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A Detour is a choice between two tasks each with its own pros and cons.-Phil Keoghan


Upon arriving at a Detour, teams are given several details about both tasks, but they may need to travel a short distance by foot or car to the different task locations. One task is typically less physically-demanding but is tedious or requires some amount of time or thinking to complete, while the other is usually a more physically-demanding or frightening option that, depending on the team's ability, may take less time to complete. The decision on which task to attempt lies solely with the team.

16x8 Detour

Jet & Cord choosing their Detour in Season 16.

Placement
[]

In the first three seasons, a Detour preceded a Roadblock in every leg. Since Season 4, however, the order in which these tasks have occurred has varied with each leg.

Several Detours have had unique arrangements, such as the first Detour in Season 5, where failure to complete one option (based solely on luck at gambling) required the team to complete the other, which was a more physical task, and the Detour on Leg 6 in Season 26, where the Detour a team would perform was determined by spinning a roulette wheel.

Switching[]

A team may choose to switch tasks as many times as they wish with no penalty other than the time lost in attempting the tasks and traveling between task locations. Because of this freedom to choose between tasks, the penalty for not completing either task is significant (see Penalties and time credits). Depending on the Detour, if a team returns to a Detour after switching, they may resume from where they last stopped instead of starting over again.

Blind Detour[]

In Season 25, a variant of the Detour was introduced in Leg 8, in which teams are given their clues for the Detour, without information about either task, except for the location and the names of each task. The information on the tasks is only given upon arrival at the location of the task they have chosen.


Clues & Other Route Markers

Clue-routemarker · Clue-Detour · Clue-FastForward · Clue-Roadblock · Clue-information · Clue-Face-Off · Icon-Intersection · Clue-SpeedBump · Clue-Yield · Clue-Uturn · Icon-Hazard
Others: Handicap · One Way · Date Night · Switchback · On Ramp· Pass

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