Owning a Land Rover can be about so much more than possessing an expensive SUV to drive around town in. The Land Rover company sees it as a lifestyle, and has built an “experience” around the vehicle. It enables owners and friends to personally experience the full range of the vehicle’s capability while at the same time visiting some incredibly cool places from their interiors. Additionally they encourage “safarilife,” a word we use to describe the elegantly-hip side of off-roading.

Events are held worldwide providing the opportunity to test Land Rover products. At the local level there are “Wheels” driving events held in, or near, dealerships. There are “Land Rover Adventures” which are worldwide events held in exotic or highly challenging off-road Mecca’s from the Kalahari to Moab, Utah. In between the introductory and the high-end programs is the “Land Rover Experience.” They are held in great locations in North America, teach off-roading technique, and give you much of the vibe of the high-end programs, without the expense. This is the place to start.

The first “Land Rover Experience” driving school in the United States was started in 1997 at the elegant Equinox Hotel (spa, resort, golf) in Manchester, Vermont. 80 acres of property adjoining the hotel is used for the drives. It has been a very successful attraction for the area, in part because it gives people the opportunity to see the back country of Vermont, and get inside the forests.

Due to demand, a second school was opened at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virgina in 1999. Like the Equinox it had the right combination of elegant, yet rustic, resort accommodations in a magnificent setting with miles of adjacent and challenging trails. All that was needed was a team of Land Rover certified driving instructors.

Both the Vermont and West Virginia schools were sold but they are still in operation, and maintain Land Rovers in their fleets.

The current home of the U.S. “Land Rover Experience” driving school is on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Set in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains, the estate sits on 8,000 acres, most of which can only be seen if you are participating in an “Experience” and out with a Land Rover instructor.

There is a second school in North American at the Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello in Quebec, Canada. There students try out Land Rovers on the 65,000 acre adjoining woodland area know as Fairmont Kenauk.

And if you really want the original “Land Rover Experience” then take your classes at Eastoner Castle in Hereforshire, England. According to Land Rover this is the “Experience’s” spritual home. The 19th century castle is still owned by members of the original Hervey-Bathurst family. Here you can test yourself over the same difficult terrain Land Rover uses to train their Camel Trophy Teams.

The schools give owners, and perspective owners, a chance to learn how to properly operate their vehicles off highway. What is taught is important to everyone who will drive off-highway, even if they own a Jeep. They teach the limitations of the vehicles, how to use them under specific conditions, off-highway vehicle safety, and how to have minimal environmental impact when off-roading.

We recently attended the school at the Biltmore Estate, in North Carolina. We spent an entire day with a Land Rover certified instructor learning how to use the advanced systems of both the Range Rover and the new LR3.

The full-day, off-road experience began in front of the hotel at 9:00 am, returning late in the afternoon. We were meet by our instructor in a new Range Rover. We then spent the morning a short distance from the hotel getting basic training on very challenging terrain. (One hill was so slippery even our instructor couldn’t get up it.) Everyone in the vehicle got ample and equivalent driving time. We learned how to read the terrain ahead to choose the best possible route. We were taught how to handle steep climbs, and inclines, rut, mud, ice and water driving, and handling the vehicle when one, or more of the tires are suspended in mid-air. Special instruction in hill cresting was given to avoid getting stuck on peaks. The instructor’s pearl-of-wisdom about hill cresting was for us to remember that even though the driver has crested the hill, he or she still has at least $40,000 of machine to still pull over the top, behind them.

After a few hours we exited the woods and transferred into the new Land Rover LR3, and headed to the Biltmore Estate’s Deer Park Restaurant for lunch. LR3 is name used in North America for the third-generation, Land Rover Discovery -- which happens to be one of our all-time favorite SUVs.

After lunch to an area across the river from the main house of the Estate to the school’s obstacle course. The course demonstrates the LR3’s ability to crawl through ruts, over hills, over rises, rocks and other obstacles, while keeping the vehicle at the perfect speed without the need to use the brake. It also gave the instructor the opportunity to show us how to check water puddles for depth, and to gauge the thickness of the ice. In mid-December there was a lot of frozen, standing water. We had to make sure the ice could support the vehicle’s weight. Because if it could not, and it shattered, the ice could tear open the Land Rover like it were the Titanic.

If you don’t own a Land Rover and are considering purchasing one this is the ultimate test drive, and you do get to drive both a Range Rover and the new LR3.

Land Rover Experience Driving School you experience why Land Rovers can literally travel to the very ends of the earth. An interesting fact, for two thirds of the world’s population, the first motorized vehicle of any type they ever see in their lives is a Land Rover.

A full day at the Land Rover Experience Driving School on the Biltmore Estate runs $700 for up to 3 people, and includes lunch at the Deer Park Restaurant. Lessons run $150 per hour, per driver. $250 buys two hours of drive time, for up to three drivers. Trail drives run from $250 for two hours to $400 for four hours, for up to three drivers. The school also offers some pretty wild corporate team building programs.

The hotel and estate offer a Land Rover package with two night's accommodations, valet parking, daytime estate admission for the length of your stay, estate transportation, a two-hour lesson at the Land Rover Experience Driving School, and a special gift from Land Rover. The package includes a dinner and two breakfasts in the hotel’s elegant diningroom, and a dinner at the casual Bistro restaurant on the property adjacent to the winery

For more information about the Land Rover Experience Driving School phone 828-225-1541 or visit their website. Get more information about the Biltmore Estate by calling 828-225-1333 or visiting the estate’s website at www.Biltmore.com.