Walking across the city, solving tricky puzzles and uncovering a secret at the end – doesn't that sound exciting? A scavenger hunt for adults takes you to places you've never seen before, and you get to know your surroundings in a whole new way. Moreover, such a group experience strengthens team cohesion. You can find out how to organize a scavenger hunt for adults yourself here.
The first thing to do is to decide on the route. After all, the participants should not wander aimlessly through the entire city. The scavenger hunt works best with the team following the right route, because that's where all the clues are waiting to lead them to their destination.
Explore locations that may not be familiar to everyone. Embark on a search for places with a unique charm. Do not only focus on landmarks and much visited places that all participants already know inside out.
Once you have planned the route, walk it again. While doing so, pay attention to the following points:
On your preparatory exploration tour, it is best to also take a few photos of all potential locations. This way, you can take your time at home to choose which places should be part of the scavenger hunt and piece them together like a puzzle. Also take photos of possible hiding places for clues or aids as a reminder.
The basic framework – the route – is now in place. If you are creating the scavenger hunt for adults yourself, the next step is to fill it with life. Tricky tasks that require concentration, a razor-sharp mind and the ability to think around corners are now required. For example, the following would be imaginable here:
Important: Find good hiding places!
If you would like to hide envelopes with questions or accessories for the scavenger hunt for adults, then choose the places for it wisely. Particularly places that are always very busy are less suitable as hiding places. The risk of people who are not involved discovering and stealing the hidden items is too great. Instead, put them in small boxes with combination locks that the team can only open once they have cracked the code.
The scavenger hunt for adults is even more fun if participants can solve the riddles with the help of accessories or keep finding small objects that provide clues as to what exactly the destination might be.
An initial aid can be a city map, which you can usually print out online at no charge. It becomes especially exciting if you provide a historical map. This way, the team will first puzzle over how the city has developed over the years and which past places correspond to the present ones.
For this purpose, you can come up with a story suitable to the city history of the time from which the city map originates. For example, how about the nobility of the 17th century or the first great businessmen of the 19th century? When making a scavenger hunt for adults by yourself, such frame stories are very valuable. They add an extra fun factor and help you find suitable riddles.
Additional accessories can provide interesting clues for the next location, for example:
Your creativity has no limits here! Would you rather not spend time on preparation and still be confident that everything will go like clockwork? The myCityHunt scavenger hunt is available in many cities. Your team and you can get started right away, without any preparation. The fun can start immediately, even spontaneously!
Proper planning is required to make the scavenger hunt for adults a total success. The weather plays a particularly important role in a scavenger hunt. If there's a sudden storm and rain, the fun is quickly over. Unfortunately, however, this cannot be planned. So it is best to have a few bad weather alternatives up your sleeve. In this case you can organize a scavenger hunt…
Remember to assign roles so that the scavenger hunt doesn't end in chaos. At the beginning, assign each participant a task for the game so that everyone takes on a certain amount of responsibility and no one feels left out. You could assign the following roles:
A scavenger hunt can last a couple of hours. While collecting clues, puzzling and hiking, hunger will come up sooner or later. To keep spirits up, make sure you have food and drink. Safely packed so that animals do not eat them, you can hide them together with the clues. Alternatively, the route may lead you to a restaurant or café. Tip: Position a riddle right there! You can also use the menu of the restaurant to encode a message. For example, you could use the numbers of certain dishes to create a numerical code that the team will need later to open a lock.
Creating a scavenger hunt for adults yourself is always a lot of fun. So use it for different occasions! For example, it is a great team building activity. Deciphering puzzles together, trusting each other's razor-sharp minds, and feeling a sense of accomplishment as a group all weld together.
At the same time, an adult scavenger hunt is a great way to get to know a new city if you've just relocated. At the same time, you'll meet nice people and make your first contacts. Maybe a few new friendships will develop here?
Scavenger hunts are always a fun activity at bachelor parties, too. In this context, you can provide each challenge with a clue where the follow-up trip will go. The final riddle leads the group to the train station or the airport where the trip can begin!
Equipped with the above information, you have already taken a big step towards creating your scavenger hunt. However, you will have noticed that there are many things to consider and that developing your scavenger hunt takes a lot of time. There is also the question of whether the participants will like their scavenger hunt puzzles in the end. Therefore, it is worth considering whether you want to plan and organize the scavenger hunt yourself or whether you would prefer to use a tried and tested concept. In the following table, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of both options.
| Organize yourself Pros & cons self-organization |
Book tickets Pros & cons ticket booking |
| Very time consuming | Simple booking |
|
|
| Paper only | Intuitive web application |
| Free of charge (except material costs) | Not free of charge |
| Customizable | Not customizable |
Once you have created the challenges and riddles, you will only need a few hours of preliminary work. In any case, you should walk the route once. It's also a good idea to play through the riddles once. In case you don't want to invest that much preparation time, a scavenger hunt from myCityHunt is a great option. It takes maybe two minutes to sign up, and you're ready to go.
Basically, you only need a few accessories to create a scavenger hunt yourself: Paper, pens, a few boxes for the locations – and the game could already start. However, the more detailed the preparation, the more fun it will be. For example, an individually designed treasure map is a great extra. Even a compass provides reliable service. A practical idea is to include the participants' smartphones – for example, as a camera for evidence photos or to coordinate.
A scavenger hunt for adults is suitable for at least two to about 20 people. However, preparations are more complex for large groups. For example, keep in mind that there must be enough space to solve the puzzles together – for instance, 10 or more people can rarely gather on a park bench. With large groups, it may make sense to form several teams, so you can turn the scavenger hunt into a competition right away.
Scavenger Hunt
Treasure Hunt
Escape Game
