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Today is National Dog Day! We here at Destination Kia love our furry friends and want to celebrate this day by making sure that you are traveling safely with your pet! So take a look at some of our pet safety travel tips below and take your next adventure with confidence! Check those out below, and if your pup isn’t quite a pup anymore and has outgrown your ride, upgrade to a spacious Kia SUV! You can browse our available inventory online and schedule a test drive at Destination Kia today! Destination Kia’s Pet Safety Travel Tips Always use a crate to keep them safe: Whenever you are traveling in your vehicle your pooch should always be secure inside his/ her crate or secured by a proper seatbelt for dogs in the backseat. This is the safest place for them in the event of an accident. If you choose the crate option, make sure you make it comfortable for them by adding a blanket, a toy they love, and any other items your doggo likes. This will help keep your pet entertained and relaxed throughout the duration of the trip. Food, water, treats, medications: A consistent diet is very important for pets, especially if your pet has a sensitive stomach. Always pack enough food and treats to keep your pooch full and happy. Go the extra mile, if they require specific water or are not used to drinking water other than what you give at home, pack that as well. Don’t forget any medications that your dog might need along the way! Vet visits are key: Is your pet safe and healthy enough to travel? A quick visit to your vet can answer any/ all questions that you may have when it comes to traveling with your pet. This is especially important if your pet is on the older side. Getting your vets approval to travel is important! Take a potty break: Everyone could use a minute to stop, stretch our legs, and maybe use the bathroom. Treat your pooch to that same courtesy as you do yourself. This will also allow your dog to keep calm throughout the ride and they won’t be so anxious being cooped up in a crate the entire trip. Let your pooch burn off that excess energy and hopefully, they will take a little snooze when you hit the road again! Don’t leave your pooch: This one is bolded for obvious reasons - do not leave your dog in the vehicle!!! This is putting your pet at risk and quite frankly, it’s not worth it. Unless your vehicle is parked in a secure, cool, covered parking garage - don’t leave them.

Now that June is here and the temperatures are heating up, it’s never been more tempting to hit the road behind the wheel of your Kia. If you’ll be traveling sooner than later it might be a good idea to check out our ultimate list of road trip essentials below. The Destination Kia team wants to make sure you’re as prepared as possible so we’ve compiled all the items you should pack in case an issue arises with your vehicle or you find yourself in need of some helpful accessories. While many of these items could be useful in a pinch there’s no real substitute for routine service. Regular maintenance helps give you the peace of mind you need, knowing your Kia won’t be breaking down anytime soon. So head over to our site and request a service appointment today! Destination Kia’s List Of Road Trip Essentials: Keep your car on the road with these essentials License and registration A copy of your car insurance policy and the relevant contact numbers Your car’s manual A spare tire Roadside Emergency Kit Little road trip accessories that can make a big difference. Paper maps/ map apps (technology doesn’t always work, having a back is always a good plan) Spare  money in case of an emergency A notebook and pen in the case that you need to leave a note or write information down First aid kit Flashlight Bug spray Large water bottles Toilet roll Stay connected & Entertained Phone chargers Killer road trip playlist Don’t forget your camera for memories! Portable WiFi A good book or two Travel games for both the car and when you get to your destination

The snow is falling and it’s time for a refresher course on some winter driving safety tips for when you head out for the holiday season! Especially if your plans find you traveling on the highway! With everyone out and about to visit family for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and many other holidays there is a higher likelihood of traffic, agitated driving, and accidents! So buckle up, take a look at those tips below, and be sure to stay safe out there this winter! Destination Kia’s Winter Driving Tips: Be alert and allow more distance between your vehicle and others. Use your brakes carefully.  Brake early and carefully as it takes more time and distance to stop in adverse conditions. Don’t use “cruise control” in wintry conditions. Be courteous to other drivers. Keep to the right except to pass, using turn signals to alert other drivers of your intentions. Always buckle your seat belt and require your passengers to do the same. Reduce speeds. Remember that the posted speed limit is for ideal travel conditions. Allow for extra travel time or consider delaying trips if the weather is inclement. Don’t use your hand-held cell phone while driving, as mandated by law. Use your headlights, as required by law.

Summer is in full swing and if you and your family are planning on hitting the road sooner than later we have a couple of games to keep the ride moving along! If you’re traveling with little ones, the thought of hitting the road might be daunting. Let’s face it, kids get bored easily, and when that happens your trip can go from smooth sailing to rough waters real quick! So whether you’re getting ready to take a trip across the country or just a couple of hours, we have an impressive list of games to keep the good times rolling! If you have some spare time before hitting the road, we want to suggest planning out your games so you don’t play them too quickly. The worst is when kids want to play the next game and the next and before you know it you’re out of games to play! To avoid this issue, planning out when to play each game will help ensure your passengers are entertained the whole way! We also suggest bringing along other favorites like movies, books, electronics, etc to be fillers during each game! It might also be a good idea to bring small prizes for the winner of the game to keep your kiddos focused the whole time! I Spy: This is a car ride classic! It will keep the kids guessing and entertain for a good amount of time, plus it so much for them to feel like they have fooled you so don’t guess correct too quickly! Road Trip Bingo: This fun game combines bingo with a scavenger hunt. Give each child a flat surface, like a clipboard or a notebook, and have them place it in their lap. each player gets a free printable bingo card and a ziplock bag with 16 pennies. When a player spies an item on his card, he covers the picture with a penny. Just like in regular bingo, the first player to cover all the squares in a straight line, wins. License Plate Game: Make sure everyone has a piece of paper or come prepared and print out maps. Then write down or cross out each state you see, once someone has crossed out all 50 (or whoever has the most) they win! 20 Questions. This easy-peasy game is great for young kids, thanks to its straightforward rules. Player One thinks of a person, place or thing. Everyone else takes turns asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. After each answer, the questioner gets one guess. Play continues until a player guesses correctly. I’m Going on a Picnic. This alphabet-based memory game is great for kids 5 and up. You don’t need a game board or any materials. The game can be played with as few as two players, but it’s more fun when the whole family joins in. The first player says “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing...” followed by something that begins with A, such as apples. The second player repeats what the first person said, but adds something that begins with B. And so on. If someone forgets an item, she is out. To be fair, feel free to be lenient and give hints to younger players. The last player to be able to recite all the items on the list wins.

This week is the official start of summer and that means you’re probably wondering where you are headed for the first road trip of the summer! If you’re not sure where to go, not to worry! This week’s blog is for you. We have listed out five special spots that are not too far from Albany that will be a fun-filled day with friends, family or even if you just want to take your pet! So, take a look at that list and be sure to stop in to see our team for a service appointment or test drive if your ride isn’t going to make it through the summer. Plus, check out our specials that will help you save a little bit of money. Alright, enough talk about service, let’s talk about your travels! Five Spots To Hit This Summer: Kaaterskill Falls - Cascade down two terrace-like tiers and take in the beautiful scenery that the falls have to offer. Standing at 200 feet tall, the Kaaterskill Falls is taller than Niagra Falls. The picturesque trail is easily accessible by road and other trails are available if you’re up to the challenge! Adirondack Park Region - Escape city life for a while and enjoy glacial lakes, waterfalls, mountains, and the beautiful wilderness that the ADKs has to offer. Just a little over two hours from Albany, the Adirondack Park offers hiking, canoeing, and more! The perfect camping place for a summer weekend road trip is waiting for you here! Pottersville Caves and Park - Most famous for their size, Pottersville features Stone Bridge, the largest marble cave in the entire country. Explore a billion-year-old formation on a guided tour or explore by yourself. Choose to rock climb or visit the area’s geological history museum. Ausable Chasm - From beautiful scenery on the hiking trail to white water rafting, the Ausable Chasm is known as the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks. With gorgeous waterfalls that run into Lake Champlain, the Chasm is a majestic sandstone gorge with beautiful views when the sun goes down and you’ll be able to see the natural formations by moonlight! Catskill Scenic Trail - Less than 2 hours from the Capital, the Catskills offer a 100 mile-wide mountain region. Ideal for overnight camping trips, this area offers beautiful scenery and plenty of activities for the family! Choose to take on the 26-mile route of this trail and enjoy a hike, bike ride or even a horseback ride through the trail! Venture In A Brand New Kia!

Do you have any fun summer road trips planned? We definitely do, and we’re super excited to bring the family along and explore some great outdoor fun - Great Escape, anyone? Well, from Niagara Falls to the Ausable Chasm to the Catskills, road trips can get a little tedious, especially for kids in the car who just can’t wait to get there already. That’s where fun games come in - it’s always important to have fun games on hand to play to avoid car sickness and boredom at the same time. Check out some of our favorite games for road trips of any length! Share your favorite games with us on our Facebook page, especially if you don’t see them on this list! And without further ado… our game choices! Eye Spy - this is definitely an oldie but a very-goodie. It’s great for all ages, and the rules are simple! One person picks a landmark or item inside or outside the car that they can actually see and describes it with one adjective. The other passengers then have to guess what it is! Twenty Questions - One person thinks of something, and then everyone else in the car has a collective twenty questions that they can ask to try and suss out what the thing is. Depending on the players, this thing can be as esoteric or commonplace as you want! License Plates - Try and spot a license plate from every state of the union. Depending on where you’re going, you can also try for all the provinces of Canada! With kids in the car, a good idea is to print out a list of all the states so that they can get crossed off the list when they are spotted. The Alphabet Game - Find each letter of the alphabet, in order, on road signs. You cannot use license plates, and you can’t “save letters for later.” This game gets competitive, especially if you’re trying to beat someone else to a letter. The Quiet Game - For the parent who just needs a little peace, challenge everyone to the Quiet Game, where they have to be silent for as long as possible. This is very restful for you and challenging to the kids. Sometimes that’s just the way it’s got to be! Find Your Road Trip Ride For Less

From the Kia Rio subcompact to the Kia Sedona minivan, there’s always room for your dog if you’d like to have your pet come along. Here at Destination Kia, you know how we feel about our puppies and babies. We want to be able to take them with us everywhere. Fortunately getting your vehicle and your pup ready for a road trip is a fairly simple process. First, you need to get your pup ready, then make the necessary adjustments to your vehicle. We’ll walk you through the whole process, so don’t worry about it. Preparing Your Pup If someone just threw you into the back of some foreign vehicle you’d never seen before, you’d verily likely freak out a bit, right? I mean, that’s basically the plot of every alien abduction movie. No way you could get me to be calm. Similarly, your pup needs time to get used to your car and all the sounds and smells that go along with it. It’s all very new to your pup, so give them a little time to adjust. While your car is not running, we recommend you let your pet get inside and walk around for a while. We also recommend shorter trips at first with dogs that aren’t used to car travel until they get used to it and show they can handle it. No matter the size of your dog, you want to make sure they are comfortable. It works both ways, too: They’re happy and cozy, and you don’t have to worry about them fidgeting in the seat. You can keep them comfortable by: Providing a blanket or comforter, along with pillows, for their seating area. Not feeding them right before you leave. Eating a large meal right before leaving might make them carsick, just like it does for humans. Providing a crate with a blanket and pillows.  Please note that before asking your furry buddy to get into the crate that you should make it look like a positive thing and allow your dog time to smell it and get used to it before departing. Bringing chew toys and other supplies. Prep to Dispose of Messes and Waste Even if you have the BEST, most well-behaved dog ever, accidents happen - especially on longer trips where you can’t stop as often for potty breaks. Make sure you have paper towels and plastic baggies for the accidents that do happen. A clean car isn’t only a benefit for the people to ride in, it also provides a calming and pleasant space for your dog to luxuriate in while you’re en route to your Destination in your Kia. So, to find the perfect Kia for your next puptastic adventure, stop by Destination Kia today! Check Out Our Selection Of Dog-Friendly Vehicles Today

<img id="blog_image" src="https://clients.oomdo.com/blog_dev/images/100.jpg" /> I once believed that I could do anything I set my mind to… apparently, even when my mind is set, there is a line. Consequently, here I sit, covered in oil, dirt, and moderate amounts of self-loathing. This series of unfortunate events starts, as most do, with a visit with my family. Now, you don’t need much context about my family other than the fact that I was there for 1 week in a 3 bedroom home with 9 family members and ONE bathroom. So, you can imagine how frazzled I was after this experience. Honestly, I’m just amazed that we all made it out of there alive. After a very long and emotionally draining week of family fun, I packed up my sweet little Kia Forte and made my way home. Now, I feel the need to preface this story with the fact that I have made this trip, conservatively, 11 billion times. I know the route from Connecticut to Albany like the back of my hands. Most of the journey is spent on back roads driving next to various bodies of water, which I find VERY soothing. There isn’t usually any traffic so I was foolish enough to actually start to relax on my way home. I was so relaxed, in fact, that I allowed my mind to wander slightly. I was emotionally on autopilot so I wasn’t as alert and focused on the road ahead as I perhaps should have been. The next series of events happened so fast that I almost don’t know where to begin. A beaver ran, RAN, across the road (DID YOU KNOW THAT BEAVERS COULD RUN? BECAUSE I DIDN’T!). At which point my Forte’s Forward Collision warning system activated the brakes for me, and I turned the wheel to the right slightly to avoid hitting the little dare devil, and ended up driving across the grass, clipping the side of a shrubbery, and back onto the road. At this point, I have experienced several heart attacks, and have seen both my life and the beaver’s flash before my eyes. Nevertheless, I continued driving a good 20 minutes before I registered a dragging sound coming from the underside of my car. I am not entirely sure at what point in that 20 minutes I decided that I was a certified mechanic, qualified to identify what was wrong with my car post-Beaver Incident of 2017, but, spoiler alert, I’m 100% not a mechanic. I have a degree in words. I can tell you in beautifully descriptive detail what I saw looking at my traumatized little Kia, but past that I have NO idea what I was looking at, which is very likely why things went so wrong. Based on my “professional” assessment of my vehicle, I determined that the sound was caused by a rather large stick or possibly tree branch wedged under my car. I did NOT want to have to call to get my car towed. It became apparent that I would go to great lengths to avoid calling for a tow as I scooted myself under my car to remove the stick, relinquishing any dignity I may have had left. The branch was REALLY wedged in there so I had to do some shifting to get a better angle. One final forceful pull, and immediate regret. It seems that the branch caught on one of the plugs under my car and now some kind of NASTY brown(?????) liquid was gushing out of my car. I can comfortably say, as I sit under my car, Wicked Witch of the East style, that I have reached rock bottom. My only real option was to call for a tow truck. At this point, I am sitting on the side of the road looking like I just escaped prison, and friends, I watched horror, concern, and finally, sadness cross this man’s face in rapid succession. I could actually see all of the questions in his eyes, but he seemed to just let it go and we sat in awkward silence for approximately 45 minutes on our way to Destination Kia to have my poor car fixed up the right way. What did I learn from this experience? Several things: Don’t try to mess with things under your car if you have no idea what you are doing. Seriously, this is why the good people in the service department at Destination Kia are there. They will handle it, PLEASE don’t try to fix it yourself. Also, Destination Kia has a TON of service specials that you can check out so you can save some money, and I don’t know, not end up dumping ALL of your oil all over yourself. Just saying. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a hot shower and print off that Full Synthetic Oil & Filter Change coupon from Destination Kia’s website so I can drive my car again with what little dignity I have left. See How Much You Could Save Today

I’ll admit it. I messed up. I was stubborn and ended up making a foolish road trip error. This all happened a few years ago. My family and I went to Boston for the 4th of July. The trip there was absolutely lovely. We weren’t in any kind of rush, so we were able to really take our time getting there, enjoying the ride with the family in our Kia Sorento, which was great for a nice leisurely drive. Lots of space for all of our things and plenty of leg room for the adults and kiddos. Mind you, that was a few years ago! Imagine how awesome the 2018 Sorento must be. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. We didn’t really hit all that much traffic and everything went smoothly. This is not an easy task when you have a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old. One false move and the perfect homeostasis in the car we had achieved could be COMPLETELY ruined. We almost gave our youngest the wrong snack, but we narrowly avoided an incident because, fortunately, this isn’t our first time at the rodeo and had duplicate snacks for both kids. The weekend was wonderful, only having a few minor incidents that honestly can’t be avoided when small children are involved. The trip home, however, was an entirely different matter. My husband suggested we leave a bit earlier and perhaps avoid I-90. Being the stubborn woman that I am, thought "no no, we’ll be fine." We don’t have to leave so early. Taking back roads would take longer than I-90 would. Surely I-90 can’t be that bad. Looking back now, I can laugh, but as I was driving through it I kinda wanted to cry. Because we were starting the trek home after an already long day, by the time we got to the car to head home, the little ones were cranky. The 1st hour was non-stop fighting. The 4-year-old kept poking the 7-year-old. “Mommy he stole my pillow.” “Mommy he got Cheetos all over my leg.” I had perhaps 1 unfrayed nerve left by this point, so you can imagine my emotional state when we happened upon every single traffic incident on I-90. As we sat for our 2nd consecutive hour in bumper to bumper traffic, having moved about 4 square feet, it happened. “Mommy, I have to go potty.” No. No no. No nooooo. Not 5 minutes later the 4-year-old also needed a potty. Let me break down the situation for you. We were in the left middle lane of 4 lane bumper traffic. Both small children need a bathroom that simply does not exist and I’m just sitting here accepting my fate and trying to figure out how to best limit the pee smell for the remainder of our journey. Even the strawberry field air freshener wasn’t going to make this situation better. Without missing a beat, my husband simply leaned around into the back seat, held out an empty Gatorade bottle and told them to do what he needed to do. This idea had never even occurred to me. Frankly, it blew my mind a little bit. How could I have missed the most obvious solution?! Well long story short, the kids settled back down and we made it home 5 1/2 HOURS of travel time, but we made it. What we learned from this experience is that 1.) leave early when you need to drive home on a major holiday. 2.) Avoid main roads when traveling home on a major holiday. 3.) Never underestimate the value of an empty Gatorade bottle. Check Out The Sorento For Your Next Road Trip