Three separate weekends this summer, three separate 6-hour round trips out of Montgomery County — Assateague Island State Park in Maryland twice, Bethany Beach, Delaware once. All in our 2022 BMW X7 xDrive40i, Phytonic Blue over Cognac leather, loaded with two kids, a cooler, a beach tent, a beach trolley, two balls, and enough sandwiches to feed a small platoon. I wasn't testing the car for an article when we started — but by the third trip, the pattern was clear enough that it was worth writing down.
The Route Every DMV Beach Family Knows
Out of Montgomery County, it's the same drive every time: down toward Annapolis, over the Bay Bridge — which is its own small ritual in our car, since my wife and kids always bring up the "what if we go off the bridge" conversation nobody asked for — then the hunt for the first Wawa on the Eastern Shore for a quick stop and top-off. After that it's cornfields most of the way to Berlin, Maryland, a town that gets an oversized reaction in our house purely because it shares a name with a character from Money Heist. Small thing, but it's the kind of detail that makes a road trip feel like your road trip.
What Actually Held Up Over 6 Hours
The thing that stood out most wasn't a spec sheet number — it was fatigue, or the lack of it. We leave around 8am and get back around 11pm: three hours of driving, a full day at the beach, three hours back. I've come home from that and still taken the dog on a 20-minute walk before bed. No driver fatigue, even on the third trip in three weekends. The ride is quiet enough that when the kids are singing along to music in the back — or on one memorable occasion, when a well-timed bodily function got a bigger laugh than the song did — it fills the whole cabin instead of getting lost in road noise. The lane-keeping and handling stayed confident and predictable the entire way, which matters more than people think on a bridge crossing your family already finds mildly terrifying.
Fuel economy surprised me too — I'm getting close to 480 miles out of a full 20-gallon tank, which is well above what I expected walking into ownership.
What We Don't Have (and Would Actually Use)
Our X7 doesn't have the Driving Assistance Professional package — BMW's hands-off, eyes-on highway assist that keeps the car centered in its lane, suggests faster lanes, and can execute a lane change with just a glance at the mirror and a tap of the signal. For three-hour highway stretches each way, that's exactly the kind of feature that would turn a long drive into an easy one, and it's worth test-driving before you decide you don't need it. For a family of four, though, even without it, the X7 has room to spare — captain's chairs in row two, a third row we fold flat for gear rather than use for passengers on these trips, and enough space that packing for a beach day never feels like a puzzle.
The Real Costs and the One Worry
At today's gas prices — upper $4s a gallon — a fill-up runs close to $100. When prices were lower, it was closer to $70. The only thing that lives in the back of my mind on these drives isn't the car itself, it's the road: a nail, a pothole, a blown tire on a stretch of Route 50 with no shoulder to speak of. BMW roadside assistance takes enough of that worry off the table that it doesn't ruin the drive, but it's a real consideration for anyone doing this route regularly.
How It Stacks Up: X7 vs. Audi Q7 vs. Mercedes GLS
For DMV families cross-shopping this segment, here's how the numbers actually compare. Our X7 xDrive40i's turbocharged 3.0L inline-six makes 335 hp and 330 lb-ft, with 48V mild-hybrid assist and an 8-speed automatic. The Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 uses a similar 3.0L inline-six making 375 hp — more power, and the GLS also offers heated third-row seats and second-row captain's chairs as options, which matters if you're actually using all three rows for passengers rather than gear like we do. The Audi Q7 seats seven across all trims but generally comes in with less power and a tighter third row than either German rival. Cargo space behind the third row is fairly tight across the whole segment — the X7's 12.8 cubic feet is about average for the class, which is exactly why our beach gear lives with the third row folded down rather than in use.
What This Means If You're Cross-Shopping
If your version of a "family road trip" looks like ours — long highway stretches, a loaded cargo area, two kids who need to stay entertained for three hours each way — the thing to actually test-drive for is ride quality and quietness at highway speed, not just the spec sheet. That's the part that determines whether you get home fried or fine. And if long highway stretches are a regular thing for your family, it's worth specifically asking about the Driving Assistance Professional package when you're shopping — it's the one feature from this experience I'd actively look for next time.
Cross-shopping an X7, GLS, or Q7 for family road trips? Run the real numbers on financing or leasing before you decide.
Specs sourced from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi manufacturer data, August 2026. Personal ownership account — individual results and fuel economy will vary.