Every year, we try to embark on one road trip. I’m not talking about a regular 400+ mile round trip road trip to the Central Coast (i.e. San Luis Obispo), I’m referring to a road trip that would last over 1,500 miles. For 2013, we drove from Los Angeles to Palm Desert, to Monterey, to Sonoma County, to Reno before returning. I believe that trip carved 1,770 miles on the Prius.
Before capping off 2014, we’re planning on taking the Prius Four all the way up to Vancouver, B.C. This will be the longest distance driven with the Prius and also will probably be our last long distance road trip in a while. Our wedding takes place next summer and we plan on having a child shortly after. Of course we’ll make the best of our trip with stops in San Francisco, Eureka, Portland and Seattle. The trip will last two weeks and approximately 2,700~2,800 miles round trip. I am projecting total gas expenditure would be from $150~$200, based on current price and past driving experience (I’ve capped 600~650 miles per full tank, with two people and driving 65~70 mph). We’ve already booked our lodging for the course of this road trip. The fun part now is finding great places to drink, eat , sight-see and photograph. Being tikiphiles ourselves, we’re also going to hit up a few landmark tiki bars that crosses our path, such as:
- Forbidden Island in Alameda, CA
- Tonga Room in San Francisco, CA
- Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, CA
- Hale Pele in Portland, OR
If anyone familiar with the aforementioned stop areas and have any recommendations, feel free to send me a message or comment below. I’ve also just had my 30,000 mile service performed, so the Prius will long be ready for the road trip. In case anyone is interested, I got the 30k service performed at Cabe Toyota of Long Beach, CA for $149 plus tax. Of the 30,000 accumulated miles, I’d say 75% of it or more went into road trips, most of which I don’t write about unless the road trip surpasses 1,500 miles round trip.
I also recently got done installing Curt trailer tow hitch and engine bay covers (reservoir, invertor) on the Prius since its last update, so DIY guides are in the works.