At the end of July I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to Whistler from Vancouver in a Honda CRV. I think I was a little giddy at the thought of a nice drive, a nice hotel, a fabulous dinner and no kids.

Getting Acquainted with the Honda CRV

Once at the head office in Richmond we were introduced to the Honda CRV in a tour with Steve Weber, a product knowledge instructor for Honda Canada. He showed us all the bells and whistles including the GPS and interior computer systems that pairs your phone so that you can play any music on your smartphone over Bluetooth and will read texts to you so that you don’t text and drive – not that any of us do that.

Hitting the Road

Once we had the tour of all the features of the new Honda CRV we were divided into teams of two and I was paired with John Beihler writing for Miss 604. We packed everything you might need for a weekend getaway including a raft and a hockey bag. We then headed out towards Whistler and stopped in at Shannon Falls to swap drivers and take a few pictures. Next we had a quick stop for lunch at The Cup Bistro and Deli before quickly heading up to Whistler and off to our afternoon activities. I chose to go on the Peak to Peak gondola and conquer my fear of heights and the views were well worth any butterflies in my stomach.

Weekend Getaway to Whistler

After the Peak to Peak experience we were ferried over to Rainbow Park to enjoy the Araxi Longtable Dinner. The field was all decked out with a very long table filled with place settings and glassware, the effect was beautiful. The food was scrumptious and while I wished I had a light sweater and a sun hat, it was an incredible experience. If you have a chance to go with some friends it is well worth it.

Upsides and Downsides

The drive back to Vancouver was quiet and uneventful, just the way I like driving to be. Things I really liked about the CRV were the navigation system and ability to sync my smartphone. I liked that there were power adapters and a USB and an auxiliary line in as well. I also liked how easy it was to put the back seats down to increase the cargo space of the CRV. The seats were pretty comfortable and I imagine our two car seats would fit just fine. I would like some time to test drive it with the kids to see if we would be able to fit a third booster seat in the back seat, or if it is possible to fit a person in between the car seat and booster we currently have.

The only major drawback I can see is that the CRV does not come in a manual transmission. I find this is a drawback in most of the SUVs now. I liked the eco drive options, but we were able to average 9l/100km without the eco system on and we had a much easier time with the hills on the Sea to Sky highway.

Thank you to Honda Canada for inviting me to take part in the #goHondaCRV weekend. I had a great time and I enjoyed driving the CRV.