As a daily commuter into the city I spend a significant amount of time in my car and an obscene amount of money on gas, which trust me I would rather spend on shoes and the Celine Trapeze handbag. When I heard Chevrolet Canada had released a diesel version to their sleek Cruze sedan, that would put my car and all other non-hybrid passenger cars gas mileage to shame, I had to find out more. And that is exactly what I did in November with Garrett Tonge, Founder of lifestyle website Gtonge1.com. Thanks to Chevrolet, Garrett and I got to take the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel on an amazing lifestyle road trip to our nation’s capital of Ottawa to explore what the city has to offer.

Our road trip journey began at Toronto’s chic Hotel Le Germain where we quickly got acquainted with the vehicles amazing features. A road trip wouldn’t be a road trip without some great music, so armed with our best playlists, Garrett and I immediately connected our iPhones to the Cruze’s MyLink System, which let us control everything at tip of our fingers from the steering wheel and colour touchscreen display. Determined to make the most of this drive down we took the scenic route and stopped at a quaint organic coffee shop called The Human Bean and hit up a museum both in the town of Cobourg. After another three hours we arrived at our home for the next few days, The Arc Hotel, and decided to walk around the downtown area before heading to dinner at Play Food & Wine. Located in the Byward Market, this modern, tapas style restaurant uses local, seasonal and sustainable products in their dishes. We loved that resto’s Wine Director detailed her suggested wine pairings under each menu item for an optimal dining experience.

Day two in Ottawa started out super early with brekkie in bed and a run on the Rideau Canal (a must during the fall as the scenery is so beautiful), followed by a scenic drive to the east side of Ottawa. We then got dressed up to the nines for some sightseeing around Sparks Street, Parliament Hill, then headed for a swanky high-tea at the historic Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel. The amazing day was finished off with a spectacular dinner at what I would say is Ottawa’s top restaurant for both food and service, Restaurant 18. And of course there is no way we could have made this 4.5 hour trek without indulging in a famous Beavertail post dinner. If you’re unfamiliar with this national Canadian treat, its simply a fried dough pastry that is hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail and comes with a choice of toppings such as; nutella, peanut-butter M&M’s, whipped cream, banana slices, crumbled oreos, etc. Worth every single calorie if you ask me!

Heading out on our last day of the road trip, still on the same tank of gas may I add, we decided to keep it low key and head over to the National Gallery of Art to check out some of the gallery’s current exhibitions. Was really pleased to see some work by one of my all-time favourite abstract artists Jackson Pollock. Before we knew it, it was time to embark on our trek back to Toronto. After a quickie lunch at the area’s oldest and tastiest vegetarian restaurant The Green Door, we hit the road singing along to music from the car’s built in XM Satellite radio. Which was a lifesaver after already listening to our playlists on the way down. I can’t think of a better vehicle to have used for this lifestyle trip. It had roomy interior with leather seats, spacious trunk space to accommodate all of our Rimowa luggage, OnStar’s auto security, car safety and navigation system, rear/back-up camera and it was super efficient in regards to gas giving us 4.2L per 100km of highway driving. Believe it or not, we returned back home without having to re-fuel after driving approximately 1,200 over the duration of the weekend. Many thanks to Chevrolet, Odyssey International and Garrett Tonge for such an amazing time and for allowing me to be a part of the #CleanDieselCruze lifestyle experience.