Topic: Route Themes for Each Season

[TheWarrior]

Hey there,

Does anyone know how each season is being planned? Sure, its understandable that the production would only visit countries that are not affected by political and environmental unrest.

Is there a recurring theme for each season?

I like how teams travel to various countries or cities that has some relations to the previous country they travelled to. For example, in Season 18, teams visited a tea shop in China and has to drink and remember the flavour of the tea so that they could guess the right cup at another tea tasting venue in India. Its kind of cool that we learn that tea was one of the main exports between Kolkata and Kunming.

In Season 19, the starting point was at a Buddhist temple in California, which is affiliated to Taiwan's largest Buddhist organization. And soon enough, teams would jet off to Taipei and take part in another challenge in a (Buddhist-Confucian) temple. The 3 Asian countries featured in Season 19 had a challenge that took place in a Buddhist temple. Hence, the start of Season 19 had a religious/spiritual theme. 

After visiting Japan in Season 20, teams arrived at Hawaii to perform a task that is commonly practiced by Japanese immigrants in Hawaii.

My Speculations are as follow:

Season 7 - Members of the British Commonwealth and Latin America. Almost every country they visit is either related to the british commonwealth or a Spanish speaking nation. The only country visited that is not part of any of the above is Turkey.

Season 10 - Asian Nations/Empire colonial français - They visited every part of Asia (East Asia, Northern Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Southwest Asia), not forgetting that they also visited places like Mauritus where there is a large Asian population as well. Many countries visited had a French Colonial background (Vietnam, Mauritius, Madagascar, Morroco and of course, France).

Season 12 - Season of the little countries. Many countries visited in this season were rather small in land mass, and often being overlooked or passed off as part of another country.

Season 13 - Communism/Warriors -  Russia and Kazakhstan (both part of the former Soviet Union), Cambodia (once controlled by the Communist Khmer Rouge). This season also featured a number of tasks in Warrior/Military like places - Maori Warriors of New Zealand, receiving a clue from a trained Golden Eagle from Mongol Warriors, taking part in detours located in a Russian military camp.

[TheWarrior]

Season 17 - Off the Beaten Path

Teams visited many in popular touristy countries. However, many locations and tasks feature in these countries were relatively uncommon or unheard of.

[Declive]

Season 20 was one of the most tradicionalists.

Argentina and it's wines/cows
Paraguay and the bottle dance/harp
Italy and the cars/salami
Germany and castles/curling
Azerbaijan and oil/fire/apples/everything/me.
Tanzania and the masai warriors
India and the worst episodes  (it's a tar tradition!!)
Japan and technology/crouds

[Jobby]

Season 12 was animals.

Wrong, TAR 3 was the one with animals. They even had a finale Roadblock on it.

For me another theme for TAR 3 was probably European countries. Besides Mexico, Malaysia (which doesn't even have a pitstop), Singapore and Vietnam, the rest of the countries was just Europe... They go off to Morroco for a leg or two... then WENT BACK TO EUROPE AGAIN?? I remembered watching halfway through the season and was like.. how come they are back in the same place again?? (I was 12 then and didn't know the countries much)

10 years later, I just figured out the route pretty much isn't that fascinating. HOWEVER, the tasks were REALLY GOOD (Cheese FF, Bungee Jump, Skydive.. you name it!) and thank goodness we had interesting teams that season... and Flo.

[Caelestor]

TAR 2: Southern Hemisphere
TAR 3: Europe to contrast TAR 2
TAR 4: Away from densely populated areas (Cortina d' Ampezzo, Gmunden, France, Kerala, Borneo, the DMZ, Cairns)
TAR 5: Six continents: long flights between destinations.
TAR 6: Europe to contrast TAR 5's one stop in St. Petersburg.
TAR 15: Original route displaced by a flu epidemic, but the Dubai/LV legs that remained intact both had count the money tasks.
TAR 16: Zig-zag route
TAR 17: Pitstop greeter hats (The final task)
TAR 18: Hot (Australia) to Cold (Japan) to Hot (India) to Cold (Europe) to Hot (Brazil) to stress the racers

[TheWarrior]

TAR 2: Southern Hemisphere
TAR 3: Europe to contrast TAR 2
TAR 4: Away from densely populated areas (Cortina d' Ampezzo, Gmunden, France, Kerala, Borneo, the DMZ, Cairns)
TAR 5: Six continents: long flights between destinations.
TAR 6: Europe to contrast TAR 5's one stop in St. Petersburg.
TAR 15: Original route displaced by a flu epidemic, but the Dubai/LV legs that remained intact both had count the money tasks.
TAR 16: Zig-zag route
TAR 17: Pitstop greeter hats (The final task)
TAR 18: Hot (Australia) to Cold (Japan) to Hot (India) to Cold (Europe) to Hot (Brazil) to stress the racers

LOL @ TAR 15. But they missed out Taiwan and Hong Kong in that category.

[TheWarrior]

What other themes would people like to see in future season?

Immigration Theme - A fastforward task that spans across 2 countries. Task is known as "Courier Service". The first team to head to a house locate at a rural village in Chaozhou, collect some basic items such as herbal supplements, good luck charm and a letter, and deliver it to one of their relatives livining in the Chinatown district of Bangkok (most ethnic Chinese in Thailand hails from Chaozhou and its surrounding areas) before receiving their next clues.

Parody of Pop Cultures/Stereotypes - South Korea. Roadblock. One team member must master the complicated dance moves by one of South Korea's most popular group, SNSD, before receiving their next clue.

Taiwan - Roadblock. One team member must brace themselves across a sea of paparazzis in order to reach the red carpet to get a signature from a "celebrity" (played by an out of work or B listed actor), before receiving their next clue.

Mozambique - Roadblock. One team member must wear the outfit of Simba the Lion, walk around a big market and shout "Hakuna Matata" before receiving their next clue.

[Jobby]

Parody of Pop Cultures/Stereotypes - South Korea. Roadblock. One team member must master the complicated dance moves by one of South Korea's most popular group, SNSD, before receiving their next clue.

That, will be awesome. I hope they have a race again that's focused on Asia. The last time they did it in TAR 10... I had a blast watching the season!

[Zack.]

I believe TAR6 had an Olympic theme, from locations (Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin) to tasks (ski jump, Viking boats, bungee, relay race, canoeing).

[Mug Costanza]

Parody of Pop Cultures/Stereotypes - South Korea. Roadblock. One team member must master the complicated dance moves by one of South Korea's most popular group, SNSD, before receiving their next clue.

That, will be awesome. I hope they have a race again that's focused on Asia. The last time they did it in TAR 10... I had a blast watching the season!

TAR14 was pretty Asia-centric, too; I think they had 7 or 8 legs there.

[ianthebalance]

Season 16: 1st leg was in Valparaiso, Chile, known as "the San Fransisco of South America". 12th leg was in San Fransisco, USA.

[TheWarrior]

Amazing Race All Stars:

Asian Legs - Cantonese Dialect Belt

Kuala Lumpur - Cantonese is the dominant Chinese dialect there. Names of places such as Chow Kit are of Cantonese origin.

Hong Kong - Cantonese is the official language.

Macau - Cantonese is the official langauage. In one of the detours, teams have to learn how to make a specific kind of noodles that is use for Wan Ton Mee, and many other Cantonese noodle dishes.

San Francisco - Cantonese is used by many of the Chinese Immigrants.

[WalterC]

Season 19: It's about time!

As in, it was about time that the race visited Indonesia, Denmark, Belgium, and Atlanta for the first time ever, after wishing for it for so many seasons. Heck, I would even throw in Panama in this list as well, as I'm sure many would consider it a first time visit that season.

[ianthebalance]

Technically, this isn't a route theme, but a challenge theme.
Season 19: Observation (so many tasks that involved observation)

[addie]

What was it with the flu epidemic in TAR15? Which countries would they've wanted to visit?

[TheWarrior]

Season 21 - Languages. They also visited a number of Muslim countries, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Turkey. Spain also had a Islamic past.

Season 15 - Countries that either oppressed others, or have been through some serious oppression. Yes, even UAE, where traditional Arabian culture seemed to be oppressed by capitalistic ventures.

Apologies for this to be revived again!

[Glamazon Racer]

Season 12 was animals.

Wrong, TAR 3 was the one with animals. They even had a finale Roadblock on it.

For me another theme for TAR 3 was probably European countries. Besides Mexico, Malaysia (which doesn't even have a pitstop), Singapore and Vietnam, the rest of the countries was just Europe... They go off to Morroco for a leg or two... then WENT BACK TO EUROPE AGAIN?? I remembered watching halfway through the season and was like.. how come they are back in the same place again?? (I was 12 then and didn't know the countries much)

10 years later, I just figured out the route pretty much isn't that fascinating. HOWEVER, the tasks were REALLY GOOD (Cheese FF, Bungee Jump, Skydive.. you name it!) and thank goodness we had interesting teams that season... and Flo.

You didn't like the TAR3 route? I love it, especially Portugal. <3

Also, the theme of TAR3 is only visiting countries that have never been visited before. <333 Obviously that was easy to achieve being the third season, but I would love for them to do something like that again!