How Race Across the World is killing travel

If you spotted 180 travellers bolting en masse out of Trafalgar Square in mid-August, heading for Albania, you’d inevitably assume that a mixture of wanderlust and adventure had compelled them to don their backpacks. But in reality, their trip wasn’t about a desire to see any destination – but rather, how quickly they could get there. This mass exodus was in fact a trans-European competition designed to mirror the success of Race Across the World, the hit BBC programme in which unlikely globetrotters must navigate continents at speed.

I began watching the programme during its record-breaking series earlier this year, expecting to be left with even itchier feet and a few tricks for my next trip. Instead, I’ve come to a different conclusion: that competitions of this kind are killing travel. Yes, the sprawling nature shots are beautiful, and there are heartwarming moments shared between contestants and locals, and within competing pairs (at least the ones who don’t want to kill each other).

But the programme’s intro – which asks whether a reliance on flying means we have “forgotten how to travel through” countries – is laughable given the breakneck speed with which participants are tasked with tearing through them. Crossing 10,000 miles via public transport in a month, mostly on cramped all-day-and-nighters, seems a strange way to highlight the joys of seeing the world, unless you really, really like doing so from the inside of bus windows.