Scotland Card

Fancy a self-drive holiday through the winding roads of beautiful Scotland? Travel writer Rishad Saam Mehta, who has crisscrossed the roads of this country and others, will drive with you through it. And that's just the beginning...

Standing on a hillock, in remote Scotland, watching the waves strike the rocks, Rishad Saam Mehta wondered if he was in heaven. Till, he was slapped by a ferocious, chilling wave, leaving him freezing for a moment. From nowhere, a farmer ran to him, cloaked him in a blanket and led him to his cottage in the middle of the woods. There, the farmer and his wife, complete strangers till then, fed him and warmed him up with the local Scotch for over three hours, reinforcing Mehta's belief - that he was indeed in heaven.



That memory, combined with envy, led to Mehta deciding to lend a part of his life to others. For years, friends have been jealous of the voracious traveler, particularly when he would return from exotic locations and write about them in magazines and newspapers. His stories accompanied with pictures posted on Facebook would invite calls from people saying they wished they could be like him.

Now, he says, they can be like him.



From September, a new travel company that Mehta partners will take people on driving holidays to some of the most beautiful places in the world. This venture, Luxury Latitudes, co-founded by Suchna Hegde Shah, will organise tours for people to go on road trips abroad, which most Indian travelers are too nervous to.
Shah, who runs the travel company The Backpacker Co, says this is just the first of several such trips that would be organised by Luxury Latitudes which will tap on Mehta's expertise as someone who has driven abroad.

Other tours would include diving holidays, cooking holidays, trips for people interested in photography among others. Each trip would include an 'expert' in the field. Shah says: "Even if people have been to these destinations, we offer a different perspective to the travel, something they have never done before."

"In India, driving is a chore, a pain. When people start driving abroad, they realise what a pleasure it can be, even therapeutic. The winding roads of Scotland are like an orchestra," says Mehta.

So Luxury Latitudes, with Mehta's inputs, would chart out routes, identify locations, hire the cars, organise lodging, entries to tourist hotspots and let people loose on the roads of Scotland, the first destination for the tour.



The way it works is simple: Interested tourists reach a destination Edinburgh in this case and then let Mehta take over as their guide. Each tourist gets to drive a part of the journey through Perth, Pitlochry, Dufftown in the heart of malt whisky country, Huntly and its 18th century castle, Inverness, past the river Loch Ness, home to a mystical monster, on the scenic road A82, past Urquhart and Eilean Donan castles, back to Edinburgh. On the way, the convoy of two-three cars with roughly 10-15 people will take impromptu detours, discover local pubs and restaurants and soak in the culture, unlike other more rigid organised tours.

The idea of this trip, Mehta says, is for people to travel to places they normally would not. "Most tourists are afraid to drive abroad because they are unfamiliar with local methods and rules. But when you have someone who has done it before, is familiar with routes, comfortable with maps, then it becomes easier. Also, you go to places which are off the tourist grid."

The travelers will get the best of cars, like convertibles from Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes etc armed with global positioning systems. They would stay in charming castle hotels, quaint bed-and-breakfast cottages, eat in small towns and sniff some of the world's best scotch in the Malt Whisky trail.



The tour will initially have an orientation program, so people understand how to drive in Europe. Mehta explains: "There are basic courtesies followed in the West which we don't initially understand. They don't use the horn because it's considered rude. When you flash your lights in India, it means you want to go. There it's the opposite; the person who flashes his lights allows the other driver to go." An international driving permit is a must, which the organisers will help arrange.

"People often don't find the company to travel. This way, you tour with a group of like-minded people, with me to guide you. People feel safer and more confident to travel because they know I am around for queries and guidance," says Mehta.

The road travel bug bit Mehta over 10 years ago, starting with a backpacking trip from Mumbai to Delhi, hitchhiking with truckers. Over the years, as a travel writer, he has toured extensively in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, which will all be part of subsequent trips of Luxury Latitudes.

"Every place we would tour already holds a personal experience for me. I know what to expect, where to go and what to do. I want to make organised international road travel my personal property," says Mehta.
But for those who are concerned about staying sober enough to drive through some of the best distilleries in the world, Suchna Shah assures that "everything will be taken care of with respect to the laws of the land".

The writer is a Mumbai-based freelancer