I spent Sunday driving from PA to Baltimore Inner Harbor. It's about a 2.5 hour drive each way. This is probably my longest trip to date in the Mini.

I was traveling with three beautiful girls, my 2 daughters and wifey. No one really complained about the trip at all aside from "Are we there yet?!" questions every 10 minutes and "I'm bored!". My daughters are 3 and 7, one in a booster and the other in a car seat. My 3 yr old loves the hard acclerations but my wife says they make her car sick. You can't please everybody No one was allowed to eat in the car.

What a drive! What was once a boring ride is now an engaging experience.

The quickness is unreal in this car. Rolling on from 60-70-80mph doesn't even make this car breath heavy. It just wants to keep pulling. Steering is quick and precise in Sport mode. Non-sport mode isn't bad either. The ride with the stock suspension was fine, it wasn't too jarring. I think I averaged about 33mpg and we were moving at a good clip 70+mph, just keeping up with traffic.

Lots of idiots in the left lane clogging up traffic and more then one occasion they almost caused accidents because people would try and go around them. I was able to quickly skirt around and put some distance between me and the messes being created by the slower drivers.

And the best thing....I wasn't even tired after the 2 hour drive. I felt very refreshed.

My wife and I are head back to Baltimore next week to see the BodyWorld exhibit at the science center. We'll be traveling without the kids. We should be able to crank up the tunes a little louder on that trip

 

How well do they fit in the back? The kids that is. We are planning a trip right after we get the car too, but are worried there won't be enough space for the kids. We are in the same boat, one in regular seat one in booster, 2 and 4. Our trip is going to be a bit longer, almost 13 hours each way, but with the great gas mileage it is much, much cheaper than flying.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

It depends on your kids. For the most part, my kids played with each other, in their own little make believe world. They were comfortable for most of the trip. I don't know where you'll put all your gear because it sounds like a couple of days overnight.

I did one night overnight with the MINI and we had three bags. One more small carry-on luggage size bag could have fit. We had 1 short duffle, 1 long duffle and one carry on sized bag.

Bring some sort of pillow for them. The car seats make them sit upright so they can't fall asleep without their head flopping at crazy angles (they will eventually fall asleep but it hurts looking at them with their heads/necks twisted ). I don't know if those neck pillows (you see people at the airport with them) will/do work. Their compact size should make the storage problem a bit better. Your trunk storage will be all but gone, i'm sure. We also limited the girls to one small stuffed animal of their choice and one of their favorite books. No electronics though.

If you stop every couple of hours, they should be fine. We stopped once, got out, went to the bathroom, had some Cinnabon, coffee and h2o for the kids. Took our time getting back to the car and we were off again.

Oh, we played eye-spy alot and they got a kick out of the mood lighting at night.

I love the Mini for bringing us together. In my wife's Jeep Grand Cherokee, the kids were way in the back and my wife and I were in the front. Now in close quarters, the kids will have to deal with us It's also easier to reach back there and tickle them or smack them if they're bad .

At that age, they'll think its a real adventure, it depends on how you spin it

Have fun, drive safe and be careful!

 

Congrats on 2K! Yikes! Good for you doing some HARD core motoring!