Lessons Learned: Would we do it again?
Did we enjoy it?
Yes, without hesitation! It was a smashing experience, and we met a lot of lovely people.
What did we learn?
We had a list of Unwritten Guidelines before we started. We came up with them by chatting beforehand, to make sure we were on the same page, and that we both enjoyed ourselves at the same time.
Will we change our Guidelines for next time?
For myself, I think I would be more confident to just make a choice based on instinct. I usually spend a lot of time researching my trips before making decisions, but we don’t really have time for that during the Race. At the start of the Race we had spent a lot of time trying to research the “best” option, and ended up just choosing based on instinct because we had no data. Eventually we'd choose the one that felt right—and almost every time it worked out well. Looking back, I think we could have trusted our instincts much sooner. And actually that turned out great. In reality, I think there were no “bad” options.
We had hoped to avoid very long sectors, and to prefer trains over buses. We did end up with some longish sectors in the event, although none longer than 6 hours. They varied a lot in terms of how comfortable they were, though. We had found buses in northern Spain to be very comfortable and pleasant with lots of legroom, whereas on one bus in southern Spain I literally couldn’t fit into the seat, my knees had to turn sideways. Trains are frequently (but not always) faster and more comfortable. But, throughout our Race, when we took a bus, we saw more countryside and villages that we probably wouldn’t see otherwise. In Spain, especially, the high speed train network that we relied on a couple of times often transits the countryside through concrete cuttings and tunnels, so there are limited views (although it’s undeniably incredibly convenient and fast).
So we would adjust this rule to say instead: look for interesting places to break the journey. That seems to have been our secret to success - although we visited all the Checkpoints, we are not bound to only visit Checkpoints, and looking for additional stops gave us some of the highlights of our trip. One of our Unwritten Guidelines was to choose new places neither of us had visited previously, and that was definitely the right approach for us. We would not change that.
Left: Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech. Centre: Souq view, Marrakech. Right: Puente de Alcantara, Toledo
Aside from that, the Unwritten Guidelines seemed to work well for us, and turned the trip into something rather special. I think we would add one more Guideline, though:
Prioritise meeting and catching up with other Racers
The social side of the Race was a major highlight. We got to hear other people’s adventures in real time via the chat. It felt as if the bunch of strangers we left London with were now friends when we met them again in Marrakech - even though we had not actually physically travelled together. There was a strong sense of community around the Race. Although everyone had different travel plans around the event, many Racers spent a day or two in Marrakech after the event finish, and arranged tours together.
While there is a strongly competitive part to the Race, for those competing for prizes, it mostly felt like dozens of people all solving the same giant travel puzzle in different ways.
Should we have bought an Interrail Pass?
This is a question with no “correct” answer! The main benefit of a train pass is that it allows flexibility at the last minute. If you know your travel plans far in advance, you can book point-to-point train tickets early, and often (not always) that works out cheaper. However, trains can get quite expensive if you want to book last minute. The advantage of a pass, is that you pay a fixed fee and then get unlimited travel for the day, without having to pay extra for last minute decisions.
We had decided against buying a pass. However, many other Racers did buy rail passes. Here’s our experience of not buying a pass, and what we considered when we decided not to buy one.
Firstly, which countries you travel though is important. The route from London to Marrakech inevitably traverses France and Spain, but ticketing is handled slightly differently in each country, and these are two countries where a Interrail pass has a few additional constraints. For high speed trains in France or Spain, it’s necessary to make a reservation in advance, and pay an additional fee. Seat reservations or quotas can sell out - even though you have a Interrail pass, you cannot travel on it in that case. Travelling in France and Spain was a factor when we decided not to buy a pass.
Secondly, not everywhere is readily connected by train. For example, for travelling from Checkpoint 2 (St-Jean-Pied-du-Port) to Checkpoint 3 (Santiago de Compostela) Mum and I decided to take a series of buses between cities along the north coast of Spain. This was one of the highlights of the trip for us, and we got well off the beaten track and saw some fabulous countryside. This trip is hard to do via rail, but easy on a bus. Of course, if you have a pass, it’s annoying to spend money buying train travel, and then not use it, though.
The downside: we definitely spent more on travel than if we had bought a Interrail pass, although we did benefit from happily switching between bus and train, and did not have to worry about pass quotas.
There’s a good discussion of Interrail passes here, from someone with more expertise than I. In retrospect, we decided we would probably buy a rail pass if we take a similar trip in the future. Although, perhaps we would buy a pass that doesn’t cover the whole week - leaving ourselves some flexibility on a few days.
L: Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech. Centre: Grosse Cloche, Bordeaux. R: Buildings around Plaza del Fontan, Oviedo
Looking back, the Race turned out to be exactly what we'd hoped: a chance to travel slowly, discover places we'd probably never have chosen otherwise, and meet a wonderfully friendly community of people who all approached the challenge differently. We finished with every Checkpoint completed, countless good meals, and memories that had very little to do with racing. We'd happily do it all again.
Useful links
We paid for all elements of this trip ourselves. However, here are some links to resources that I found useful.
The event itself was organised by Lupine Travel. We were both impressed with the accessibility of the Lupine Travel team, and attention to detail in the Race organisation and resources
I used seat61 as a source of advice and information on rail systems across Europe and Morocco - a wonderful, independent and free resource
We used thetrainline to book rail tickets across France and Spain (can be used across Europe)
We used the Accor app to book accommodation last minute at many of cities we stopped in, and we also used Booking.com to book accommodation
We used the omio app to book bus and ferry tickets across Spain. Our fast, efficient ferry from Tarifa to Tangiers was with Balearia, and the bus routes that we loved in northern Spain were with Alsa
I strongly recommend getting a good guidebook for any destination! I particularly like Bradt guides, although I sometimes also use Rough Guides, Time Out and Lonely Planet guides, which are also generally reliable. In the UK, bookshop.org supports independent booksellers - a great way to buy books. Stanfords are a legendary travel bookshop based in London.