Driving around Portugal made me realise how much I had missed road trips
Neville Bhandara
Lisbon: When I was a child, my grandparents would pop me into the backseat of their Contessa with a packet of wafers and a bottle of water and we’d set off on an adventure. I’d watch the landscape change from tall buildings and dusty streets to open stretches of highway and rolling hills, feeling lighter and lighter the farther we got from the city. And with some good tunes on the radio, the three of us would sing along as the kilometres flew by.
As life got in the way, road trips became less frequent—my last was in the US in 2014. And until a few years ago, it seems road trips didn’t feature on many people’s vacation plans either. Holidays became about maximising our time off by seeing how much we could squeeze into an itinerary. But covid changed that, teaching us to slow down and enjoy the little things. Post-pandemic holiday trends reveal the road trip is currently surging in popularity, with Indians moving away from cookie-cutter hotel trips and city itineraries to embrace the great outdoors. There are many companies offering driving itineraries—both in India and abroad—that team luxury experiences with supercars and slow travel. Ironically, the best way to slow down seems to be by climbing into a fast car.
It’s precisely why I’m about to get behind the wheel of the new Range Rover Sport SV in Portugal. The car-loving kid in me lets out a whoop when I see it purring in the driveway at Vermelho, a boutique property in the town of Melides, launched by designer Christian Louboutin. Only a handful of people have stayed in one of its frescoed rooms with their Alentejo tiles and artworks picked out lovingly by the shoe maven himself.
Joined by my driving partner, Manuela, a former Colombian race car driver turned automobile influencer, I wind through country lanes, passing farms with fluffy sheep and little white stucco bus stops accentuated with bright blue. I love being in the driver’s seat, becoming one with the car as we play off each other and gauge each other’s limits.
And speaking of play, no road trip is complete without music. Our hosts, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), programmed a playlist to match our changing moods—just like the terrain outside the window—from electronica to jazz and pop to feel-good ’80s anthems. Manuela laughs as I quip every five minutes, “Oh my god, this is on my playlist too!” The synths of Air, the bops of Dua Lipa and the sultry croon of Nina Simone have never sounded better than they do right now, mostly due to my favourite feature in the car: the Body and Soul Seat. The front seats have an inbuilt, tactile audio system, which means you no longer just hear the music, you feel it too. Bonobo’s ‘Linked’, a favourite, comes on in a way I’ve never heard before—it’s like there’s a concert in my ribcage. If there’s one thing I enjoy even more than driving, it’s really getting into my music (or having it get into me, in this case). Body and Soul includes wellness benefits too by influencing heart rate variability (the time between each heartbeat), much like meditation and breathing—the longer the time between breaths, the slower the heart rate. There are also six preset modes that are configured to either promote relaxation or make you more alert.
The next highlight of the trip is the Portimão racetrack in Algarve. If you’d told younger me I’d be driving a car on an actual F1 racetrack some day, I’d never have believed you. “See that SV button on the wheel?” my instructor asks from the passenger seat as we clear the last curve.“Push it.”I clock the similarity between this conversation and the one had by agents J and K in Men in Black (1997), when K tells J to “push the button”. It feels like that as we whoosh forward.
We end the day at Praia do Canal, a luxe 220-hectare nature resort on the Vicentine Coast, where rooms open out to sweeping lawns and the startlingly blue Atlantic Ocean beyond. After a long day of driving, we’re treated to deep-tissue massages at the in-house spa and a delicious dinner of local Alentejo black pork paired with wine from the Douro valley. The next day, our trip is at an end. After having been behind the wheel for two days, it feels odd to sit in the backseat. I miss the adrenaline, but as inbuilt massagers knead my back, I remind myself that this is good too. For those looking to step tentatively into the realm of road trip holidays, know that it doesn’t mean you have to rough it out. Like many others, JLR too conducts its own driving trips throughout the year. Each is ultra luxe with top-of-the-line accommodation and fine dining experiences. In September, Catalonia is on the cards with Michelin-starred meals, mountaintop monasteries and the elegance of Range Rover underscoring it all. What’s not to love?
