To win the £20,000 prize, a duo must be the first to reach the destination, using any means of transportation other than air travel.
It has inspired adventurous families to follow in the participants’ footsteps with DIY trips. Here, four of them describe their own RATW-esque adventures.
“It was quite a tough holiday because we only had two weeks to cover the whole country – but it was definitely an adventure.”
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The reality was quite different to their expectations, though.
They travelled mostly on Peru Hop buses, a hop-on, hop-off service.
It’s an affordable country, says Hannah: “cheaper than a holiday in Europe would have been.”
“If we’d had it slightly longer, it would have been less exhausting,” says Hannah, “but I would recommend it a hundred per cent.”
Four months of spontaneity in South America
Before setting off, they sat down as a family to watch series two of RATW, set in Central and South America, to give the girls an idea of what to expect.
Over four months, Sarah travelled across much of South America with her husband and their two daughters (Photo: supplied)The family made few plans before they set off. All they had booked were return flights from the UK and flights to Easter Island for a festival in February.
From the beginning, they threw themselves into the journey, starting with a 31-hour-long bus ride.
They spent about three or four nights in each place, sleeping in hostels, hotels and Airbnbs. They ate things they would never have eaten at home, from giant ants covered in edible flowers to cow’s tongues.
“Spending that amount of time with your kids is actually quite rare,” she says.
“It was my idea to do the trip,” says six-year-old Benji. He’s the son of Katie Cosstick, who works in PR, and, together with his father and nine-year-old brother Fraser, they embarked on an 11-day Interrailing adventure around Europe in the Easter holidays.
“The show captivated him and, eventually, we ran out of excuses not to do it.”
Six-year-old Benji helped his brother and parents plan their Interrailing trip around Europe (Photo: supplied)They ended up taking 13 trains, one taxi, one plane and six trams and saw five countries “properly”, although Benji did get off the train in Austria to be able to say he had visited six.
“It was spot on. We found out there’d been a landslide on part of our original route and the line was closed. The website recommended the Bernina Express as an alternative and it was a real highlight,” says Katie.
“They were a really nice way for us to spend time together. We didn’t take any tablets [screens], so the boys looked out of the windows and saw so much stuff. They also had books, and we played a lot of cards. It was lovely.”
The father-and-son racing team
Viktor Chalk is only 12 years old, but he’s already been to 39 countries. He visited many of them with his father, Dave, on trips with Lupine Travel, a company that offers RATW-style holidays.
Around 150 people take part in each race. Ahead of time, they only know the destination and are told where the check points are on the day they begin.
Father and son duo Dave and Viktor are keen racers – and are planning their next adventure (Photo: supplied)
About 75 per cent of people take the entire week allotted for each trip to complete the journey. At the end, everyone meets for a big party.
It’s possible to do it on a shoestring – one group travelled from London to Istanbul for £91, according to Viktor.
Dave and Viktor have seen RATW, but are not huge fans – “it’s a bit formulaic and produced,” they say. But they’re keen to apply when Viktor is old enough.
Their next race is to Tallinn, and they are determined to finish among the fastest competitors.
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