Hi guys! If you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories then you’ll probably remember that in early November I posted all about The Land Rover Experience in Manchester, VT. My boyfriend and I took a two-day birthday trip to Vermont and had the best time! I spent lots of time planning all the different activities I wanted to do, and The Land Rover Experience was at the top of my list! I ended up partnering with The Land Rover Experience in Manchester to share a full review of it with you! So keep reading to find out how much fun this adventure was!

The Land Rover Experience in Manchester, VT operates in partnership with the Equinox Golf Resort & Spa. The actual driving school is located right across the street from the Equinox, which is nice and convenient! There are a few different “experience” options to choose from:

One Hour Experience • Two Hour Experience • Half Day Experience • Full Day Experience • Owner’s Days • And More!!

Our experience was very similar to the One Hour Experience. Our time on the course allowed us to try our hand at some of the incredible things that Land Rovers can do! We’re now itching to get back and spend more time off the road to learn what else our Range Rover is capable of! Keep reading to find out all the details about our Land Rover Experience in Vermont!

There are three different Land Rover Experience Driving Schools across the country (and one in Canada). The other two in the US are located in North Carolina and California. Actually, I was at the Biltmore last year, but had no idea the driving school existed. How fun would that be to hit up each location in the US?! As for the location in Vermont, everyone we interacted with was so kind and helpful! I can’t say enough good things about our driving instructor, Christina! She was not only super knowledgeable about everything Land Rovers can do, but she was an amazingly patient teacher.

One of my favorite things that Christina shared with us was how, “the heritage of Land Rover grew up out of World War 2 and the capability of the car is very much still there, but now dressed up in an Armani suit.” I love it! I would never have thought about a Land Rover in that sense, but it’s so accurate! Especially the Range Rovers, which I think are gorgeous (sure, I’m biased).  Honestly, I feel like a lot of people–including myself–get caught up in the high-end look and forget that these vehicles are supremely capable off-road. Alright! Now to answer all your questions:

What To Expect:

If you think you’ll be tearing up trail and zipping around in a Land Rover, you’d be wrong. The Land Rover motto is, “As slow as possible, only as fast as necessary,” and that is 100% applied to this experience. You’ll be going around the course at about 5mph, but sometimes depending on the obstacle you come across you will go even slower (I’m talking 1-2mph). With that being said, just because you’re driving at a slow speed doesn’t mean you lose out on excitement. The whole experience was thrilling! I mean, we did some pretty crazy stuff with the 2018 Discovery and I loved every minute of it! Looking back on all we accomplished during our experience, I can’t imagine doing the course at a faster speed. That would be really scary!

How Does It Work?

Unless you’re partaking in an Owner’s Day, where you drive your own car, you’ll be using a car provided to you by the Land Rover Experience Driving School. The great part about this is that the vehicle they provide you is the newest model! It was fun to off-road in the 2018 Discovery, especially since we’re used to driving our 2010 Range Rover. When you call ahead and make your reservation with the driving school you can request a certain model car. We aren’t fussy and it was actually a lot of fun to drive a different model car than what we’re used to, but I think if we did the driving school again I’d like to request a Range Rover.

When you arrive at the Land Rover Experience Driving School in Vermont, you’ll walk into a warm and inviting building where you’ll need to fill out some forms and provide a valid license. We only spent about 10 minutes there before heading out to the Discovery with our driving instructor, Christina! Within a few more minutes we were on the trails and the instruction time began! The experience starts with the instructor showing you some of the features available in Land Rovers and how to utilize these features to be successful on the challenging terrain. After some instruction, I hopped into the driver’s seat and started navigating obstacles such as steep declines, deep water, bumps, and side tilts!

What Was My Favorite Part?

Ugh! So hard to say! I really loved learning about the hill descent feature and getting to put it to the test on really steep declines. I’m not sure the exact grade of the hills we descended, but it sure felt like 30-45%! Let me back up for a second, though.  The hill descent button will take you down a hill without your having to use the breaks at all. The vehicle does all the work for you. You won’t descend the hill fast–only at about 2mph–but that moment when you take your foot off the break and let the hill descent feature take you down the decline delivers the same rush of adrenaline that you might be used to on a rollercoaster.

I also just loved being outside, in the woods! We did our Land Rover Experience on an overcast day in November. There was plenty of mud and water on the course for us to navigate and the leaves on the trees were a gorgeous color, as you can see in my photos! I’m used to being out in the woods hiking, where I’m always looking at the ground so I don’t trip on a rock or something. In this case you were forced to look all around you to appreciate your surroundings in order to navigate the car around trees and obstacles. That was a nice change for me!

Would I Do It Again?

Yes! Oh my gosh, yes! I’d love to come to an Owner’s Day, but I also think doing a Two Hour Experience would be such fun! I’d love to learn more about the features that Land Rovers have, especially features in my Range Rover. I can’t recommend this experience enough for anyone who loves to try new things, do something completely different, and get out in the woods for a little while. I’ve always wanted to off-road, and this Land Rover Experience taught me how to do so in a safe way!

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about The Land Rover Experience Vermont! Let me know what you think and if you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I received a complimentary One Hour Experience in exchange for my review of The Land Rover Experience Vermont. As always, all opinions are my own. This exceeded my expectations and then some!