Celebrity Race Across the World winners: “It’s often a better idea to go off the beaten track”

Series two of BBC’s Celebrity Race Across the World came to dramatic end on Wednesday 18 September. In the final leg, the four celebrities – partnered with their loved ones – were just minutes apart as they departed their final checkpoint in Tilcara, Argentina and headed for the finish line in the Chilean Lake District. But it was beloved radio presenter Scott Mills and his fiancé (now husband) Sam Vaughan who climbed to the top of Osorno Volcano and signed their name in the book first. They were more than 2 hours ahead of Kola Bokinni and his cousin Mary Ellen, with Jeff Brazier and son Freddie Brazier, and Kelly Brooke and husband Jeremy Parasi arriving a day later.

So after 30 days of travelling 12,500km across four countries in South America, we caught up with the winners to learn their travel best bits, along with lessons learnt along the way.

Had you both done much travelling before Celebrity Race Across the World?

Scott: Travel, apart from radio, is one of my favourite things to do. I’d never been to South America though. I’d always wanted to go and it has always been on my bucket list. So I’ve now ticked off several countries now on the list just from doing the show.

Sam: For me, I’ve been fortunate to travel to a lot of places with my parents, but it’s usually just kind of the tourist places and the places that you usually go to. Typical holiday destinations in Europe.

So was this experience a new way to travel for you?

Sam: This experience meant we could go to places we had never been to. Some of the places we went are places you wouldn’t typically choose, especially as we chose to go to the most remote places that tourists don’t really go to and discover new places that we didn’t even know existed. We decided we wouldn’t go to the capitals and city centres, we would look for the little Tilcaras and little Lençóis instead.

That’s exactly how we like to travel at Wanderlust, taking the road less travelled…

Scott: Lençóis, for example – is a tiny little place, and you drive for miles and miles and miles and there’s nothing, and then suddenly you come across this beautiful, small town, and you would never find it, and you probably would never search it out. There were some American tourists there, but I’ve never heard of it before, and I’ve not come across anyone that’s been there or even knows of it. That’s the special thing about this show. It shows you new places, and you look at it and think ‘I want to go there’, even if you’ve never heard of it.

Absolutely, it’s certainly inspired me to visit…

Scott: I was at an airport the other day, and I met people that came up to me because they were about to go on their own trip inspired by this show. So I really think this show does make people think ‘I want to do that’.

Sam: Even for us as well. It’s going back to those places that we didn’t spend much time in because, of course, we’re in a race. We went to Uruguay within 10 hours, and what we saw of Montevideo we really loved. So it’s something on our to do list that we would love to go back and see and spend more time there.

So the trip has made you want to return to South America?

Sam: So the train journey that we went on through the mountains of Brazil – watching that on TV was a spectacle, and obviously the experience was amazing, but when you’ve just come off a 12 hour bus with no sleep, you’re a bit hungry, you kind of don’t appreciate things as much as you should, you know? We appreciated it, but we were in a race at the same time and that thought was in the back of your head. So there’s some places we would go back to just to have more time and properly explore again.

That view from the Cerra Verde Express was unbelievable. I imagine that was one of the most unforgettable views, but were there any others which really took your breath away?

Scott: The border of Argentina and Chile, which I wasn’t expecting, because you just think it’s going to be a border town, but the mountains there are unlike anything I’ve seen. And actually, the final checkpoint [Frutillar] was mad. It slightly looks like a ski resort, with classic German-style houses you know? You don’t really expect to see a lot of German influence in South America, as there were a lot of German names too. So yeah, I wasn’t expecting that in Chile at the end of the race.

Also when we saw our packing list at the beginning [before the teams knew they were travelling to South America], it was like ‘pack for heat of 40 degrees, but lows of five’. And we were like, ‘where are we going?’ We started with Brazil being in a record-breaking heatwave. But then, as you would have seen, we we’re actually wearing coats. They told us to pack a woolly hat, and it turns out they were correct.

Did you have any more surprises?

Scott: The sheer scale of Brazil kind of blew my mind. I want to say for over half the journey we were in Brazil because it is just so so massive. It makes the distances that we travel in the UK seem so small. I have to be completely honest – although I do think of myself as quite well travelled, I’m embarrassed to say that I thought everywhere in South America spoke Spanish, but it was Portuguese, which kind of floored me.

Sam: You’re getting on a bus for 21 hours to go [what seems like] not very far. That just shows how big that country is. If you did a 21 hour bus journey from London, god – you’d end up somewhere in the middle of Europe!

Even though there was an obvious language barrier, we loved watching you embrace the local experiences and see the authentic sides to each country. How did you find these experiences?

Scott: When we first sat down and talked about doing the race, we wanted to do that [see the authentic side] because otherwise there was no point us going. We decided not to go to Rio. We decided not to go to the main cities, because you would go there anyway if we went on a normal holiday to Brazil. We wanted to do the authentic Brazil experience and see how the locals live, because you’re probably not going to get that chance again.

Sam: Most of the places we visited, we wouldn’t usually give a second thought. It just goes to show that it’s often a better idea to go to places that are off the beaten track.

We love Race Across the World because it highlights the beauty (and sometimes… stinky toilets) of overland travel. Has this experience changed the way you might travel in the future?

Scott: It made me realise you don’t have to spend a lot of money. You can still have an amazing experience without, for example, having to book the nicest hotel. In Santiago, we got to stay in an Ibis hotel, as it was the only hotel available – but by then it felt like I was in Claridge’s. You just get used to the most basic of places, and obviously even sleeping on a bus where you can’t really have a wash. So, it made me realise you don’t need to be spending loads of money on hotels, and I think it will change the way that I do travel in future.

It was nice to hear you reflect on the lessons you learnt from travel in the final episode, but what did you learn about each other?

Scott: It did bring us closer together. It was kind of about the ultimate test before we got married. Me and Sam, we’re quite a laid-back couple. We don’t really argue, but I actually did wonder to myself when we signed up for it, I wonder if we will argue? We had a little bicker but it was never about each other. It was about the frustration of the situation that we were in, whether we couldn’t make people understand us, or it’s boiling hot and there’s not a bus for nine hours.

Do you have any advice for anyone planning to go to South America, or even just on an extended trip?

Scott: We love to stick to what we know, especially us Brits. We love a bit of Spain, we love a bit of New York. It might cost a bit more than going to Spain, but I would just say, save up and go a little bit further, because we so often just like to stick to what we know and stay in our comfort zone.

As well as congratulations on your win, congratulations on your marriage too! But what was better, your wedding or Celebrity Race Across the World?

Sam: After winning this. Alfie from the previous series who won earlier this year called me and was like “there’s 12 people in the UK that have won this show, and they’re experiencing it, and we’re two of those people to have that experience”. So yeah, the wedding was different obviously, but both were amazing.

Catch up with Celebrity Race Across the World on BBC iPlayer now.