Believe it or not, getting the chance to try a Porsche Off Road Driving Experience was not what first drew me to a “wings and wheels” media trip to Richmond and Whistler BC. I was actually fairly terrified by the whole idea of it but was blinded by the fact that I would get to try bunny yoga at some point on the trip too so I jumped right in. My husband however felt serious FOMO that he would not be able to go on this trip. Because of blogging, I’ve driven a Ferrari and I’ve been able to test drive a bunch of beautiful cars and if you asked my husband what his favorite part of my job is it’s probably that sometimes he gets to drive these fun cars too. But the whole taking a very expensive car off road through a forest part was a little scary to me and I was worried that somehow I’d total a brand new Porsche Cayenne and I would do it in front of a bunch of fellow writers and the Canadian Wilderness Adventures crew.
Pee before you go
Another reason I was scared about the experience was because when I looked up the Porsche off Road Experience with Canadian Wilderness Adventures I could not find any information about bathrooms. Bathrooms are very important to me and a three hour journey without bathrooms is almost as terrifying to me as driving a Porsche Cayenne off a mountain cliff. As we were filling out the waiver forms in the gorgeous lobby of the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler I worked up the nerve to confirm my big fears.
“Are there any washrooms(I asked in Canadian) on this trip?”
And the answer?
You probably want to go before we leave.
At this point I was pretty thankful that l I had only drank half of my Diet Coke with my lunch and promptly decided I would wait on finishing it until we got back from our adventure. And honestly once we got out there with all the driving and the exhilaration of being a passenger while someone else was driving, I ended up being okay. Also, about half an hour before we got back to the hotel we stopped at a waterfall where there were outhouses available too. Not that outhouses count as real bathrooms but they do have more doors and walls than the “bathroom” that was available on the rest of the trip. Ultimately, if your fear of not having a bathroom on the Porsche Off Road Driving Experience in Whistler led you to google and find this post, I want you to know that I think you’ll probably be okay too.
So what is the Porsche Off Road experience in Whistler really like?
I think it is probably scarier to be a passenger than a driver on this Porsche Off Road Driving Experience in Whistler. I was paired up with a fellow writer who I was just getting to know and I thought we would have an instructor with us in our Porsche 4 door car but we were on our own. The instructors drove together in one car and we drove independently but were all connected via two way radios where the instructors constantly gave us directions, instructions and reassurance. My partner was driver number one and we were the first car after the instructor car.
“I am a safe driver” she said as we zoomed away. We really bonded by the end of this experience as we drove for three hours together through the wildness. When it was my turn in the driver’s seat as driver number two I looked at her and said “I’m a very safe driver too.”
If there are two drivers in your car, driver one takes the wheel from the first part of the trip on the Sea to sky Highway and to the off-road trails in the Callaghan Valley where my guys first learned to snowshoe when they were small. Seeing this area without snow was already an eye-opening journey but then I realized how much more ground you can cover in a Porsche than you can on foot. I love hiking, but riding in this powerful car was definitely a lot more exhilarating. We bounced over rocky, jagged terrain, and kicked up so much dust it was difficult to see. We ended up in an area where we would learn to drive the car sort of sideways like they do in movies. Once Driver one finishes the circuit, Driver two gets to do all the same things and then take the car back to where we first took the keys back at the Four Seasons Resort.
I’ve only seen Porsche Cayennes like the ones we were driving on highways, in mall parking lots and at the soccer field, so it was so cool to see what a Porsche Cayenne can really do. Not only is this a beautiful vehicle but it is a powerful, reliable one and I think all of us drivers left with a newfound respect. As a mom, seeing what this car can handle and experiencing what it is capable of handling made me feel a lot safer behind the wheel in a car like this. I think if I was considering buying a Porsche Cayenne, I would try the Porsche Off Road Experience in Whistler before I bought the car.
Do you want to be a passenger or a driver in the Porsche Off Road Experience in Whistler?
The driving instructors with Canadian Wilderness Adventures are the main reason why I knew I would be okay to drive even though I was initially fearful to try. They seemed to really want people to know how to drive the car and they didn’t let me get away with some of the usual stuff that I’ve whined and gotten away with in other classes. They encouraged me do the driving and they made me feel confident driving the car over some pretty tough terrain. Because we could always see the instructors and we had a two-way radio in the car, I felt independent but supported and ultimately proud of how I could drive. My favorite part was when we took the Porsche Cayenne through a mini river. The pictures will never do enough justice to how it feels to drive a powerful vehicle through a river.
And why a Porsche Off Road Experience would be a great gift for someone who wants to give the gift of time…
As I babbled the ear off my driving partner for the duration of the three hour experience, I realized that even if I just came along as a passenger this would be the perfect gift for both my husband and I. He would be totally blown away that he got a Porsche Driving Experience, but really it would be a chance for me to have his undivided attention for 3 hours in a car. So this is a win-win gift for sure. Someone said that if I really wanted to make it the ultimate experience gift I could pair it with the Scandinave Spa for after the driving trip-that spa is a totally silent spa in Whistler that I haven’t visited yet and after a three hour talking tour, a silent spa might be a fun idea too.
Have you ever driven a Porsche Cayenne? How about through a forest? And did you know you can do this in Whistler BC? Whistler BC is about a 90 minute drive from Vancouver, a 45 minute seaplane ride from Coal Harbour in the summertime and about 4 and a half hours from Seattle. I tried the Porsche Experience as part of a recent media trip with Tourism Whistler and Destination BC. Usually I travel to Whistler with my family and for ideas in Whistler with kids, you can check out some places we have eaten and a few hotels where we have stayed.
(PS. As stated before, I tried this experience as part of a media trip and with the experts at Canadian Wilderness Adventures and by no means is this something I think you should try with a Porsche Cayenne or any other car on your own.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)