If you ever wanted to be on The Amazing Race, this is your prep course. If you are a super fan of The Amazing Race, this is your behind the scenes guide. This book walks readers through various stops The Amazing Race has taken on its show path. This is the perfect training resource or way to learn more about different places in the country.

The Amazing Race is one of my favorite TV shows to watch. I just love to see them traveling the world and doing all sorts of fun and interesting competitions. The Travel Companion book contains a list of places to check out that were featured on past seasons of the race.  The book is broken down by continent and then the locations and also lets you know which season and episode of the race it was featured on.  There were only a handful of locations that I had actually visited myself and so many more I'd absolutely love to check out! It also was fun to see the recaps of the challenges, road blocks, uturns, etc that happened at the locations on the show and try to see how many of them I had remembered watching.


If you're looking for places to see on your next vacation - definitely check out this book. Or if you're just a fan of the show and want to relive some of the iconic destinations they have visited and find out some of how things work behind the scenes you'll want to check it out too!


I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

This book is an epitome of off-the-beaten-path travel!

I'll admit I've only seen a bit here and there of _The Amazing Race_--and in reading some of the other Goodreads reviews, that may end up being a good thing. ;) Not really having watched it, I didn't already have the context for why each team had to visit each stop, then, while reading ... so I appreciated the authors' insight in this regard, but could also see why diehard fans may be disappointed.

I was most surprised by the fact there were no pictures, and that's the primary reason I knock off a star. Any self-respecting travel book should have pictures--and I'm hopeful the final product includes _some_!

Still, the read provides quirky, unique suggestions for travel, as well as including some "typical" spots along with suggestions to elevate them to the next level or encourage the traveler to engage with them in a new way

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book was very dry & needed something to make it more interesting. At the very least it needed pictures. Testimonials from former contestants about their favorites stops on the race would also help add some life to it.

I love the Amazing Race and I love to travel so I am the ideal audience for this book so I was super excited to read an official book about the series. I was not expecting this to really literally just be a travel companion. The book goes continent and country by country highlighting places the race has been and providing a little tidbit about the location’s significance. Every three or four would have some information about the behind the scenes of that particular spot, but rather than be highlights from the show or true technical information, they were just Elise sharing a memory of being there. It made me laugh that for 90% of the stops the travel instructions were to fly into the local airport and rent a car or take a taxi. This book is honestly pretty useless as a travel guide because it truly lacks the necessary practical information. What I enjoyed most was the forward by Phil and the true information about what goes into making a season. I really wish this book would have been a retrospective on 20+ years of the race and antidotes of creating one of the best reality competition shows on television. Overall I enjoyed flipping through the book but I was expecting more.

I am the target audience for this book. I love international travel (I'm always thinking about my next trip!) and I love The Amazing Race! "The Official Amazing Race Travel Companion" had the potential to be a really cool book- either by offering lots of behind the scenes info about the show or by highlighting amazing travel sites used in the show. And I think this book sort of attempted both of those.... but didn't really succeed.

On the first point, virtually every bit of "behind the scenes" info included was about the author and her experiences in scouting the locations or in her cameos at various pit stops. There was almost *no* inside information on teams or events that happened during the tapings. (To be fair, the author is the show creator and executive producer, and she is not always near the "action".) The book *did* point out some great sites, but used a lot of the copy space to discuss the game challenges in that area ("teams had to take a taxi to this tower, and at the top they found their next clue") and an inadequate amount of copy on the actual site itself. The biggest disappointment in this book, I'd say, is that there are *no photos*. No Photos! In a travel book!!!

It's not that this is a bad book. It's not. It's just that it had the potential to be so much more than it ended up being. Nevertheless, I appreciated the opportunity to receive and ARC of this book and to rate it and review it. My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley
#TheOfficialAmazingRaceTravelCompanion

The Official Amazing Race Travel Companion is an uneasy mixture of a travel guide and a behind-the-scenes television show memoir. I found the memoir much more interesting. It begins with how the show was created and continues through the 2021 season.

I expected more from the travel guide. I wanted a list of things featured on the show for whichever countries they decide to feature with detailed who, what and where for each activity. Instead, the guide doesn’t cover much more than the show itself along with a street address that can be easily googled. There are few tips or tricks here.

Overall, The Official Amazing Race Travel Companion is a better choice for fans of the show rather than folks looking for travel insider hints. 3 stars.

Thanks to Simon Element and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

A long time fan of the show, I was looking forward to reading and reviewing this title. Unfortunately, it didn't measure up to any of my expectations.

The book gives brief blurbs of various (and seemingly randomly chosen) spots around the world which were part of an Amazing Race episode. Not a true travel guide, it gives very basic information (i.e. an address) of the place AR teams visited, a few suggestions of other things to see in the area and little else.

Not a travel guide, not much about the show, leaves me wondering why the book was even written. Very disappointing!

My thanks to Simon Element Publishers for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. Publication is set for 10/4/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

I love watching "the amazing race" and I was hoping for more behind the scenes info. This book could be helpful if you are going to a destination that was previously featured in "the amazing race".

Great behind the scenes look at how The Amazing Race is thought out and executed! This book explains the hows and whys of how locations are picked and shares suggestions about what to see in the various locations around the world. Good travel guide even if you don’t like The Amazing Race!

I received an ARC of, The Official Amazing Race Travel Companion, by Elise Doganieri. This is a really good travel guide for all over the world, as seen on, Amazing Race. I really enjoyed this travel guide.

As a long-time fan of The Amazing Race, I was excited to see this book. Although it was fun to read, it was not, as the publisher claimed, a travel guide. Dozens of locations around the world are profiled, along with information about what the contestants did at that location and fun behind the scenes information. However, there is little information about the locations other than their addresses (websites would have been very helpful) and very little information about how a normal tourist can enjoy the location (obviously, you and I are not going to be rappelling down the face of a skyscraper or assisting a master chef in the kitchen). The book would also have been greatly improved by pictures - if not photos from Amazing Race, at least photos of the locations. *Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.*

I have been watching 'The Amazing Race' since the show first premiered and have really enjoyed the premise, getting to know new countries and the overall competition. While I enjoyed this book I was expecting more, it starts with an intro on how the show was created but then it turned into more of a travel book with snippets of the show spread throughout. I was hoping for a book that was more centered on the show itself.

I absolutely love this show and I was excited to see this book was coming out. Written by the show's executive producer and co-creator unfortunately, it was not what I was hoping for. It truly is just a travel companion. The book is organized by continent and proceeds to revisit roadblocks and detour that took place in that country, giving (what I thought was most useful) the contact information so that you too could visit this location and try your own luck. A few locations come with a "behind the scenes" which is just some personal reason this location was picked or memory of the author. No anecdotes about things that may have happened that wasn't seen on camera.

There were some interesting information about how many moving parts there are to the filming of this show which was interesting and had a couple of anecdotes of how a wrench was thrown into all the careful planning and came close to impacting the show. Nothing noted about the season that was filmed during that pandemic and needed to be suspended. It would have been really interesting to hear how that was to deal with. But all in all this is a book that would set on my travel guidebook shelf next to my copies of 1000 Things to See (Do) before you Die for when I'm planning a trip.

I want to thank NetGalley and Simon Element for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is an amazing resource for Amazing Race fans! I am a huge fan of the show and loved seeing a list of all the places they've visited, activities the contestants completed, and some behind-the-scenes info. I'm super excited to go to some of the recommended spots listed in this book! I would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to the author, Simon Element, and NetGalley for providing an early copy to review.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting book!

The travel guide portion is rather high level. The book is broken down by continent and then country that Amazing Race contestants have visited. There's about a paragraph of information about various locations talking about what the contestants had to do at that location. There's also information on other places in the country that are recommended to visit.

What I found to be the most interesting was the information about The Amazing Race as a show. There's stats on how long it takes to film a season, how often a country has been visited on the race, and other interesting information. I was hoping to hear more about the show.

The main part of this book was a travel guide if you were to want to go to the same places as the teams in the Amazing Race and do the same things that they did while they were competing. That wasn't quite what I was expecting from the book. There was a section in the back that talked about the logistics of making everything work. That part I found interesting. I would have liked more anecdotes from the seasons about funny or difficult things that happened.

I enjoyed the nostalgic walk down memory lane—-the chance to remember past moments from the show, The Amazing Race. Elise Doganieri has a fun, clear, easy to read writing style. For me, the actual travel destinations and/or activities felt a little out of reach or far fetched. As a true travel guide, it wasn’t for me and not too accessible for most, I am guessing. Still, for the fun nostalgia, I would give it 3 stars.

We are huge fans of the Amazing Race! While this book was primarily a travel guide, I was disappointed that there weren't more "behind the scenes" chapters. I was hoping for more of this (like where do the couples sleep, eat, ect) when not being filmed. Overall a good travel guide but it left me wanting more, Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.