The Amazing Race is a popular TV show where teams race around the world while performing challenges. Teams are eliminated one at a time with the first team crossing the finish line winning $1 million. Shows for the next season (the 20th!) will air in February.

While mostly entertaining, The Amazing Race provides an armchair traveler’s view of people, transportation, and attractions of far away lands. I enjoy watching the show to see what travel tips I can file away for future use.

With that in mind, here are 8 great travel lessons from The Amazing Race:

  1. Use Specific Terminology. Ask for flight, bus, train, etc., that arrives the soonest or earliest–instead of the fastest or quickest. Some teams have waited to take later flights that arrived sooner, due to better routes or shorter connection times.
  2. Arrival Time May Not Matter. Many times, teams arrive in the middle of the night only to find the next challenge unavailable until the attraction opens the next day. So, if the desired attraction is not open until 9 am it does not matter if I arrive at 1 am or 6 am. Rather than waste those waiting hours, take later transport, more luxurious transport, or plan to visit other places.
  3. Protect Your Documents. Teams without money were able to panhandle. Teams without passports could not continue. Documents are more important than money or any material item.
  4. Money Cannot Buy Happiness. Over and over again, teams treasure the experiences, challenges, competition, and memories over the potential prize.
  5. Ask Locals. Native residents know the best transportation, traffic patterns, and shortcuts. Taking a little extra time to speak with locals often saves time in the long run–and almost always is a more memorable experience than going at it alone. On the other hand, not every cab driver is competent. It is just a crap shoot. Ask how far destinations are before picking transportation. Many times on the show, teams would walk too far when they could have taken a taxi or bus and vice versa.
  6. Friendliness Is An Asset. Really, has being selfish or belligerent ever benefited anyone? Teams that are genuinely nice to each other, other teams, and people in the places they visit seem to have good karma on their side.
  7. Being Good Looking Is An Asset. A pretty face and smile has gotten teams out of paying cab fares and extra assistance from locals. However, that benefit is short lived as those recipients always seem to fail in future episodes. I cannot recall any of the “pretty teams” winning the whole race. Anyone can be unique in some part of the world. I remember episodes where excess attention was made about hair color (blondes), height (Globetrotters), celebrity (Survivor contestants), and familiarity (Asian-American in Asia, African-American in Africa).
  8. Go With The Flow. Don’t stress. Locals like to help. It always works out. Always. Well, almost always. Just don’t lose your passport.

Surely you have a favorite travel lesson learned from The Amazing Race. Or maybe a memorable story. Please share in the comments.

You can follow The Amazing Race on Twitter and Facebook.

You can contact me directly by email (CharlesMcCool -at- gmail -dot- com).

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© 2012, Charles McCool

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