The AAA Travel High School Challenge (sometimes shortened to AAA Travel Challenge) was an annual travel-themed scholarship competition run by the American Automobile Association, open to students in grades 9–12 in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia.
First run in 2003 as part of AAA's centennial celebrations, the competition became an annual event and a premier high school scholarship program for a time.
In addition, the 2007 competition, for the first time, also included a separate essay contest for those interested in seeking majors in travel-, tourism-, or hospitality-related careers.
Unlike the National Geography Bee, however, the AAA Travel Challenge stressed team competition, rather than individual achievement.
Challenge administrators had hoped to use this hiatus to work out and analyze the event "to develop strategies and tactics for an improved program."
AAA decided that it would be best to find a single co-sponsor for the event, rather than the multiple sponsors who had supported the competition in previous years.
A student could, at any time, take a Practice Test offered on the Official Site, which gave a general sampling of questions that might have appeared.
Neither reference materials (printed or electronic) nor help from another person was allowed, and this was agreed to when a student checked the "Integrity Oath" box during registration.
In the event of a tie, the student(s) who used the least amount of time to answer questions would advance (from 2003 to 2006, random drawings initially served as tiebreakers).
Each of the 51 Stage Two Winners and one chaperone per finalist were awarded an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando, Florida, for the competition.
The top 24 scorers on the written test were invited back to participate in Phase Two (random drawings served as tiebreakers).
Contestants within each group then participated in a single-elimination oral competition, answering more questions covering the material.
In a manner similar to the National Spelling Bee, if the student answered correctly, he advanced to the next round.
The next day the 12 remaining contestants as well as the 39 other finalists and families gathered for the Final Round, usually at Universal Orlando (this competition was sometimes open to the public).
Each of the following states had two top finishers: Virginia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, Louisiana, Ohio, and Washington.