How Our Treasure Hunts Work

Treasuredays’ treasure hunts come as flexible packs.   When you buy one, we will e-mail it straight back to you as a PDF file. 

If you do not receive your treasure hunt within two hours or so (during working hours), check whether our e-mail has been caught in your spam filter.  If you do not receive it within 24 hours, please contact us.

When you receive your pack, you can decide which sets of clues you want to use, print them off, and make as many copies as you need for the number of people/teams taking part.  This means that as many people can take part as you want, and they can do the treasure hunt at any time.

Our London and City treasure hunts are all done on foot, while the rural treasure hunts require a car.

Our full treasure hunt packs include two versions of the treasure hunt and three bonus rounds (one version and one bonus round in family packs). 

The questions are all based on things you will see as you follow the route.  In the ‘easy’ or ‘family’ version, the questions are all straightforward – they will ask you for a fact that you should be able to observe on the route, for example written on a plaque or statue.  

In the ‘adult’ or ‘cryptic’ version, the questions are generally a bit more challenging.  They may be harder to spot, or require some interpretation or general knowledge, and a few will be slightly cryptic – a bit like a crossword clue.  But don’t worry – none of them are too difficult or obscure.

One option is for some people to use the easy clues version, and some to use the ‘cryptic’ version.  This might be best, for example, when both children and adults are going on the treasure hunt.  We reckon that our easy/family clues are suitable for children from about 8 years up.

The main clues are integrated with instructions for the route to follow.  The instructions tell you where the treasure hunt starts and which streets to go down.  The clues appear in the order you can expect to see them.  So, if you haven’t found a clue that comes before the instruction to turn right down Acacia Avenue, and you come to the Acacia Avenue turning, either you’ve missed the clue or it’s visible somewhere around the junction.

You can include one or more of the bonus rounds alongside the main clues.  Assuming you are using the treasure hunt as a competition, these rounds allow extra points to be scored.  The bonus rounds are:

·         pictures of things you can see on the route – they are not presented in the order you come to them and some may be taken from obscure angles.  Just write down where you saw it (for example, the name of the building or shop)

·         pub name clues – these are cryptic clues referring to the names of the pubs or bars that you can see on or from the route (they may be visible down a road you pass but don’t follow).   Again, they are not shown in the order you will see them.  So write down the names of all the pubs you spot and, if you can work out some clues, you may be able to guess the others by elimination.

·         Items to collect – a list of everyday (or not so everyday) items for you to try to find or make as you go round the treasure hunt route, and take back to the finish to score points (for example, if the list says 'a picture of the Prime Minister', perhaps you could find or buy a newspaper). 

You can find a summary of the contents of each type of treasure hunt pack here.

The Organiser’s Guide suggests how to award marks for correct answers to the clues, but you are free to use any scoring system you prefer, and to give out any prizes you choose.

If you have any further questions, please contact us.

Happy Hunting!

Treasuredays