Haha, old-fashioned TAR for me is TAR 1, where we had clues placed in jewel boxes at the Taj Mahal, baskets tied to a stick in the Sahara, an Eiffel Tower statuette (OK that -was- the clue), even a frying wok in Beijing! Now if only there were some cryptic clues to go along with it! (Ximending was a good start!)
I remember being terribly disappointed in TAR 4 because they repeated so many countries (which, of course, pales in comparison to more recent seasons)... The number of new countries we're seeing makes it feel like we're back in the TAR 1-3 era!
PS I know I'm asking for it with a nick like that, but I don't think I'm a newbie anymore...