This season of the Race traveled 40,000 miles (64,000 km) across 20 cities and four continents.[2] Filming started on June 18, 2011, with teams seen leaving Los Angeles International Airport and heading to Taiwan.[1] As with the previous season, the starting line, which was located at the Hsi Lai Temple in the foothills of Hacienda Heights, California, had a unique task that the Racers had to perform before receiving tickets to their first destination.[2] American film crews were also spotted in Hillerød, Denmark, and were suspected to be for The Amazing Race; marking the first time the Race has visited Denmark.[5] Along with Denmark, this season will mark other first time visits to Malawi, Belgium, and Indonesia.[6] A visit to Thailand has also been confirmed for the season.[2]

Two new game elements were introduced in this season. Leg 1 introduced the "Hazard," a penalty one team will incur for being the last team to finish the starting-line task. According to Keoghan, the Hazard was added to "test people's mental strength out of the gate", and claims that it has a "rolling effect" throughout the rest of the Race.[7] Leg 2 will be the first in which two teams will be eliminated at the Pit Stop (in Season 10, two teams were eliminated during the first leg, but not both at the Pit Stop).[6]

During the first leg, racer Kaylani lost her passport at a gas station while en route from Hsi Lai Temple to Los Angeles International Airport. She and teammate Lisa returned to the station to search for the passport but could not find it, and opted to proceed to the airport in the hope that another racer had picked it up. The camera crew accompanying the team had seen the dropped passport, but could not tell Kaylani or Lisa or otherwise act on it; they instead informed the producers of the situation. The producers prepared to conduct an impromptu elimination and host Phil Keoghan rushed to the airport. The passport was found by two bystanders who had previously helped another team at the gas station; after posting about the incident on Twitter, a fan of the show advised them to take the passport to the airport, and they were able to return it to Kaylani before their scheduled flight.[8