The Global Scavenger Hunt

The Global Scavenger Hunt is an annual international travel adventure competition in which teams of two people travel around the world in competition with other teams to win The World’s Greatest Travelers title and trophy.

The Global Scavenger Hunt
StatusActive
GenreAnnual Travel Competition
VenueGlobal
Inaugurated2002
Websitehttp://globalscavengerhunt.com/
Winner's Trophy
Event Director William Chalmers

History

The first event was scheduled for 2001 but postponed due to the events of 9/11.[1][2] The inaugural event took place in the spring of 2002.[3] A spring 2003 event was cancelled due to the SARS epidemic and the onset of the Iraq War. The event has been held annually since 2008.[4] The Global Scavenger Hunt originally called GreatEscape, was created in 1999 and launched in 2000.[5] Inspired by his 1989 participation in an around-the-world race called the HumanRace,[6] Chalmers, and his travel companion, Andy J. Valvur,[7] won the one-off event collecting the $20,000 first place prize money in 17-days.[8] Chalmers later wrote a book chronicling their exploits entitled A Blind Date with the World in 2000 and was later dubbed the "world's greatest traveler" in National Geographic Traveler magazine.[9]

The event

The Global Scavenger Hunt is a series of rallies around the world. Competitors participating in attempt to complete a series of culturally-oriented scavenges from a scavenger hunt book created for each leg of the rally-like event. Scavenges are assigned points based on completion difficulty.

During each event, competitors travel to and within at least ten countries, across four continents during each event, but never know in advance which countries they are going to be visiting. The event is designed to test the participants collective 'travel IQ'[10] requiring them to overcome language and communications barriers, cultural nuances, logistics, jet lag, team dynamics and 23-days of traveling across 24 time zones through ten countries.

Teams are also prohibited from using any technology to assist them and are limited to using only local modes of public transportation as they attempt to complete the scavenges in the goal of fostering the "trusting of strangers in strange lands."

The scavenges, based on a risk-reward points system, include food scavenges, participatory site-doing scavenges, karma-building scavenges, assigned urban, rural and nature-oriented photo safaris, playing Bartender Roulette, polling locals on issues of the day, performing blind taste tests, figuring out how to crash major cultural happenings.

Each leg is tallied and the eventual winners of the event are crowned The World's Greatest Travelers and given that title for that year. The event is considered to be the annual "world travel championship" and called the "Super Bowl of travel adventure competitions".[11][12] Winning teams earn the right to defend their The World's Greatest Travelers title in the next event with all entry fees waived. The event, is both open to all international travel adventure competitors, and has no set course as it is changed each year. As of 2019, the annual around the world travel adventure event has visited over 85 countries across 6 continents.

Events to date
  • 2002 (April 12 – May 4) – Los Angeles to Japan to Hong Kong to Thailand to UAE to Egypt to Turkey to Italy to Switzerland to Germany to New York City, USA
  • 2003 – Scheduled for April 2003 and was cancelled due to the global SARS epidemic and outbreak of the Iraq War.
  • 2004 (April 16 – May 8) – Los Angeles to China to Viet Nam to Cambodia to Thailand to India to UAE to Morocco to Gibraltar to Spain to Portugal to New York City, USA
  • 2005 (April 15 – May 7) – Los Angeles to China to India to UAE to Egypt to Turkey to Czech Republic to Austria to Poland to Hungary to New York City, USA
  • 2008 (April 11 – May 3) – San Francisco to China to Malaysia to Singapore to Nepal to Bahrain to Egypt to Greece to Macedonia to Bulgaria to Romania to The Netherlands to Toronto, Canada
  • 2009 (April 17 – May 9) – Seattle to Taiwan to Cambodia to Thailand to India to Turkey to Tunisia to Germany to Denmark to Sweden to Iceland to Boston, USA
  • 2010 (April 9 – May 1) – San Francisco to Hong Kong to Viet Nam to Laos to Myanmar to Thailand to Sri Lanka to Jordan to Austria to Slovakia to Germany to Luxembourg to France to New York City, USA
  • 2011 (April 15 – May 7) – Los Angeles to Korea to Philippines to Indonesia to Singapore to India to Turkey to Spain to Gibraltar to Morocco to Portugal to New York City, USA
  • 2012 (April 13 – May 5) – San Francisco to Taiwan to Myanmar to Thailand to Sri Lanka to Oman to Cyprus to Italy to San Marino to Slovenia to Austria to Czech Republic to Washington D.C., USA
  • 2013 (April 12 – May 4) – Los Angeles to China to Viet Nam to Cambodia to Malaysia to Nepal to Qatar to Germany to Denmark to Sweden to Norway to Toronto, Canada
  • 2014 (April 12 – May 4) – Vancouver to Japan to South Korea to India to UAE to Turkey to Hungary to Austria to Slovakia to Czech Republic to Poland to Chicago, USA
  • 2015 (April 10 – May 2) – Los Angeles to Fiji to Australia to Indonesia to Malaysia to UAE to Italy to Switzerland to France to Andorra to Spain to Colombia to Miami, USA
  • 2016 (April 15 – May 7) – Mexico City to Japan to India to Oman to Kenya to Poland to Lithuania to Estonia to Russia to Finland to Washington D.C., USA
  • 2017 (April 14 – May 6) – San Francisco to China to Viet Nam to Thailand to Sri Lanka to Egypt to Brussels to England to Wales to Ireland to Iceland to New York City, USA
  • 2018 (April 13 – May 5) – San Francisco to Taiwan to India to Ethiopia to Zimbabwe/Zambia/Botswana/Namibia to South Africa to Argentina/Uruguay to Peru to USA
  • 2019 (April 12 – May 4) – Vancouver, Canada to Viet Nam to Myanmar to Thailand to UAE to Jordan to Greece to Morocco to Spain to Gibraltar to Portugal to New York City, USA

Teams
Year1st Place2nd Place3rd Place
2002Victoria Rivers & Joan Harvard[13][14](USA)Marvin Schmidt & David Matichuk(CAN)Carol Branson & Roger Mattingly[15](USA)
2004Alicia Bleier & Vicki Sheahen(USA)Randy Hall & Steve Belkin[16](USA)Raj Krishnan & Carole Herdegen[17][18][19](USA)
2005Lisa Hunt & Helen Qubain[20][21](USA/BEL)Pat & Paul Buescher(USA)Vickie Sheahan & Deborah Grove[22](USA)
2008Bart Hackley & Steve Hunt[23] (Team the Beach Boys)(USA)Zoe Littlepage and Rainey Booth[24] (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)JoAnne & Jeff Blakely (USA)
2009Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)Ben Penchas & Christine Littlepage (Something Old & Something New)(USA/ENG)Sherry & Ken Fardie[25][26] (Miami Twice)(USA)
2010Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)Heidi & Lily Hutchinson (100% Bajan)(BAH)Barbara Schoenfeld & Christine Littlepage (Barbara & the Barbadian)(USA/ENG)
2011Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)Natasha Hanberry & David Ardoin (The Silver Surfers)(USA)Emily & Elizabeth Booth (Sister Act)(USA)
2012Andrew Parsonage & Saskia van Waaijenburg[27] (You're not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata)(NZ/NDL)Fiona & Katrina Atkinson (Sydney Sisters)(AUS)Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)
2013Philip Bouchard & Gerald Obrecht[28] (The Ogopogos)(CAN)Andrew Parsonage & Saskia van Waaijenburg (You're not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata)(NZ/NDL)Demetrius Canton & Margarita Pas (Miami in the Mix)(USA/POL)
2014Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)TIE- Emily Booth & Rainey Booth Jr. (Sister Act II)(USA)

Kim & Maria Lardie (Retired Traveling Chicks)(USA)

2015Fiona & Katrina Atkinson (Sydney Sisters)(AUS)Tania di'Re & Mickey Gupta (Buns & Bird)(USA)Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)
2016Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)
2017Alan & Sydney Ying (Team Ying)(USA)Michael Pavlic & Gillian Shure (Go TSA Pre-Check Yourself)(USA)Thomas & Paula Patterson (SLO Folks)(USA)
2018Paula & Thomas Patterson (SLO Folks)(USA)Betty & Jim Karam (NOLA 2nd Line)(USA)Kim & Gil Gagnon (Leo & the Crab)(USA)
2019Zoe Littlepage & Rainey Booth (Team Lawyers without Borders)(USA)Kathryn & Eric Verwillow (Lazy Monday)(USA)Vivian Reyes & Salvatore Iaquinta (Order & Chaos)(USA)

Charity

The world travel championship adventure competition also serves as a charitable fundraising event for humanitarian organizations with the twin funding goals of building co-ed elementary schools with organizations like Free The Children in developing nations such as: Kenya, Niger, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, India, Haiti, Ethiopia and Ecuador; as well as, providing funds for micro-loans in conjunction with KIVA.org that have assisted over 2700 families in over 72 countries. It has also funded a medical clinic and midwife educational center in Niger inconjuction with the Nomad Foundation.

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See also

References
  1. "And another thing". San Francisco Chronicle. September 30, 2001. GreatEscape2001, the worldwide scavenger hunt scheduled Oct. 12-Nov. 3, has been postponed because of uncertainty surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
  2. Shattuck,Harry (October 7, 2001). "Travel Almanac: Travel agents move meeting to New York". Houston Chronicle. The GreatEscape2001: The Global Scavenger Hunt has been postponed due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
  5. "A Trip of a lifetime" (PDF). The Contra Costa Times. October 1, 2000.
  6. "Travel Advisory". New York Times. April 30, 1989.
  7. Vasilyuk, Saha. "3-Minute Interview: Andy Valvur" San Francisco Examiner, April 8, 2008
  8. Deutsch, Linda (January 21, 1990). "Around the world in a Daze". Los Angeles Times.
  9. Elliott, Christopher (April 2002). "Smart Traveler" (PDF). National Geographic Traveler. p. 23.
  10. David, Shantanu. "Blind Dating the World" The Indian Express, 2 May 2014
  11. Lane, Lea. Forbes, 7 November 2016
  12. "Competitions" The Travel Magazine, 27 January 2017
  13. Bass, Shermakaye. "Contest Winner Journeyed around the world in 23 days for charity", The Austin American-Statesman, May 16, 2002
  14. Nyad, Diana. "GreatEscape2002: The Global Scavenger Hunt", “Savvy Traveler”, NPR, May 4, 2002
  15. Mannweiler, David. "Hoosier couple joins global hunt", Indianapolis Star, 3 March 2002
  16. Crump, Sarah. "Adventurer to hop a plane, but he won't know to where", The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 30, 2004
  17. "Oakland People in the News" The Detroit News, March 24, 2004
  18. Ward, Tracy. "Ready for the world" The Daily Oakland Press, April 11, 2004
  19. "He's back, and he's bushed", The Bergen County Record, May 16, 2004
  20. Van Wyk, Anika. "Congratulations Lisa and Helen" The Calgary Sun, May 12, 2005
  21. Rackl Lori. "Around the world scavenger hunt" Chicago Sun-Times, April 4, 2007
  22. "Local woman traveling around the world on a blind date" Bay Area Today NBC11-KNTV, San Jose/San Francisco, March 2, 2005
  23. Thoensen, Sue. "Balboa Island resident embarks on global hunt" Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, April 11, 2008
  24. Outzen, Rick. "Strangers in strange lands: Local attorneys go on Global Scavenger Hunt", The Pensacola Independent, April 3, 2008
  25. Holman, Zoe. "Global Scavenger Hunt 2009 makes a stop in Cambodia" The Phnom Penh Post, April 23, 2009
  26. Perez-More, Lazaro. "Destination: Adventure", Miami Social Affairs magazine, June–July 2009
  27. "The World's Greatest Travelers", Matamata Chronicle, May 23, 2012
  28. "Father/son crowned greatest travelers", The Vernon Morning Star, May 12, 2013
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