8-passengers road trip in Sienna - any experiences?

[adban]

Hi - I finally am hoping to pull off a 3 generation road trip; we are a party of 8 (two 7 yr olds and rest adults). I'm trying to avoid renting a 12 passenger van (driving comfort, tunnel view problem for passengers, etc.), but not sure if 8 adults (and their bags - it is a 2 week trip) will all fit in a 8-passenger version of Sienna.

Does anyone have any experiences of 8 adults in Sienna, how comfortable (or not) it is? Any other suggestions?

Thanks all in advance.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Although I've had a number of mini-vans in the past, I've never driven the Sienna, but I did go on-line to find a video meant to extol its virtues as a flexible cargo/people carrier. Just as I feared, they tout it as an eight passenger van with lots of cargo space, but I would NOT want to be in any vehicle that size with seven other people and all their luggage, even as the driver. the six seats in the back are going to be cramped at best when occupied three abreast. The middle seat in the middle row looks particularly uncomfortable since it is a narrow jump seat fit in over the normal armrest/cup holder. And when all seats are in use, there simply is not enough cargo space behind the last row to accommodate even a modest sized bag for each person, let alone a cooler, snacks, games, sports equipment or whatever else you'd want to bring along on your RoadTrip. What I usually suggest in such cases is that you look instead at renting two intermediate sedans. Often the rental fee on both cars will be less or only slightly more than the single van, gas mileage won't be all that much worse, and as a bonus, you get the flexibility to change up who has to sit with whom, where everyone goes on a given day, and opens up the possibility of doing two different things instead of dragging everyone off to a site or event that only half will find interesting.

AZBuck