2025 Toyota Sienna: The Best Car for a Road Trip?

• I needed a minivan for an upcoming family trip.
• The Toyota Sienna was the best car for a number of reasons.
• This is why this fuel-sipping people mover is an ideal vacation vehicle.

Years ago, I took a 2021 Toyota Sienna (then part of our One-Year Road Test fleet) to Las Vegas with three family members and friends. They loved the rear-seat entertainment system (perfect for Smash Bros. sessions that helped the hours fly by), I dug the surprisingly able sound system, and we all enjoyed the comfortable, effortless ride. The thing that stuck out in my mind, however, was the fuel economy. I drove to Vegas and almost back home on a single tank of gas, averaging 33.3 mpg over the weekend. Knowing that I'd be able to haul around my family with their luggage and not have to pay a ton of money at the pump, I quickly booked the Sienna for my time in Denver. 

The first order of business after picking up the keys was fitting the rear-facing child seat. Unlike most SUVs, minivans have second-row seats that offer a good deal of fore and aft movement. That means you can slide the seats far back for maximum relaxation as you deploy the footrest or — importantly for us — bring them all the way up to easily load your kiddo. And even though the second-row seat is far forward to ease child loading/unloading, because you're driving a giant box, there's still a ton of room for the front-row passenger. Also on the subject of interior space, there's a massive amount of cargo capacity for luggage. It was just my wife, the little one and me for the first part of our trip, which meant we could cruise around with the third-row seats stored in the prodigious cargo well. Doing so creates a flat load floor behind the second-row seats, and that translates to more than enough space for our two pieces of checked luggage, one carry-on and the stroller, with room to spare. Two points to the Sienna for classic minivan strengths.

We stayed in downtown Denver for this first leg of the trip — a perfect environment to maximize electric travel. Remember, the Sienna is a traditional (non-plug-in) hybrid, and that means that sticking to low speeds and light throttle application keeps the engine off. The Sienna shuttled us around town, with highlights that included the aquarium, children's museum and Larimer Square shopping district. We also visited the Denver Zoo, which is easily better than any in Southern California. 

Once the in-laws arrived a few days later, our lodgings moved outside of town, close to the location of the wedding, which was the reason for our trip. There were no complaints from those in the third row — there was abundant passenger space for the reasonably sized adults in the very back. Plus, the Sienna's intuitive second-seat controls meant getting in and out of both rear rows was a cinch. The Sienna whisked us away to sights like the Red Rocks-adjacent Dinosaur Ridge, the Coors factory in Golden, and Meow Wolf's Convergence Station in downtown Denver. My personal highlight was a long-awaited visit to Casa Bonita, the self-described (and me-approved) "Greatest Restaurant in the World."

Our week was made possible and exceptionally easy by the Sienna. But for good and bad, it's the Sienna's powertrain that stuck out the most. This four-cylinder hybrid isn't a speed superstar. There's only 245 horsepower on tap, which is enough for driving around the city. But boy, this engine is loud and strained as you get up to highway speeds with the weight of so many adults on board. And when it fires up after moving only using the dual electric motors, you feel a shock and shove through the drivetrain, which isn't all that pleasant. But man, you can't argue with the financial results. I only paid $23.14 to fill up the Sienna after about 250 miles of driving, a factor of both Colorado's comparatively inexpensive gasoline and achieved fuel economy in the mid-30s. For me, the fuel efficiency is worth the negligible powertrain drawbacks, and a major reason why the Sienna was the ideal vehicle for my family vacation in the Rockies.