Cliff Notes – Where are Race Across The World 2024 winners Alfie and Owen now
- Alfie Watts and Owen Wood have continued to travel extensively since winning Race Across The World, with Alfie focusing on creating travel content and Owen training to become a pilot.
- Both friends remain in touch with fellow contestants through a WhatsApp group and have expressed interest in participating in an all-stars version of the show if it were to be produced.
Where are Race Across The World 2024 winners Alfie and Owen now?
It’s been almost a year since friends Alfie Watts and Owen Wood raced to victory (Picture: Studio Lambert)
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since friends Alfie Watts and Owen Wood stormed to victory on Race Across The World.
The globe-trotting BBC show is now back for a new season starting tonight, as a new batch of duos traipse China, Nepal and India in the hope of winning a hefty £20,000 cash prize.
In 2024, friends Alfie and Owen – both now 22 – had us on the edge of our seats as they travelled from Japan to Indonesia on a route that spanned 15,000km.
So what have they been up to since? Metro caught up with them ahead of the launch of the new series to find out.
From their future travel plans to their hopes to appear on TV again in future and staying in touch with their fellow castmates, here’s what they had to say.
What happened to Race Across The World 2024 winners Alfie and Owen after the show?
Since the show ended last year, both Alfie and Owen have done their fair share of travelling, with both expressing hopes to do more.
Owen is still in training to become a pilot, while also working as a delivery driver, while Alfie is now creating travel content in a full-time capacity, having turned away from his previous ambition to become an air traffic controller.
‘This year if I get what I want, I think I’ll probably [go to] another 35 countries this year,’ he said, revealing that he’s already visited 77 so far in 2025.
At the top of his travel wish list is Tuvalu in the South Pacific, which is known as the least visited country in the world.
He added his fear that the island country might not be around in the next five or 10 years, as the region is ‘sinking’. ‘There are so many cool customs out there. I really like the Pacific Islands. So that’s probably number one,’ he said.
Both of the friends are still recognised for their stint on Race Across The World to this day, with Alfie being spotted the morning of our interview in Sainsbury’s.
Race Across The World was stressful at times for the pair, but they made it through together (Picture: Studio Lambert Ltd)
Owen added: ‘Sometimes you go a week and no one recognises you, and other times, you’ll get recognised three or four times in a day. It happens quite a lot.’
Looking ahead to the future, Alfie is keen to be on TV, and would love to be ‘the person that people go to if they want travel advice, or when they’re looking for places to go.’
‘That’s where I want to cement myself, and that’s all from the support of Race Across The World. It all stemmed from the whole experience,’ he shared, outlining his point of view that there’s a ‘gap in the market for an old-style travel show’, something that he’s trying to convey on his YouTube channel.
While Owen is less active on social media, he would also consider doing another travel TV show. But Love island? Out of the question.
‘People are going, Love Island? Would you do that? I’m like hell no, like no way would I do anything like that. Travelling, yeah… I wouldn’t want to do something as intense as the Race again.’
How did the winners spend their prize money?
Of course, one of the biggest questions people are always going to ask after contestants win TV shows is – how did they spend the money?
The 22-year-olds both enjoyed their winnings, splashing on exciting trips after the series (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert/Pete Dadds)
After being crowned the victors of Race Across The World 2024, Alfie and Owen shared their spending plans with Metro, with the former using some of it to pay off his credit card bill after jetting off to the Caribbean, and Owen planning a holiday to Majorca to bask in the sun.
So how have they fared with their winnings since then?
‘I put a bit of it towards travelling, a bit towards my pilot stuff, and then the rest of it on investments and stuff like that,’ Owen told Metro in our latest interview.
‘So nothing too interesting. But I wanted to enjoy a chunk of it. I didn’t just want to put it all away into savings,’ he continued.
‘I was like, I’ve done two months of hard work for this money, I kind of want to enjoy a bit of it. So I was fairly sensible with some of it, and some of it I just spent on whatever. I don’t regret it.’
What you need to know about Race Across The World 2025
When does Race Across The World 2025 begin?
The series starts on Wednesday April 23 at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with episodes airing weekly.
The nine episodes will run until June, when the new winners will be revealed.
What’s the route?
The starting point for this year’s race is the Great Wall of China, with the teams set to travel across China, Nepal and India.
Those who make it the whole way through will race more than 14,000km until they reach the finish line.
The final ending point will be in the coastal town of Kanniyakumari, the southernmost tip of India.
What’s the prize?
Once again, the team that wins will take home £20,000.
Who’s in the cast?
This year’s teams are:
Best friends and former married couple Gaz and Yin
Sisters Elizabeth and Letitia
Couple Fin and Sioned
Brothers Brian and Melvyn
Mother and son Caroline and Tom
Alfie revealed he ‘had a great summer last year’ with the winnings, telling us: ‘I took all of my friends away.
‘The whole thing was I was gonna do Race Across The World, then I was going to have a period after where I went travelling again, and then I was going to settle down and become an air traffic controller.’
However, Alfie’s life has taken a different turn, accumulating 209,000 followers on Instagram, 7,800 on YouTube and 77,000 on TikTok as he travels the world.
‘It hasn’t quite gone as I’d imagined back then. There is a part of me now that actually wishes I’d been a bit more responsible with the money. But you adapt to what’s in front of you.’
Have Alfie and Owen travelled with each other since winning the series?
After filming Race Across The World together in 2023, Alfie and Owen have been travelling together, heading to Iceland at the end of 2024 and going on a couple of other trips, including venturing to Albania.
The friends travelled to Iceland together after filming the show (Picture: Instagram/@_alfiewatts_)
‘That was fun, but nothing like the scale that we have done, just like mini trips here and there,’ Owen said.
He explained that they’ve discussed going to South Africa, but it’s been tricky finding time to go on a big trip together given their busy schedules.
‘His approach to travelling is a bit different to mine. He likes recording everything and putting it on TikTok, and I’m more just, let me chill out, let me go have a drink. Let me go talk to some people, just kind of relax. But never say never.’
Alfie added that it’s ‘frustrating’ that it’s been a struggle to find a time that works for them both, but he’s hoping he’ll be able to go and meet Owen in Australia later this year. ‘But again, it really just depends on schedule alignment.’
Have they stayed in touch with the Race Across The World cast?
Not only is there a WhatsApp group for the Race Across The World cast, but you might be amazed to hear that there’s also one for all of the contestants who’ve ever been on the programme.
The cast all still stay in contact, and they’re also in a group chat with contestants from other series (Picture: Studio Lambert/Pete Dadds/Matt Burlem)
Discussing the mega group, Alfie shared: ‘The thing about Race Across The World is none of us are in the industry. I think I’m the only one who’s in the industry full time. So it’s basically 40, 45 people that live standard lives.
‘Whenever the new series rocks around, it’ll get a new influx of 10 people. We’re lucky with season four, because we’re all genuinely really close. Because we were dotted all over the country, we don’t tend to meet. But I speak to Betty, Stephen and Viv loads.’
Owen pointed out that brother and sister James and Betty were closer in age to him and Alfie, and he got on really well with the former, so much so that he’s been to visit him a few times.
‘We’ve been out to music events and stuff like that. He’s probably the main one, just because he’s my age and he’s a lad, so he’s easy to talk to. And Betty as well.
‘We have a group chat with everyone so we speak to the others. Brydie, Sharon, Stephen, Viv, Isabel… we all keep in contact.’
Would they do an all stars series of Race Across The World?
While there’s already been a couple series of Celebrity Race Across The World, there’s yet to be an all stars version featuring former teammates on the original series.
Perhaps we’ll see Alfie and Owen reunite on an all stars series in future (Picture: Studio Lambert)
Fans will be glad to hear that if an all stars version ever comes out, Alfie and Owen would both be up for taking part.
‘That’d be really cool,’ Owen said. ‘We did – me and Alfie – did tell the BBC, “If you ever fancy doing it, let us know.” That would be cool.’
Alfie agreed, stating: ‘If they did winners, it would be incredibly competitive. I don’t even want to think how annoying I’d be on that, just with the desire to win.
‘But it was such a once in a lifetime opportunity. If it came up again, we’d have to accept it.’
Race Across The World 2025 begins tonight at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.