Photos & video by Travis Snelling
Maybe it’s all the Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid, but to me there’s something incredibly fulfilling about driving offroad, far away from the beaten path. Finding your line amidst the rocks, rubble, mud and puddles and navigating your way around, over and through to your destination.
It’s one thing to go offroading in an old beat up pickup truck but it’s an entirely different thing to do it in a $95,000 Range Rover with more technology in one wheel than can be found in that dusty old pickup. Instead of ploughing through puddles and launching over hills a more civilized approach is required.
“As slow as possible, as fast as necessary” is the motto of Land Rover Driving Experience at the Fairmont Chateau Montebello in Montebello, Quebec, one of the few Land Rover owned driving schools in North America. But this is a’int your kid brother’s driving school. This is exclusively for learning how to take a showroom Land Rover (stock tires, stock suspension, stock everything) offroading and bring it back in the same condition, albeit much dirtier.
You’ll learn how to balance the vehicle on two wheels over giant moguls, drive with both feet on the pedals, crawl up seemingly impossible walls of rock, climb boulders that would make your 4-door Mazda wet itself and tap into just some of the space-age technology that has quite possibly been lifted from top secret military projects.
Here’s colleague Loretta as she literally drives up a giant wall of rock. Keep in mind this is just a regular Range Rover with normal summer tires. You can hear instructor Jamie coaching her through the climb.
The Land Rover Driving Experience is open to all and is located right on the Chateau Montebello’s premises on 65,000 acres of unspoiled wilderness. Group rates are available (perfect for bachelor parties & team building excursions) and start at just $150 CAD per person. There are also more unique experiences, such as the 3hr “Mission Impossible” challenge where you do various rescue, emergency and trivia scenarios. Or the Geo-Cache Scavenger Hunt where you’ll learn the basics of navigation and GPS to collect hidden items to win the race.
If you want to test your skill maneuvering over and through some of the most treacherous terrain you can imagine, than the Land Rover Driving Experience at Fairmont Chateau Montebello will give you all you can handle. The only downside is that when you get back in your little Mazda you’ll be faced with the crushing realization that going over a small curb causes you to break out in a cold sweat.
To plan your own Land Rover Driving Experience at the Fairmont Chateau Montebello, get a trip quote from a TripAtlas PRO or check online hotel rates at tripatlas.com/new.
For more information about the Land Rover Driving Experience, click here.