Competitours: The Amazing Race for the 21st Century
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Forget Sightseeing. How about Sightdoing? TheTravelEditor is always excited about experiential travel and hates the boring and commonplace, and Competitours presses our hot buttons.
Competitours is like The Amazing Race, but more civilised. Armed with Eurail passes and video cameras, seventeen teams of two will travel through Europe from one surprise destination to the next competing for the grand prize: a worldwide travel spree. Teams will complete around five interactive, quirky and fun challenges per day which are designed to maximise exposure to the local culture, not test speed or prowess. They will upload their videos each night to judges for scoring based on creativity and originality, not cinematography. The team with the most points at the end wins.
"This is 'The Amazing Race' for regular people," says Steve Belkin, 45, Competitours' creator, former TV producer and inveterate traveller. "Anybody can do this."
Destinations include Europe’s bustling capital cities, under-the-radar cool spots, rural villages, and natural wonders.
Competitours was partly inspired by the Global Scavenger Hunt, now in its 5th year, where teams travel to four continents to swim with baby elephants, lend a hand at a Tibetan refugee camp or take a cooking lesson from a Michelin-starred chef. Belkin competed himself in 2004, but saw room for improvement.
“I started thinking, 'These guys have the world covered, but it costs $10,000 and takes three weeks,'” he said. “They inspired me to deconstruct what they did and see if I could build -- I don't want to say a better animal -- but a different one."
Competitours' trips range in price from $1,995 per person for an eight-day trip to $2,950 for a two-week adventure in June, July or August. This covers international airfare, modest-but-clean accomodation and a Eurail pass for train travel. Food and admission to sites are extra.
Participants won't know what city they're starting from until a couple of days before departure, and will only know a half-day in advance what their next stop will be, but they can count on visiting a half dozen countries in Western and Central Europe during the two-week trip. "The game is more of an arc, not a leash; it's meant to complement, not overwhelm your trip," says Belkin. Teams don't necessarily travel together, though they may encounter each other as they complete their challenges.
The grand prize is a mix of airline tickets, up to 40 nights in any of Starwood’s hotels spanning 51 countries and up to $6,500 spending money.
According to Belkin, “We're just trying to reorient people's whole concept of travelling beyond the tour bus, beyond the tour guide.”
TheTravelEditor couldn’t agree with you more, Steve. Best of luck to you and all the teams.
Interested in participating? See www.competitours.com. And don’t forget to leave your comments in our form below!
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I’m looking forward to getting my racing gear on again and rampaging around Europe. I’m Tyler MacNiven, winner of Amazing Race season 9, and I’m itching for the adrenaline of the race. I’ll be racing with my Mom in late July. Should be a hoot!