The Competitours experience was truly a travel-altering experience for me when my buddy Sam and I participated in the “2015 season”. It was an exhilarating ride full of twists and turns and for an Amazing Race fanboy like myself, it was everything I was looking for in a travel competition. To this day I think about all the adventures we went through and wish I could go again.
Well, the best I can do is relive the race through the teams that were lucky enough to compete this year. I had a chance to interview a few of the teams to find out how it went. Aside from my selfish desire to learn just how similar or different our experiences were, I wanted to put together something to give travellers an authentic view. Thing is, I remember being in that spot where I didn’t know if Competitours was legitimate or whether it was something that I would enjoy.
So here it is! 3 teams from the 2016 Competitours group were awesome enough to agree to be interviewed and these are their genuine responses.
Read more about Competitours
- 10 reasons why you should consider Competitours
- Competitours 2015 season and how we did
- Amazing Race for normal people
Other unique travel experiences
- Seeking travel experiences that are more than just crossing places off your list? Here are a few companies that offer surprise vacations.
Team Lost & Late
We live in Silicon Valley, that awkward stretch of tech suburbia between San Francisco and San Jose (which itself remains a mystery to much of the US). We try to do two major trips a year with one being international, but last year in 2015 we failed miserably. So this year we have 2, yes two, trips to Europe planned. This is the first. We love visiting Europe so we are excited.
Russell works for one of those two-syllable tech companies. He has managed to bike to work regularly thanks to a friendly competition with a coworker.
Sarah works for a company that values her so much they routinely contract her out. To do satellite guidance, namely keeping TV satellites pointed toward you, so you can watch the Amazing Race.
The mission of Team Lost and Late is
- to enjoy the journey to the fullest
- to immerse ourselves in local culture (mostly by eating it)
- to not be too lost, late or last
- to make many new friends and no new enemies
1) How did you hear about Competitours and why did you sign up?
2) What was your favourite challenge of Competitours 2016?
3) What was your favourite destination of Competitours 2016?
4) Did the trip meet your expectations of what it would be like? How was it different than what you expected and how was it exactly what you thought it would be?
5) Is there a particular story you’d like to share about your team’s experiences? Was there a defining moment? Did something funny happen along the way? What was the most memorable that you’ll never forget?
6) What made Competitours special for you? Was it the challenges? Travelling with your team mate or the other teams? The places you went? Or something else?
7) I’m sure Competitours wasn’t all butterflies and roses. For us, the scoring was always a little sketchy and frustrating at times. How was it for you this year? If you could, what would you improve? Tell me what sucked!
8) If you were to sell Competitours to a friend, family member or a complete stranger, what would you say about it?
9) Would you do Competitours again? If so, why and what would you do different second time around?
Team Dirty Aprons
Hailing from Vancouver, BC, Canada, introducing Po On and Ivy of Team Dirty Aprons. Here’s an introduction from Po On of Poy meets World. I highly recommend you check out their pre-trip challenge video where they introduce their team name and their trip highlight video.
Po On: Ivy and I met 7 years ago at one of those Fitness Bootcamps and became fast friends hitting it off immediately given our shared love for trying new things and enjoying good food. She taught me how to make homemade biscotti which was a wonderful treat after working out 5x/week at 6 am! During that time, I was in a long-distance relationship with my now-husband while him/ my sister pursued their dreams in the Silicon Valley of creating a travel start up community with some Facebook funding. This is also why I connected with Ivy so well – she was running a local business with her husband, while I was living vicariously through my family and their entrepreneurial ambitions!
While Ivy and I made use of Vancouver’s natural outdoor playground by going on hikes in the mountains and experiencing the explosion in the local culinary scene – travel wasn’t something we were able to do much of due to the typical time/money restraints. We both have friends that did the whole back-packing thing around Europe or South East Asia but we didn’t have the same opportunity. Which is why we were SO STOKED and INCREDIBLY excited to finally go on our own European Adventure!!! It’s never too late and we’re thrilled to celebrate our new decade with this experience together!!
1) How did you hear about Competitours and why did you sign up?
Po On: My sister and husband used to have a travel start-up in the valley that was aimed towards independent travelers. She was subscribed to many travel mailing lists and even went on a few travel writing assignments. She sent this to me knowing how I much I love trying news things and thinking it would be a perfect once in a lifetime travel experience and great way to celebrate my husband and I entering new decades in our life. He wasn’t able to join me, but I was excited to invite a good friend who was also celebrating a milestone year and neither of us had never done the whole backpacking around Europe in our younger years, and were ready to do it now.
Ivy: I signed up on a whim/gamble. Po On contacted me a couple days before the payment deadline so I had little time to make a decision. It was pricey and there wasn’t much information on Competitours so I had some serious concerns about this trip …until I came across your videos. It looked REAL, exciting, adventurous and DOABLE! Actually, your Youtube videos sold me on this trip ;)
2) What was your favourite challenge of Competitours 2016?
Po On: It’s a tie – being able to say that I went to Gelato University in Italy and made my very own Italian Gelato (and won points for our lemon flavour) is a great conversation piece! The Via Ferrata mountain experience was also amazing because I had actually done Via Ferrata before (and blogged about how it was the “scariest thing I had ever done”) and wasn’t thrilled about doing it again since I’m so scared of heights. Somehow though, this setting with the gorgeous lake scenery and positive environment with friendly people created the perfect conditions for me to really embrace it. Also, since I was sort of coaching fellow competitour behind me, I had some new found confidence and really enjoyed this extreme mountain sport the second time around!
Ivy: Same for me. Gelato University and Via Ferrata were my two favourites.
Gelato University, in general, was so much fun! The fool-proof recipes allowed everyone to make some impressive gelato. And then allowing us to eat as much gelato as we wanted?!!! Hello, we were like kids in a candy store hahahaha!
I desperately wanted to do the Via Ferrata. Needless to say, I was over the moon when we finally got to do it on Day 10. It was a beautiful climb over a picturesque lake in Gosau, Austria. The scenery was stunning and the climb was very manageable. I loved everything about it! …except for the video we had to make afterwards (eyeroll LOL)
3) What was your favourite destination of Competitours 2016?
Po On: Venice has always been on my bucket list – it’s a beautiful city and it was so cool to hear how other people, that had already been to Venice, experienced it in a completely different way.
I’ve been thinking about this for days and I honestly can’t pick a favourite. I had a blast from beginning to end. Although I do preferred the smaller, less known locations like Maastricht.
4) Did the trip meet your expectations of what it would be like? How was it different than what you expected and how was it exactly what you thought it would be?
Po On: I knew there would be new activities every day, but I didn’t realize that on our very first day, we would do 5 new activities in ONE day! We did archery, archery tag, power kiting, kite buggying, kite fighting and then off to Rotterdam for an escape room experience. Oh wait, that’s 6 activities!
Just one way the trip completely exceeded expectations!
Ivy: From watching your videos, I knew there would be scavenger hunts and cooking challenges. There were some things I hoped would be repeated on our trip. But mostly I just wanted to do things I’ve never done before. YES, Steve met and surpassed my expectations. Each day was packed with new and exciting activities that I would never do on my own. I thought we would have more down time, but I’m glad we didn’t. The pace of the trip felt like the Amazing Race (which was what I signed up for).
5) Is there a particular story you’d like to share about your team’s experiences? Was there a defining moment? Did something funny happen along the way? What was the most memorable that you’ll never forget?
Ivy: On our second day we were teamed up with another group to do a scavenger hunt in the Rotterdam Canals. There were a lot things that went wrong – unbeknownst to us we had broken GPS and kept going around in circles for the first hour not making any progress and also got stuck in a torrential downpour. Collectively though, we were able to keep a positive attitude and bonded over our shared perspective on this trip – we’re all here to try news things and have fun! We found a good a balance between our teams with someone from each team taking control of the driving while others worked on navigation or puzzles. It was a true example of teamwork and we stuck by each other throughout the rest of the competitours trip sharing lots of dinners and laughs! I think going through that crazy experience and not getting frustrated at each other made us all a lot closer.
6) What made Competitours special for you? Was it the challenges? Travelling with your team mate or the other teams? The places you went? Or something else?
Po On: I really enjoyed meeting so many diverse people. The fact that we all signed up for such a crazy, random experience, not knowing what to expect shows that we all have a few things in common – being open to new adventures! I had the expectation that I would experience Europe off the beaten path and see new sights and do lots of new activities, which were all met and exceeded, but it was the new friendships that weren’t necessarily expected, that made the trip truly special.
Ivy: For me, it was the PEOPLE. All the activities were amazing; and to be able to experience it with a great group of people, it made this trip even more incredible.
Zach from Team Rhapsody Askew is my hero (and the winner of the trip). He looked after us, made us laugh and was all around my favourite to be around.
7) I’m sure Competitours wasn’t all butterflies and roses. For us, the scoring was always a little sketchy and frustrating at times. How was it for you this year? If you could, what would you improve? Tell me what sucked!
Po On: The challenge of figuring out the next destinations seemed completely random. It would be cool if there were actual clues (doesn’t have to be easy one) that might actually give people more of a chance.
I also felt the Iron Chef challenge could have been done in a more productive way. We were given ingredients and told what to make, but with no recipe. I felt this could have been an opportunity to learn something first (perhaps a cooking technique) and then everyone could take the ingredients and try to make something interesting! [I totally can relate here as I was totally thrown off by a similar challenge we had. I came to the realization that cooking challenges straddle between being reasonable by proving multiple choices options with recipe ingredients and prep but with a couple of ‘red herring’ options thrown in to keep it challenging]
Instead, the current format had no direction and it was all guess-work so that was a bit frustrating. Given that we were in the “Fat capital of Italy” with these amazing teachers and facilities, it would have been so cool to have gotten a lesson from them.
Still an interesting experience overall but this one I think could be improved.
Ivy: In addition to Po On’s suggestions, tell Steve NO MORE VIDEOS. I thought there were too many video challenges. Towards the end of our trip, it was almost all video challenges, which eventually felt more like “work” and took away from the enjoyment of the day. [I’ve been told that future Competitours trips will have a max of 2 videos]
8) If you were to sell Competitours to a friend, family member or a complete stranger, what would you say about it?
Po On: I think tag line of the Amazing Race for regular people sums it up perfectly! It’s a chance to do things you could never do on your own and you get to feel like an actual contestant in a contest with the added bonus of a possible prize.
9) Would you do Competitours again? If so, why and what would you do different second time around?
Po On: I would love to do this again! I would arrive earlier and stay later knowing how little sleep you get on the actual trip haha!
Ivy: Yes I would definitely do this again! Next time I would bring a battery pack or two and brush up on my geography LOL!
Team RandR
Nicole and Catrina are two relatively reckless individuals hailing from the nation’s capital where they are either deeply invested in or recovering from the act of making our Great Democracy even better. We are game for most everything! Though we will have an insane amount of clarifying questions before we proceed.
We’ve both been traveling since infancy. Nicole’s dad is a pilot and took her up like basically as she was being born. Catrina took her first passport photo before she had fully developed a spine to go meet family in Portugal. We’ve both learned a lot from traveling and don’t intend to stop any time soon.
Nicole is the undisputed reigning champ of finding discount airfares. Catrina is the undisputed reigning champ of just going along with whatever Nicole recommends.
This is the most perfect thing we’ve ever created.
1) How did you hear about Competitours and why did you sign up?
2) What was your favourite challenge of Competitours 2016?
3) What was your favourite destination of Competitours 2016?
4) Did the trip meet your expectations of what it would be like? How was it different than what you expected and how was it exactly what you thought it would be?
5) Is there a particular story you’d like to share about your team’s experiences? Was there a defining moment? Did something funny happen along the way? What was the most memorable that you’ll never forget?
6) What made Competitours special for you? Was it the challenges? Travelling with your team mate or the other teams? The places you went? Or something else?
7) I’m sure Competitours wasn’t all butterflies and roses. For us, the scoring was always a little sketchy and frustrating at times. How was it for you this year? If you could, what would you improve? Tell me what sucked!
8) If you were to sell Competitours to a friend, family member or a complete stranger, what would you say about it?
9) Would you do Competitours again? If so, why and what would you do different second time around?
My Thoughts
I thought about summarizing the responses at first but the answers were so genuine that my paraphrasing would only ruin the essence of it all.
As a previous “contestant”, I can 100% vouch for everything that’s been said here. If I were to boil up the entire experience, I’d say it was the incredible teams and individuals that we met through our journey. Sure the points were frustrating at times but at the end of the day, the prize and winning were secondary to the relationships we created with all the other teams.
That being said, I look back on our trip and am still amazed at all the crazy things we did in Europe. In 2015, it was the Maastricht tunnels, Via Ferrata, exploring Pompeii, and practically everything we did in Sorrento that still bring a smile to my face when I think about those memories.
One thing is clear though, writing this article certainly didn’t help curb my wanderlust and my want of signing up for next year’s Competitours.
Featured image credit goes to Po On of Team Dirty Aprons
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