Living in London is funny because you can spend years walking down the same streets without ever really looking at them.
I live in East London, work in the City and have probably walked around this part of London hundreds of times. Yet it took spending a Saturday pretending to race across the world to make me properly stop, look up and realise just how much I’d been missing.
Race Across the World: The Experience is the official live experience inspired by the BBC series, taking the budgeting, strategising and slightly frantic teamwork of the TV show and turning it into a two-to-three-hour race through the city. There are currently six different races across five UK cities – London, Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Bristol – with London offering both a City of London and West End version.
How Race Across the World: The Experience Works
Without giving too much away (because discovering where you’re going is very much the point!) the race is split into three legs, with three checkpoints to reach along the way.
Everything is managed through WhatsApp. Your team receives clues and directions on your phones, submits answers as you go and manages a virtual pot of money. Different routes cost different amounts, hints will eat into your budget and, in true Race Across the World style, you can complete extra “work” to earn more cash.
There are physical puzzles waiting at checkpoints too, which breaks up the phone-based element nicely. One of these resulted in the most heated ten minutes of our entire afternoon, mainly because four friends simultaneously insisting they know how to solve something is apparently not the most efficient way to solve it.
The official route covers roughly 5km and is designed to take around two to three hours without breaks. There are optional stops at partner venues between stages where the timer pauses, with discounts on food and drink available too.
Seeing the City of London Differently
This was easily my favourite part. Rather than simply getting you from A to B, the clues make you notice street names, architectural details, memorials, stories and tiny pieces of history you would usually walk straight past.
At one point we ended up inside a historic City pub I had somehow never discovered before, despite working nearby. I won’t reveal which one, but it had the most beautiful ceiling and such an interesting history that I’ve already mentally filed it away for an after-work drink.
That was the recurring theme of the afternoon: how have I never noticed this before?
It almost forces you to behave like a tourist in your own city, which is surprisingly refreshing when London normally becomes somewhere you’re permanently rushing through.
Is It Difficult?
It definitely requires some brainpower, but that’s what makes it fun.
I went as a group of four, which felt like a great number because there was always someone spotting something another person had missed. You don’t need prior knowledge of London – the organisers actually say locals shouldn’t have an advantage – although knowing the City definitely helped us get our bearings quickly on a few occasions.
We managed the entire experience without buying a hint and even earned ourselves some additional budget along the way, which I was disproportionately pleased about.
You also receive updates showing how you’re performing against other teams racing that day, so naturally what began as a leisurely Saturday activity became increasingly competitive.
We finished in around two and a half hours and came second.
I would like it formally recorded that the winning team did not stop halfway through for coffee. Ours did.
Is It Worth it?
Race Across the World: The Experience is such a good alternative London activity if your weekends have started becoming an endless rotation of brunch, drinks and “shall we just sit in the park?”
You get fresh air, a lot of steps, enough puzzles to make you think without it feeling like homework, and most importantly, several uninterrupted hours actually doing something together.
Teams can include between two and eight people, making it a good option for dates, groups of friends, birthdays or even work socials. The City of London experience starts around Liverpool Street and is wheelchair accessible, with step-free route options available.
I’d genuinely do another one, but next time I’d choose a city I don’t know. Taking away our London knowledge and seeing how quickly the wheels fall off feels like the natural next challenge.
Book the experience here.