This week I was reunited with the 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe Preferred HEV. Our original time together was only a day, a couple of weeks back. Therefore it was nice to be able to enjoy a full seven days, with the Sante Fe now. To be able to review it as a daily driver, as opposed to a weekend warrior.
For such a rugged and square looking vehicle, it was a juxtaposition to have the key fob shaped like a light weight egg, coupled with the feel of a play toy. It was large and cumbersome in retrospect, which did kind of match the tank-like aesthetic of the Santa Fe.
It is a handsome car with a spacious cabin and large wide seats. On the harder side with little lumbar support, it did wear on my back the more I sat. I did like the raised centre console and controls being within arm’s reach.
An intuitive vehicle with key sensing, automatic door opening and locking when you walk in away with the key. I never had to search for it in my bag and knew it was on my person when the car beeped to disarm as I drew close. At one time, I opened driver side door in drive, with my foot on the brake, and the vehicle automatically put itself into park.
There were however, some technical challenges. Sadly, the overhead camera was out of commission; meaning I got no overhead view of the vehicle. Therefore, I struggled to park the Hyundai Santa Fe’s larger body and elongated back. There was a longer delay for my device to sync up with the vehicle’s Bluetooth. This was not always an automatic function, and I found myself having to select the option manually. Easy enough to do, but an annoyance in the long run. This is considering how many times I can get in and out of the vehicle on a day of errands. I was also unable to use the diction function of my phone when it was actually connected to the vehicle. The SUV kept going into hands-free call mode, and attempted to call my own number.
The best part was definitely the savings at the gas pump. A full week of commuting and leisurely travel, and I wasn’t even halfway through the tank. The hybrid‘s ability to charge and store electric energy is definitely a selling point.
Other than that, this was an easy and familiar ride for the week. A week that I did fairly well to balance with days of full rest, countered by days with multiple events. A shorter week, thanks to the long weekend, that still felt busy with all the running around I did.
Start off the week well with a therapeutic and healing, upper body massage from Knead’s second and newest location at Marpole. Honestly, this was the best massage I have had to date. It was clear that I have been doing this wrong all the times before. I will explain in detail within its on review post.
For dinner we had three courses at Van Spark in Richmond, contemporary western-style kitchen with a karaoke bar and large screens for sporting matches. They were launching a new menu that was a great deal at $39.99 for the above mentioned courses, with the option to add on wine pairings. Not something I would expect in this city and from this setting, but more on that in its own post.
On Wednesday, my original plans got canceled, so I took the opportunity to rest.
Thursday we spent the day with Four Winds Beach House, learning more about their foam-full beers and the surrounding Southlands Tsawwassen community that they serve.
This included a tour of the brewing operations, a group bike ride to the neighbouring Centennial Beach for campfire beers and charcuterie, then ending back at their restaurant to extensively experience their food and drink menu. Once again, more details to come in its own written review.
For dinner, we attended a cocktail and food pairing hosted by Sula Davie. Acclaimed bartender, Zoe was behind the bar, mixing up Indian inspired cocktails. Each befitting of the setting and complementary to the kitchen’s choice seasonings. Six unique cocktails, six small bite pairings. The full rundown will be available in its own post to come.
Right after, we headed down to Gastown’s arcade and bar Greta, to celebrate their third birthday. Invited guests were treated to activations and complementary food and drinks, plus game cards that allowed us to play their arcade and carnival games. Sadly we overestimated our ability to do both events and ended up coming at the tail end of everything here.
We were able to sneak in the last shot of vodka from the Grey Goose ice shot, and had a moment on the 360° photo booth. All the food was gone, but we were able to get in a couple of drinks. They had some new cocktails worth exploring, but I would recommend the highballs instead. With the music and energy that is more aligned with a that of a nightclub, the latter felt more appropriate.
I gravitated towards my usual go-to games, which includes basketball, skeetball, air hockey, Mario Kart, and any first person shooter with guns. This ran us later in to the night, meaning missing gym the next day, opting for sleep instead.
And on Friday it was catching up on more sleep at my monthly lash extension appointment. Got a little pop of blue to match the clear skies we have been getting lately.
