Memories of Our First Family Road Trip Driving the Nissan Altima

Disclosure: This is a sponsored campaign for Colectiva Latina powered by Collective Bias, however all opinions are sincere and are my own. #MyColectiva #VamosConNissan

Nisssan Altima
On this road trip we stayed away from major highways and enjoyed driving the Nisssan Altima down picturesque country roads. Photo: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

I love to travel and enjoy the excitement of exploring a new, but destination the best memories happen during the journey itself, all of those moments that make up the time between your departure from one place and your arrival to the next. This summer our family embarked on our first real road trip, a one thousand mile trip from our home in Florida’s Gulf Coast to Savannah, GA and back.  For this special family vacation we chose to drive a Nissan Altima.

For me driving a Nissan on our first family road trip was kind of awesome because I’ve experienced a lot of firsts on a Nissan, I know my friend Monica would start cracking up reading this but no… I do not mean those kinds of firsts! When I was 12 I took my first road trip with my family on our Nissan Sunny station wagon, we drove from Guatemala to Washington DC in that car, yes my parents where insane and compared to that road trip our measly 1,000 miles seem like a walk around the block, but I digress.   When I was in high school I inherited that old Nissan and have great memories of my first trips with friends (and without my parents) to the beach and to lake Atitlan. In college the first car I bought was a Nissan Sentra, I remember like it was yesterday going to the dealer with my mom and driving off on my first new car!

Nissan Altima driving on the beach with surfers
Nissan Altima driving on the beach with surfers. Poto: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

Although we travel around Florida quite a bit we had never been to any of the places we visited on this trip so every day was an adventure. The first day we crossed Florida from the Gulf to the Atlantic and arrived at New Smyrna Beach, this small beach town is famous for having great waves for surfing (and also known as the shark capital of the US but I really think people are exaggerating!). My kids had been waiting 5 hours for some fun in the beach but when we got there it was raining.

A rainy day at the beach on the Nissan Altima
A rainy day at the beach on the Nissan Altima. Photo:  Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

We were thrilled to discover that you can drive your car right on the beach there so we were able to cruise along on our Altima, which by the way has a pretty elegant and sleek design, and enjoy the breathtaking ocean view safely from the car without getting soaked, hit by lighting or risking a shark encounter! 😉 The rainy day at the beach ended up being pretty awesome as we all loved driving for the first time on the beach.

Nissan Altima at the beach boy jumping
My little guy was pretty excited to be at the beach and he thought cruising along watching the waves and the surfers on the sporty Altima was really cool! Photo: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

After New Smyrna Beach we drove north along the Atlantic coast toward the oldest city in the US. St Augustine is filled with 500 years of history and with Latino spirit.  We visited Spanish forts, the pirate museums and immersed ourselves in a city where Spanish was the first language just like in our home!

Castillo de San Marcos Nissan Altima
Visiting el Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, the first masonry fort in the USA built by the Spanish in the 1600s. St Augustine is the first European city in the US that has been continually occupied. Photo: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

After spending three days driving in St Augustine we headed to our final destination: Savannah, Georgia. Visiting Savannah has been a dream of mine since I was in college.  I loved that during those days that we spent driving along narrow historic streets over cobblestones and next to horse drawn carriages the Nissan Altima had a smooth handing, was easy to park and turned on a dime (unlike our current car).

Savannah Georgia Nissan Altima
Savannah, Georgia was established in 1733 an is known as America’s first planned city.  Here we are driving down Bull street with City Hall in the background.  Photo: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

During the last two days we spend a lot of time in the car and driving through the rain as we headed back home.  I always get really nervous driving through those Florida storms but the Altima handled itself very well and I felt really safe.

Semimole battle ground Florida
We stopped at a Seminole battleground on our way back home to check out the local history. Photo: Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

I was a bit concerned about spending so much time in the car but even though we had to drive for hours we were all in good spirits during the entire trip and this was in great part due to the fact that the Altima not only has a lot more space than you would expect from a car in the mid-size range but it’s also really comfortable.

road trip with kids
Keeping your sanity during long road trips sometimes requires the help of electronic devices, don’t judge me! We found a great way for both of the kids to watch the iPad without fighting!  Cesar Diaz, all rights reserved.

Both my husband and I got to drive the car on the trip and since we need to make a decision about what car to buy together it was really important that we both weighed in on what we thought about the Nissan Altima.  You can read my husband’s post about the Nissan Altima here and read our comparison about what is more important to each of us when looking to buy a family car on the post we wrote together here.

You can learn more about the Nissan Altima by visiting the Nissan website , follow Nissan on Facebook and follow @NissanUSA on twitter to stay up to date with their latest news.

2 thoughts on “Memories of Our First Family Road Trip Driving the Nissan Altima”

  1. I have owned my little nissan Pulsar for 3 years now and has never let me down! Cheap and reliable and all you need 🙂 Thanks for your insights on the Alitma, I looking to get a newer model car soon

    Reply
  2. I’m also Altima owner and in last five years I have crossed the more than 100.000 miles and I didn’t have any kind of failure. I love my car because its reliable and comfortable and I will look for 2017 version.

    Reply

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