Do It Yourself scavenger hunt for adults
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.
Do It Yourself scavenger hunt for adults: This Is how you proceed
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:
- Is the location accessible at all times?
- Does it offer ingenious hiding places at which you can safely place clues?
- Are the locations easy to reach by foot?
- Are the distances between the locations short enough so that there is no risk of tired feet or boredom along the way?
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:
- You hand out envelopes with riddles along the route. The answer takes the team to the next location.
- The team has to find numbers (house numbers of certain apartment buildings, year numbers at landmarks, ...) and then put them together to form a code.
- The first letters of the answers to all the questions asked result in a code word that leads the team to the destination.
- The answers result in coordinates that reveal the exact location of the destination.
The right accessories for an exciting scavenger hunt for adults
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:
- Flashlight: The next riddle is hidden in a dark corner
- Small shovel: The new clue is buried in a certain place
- Coins: The path now leads to the direction of the nearest bank
- Menu: Now the way leads to the pub district
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!
Tips for planning a scavenger hunt
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…
- In your own house
- In an indoor park
- As a pub tour
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:
- Game leader
- Task reader
- Navigator
- Compass carrier
- Photographer
- Clue collector
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.
Do It Yourself scavenger hunt for adults depending on the occasion
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!
Organize a scavenger hunt yourself or book it?
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.
