4 Guidelines To Plan Amazing Race Party For Adults

Planning an Amazing Race can be frustrating, challenging, exciting and taking the time to plan an event is just amazing and I cannot recommend it enough. Your friends will be talking about this event for years to come and may be begging you to plan another one.

This guide is specifically for adults. You can customize this for children or teens but the guide is written specifically for an adult audience. This guide is customized for groups exploring an area. Please note that this guide is a mock guide to the Amazing Race. Some things about this guide will be somewhat different to the actually television show of the Amazing Race.

Before I go into the guide, here are some facts about my Amazing Race to give you a picture of how it went.

The Amazing Race was planned for a birthday and was a spinoff of the show. The race was based off the show but in no way replicated the show.
The locations were in Sydney Australia. For anyone reading this familiar with Sydney layout, I had teams start in Darling Harbour or Hyde Park. All teams proceeded to Circular Quay, Newtown, Lewisham and then Petersham for the end of the race.
The race portion took 6 hours. However, we did head out to a pub for drinks for 2 hours after the race finished.
$100 was spent on the entire race. Planning was free and all challenges and activities were free. The $100 was spent on any items needed for challenges and prizes for the end.
Challenges required that I collect old costumes, wigs, chocolate bars for eating challenges and purchase notecards for specific tasks.
There were prizes for every team. The winning team received wine and a trophy filled with candy. The last place team received adorable luggage tags for suitcases when traveling.

Tips To Consider For The Amazing Race

Give yourself at minimum several months to plan. An Amazing Race is no easy feat to plan. There’s so much that goes into the Amazing Race that you will make your life very stressful to try to plan the race last minute. You also need to give your participants enough time to reserve their spots for the race. If you plan an Amazing Race last minute, you risk people not being able to attend or same day cancellations. The race will not go so well if there aren’t enough teams to participate in the first place.
Get help. When I planned an Amazing Race, I had the assistance of a friend who did quite a bit of work with the race too. Planning a race is very time intensive and to make your life easier, enlist help. Ideally you want a person who will not be racing to assist as this will bias the way they complete the race.
Have a waiver (optional). I did not choose to use a waiver when hosting my Amazing Race. However, I know a couple of people who created their own Amazing Races who did have waiver forms. Basically the waiver is to ensure that if anyone gets injured, then you are not responsible. For my friend group I did not feel this was necessary. I also had rules in place to ensure that any risk was minimized. If you feel your friends would be liable to blame you if they get injured or hurt, then have them sign a waiver. If you are planning an Amazing Race for a corporate event, team building exercise or for any type of organization then a waiver is highly recommended.
Choose your participants wisely. Try to avoid any negative or dramatic situations if possible. Although watching The Amazing Race can be entertaining because of the drama, you risk losing friendships by creating drama unnecessarily. I would suggest to not invite people that you know have a negative history. If two people who don’t get along have to participate, then place them on opposing teams so that their interaction is minimal. If you are inviting friends who don’t have any mutual friends, then place them with team members who you feel they would get along with.
Team size matters tremendously. For my Amazing Race, I chose to have teams of 4 people. I wanted everyone to have fun, and although teams of 2 people is more representative of the show, I didn’t want to put people in uncomfortable situations or spark any fights between couples. Teams of 3-4 people allow the pressure to be off just any one person. It also allows people to take up different responsibilities. One person in the team can read the instructions, plan the best way to complete a challenge while two other people actually complete the challenge. You can use at least 2 people in your teams, but I’d recommend having bigger teams if possible. Avoid having teams of 5 or more people. Challenges may become too easy and you risk people not actively participating with a group size of 5 people.
Minimize risk. An Amazing Race can be plenty of fun without all the risks involved. The best way to minimize potential risks is to make it a requirement that all teams do not run or jog. Make sure all the teams know that they must walk and that’s the best way for them to conserve their energy for the challenges. Also, omit driving from the equation if possible. Your friend’s competitive sides will come out during this race and speeding is definitely something that may occur. If you do include driving, make sure that all team members know that they must obey road rules at all times.
Nominate a team lead. You have two options. Your team can choose the team lead or you can choose the team lead for them. During my Amazing Race, none of the teams picked a team lead. This was okay because I was able to pick the team lead myself. If you pick a team lead, pick the person you feel is most responsible, pedantic, and reliable and will read and follow the instructions. A team lead will have the following roles:

The team lead must understand the rules of the race.
The team lead is responsible for their team playing within the rules, not cheating and practicing safety.
They will nominate a name and theme for their theme (i.e., Team Winning or Team Thunder Dogs)
If driving is included, the Team Lead will be the driver.
The Team Lead must ensure everyone has a chance to read the clues and has an opportunity to participate.
If driving is included, let the Team Lead know where they are going before the race begins. You don’t need to be terribly specific but at least let them know what suburbs they will be in.

Pick a location. Once you have a location in place, you’ll have a much easier time planning the challenges. Since the race will happen in one day, pick locations that are relatively close together. I planned my Amazing Race in Sydney, Australia. Since Sydney has very reliable and affordable public transportation it was not as difficult to have people travel to different locations. However, if you live in a city that doesn’t have reliable transport, your best bet may be to limit your race to a couple of suburbs or to the metropolitan area of your city. Limit an area to where people can easily and reliably take public transport and/or walk. If public transport is an option, keep in mind how much your participants can afford or be willing to pay for the costs of public transport. Check that train and bus lines are running properly during the weekend of your race too.

Consider your participant needs as well. If you have a group that tends to get bored easily then sticking to busy areas such as metropolitan areas or shopping centers may be easier. However, some groups may prefer quieter locations. A good idea is to vary your locations so that people have a bit of variety. Locations can vary from shopping centers, museums, parks, friend’s houses, beaches, monuments, hiking trails and so much more.

Overestimate how much time things will take. A task may seem easy to you as the planner, but keep in mind that some teams will breeze through tasks while others will take their time. For my Amazing Race, I allowed teams a full hour and 15 minutes to complete all tasks. A few teams hurried through all the tasks while some teams took their time and used the full hour and 15 minutes to complete the tasks.

Prizes are optional but if you have one, make it a mystery prize. Many people are doing the race just to have fun. Your friends know that they aren’t winning a million dollars if they win. However, if you do have prizes, make the prize a mystery. This makes the challenge even more exciting as your teams know they might win something but have no idea what. Here are some great ideas for prizes.

A bar tab. Put down $100 or X amount of money on the bar tab for your teams to enjoy.
Although you might not be able to take your team around the globe, you can give them some cool souvenirs from the city you live in.
Free dinner. Another great way to treat your winning team is by buying each of them dinner. Depending on the restaurant you may only need to budget between $40 – $100 to feed the team.
Gift cards! A gift card is easy. However, make sure you purchase multiple gift cards and choose something you think your teams might enjoy. Great ideas for gift cards could be restaurants or movies.

Preparation for the Race

Send invitations. You can send formal invitations and/or send event invites on your social media networks. Give your participants a deadline to RSVP for the race.
Let your participants know that they need to wear comfortable clothing and to bring water.
Ask your participants to have a big breakfast before the race. Let them know that if they operate on an empty stomach and are distracted by looking for food ,that will waste time for their team and lessen the chances that they will win. Ask participants to bring light snacks if they are particularly worried about being hungry.
Let your team members know the starting point and where they should park their cars. For instance, if your race is ending 15 miles away from the starting point, your team may prefer to park their cars at the end point. Alternatively, you could have the beginning and end point of the race be at the same place.
Some people will want to participate but may not have a team. Other people may have a team but people will drop out sporadically. Let your participants know that that’s okay and you’ll organize a team for them on the chances that people drop out last minute or they can’t find other people to participate.
Get materials you need for the race well in advance. Get clues printed, decorations, arts and crafts and any props you need for the race. As you design your tasks, you’ll know which items you need.
Let your participants know in advance if any tasks will cost them money. Give them an estimate for gas money, cost of food or drinks during the race, public transportation costs or any admission fees they may have to pay. You don’t need to tell them specifically what they are spending money on but do let them know that they may need $20 or X amount of money during the race. The last thing you want is for participants to be annoyed at having to spend money or leaving their wallets at home, not knowing they will need it.
Make sure all team members have your number in case of emergency. If anyone is running late or has an emergency, it is important they can contact you promptly.
Get some rest. The Amazing Race will be a tiring day for you too. Sure, you may not be participating in the race, but assisting with the race and making sure everyone has their clues will be very exhausting. Make sure you get some adequate amount of rest before the day of the rest.

Before The Race

Ask your teams to arrive early. People will inevitably show up late. There is always someone who is in traffic, running late or just can’t be there in enough time. Try to ask participants to come 15-30 minutes earlier so that the race won’t be negatively influenced by late comers. If everyone does show up early, then that’s great! Start the race early or allow people more time to understand the instructions.
Let people introduce themselves. Not everyone knows what the Amazing Race is or what they got themselves into. Allow people to introduce themselves, say if they have ever participated in a race before and a fun fact about themselves.
Go over the rules. This is a great time to go into detail about the structure of the race, the length of the race and to clarify the safety rules such as not running or speeding.
Have an introductory task. This task doesn’t count for the race but allows your teams to feel like a team. This is a great warm up session, ice breaker and a way for teams who may not know each other that well get to know each other a bit better. An idea for an introductory task could be for your team to create a team flag that they carry throughout the race. You provide the arts and crafts, and each team makes a flag. Give them 5-10 minutes to come up with the most creative flag ever. Only until their flags are finished can they receive the first clue.
Have a method for giving out the next clue.
- For my Amazing Race, I made sure that myself and my friend (dressed as a kangaroo) were at the next checkpoint. We gave each team a clue at the next checkpoint.
- You can send texts or messages at a certain time to all teams. However, you need to ensure all teams have good reception and a fully charged phone.
- You can give the team lead all the clues well in advance. The team lead will share the clues to the rest of the team the day of the race.
- You can have volunteers assist in the race. These volunteers will stick with each team (but not assist in any way) and give out clues once they have adequately completed their challenges. A volunteer is great for someone who doesn’t want to participate actively but is happy to tag along for the ride.
Have a method for confirming that participants completed a challenge. With the Amazing Race I ran, I combined a hybrid method of having participants provide evidence through photos of a completed challenge and being physically present when participants completed a challenge.
- Have witnesses who can monitor and approve when a challenge is completed
- Ask participants to take photos of all tasks once completed
- Certain challenges that require a written answer, can be shown to you after a race

Activities – During The Race

Consider having each team start at different destinations. Having people start at the same location takes away a bit of the mystery and you want your teams to not always be looking at what the other team is doing. For instance, for my Amazing Race, I gave each team a QR code that was scanned by a smart phone. The team randomly chose their QR code. Each code had a different location that was equally as challenging and a similar distance from the second clue. The locations after the first one can all be the same, but consider having a different location to make things easier. This also helps team not know where the other teams are so that they won’t know if they are ahead or behind the competition.
Vary your tasks. Have tasks that any team member can do and try to avoid tasks that involve strength or require a certain skill set such as knowing a different language fluently or having a high level understanding of a specific subject such as Biology or Mathematics. The only exception is if your Amazing Race is designed for participants who are only doctors, design students or participants studying the same language. Below are some examples of tasks. The tasks are very dependent on the location. These examples are just a guideline and to give you ideas for your tasks.

Give your participants 10 blank cards. Ask each team to collect a happy memory from a stranger and to have that person write their memory on the card. This requires your participants to be social.
Give a team a phrase in another language. Ask one of the people in the team to learn the phrase. They have to repeat the phrase back to you perfectly. This task helps if you are fluent in the other language.
Have a team member do something kind for someone less fortunate. You could have a task that requires someone from your team to donate something, volunteer their time or buy something small to give to someone in need.
Have your team members identify something in the area. This can be something simple like locating a tree with a clue next to it. During my Amazing Race, I had teams go to a museum with free admission. Each team was required to find several pieces of artwork before going onto the next clue.
Have an eating challenge. During my Amazing Race, I had a chocolate eating contest. One person from the team had to eat an entire box of chocolates without help. For anyone health conscious, maybe have another task like eating 5 apples.
Have a fun task that your teams have to do together. Examples of fun tasks could be to make a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows, making a sand castle or building a snowman together.
If you do include strength tasks, make sure that it is something all teams can do reasonably without injury to themselves or without feeling terribly sore the next day.
Try to keep tasks free. If your tasks do cost money, let your participants know before the race.

Have one task that is challenging but doable. You don’t want to make all your tasks too hard but do have one task that you feel your teams can do but is very challenging. You can even have this task be optional and worth bonus points or time reductions. For my Amazing Race, we found a quote from Harry Potter carved into the concrete of a sidewalk. We asked people to find the Chamber of Secrets between two street names. The challenge was that people were looking upwards and around them but never bothered to look at the ground. Nobody was able to complete the task but everyone had a great time discovering that they were looking everywhere but below them. Below are some examples of tough challenges:

A tough riddle that needs to be solved.
Locating an item that is tough to find
A tough logic problem.

Have at least one challenge that has food and drinks– Even your least competitive friends may become very competitive during the Amazing Race. Your friends may choose to keep going rather than eat. To prevent people from not drinking or eating throughout the race have challenges that include food. Below are some examples of challenges with food.

Locate a pub and all team members must have a drink.
Find a takeaway shop that sells Greek Sandwiches. Each team member must purchase and eat a sandwich.
Find the popular ice cream shop in town. Enjoy a scoop of ice cream.
You must eat a box of biscuits to continue to the next part of the race.

Choose a place to have your post-race party. This is the end of the race or your final destination. All your teams will arrive at this point. This is the place where you will tally up the results, declare the winners and give out prizes if you choose to have them. You can put as little or as much effort into the final destination as you. Below are some ideas for the final destination.

Your home or a friend’s home. Choose a place to throw a party. Make the theme the Amazing Race. If this is for a birthday, then you can choose to have cake or a dessert that the birthday gal or guy would love.
A pub. If you don’t have the desire to plan a party, have the final destination be a local bar. You can all meet up there, have some drinks and relax. Make sure to reserve a table if needed, particularly if you have a large group.
A park. If you think your race will still end while it is still daylight, then you can have everyone meet at a location in the park. Put out the picnic blankets, have food, beverages and some good music.

Best of luck with your Amazing Race event! Trust me, the effort will be worth it! Give yourself a few months so that planning doesn’t feel stressful and to get your participants super pumped for the race. Share your experiences planning and hosting an Amazing Race below.

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