'I met Race Across the World's stars and here are their biggest life lessons'
I've been lucky enough to meet all the Race Across the World 2025 contestants taking part in the BBC show this year. They shared what they learned about themselves, what they learned about each other and their biggest life lessons they have taken away from filming the BBC show.
On Wednesday, one team will be crowned the winner in Race Across the World's final and take home the £20,000 prize money, but the show is as much about the personal journeys as it is the physical one.
Race's youngest ever contestants Sioned, 19, and Fin, 18, have taken a lot away from the BBC show. Away from her home in the small town in Wales, Sioned's confidence has blossomed.
Sioned told Yahoo UK: "For me, maybe not so much life lesson but [a] skill that's important is, well, not even skill, just confidence. So it's just like I've come back with so much more confidence and I feel like it just adds a glow to me.
"I feel like I'm able to do so many more things and I can speak just more confidently. It probably stopped me from doing things before and prevented new experiences and meeting new people.
"So it's nice to know that now I don't need to step away from that, I can just dive into it and you gain so much more from that."
Meanwhile, Fin's biggest life lesson was discovering the kindness of strangers.
Fin said: "In the UK people aren't always as friendly, but obviously going to China, India, Nepal, all they wanted to do was help. People buy us food, tickets, there was a lot that strangers did for us that we wouldn't have expected, and I think knowing that was really nice and having that treatment was just... it was nice to kind of know people do that for people they'd never met."
And Sioned agreed. She said: "Yeah, 'cause it was literally solely relying on the kindness of strangers and you don't see that day to day everywhere, but we wouldn't have been able to make it without that. We've come back with that mindset as well, to be kinder to other people because we desperately needed it."
When it came to their relationship on the road, they learned a lot about each other too. Cheeky Fin said: "Without offending her... You [Sioned] can just get really annoying when you just keep speaking, it's like, 'Oh, okay, please shush.'"
Check out Race Across the World's telling pictures from the final
Race Across the World's Fin and Sioned are seen prioritising travel on the final leg of the race. (BBC/Studio Lambert)
Sioned said: "I learned to be quiet along the way, no?"
Fin asked what her opinion was. "I was gonna say something nice," she said. "I was gonna say that you were more resilient than I thought."
Playful Fin then added: "Fine, fine. I didn't realise you could actually read a map, because I was shocked because even at home you struggle with... If we're driving and we have the maps on the phone, you're like, 'Oh, which roundabout, where do I go?' Fair enough."
The oldest team in the race Melvyn and Brian — who are both in their sixties — come away having learned something too. Melvyn learned to never say no to new experiences.
Melvyn told Yahoo UK: "I went in it with an open mind. And I've come out of it with a bigger open mind. I'm trying to leave myself open to all experiences, and as long as the body holds up, I think your mind will always hold up, keep yourself open for these experiences. And I think I have learned that never say no."
Meanwhile brother Brian learned to relax more. He said: "I've learnt to be a little bit more relaxed. And not worry too much if I can't do something when I want to do it.
"We've had to take it, the race has made us all drop down a few pegs and it just made it a bit more, relaxed and and in your outlook of life. Life is short, we're only here the once. You've got to enjoy it, so try and relax and enjoy it. So Race has taught me something."
Having grown apart since childhood, the brothers reconnected with each other on the race. They found out they are really similar.
Melvyn said: "We figured that we that we knew each other quite well and we're actually quite alike."
Brian agreed: "We have the same sense of humour, we have a very wicked sense of humour at times. We do stupid little things..."
He added: "Melvyn and I obviously know each other quite well but it was good to reconnect. I knew Melv's loud, because Melvyn is a very loud person. He speaks [a lot] and sitting 11 hours in a bus or a or a train next to him. He's loud when he talks. I had some earplugs that I used to use with me when I needed a break. We got used to each other again, didn't we really?"
Melvyn said: "Mate, we did, it was good. Well I think the other thing about it was: we knew when to give one another space as well. You had a feeling. It wasn't a look really. It was a feeling if one of us was having a bad five minutes, walk away, give them that time. Give them chill time and then we start again.
"And I think that was something we did quite well. And it helps keep you sane as well, doesn't it, and calm down a little bit."
Mother and son duo Caroline, 61, and Tom, 21, also discovered the kindness of strangers.
Tom told Yahoo UK: "You put so much faith in into the strangers that you meet but everyone, the majority of people you meet go above and beyond to try and help you any way they can.
"And they simply do it just because they can, not because there's something in it for them, but just because they want to, which is really sweet. And it gives you a really good understanding of the country that you're in because I think the people make the country and that was really nice.
"It's just good to communicate to people instead of being on your phone and relying on data or Wi-Fi to get around, it's nice to speak to the locals and then you always find something cool and they've got a cool story to tell you. [It's] just a good way to travel."
Caroline said: "I think Thomas learned very quickly that a lot of the youngsters were better at English, and we even had somebody to pay for tickets because of course we couldn't change money and things like that in certain places.
"So they actually paid for our tickets and they wanted to spend time with us and chat to us. It was a real revelation, and Thomas was especially good at that."
Caroline and Tom have always been close but they did learn new things about each other while on the race. The mum was surprised to find out how lucky her son was and how he coped well with change along the way.
She said: "We were very close before we went on the show, but I learned that Thomas is incredibly lucky and I don't know if you saw the money belt incident because he always does things like that and he always gets lucky and sometimes it always turns out right.
"I thought he would get lucky and we'd be okay. And I thought from then on perhaps we wouldn't get eliminated and we would be okay.
"I have since learned that he is very adaptable and he's very easy going and wonderful with people, and that was such a big help because, of course, not speaking the language or feeling lost with no phone, we had to ask for help, and Thomas always stepped up and he was brilliant. He's a really marvellous travel companion. He's the best travel companion."
Tom's time with his mum changed his opinion of her. He said: "For me, the main thing I learned is that basically people of all ages can still be cool and fun. She is really cool. I didn't realise but now I know!"
He added: "We're lucky enough to have this memory that we'll share forever, really, it's something that no one can take away from us."
Sisters Elizabeth, 33, and Letitia, 26, had a lot to learn about each other on the journey, having spent 10 years apart when the older sister lived in Italy.
Elizabeth told Yahoo UK: "[On RATW] you learn a lot about yourself as well and then when you learn about yourself, then it's easier to then like integrate with other people, so I think we were learning about ourselves as well in a way."
She added: "For me, I learned that I'm not as decisive as I would like to be. It was quite difficult to make decisions under pressure. It was gonna be a difficult thing anyway. So I definitely learned that about myself and then I learned how Letitia was actually quite more relaxed than me at some times, which makes me feel like, 'Okay, I don't have to be the big older sister all the time'."
Letitia said: "Similar to what you [Elizabeth] said, I was surprised, when we're put in situations making difficult decisions, you really wanted to think it out and make sure you know it was the right decision and things like that. Because for me I thought... older sister — you know exactly what you exactly what to do.
"But there's a little more that goes into your thought process and I was like, 'Oh, that's quite surprising', but it helped me communicate better with you. We gave each other that time to go through the process of decision making.
"And what did I learn about myself? I was just mixed emotions where I didn't think I would be able to do it. It's chaos everywhere! Being on buses for so long. It was so noisy. I thought I would complain a lot more."
Elizabeth also shared her own feelings on this: "I feel like you gained so much more confidence."
Former married couple Yin and Gaz may have been eliminated at week three but they learned a lot through the Race experience.
Gaz urged everyone to follow their dreams. He told Yahoo UK: "Don't put off tomorrow! Whatever that expression is. Just do it, if you can afford it, do it. We're just so more open to any experience, good or bad.
"That's definitely one thing that race has taught us was there was some extreme highs. There was obviously some extreme lows as well but it was just the whole experience and something to talk about with friends, family. It was just a great moment. If you can do it, do it."
Yin learned a lot about communicating better with her former partner Gaz. She said: "In those quiet moments I think what I've learned is communication. Those quiet moments between me and Gaz, there were hangovers from the relationship we hadn't dealt with, we really communicated really well because we didn't have the distractions.
"Returning back from Race, that's really resonated with me. Communication and supporting each other. Being more honest with our feelings."
The former couple had been married for more than 30 years, have a grown up daughter Autumn and ran a Chinese takeaway together. But in doing Race Across the World together, they still learned things about one another.
Gaz told Yahoo UK: "[Doing Race] I just realised what a wonderful person is, how strong Yin is. She is an amazing person. She is my best friend... So, you know, I do look back and reflect and I think if maybe we'd been a lot more open at that crucial point in the relationship when we both closed down, we probably would still be husband and wife.
"Race is a good and a bad experience, because we probably wouldn't have done it if we were still together, but you just don't know, and I think [it's] one of the things that you've just got to go grab everything else you can."
Yin said: "In doing Race, it made me realise how strong Gaz was because in those low moments he was always there for me. At the point of marriage breakdown, we lost that. Having that back in Race, he really did show his true strength of character... We were both there for each other and that's really cemented our relationship going forward as well. I've got a best friend in my life and I wouldn't change that ever."
Race Across the World's final airs at 9pm on BBC One on Wednesday.
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