A weekend in the woods with the Hyundai i30

Ooer. That sounds a bit creepy doesn’t it?

We weren’t up to anything suspect, I promise, we were just test driving the Hyundai i30. (Although I will say that if you DID want to transport bodies, the Hyundai i30 has excellent boot space.) We wanted to give it a proper test in a good variety of conditions, so we took it down the M5 until the motorway ran out and then drove our way down to stay at a Forest Holidays place in Cornwall.

It was PROPER RAINY that weekend, but I didn’t mind because I really like being in the forest in the rain. Everything smells so lovely and fresh when it rains in the woods, plus our lodge had a hot tub, and there is something very decadent indeed about being outside in the cold, with your whole body in the warm water, sipping a glass of cold white wine.

Belle had really enjoyed the drive down as Fiancé was coming down to meet us from London on the train, so she got to sit in the front. In the Hyundai i30 this meant two things for her.

1. She got to plug her phone in to the Apple Play thing and make me listen to songs sung (badly) from the girls from Dance Moms.
2. Every five minutes or so she could casually switch on my heated seat and wait for me to worry that I had wet myself as I felt the spreading warmth.

Both of which she enjoyed thoroughly.

Being in the Hyundai i30 made it a lovely drive for me too, especially as I’m used to driving an ancient, mouldy smelling Seat that has done over 110,000 miles and has a driver window wedged closed with cardboard. I could say that anything would seem good by comparison, but I am a genuine fan of the Hyundai i30. In fact, I used to drive one, and so I speak with two years’ experience.

It’s just so EASY. It makes everything SIMPLE for you. I like it.

(I am in the process of writing a more detailed review of some of the features in case ‘I like it’ isn’t in depth enough for you, so watch this space.)

I did have a bit of a moment on the way to the Forest Holiday centre where I stalled going up a hill in a little village, and an old man starred at me, but that was because I accidentally went into third instead of first gear. (First seems to be quite far over the left. Definitely not my fault.)

So, we arrived. And it was beautiful. (The woods AND the car.) I didn’t have that horrible scrunched up back feeling I normally have after driving for two hours – I felt like I’d just taken a quick spin around town. Still best to take a quick dip in the hot tub though I felt, just in case.

We left the Hyundai i30 outside with the other cars to relax after the journey.

I’d like to say we spent the weekend driving the Hyundai i30 all around Cornwall, but we didn’t leave the forest. It was just so beautiful, even in the rain, that we couldn’t bring ourselves to go anywhere else. The WiFi was down for the weekend, and there was no phone or internet reception anywhere at all, so we felt properly like we had escaped for the weekend.

Instead we just hung out in the hot tub, explored the forest and ordered pizza to our lodge, (genius idea from Forest Holidays).

At the end of our weekend, I was sad to leave of course, but not in a ‘Oh God I can’t bear to think about the drive home’ sort of way. More of a ‘damn I’m going to miss that hot tub’ way. In fact, we covered quite a few more miles on the way home than we meant to, as I accidentally took us on a rather scenic route.

Belle wanted to stop at the Dingles Heritage Fairground on the way home to make Fiancé ride on the super scary ‘before health and safety’ fairground rides, but I temporarily forgot that the car had satnav and was trying to guide us by memory. I soon sorted everything out.

*coughs*

If you are looking for a family car that’s easy to drive, affordable and safe then you can’t go far wrong with the Hyundai i30 in my opinion. Check back next week for a more detailed review of safety features.

And sorry Hyundai for giving your car back so muddy.

Get 15% off your next Forest Holidays break

 

Enter SLUM17 to save 15% at www.forestholidays.co.uk when you book by 31 July and holiday by 31 August 2017.

The 15% discount can be taken at any time of the year including school holidays and Bank holidays and can be taken across all cabin types. This discount applies to the cabin price only and not any extras. May not be used in conjunction with any other offer and cannot be applied retrospectively. Forest Holidays reserves the right to withdraw this offer at any time.

 

We were given the Hyundai i30 to text drive for two weeks for the purposes of this review. All opinions my own.