Do you remember when you first got your drivers license?
Do you remember what it felt like to drive alone for the first time?
I remember how AMAZING it felt. Freedom. Alone time. Music. Open roads and endless possibility.
I also remember the day I picked up my first car and drove to each and every one of my friends’ houses that day, to show off my brand spankin’ new 1992 Geo Metro.
Driving alone feels therapautic for me. I think that it’s just those feelings: possibility, freedom, quiet, alone time.
I recently visited Victoria, on Vancouver Island with the Chevrolet team to drive the all-new Chevy Malibu.
A me-time-trip with some alone driving time was exactly what I needed.
I was pleased to meet some amazing ladies from Toronto and see some old friends who are also bloggers and publishers, upon arrival, while we enjoyed some truly Westcoast food and drink at the beautiful Oak Bay Beach Hotel.
I made sure to retreat to my room early, after some fantastic social time, to enjoy this amazing space. After all, I had brought my iPad for Netflix, my journal for writing, and the hotel room was very cozy. It’s not often I get free quiet time like this, after all.
I was refreshed and ready to learn about the Chevy Malibu I’d be driving and our schedules for the day. I was pretty stoked to get this beauty.
My favourite features of the new Malibu are its tech and safety features.
I plugged in my iPhone To the car and it immediately connected to CarPlay and WIFI. Yes, you read that right – WIFI. In A Car. The 2016 Chevy Malibu offers 4G LTE WIFI.
WIFI meant that I could listen to Spotify, instead of the radio, ALL DAY!
Apply CarPlay (offered in several Chevrolet models) also reads your text messages to you, listens to your voice commands, reads your map’s directions for you, and has a large display for all of this. It does all of this, safely.
Remotelink by OnStar is also pretty amazing. This is a screen-cap of the app on my phone:
You can actually lock, unlock, start, and start the ‘alarm’ (horn & lights) on your vehicle, from across the globe. The techy walking us through the vehicle used the analogy ‘you can start your car from Space’, all you need is an Internet connection. Pretty amazing stuff!
One of the coolest tech safety features of the Chevy Malibu was Teen Driver. Look for my article on SheBuysCars.com for more info on that.
I was set loose to drive Victoria for the remainder of the day. Ahh, FREEDOM!
I drove to the beautiful Butchart Gardens just a 30-minute drive from downtown Victoria. It is the most amazing 55-acre sanctuary of hundreds of thousands of plants and flowers. I highly recommend a visit for the whole family (I hope to visit with my girls this Summer).
I most enjoyed hearing the frogs in a pond in the far corner of the Sunken Garden.
I drove back into the city and to the historic Fairmont Empress Hotel for High Tea, and explored downtown Victoria. I enjoyed the Malibu along stunning Oak Bay back to the hotel.
Me-time not only means driving alone, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The car has fantastic handling, better pick-up than I imagined it would and plenty of space for a family of five. Even a very impressive trunk space and fold-down back seats.
After spending some time at the relaxing mineral baths at the hotel, I walked down to the Oak Bay Marina and fed these wild Seals. This is a must-do the next time you find yourself in Victoria!
I recommend the Chevrolet Malibu for families of 3 or 4 as it has plenty of space for a stroller (and luggage) in the trunk and ample space for car seats.
Visit Chevrolet today to learn more about the all new Malibu and all of its cool features.
*All travel and accommodations were provided by Chevrolet Canada. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.