Why I Would Never Want to be on the Amazing Race
I don’t watch much TV, and reality shows certainly aren’t my top choice. But I do enjoy “The Amazing Race.” It’s travel-related, so I love seeing all the interesting places they visit. Plus there are always some logistical aspects that intrigue me since I love the planning part of travel. I’ve even had a few people in the past tell me I should try to get on the show because I love to travel so much. Despite all of this, with every episode I see, one thought is reconfirmed in my mind over and over again: I would NEVER want to be on this show!
They move too quickly
It’s baked right into the name, right? The show is a race. Teams compete every step of the way to make their way around the world, hoping to finish each leg on top, or at least not come in last, so that they have a shot at $1 million. They’re only in each location for about one to three days, which only gives them the slightest glimpse at the destination.
I’ve had my fair share of fast travel, and I know there will be more in my future. But I hope to minimize this as often as possible and focus on spending more time in each place. Rushing through every single destination is exhausting and doesn’t allow you to really get to know a place and its culture.
I need sleep
The competitors on the show often end up sleeping on airport floors, or arriving somewhere at 3AM and sleeping in front of a building until it opens. Sometimes they camp out in tents or sleep on planes, trains or boats. I’m surprised there aren’t more tears and emotional breakdowns based on this lack of good sleep alone. The constant jet lag must be so disorienting.
I’m not a happy person when I don’t get enough sleep. A night or two is manageable, but if I have too many nights in a row with bad sleep or attempting to sleep in transit, you should just stay away from me. Even too many nights on a bad bed could be disastrous. The exhaustion I would certainly experience combined with the fast pace of the race would do me in.
The challenges are insane
It’s definitely exciting to watch the teams try to complete tasks and challenges. Just in this season alone, they’ve dealt with a variety of boats, animals, bugs, memory exercises, and physically challenging tasks. Some are culturally relevant like learning a dance or making soup, but some aren’t nearly as specific to the location’s culture.
I do like to push beyond my comfort zone when I travel, but some of these challenges would be too much for me. I also don’t think I would enjoy the destination if I was participating in a race like this where the main objective is to win. How could I take in my surroundings if I was in the middle of a grueling challenge? And no time to stop for pictures? Yikes!
Relating to my own trip
While watching the first few episodes of the current season, Andy and I noticed the show went to many of the same places I visited on my round the world trip. Bora Bora, New Zealand, Bali, and Hanoi to be exact, so that’s why I used pictures from those places. I didn’t spend tons of time in Bora Bora, and I saw different parts of Bali than they visited on the show, but throughout those first few episodes, I just kept thinking, how much are they really seeing?
In New Zealand especially, it blew my mind how much they missed. They flew into Christchurch and immediately went off into nature to do some wacky obstacle course style thing. They spent a night camping before their challenges and then right afterwards they headed back to the airport to fly to Bali. I spent three weeks in New Zealand, and I felt like I barely scratched the surface.
I think I’ll stick to my way of travel. “The Amazing Race” is a fun and entertaining show to watch, and it gives both the viewers and participants a taste of places they might want to take a longer trip to someday. But the race is so completely opposite of how I enjoy travel. I’ll continue to watch, but I won’t be applying anytime in the near or distance future.
April 11, 2013 @ 9:44 AM
I don’t know this show, but it sounds like the ‘travel’ part is just the setting for what the show is really about: the game.
April 11, 2013 @ 2:30 PM
It’s a neat show to watch because you get to see small pieces of lots of places around the world, so it’s definitely interesting, and I always hope it encourages people to travel somewhere they hadn’t thought about before. But yes, it’s definitely a show about people in a race competing to win prices and money.
April 11, 2013 @ 7:02 PM
Not for me either – I don’t really consider a competition like that to be a travel experience. Though I would love to have cameras follow us around when we travel. Would make my job so much easier =)
April 11, 2013 @ 9:05 PM
Ha! I guess having cameras around would be pretty convenient sometimes! Not sure I’d like it for weeks at a time though.
April 11, 2013 @ 7:27 PM
I also love the Amazing Race, but have long said I would love to be on it! A lot of the challenges do freak me out, though, especially the ones involving eating really gross stuff.
For what it’s worth, I recall reading an inside look at the show a few years ago and I think they do get a little more downtime than what we’re shown and do get to stay in hotels more often than it seems. Like it may look like they’re sleeping in an airport, but really they get them all there to claim their spots in the order and then let them sleep at a nearby hotel…and then bring them back in the morning. Still very fast-paced though!
April 11, 2013 @ 9:08 PM
I’m sure there are aspects of being on the show that I would enjoy, but overall I know I’d crack and be the crazy girl crying in the corner or something.
I’d love to know more about the behind the scenes stuff though. It’s good to know they do get more down time than we see, and better sleeping situations sometimes. If anything, I’d like to be part of the team that plans out the route and decides where they go and what they do, and even how they organize all the visas and stuff. But that’s just the travel planning geek in me 🙂
April 12, 2013 @ 12:52 AM
The sleep would be the #1 factor for me!
April 12, 2013 @ 5:30 PM
Totally agree!
April 12, 2013 @ 1:11 AM
I agree with Sophie – it’s not about the travel, it’s about the game. There is so much to reality TV that happens behind the scenes and we never see. It might be fun to be on it. I’ve never personally watched the show, but do know it’s for people that really enjoy a good adventure.
April 12, 2013 @ 5:32 PM
It’s fun to watch, and I enjoy seeing the places they travel to, but I think you have to be into the competition more than the travel itself to be on the show. Though there’s a couple on the show right now from the middle of nowhere Alabama who have never traveled at all, and it’s pretty cool to see them so amazed by the places they’re visiting. I hope being on the show encourages them to try traveling a little more.
April 12, 2013 @ 8:41 AM
I think I have seen this program and turned over after 5 minutes. I just did not get the travel vibe. It was all about the race and like you say moving too quickly.
April 12, 2013 @ 5:33 PM
It’s definitely more about the competition than the travel, though I do love seeing all the places they visit. I could just never travel that quickly, I’d feel like I missed too much.
April 12, 2013 @ 9:31 PM
I definitely think it’d be a cool way to earn a million dollars (eating gross things aside)! And then once we did get the money, I’d use it to go back and actually see and experience all the places slowly 🙂
April 13, 2013 @ 4:57 PM
That sounds like a good plan! It definitely gives them a good taste of a bunch of places, and hopefully an incentive to return. Winning would certainly help with that!
April 14, 2013 @ 8:51 AM
Amen to everything you’ve written in this post! I love watching TAR for the vicarious traveling it allows me (and it gives me tons of destinations to add to my bucket list), but now that I’m actually out there traveling, I would never want to see the world at the breakneck pace! It’s funny to look back at the itinerary Tony & I originally set for ourselves, with most countries getting 2 weeks… now we feel like if we can’t spend at least one month in place, what’s the point in going as you can barely scratch the surface in that amount of time. It’s crazy to think that in the time we spent in Japan, racers will have made it all around the world! We’ve personally decided that even if it means seeing fewer countries on this trip, we’d rather make sure that we spend the time to properly see the places we do visit.
April 14, 2013 @ 1:24 PM
Thanks Steph! I think that happens to a lot of us, thinking we’re giving ourselves enough time, that it won’t be too fast, and then when you get into the trip you realize just how fast it really is. No matter what everyone else tells us before we go. I’m glad you guys have readjusted your schedule so you can travel slower and see more of the places you do visit, even if it means fewer places. Definitely makes for a more enjoyable trip!
April 14, 2013 @ 10:04 PM
I have thought the same thing! I have a feeling that those of us who watch the show actually see more of the countries than the participants do. I would get kicked off pretty early, because I would be taking my time looking around. 🙂
April 15, 2013 @ 10:48 AM
We probably do see more than they do! We have the benefit of seeing several camera views and they always show stuff that doesn’t even involve the contestants. I’d slow down too to look around and take pictures. It pains me that they never really have time to take pictures of their surroundings.
April 18, 2013 @ 5:40 PM
I couldn’t do it for the food challenges alone!!!
April 19, 2013 @ 10:22 AM
I wonder how they deal with that for vegetarians? I’m just a picky eater. Though I haven’t seen too many food challenges lately.
April 30, 2013 @ 6:04 PM
I think one season they did have a vegetarian and she had to eat a sausage or something, I think. She did it. I forget which season that was.
May 1, 2013 @ 12:54 PM
Wow, I missed that one!
April 25, 2013 @ 7:55 AM
I would never do it either. I wouldn’t be able to take the stress and pressure and would end up having a melt down for sure
April 25, 2013 @ 10:12 AM
I’m glad it’s not just me!
April 25, 2013 @ 6:05 PM
I would love to be on the show, but sadly since I worked for CBS for a brief time in 2009, I can’t ever be on it. The cool thing I always think though is that people that travel as much as us get to kind of experience being on the show without being on it with all the running for trains, getting lost, and eating odd foods we all do.
April 26, 2013 @ 3:02 PM
That’s kind of crazy that you can’t EVER be on it because you worked for CBS, but I guess it makes sense. I guess in a way those of us who do travel a lot do experience a lot of those things they have to deal with on the show, but for the people on the show it seems like they miss out on the exploring part. You seem much more laid back, go with the flow than me, you probably could handle being on the show. I really think I’d have a meltdown 3 or 4 days into it!
April 30, 2013 @ 6:03 PM
I looooove the Amazing Race! I would love to be on there but you do bring up very, very valid points. I would have so much attitude on there the other players would probably try very hard to get me kicked off. I would be unbearable if I didn’t eat or sleep. Lots of people say I should put in for it but I don’t think I could find me a compatible enough partner that I can put up with or them be able to put up with me. 🙂
For future reference, I would suck at the swimming or freezing temperature challenges.
May 1, 2013 @ 12:53 PM
I wouldn’t do so well at those either. I can swim enough to not drown but I’m not fast or anything. As for cold stuff, ugh I hate being cold! I’d just be a wimp about too many things to really make it far on that show. I can definitely see the appeal of going for it though.
May 3, 2013 @ 12:51 AM
I totally agree. I would have a total meltdown on the show because I just can’t cope with bad sleep. I struggle with staying in hostels for weeks on end because I wake up at every little noise or light (which is why I’m never without an eyemask). There’s no way I would ever consider going on it with my boyfriend either. A drive through Edinburgh with no map showed how well a situation like that would work out for us! Plus, I’d be so distracted wanting to see other things (and take photos) that I’d probably come in last anyway.
I really enjoyed the first season of the Australian Amazing Race as well. Slightly different characters to the typical American reality show set but still just as entertaining!
May 3, 2013 @ 5:58 PM
I don’t like noise or light when I’m sleeping either, but I don’t like sleep masks either. I guess it’s a trade off though. It’s good you know you can travel with your boyfriend but not Amazing Race style! And I totally agree, I’d want to stop and take photos all the time. If I ever get a chance to watch the Australian version, I will. I love watching the show, but I don’t ever need to try out for it!
May 9, 2013 @ 8:34 PM
The Amazing Race is one of the very few TV programs that I follow anymore. Of course I love the travel aspect of it — especially watching the teams navigate new cultures and languages! Although sometimes I cringe to think what kind of an impression of Americans they’re leaving behind in these countries as they barrel through shouting “WHY DOESN’T ANYONE SPEAK ENGLISH HERE?” — as if the local people are idiots for speaking their own native tongues, right? The Berlin segment this season was great — I totally want to go to the Buchstabe Museum now!
May 9, 2013 @ 9:43 PM
I know what you mean! It kills me when the contestants say stuff like that, or when they get mad at a local for getting lost or something and they say “you could be costing me a million dollars right now!” Incredibly insensitive considering it usually happens in a developing country. The Berlin episode was pretty cool, although I don’t think I could handle that club they went into!
May 14, 2013 @ 7:29 PM
You know what I have never seen a single episode of this show and the funny thing is I think I’d love to go on it…lol!!! I know I’m a mess, but um yeah I don’t know if I could handle it.
May 15, 2013 @ 10:36 AM
You could probably handle it better than I could. You can sleep anywhere and you’re much more go with the flow that I am. But I don’t think you’d like the pace. It is a fun show to watch though, check it out if you’re still home when the next season starts up again.