Your Familys Amazing Race

Bryce Longton of Black Book Mag wrote this great piece on how to come up with a great travel idea for your whole family. What about the Amazing Race? We keep watching the show thinking, I wish I could do that. Well why not?

For those aching for a little more adventure in your travel, Competitours is right up your alley. The Ohio-based tour company has launched a new kind of European adventure: part backpacker’s paradise, part guided tour, all contest. The deal is this — you sign up for a 14-day adventure (there’re also a 10- and 8-day options) and rendezvous at the JFK airport. Once you’ve received your first assignment, you’re off to a mystery country to start on your first set of challenges.

Teams are pitted against each other in a series of choose-your-own-adventure challenges designed to showcase the city de jour. Each team chooses up to five challenges a day (out of 8-10) and sets about the city videotaping and uploading their progress to the Competitours website.

The footage is judged each day based on criteria like “creativity, inventiveness, and resourcefulness,” and each team is awarded points accordingly. The challenges are set to highlight different aspects of each city, allowing contestants to choose between the different cultural or outdoorsy-type activities. A sample challenge could include shooting a 30-second mock commercial promoting a 9th-century Viking ship as the perfect modern family vacation at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, or getting a group of 15 tourists atop the Eiffel Tower to dance the can-can for the camera.

Once the chosen challenges are completed for the day, the next day’s destination is revealed. Travelers can then hang out in the current city or catch an early train to the next destination.

The cities along the tour range beyond the typical European destinations (Paris, London, Rome) and generally veer towards the athletic—caving, hiking, kayaking. In an interesting move, Competitours has a play now, pay later pricing model, where the balance of your trip isn’t even accepted until four days after your trip is over, allowing for a greater mystery regarding the itinerary.

The ballpark range for a 14-day tour is $2,000 to $3,000 and includes roundtrip airfare, all European double-occupancy lodging, a Eurail pass, eight to ten daily “Competitask” challenge options, all game administration, and most importantly, Grand Prize eligibility.

The Grand Prize is indeed grand; this summer’s 14-day adventure comes with a Grand Prize of 40 nights in participating Starwood hotels (155 worldwide), two airline tickets, and $5,000 spending money.