have built perhaps one of the best vehicles on the planet for the active baby boomer traveler. Now, having driven the vehicle for a few hundred miles, we’re persuaded that this just might be the case.

In fact, as we contemplate some of our long baby boomer road trips coming up in 2013, we’re both finding ourselves desiring to take them in a 2013 Toyota Venza. Go drive one, and tell us what you think!

Disclosure: this article is not a paid advertisement for the 2013 Toyota Venza. It represents our honest product evaluation after driving the vehicle for a few days. However, Toyota did provide us with the 2013 Toyota Venza California Glamping Experience. Thanks Toyota. We loved it, and love your car!

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