We know children love scavenger hunts, but what about adults? In this article, we’ll let you in on why adults love these adventures as much as the kiddos. We’ll even give you a few pointers on organizing your very own adult scavenger hunt!
City Scavenger Hunts for Adults
ScavengerHunt.com has an exciting range of outdoor scavenger hunts, pub crawls, ghost hunts, and art walks. Enjoy some quality time with your friends while exploring your town or a city near you. You could even purchase an explorer pass to enjoy activities on your next vacation or road trip! And if you can’t venture out or are social distancing, we’ve got indoor scavenger hunt options to keep you entertained.
What’s So Great About Scavenger Hunts?
It should be pretty clear from our name that we think scavenger hunts are awesome. They’re challenging, enjoyable, exciting, and customizable. Themed scavenger hunts make terrific party ideas! We can go on and on so, without further ado, here’s a list of things we love about them!
1. They bring friends closer.
Scavenger hunts and treasure hunts are great bonding activities for people of all age groups. These hunts are an exciting mix of games, riddles, puzzles, and trivia questions. This helps friends create fun new memories. Maintaining friendships as adults can be quite a task; not everyone is free and available at the same time, and you might not be able to play games at a park or go biking together like when you were kids.
This is where scavenger hunts can help. These hunts will give you and your friends something new and fresh to bond over. Scavenger hunts make great friendship rituals!
2. They’ll help you get to know new friends.
Everybody knows that meeting new people as adults is a taxing process. Since adults spend most of their time at work, it might get difficult to meet new people outside of the workplace. In addition, finding people who share similar interests can be quite a task.
Scavenger hunts can be a great bonding activity here. When someone organizes a scavenger hunt and invites many friends over, you might able to meet someone new and make new friends. This way, you’ll be able to connect over a mutual interest and form a sense of community. While meeting new people at the bar or a party is fun, we’ll take a scavenger hunt any day!
3. They bring out your inner child.
Adults might miss childhood more than we’d like to admit. This is where a scavenger hunt can help—they’re full of challenges and can make you laugh, just like scavenger hunts for kids do!
In addition, they’re a refreshing departure from the monotony of adult life and are a fun way to see the world. View your surroundings or a new place with the refreshing curiosity of a child as you find your next stop and conquer challenges.
4. They boost critical thinking skills.
There are no two ways about it—scavenger hunts are fun brain games! Not only are they a fantastic way to bond with friends, but they engage your critical thinking skills. Scientists and neurobiologists say that the human brain reaches its full cognitive development around 25 years of age.
After this threshold, cognitive capacity may begin to decline if not stimulated in the right way. Scavenger hunts help stimulate your brain because they encourage you to think in unconventional ways. With each clue, you’ll use your grey cells!
5. They promote problem-solving.
In addition to critical thinking, scavenger hunts teach you the art of problem-solving. The key here is to change your mindset. As adults, we may be accustomed to predictably approaching problems. Since these patterns may have worked for us in the corporate or domestic setup, we might experience a creative lull.
Scavenger hunts help you rethink your strategies. Since the questions are unique and unconventional, you will be able to experiment with new ways of approaching and solving these questions. Besides, scavenger hunts are low-stakes games where there is no threat of failure. So, you will be able to experiment with new thought patterns and skills.
6. They foster creativity.
We love scavenger hunts because of how creative they are. From the clues to trivia questions, scavenger hunts help you to think outside of the box.
Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunts, in particular, have several creative games and challenges. There are several photo and video challenges that will leave your entire group in splits of laughter. As you giggle and laugh over the challenges, you’ll also be encouraged to let your imagination run wild and come up with creative ways to complete each challenge.
7. They help you explore new places.
When it comes to exploring new places, we’ll take scavenger hunts over guided tours any day!
City scavenger hunts from ScavengerHunt.com take you to many of the most popular and iconic landmarks in more than 400 cities across the globe. As you explore around town, we’ll help you make memories at every stop. You’ll learn facts, answer trivia questions, and take photos at every turn.
8. They’re unique.
There’s nothing quite like a scavenger hunt! And the best hunts combine the friendly competition of a sport, the thrill of a hunt, the sights of a tour, and the rush of conquering challenges. This means you don’t have to choose between a game, some pub trivia, or a walking tour. You can enjoy a great combination of all these activities when you sign up for a scavenger hunt!
9. They help you break out of your shell.
While being introverted is not a bad thing, it can sometimes come in the way of forming new connections. Shy, introverted, and silent people may find it difficult to break out of their shells and meet new people. Psychologists have noticed that shy individuals struggle with speaking up because of a perceived pressure in formal social situations.
A scavenger hunt is a dynamic, informal, exciting social setup. Here, there is no pressure of ‘failing’ or judgment. In this welcoming environment, the silent ones will feel comfortable enough to speak up and share their thoughts.
Besides, scavenger hunts are best played in teams. Each team will have to participate and complete challenges to move ahead. So, introverts will be encouraged to participate and speak up.
10. They promote healthy competition.
Sports and games bring adults together in unique ways. However, not everyone may enjoy football or baseball. A scavenger hunt, on the other hand, is universally loved. Such games promote a spirit of healthy competition within your social circles.
When everyone in your friends’ circle participates in a scavenger hunt, you’ll be able to compete or cooperate to beat a high score. This presents new ways for your group to bond and connect.
In addition, we love some bragging rights. After each hunt, you can get together for pizza and beer; the losing team buys a round for the group!
11. They’re more interactive than guided walking tours.
If you’re in a new city with your friends or you want to go on a walking tour of the neighborhood’s popular bars, sign up for a scavenger hunt instead. There’s no better way to get to know a new city.
ScavengerHunt.com offers unique and exciting scavenger hunts in cities across the globe. Each city has special hunts that highlight the history, culture, innovations, and popular bars. Before you begin your hunt, you’ll be able to take your pick of hunts from the scavenger hunt app. If you’re in the mood for something eerie and fun, why not try a spooktacular ghost scavenger hunt?
12. They’re perfect for birthdays.
You shouldn’t miss out on the fun of a birthday party just because you’re a grownup. Grab your friends and head out on the town. Replace party games with a birthday scavenger hunt or pub crawl and have yourselves an epic bash!
If you’re looking for something customized, we’ve got you! Whether you want a selfie scavenger hunt or a particular pub crawl, we can make it happen. If you’re organizing a party for a friend, you can customize the riddles and trivia questions to include inside jokes and facts about their life.
13. They’re great for wedding parties!
If you’re looking for some unconventional and memorable ways to celebrate a bachelor or bachelorette party, a scavenger hunt is an ideal choice. These hunts can be personalized to include questions and trivia about the happy couple.
You can also customize the fun activity to include favorite spots and add pit stops for drinks in between. If you’re all traveling for a tropical destination wedding, how about a beach scavenger hunt? There are so many options. Contact our experts to discuss the details!
14. They build better teams.
Scavenger hunts are wonderful team-building exercises too. Whatever be the type of organization you work in, a scavenger hunt can help build better teams. This is because teams will learn to work together in more effective ways. Such fun group activities for grown-ups promote the spirit of teamwork, communication, collaboration, and community. When teams come together in such activities, they learn valuable lessons which can be implemented in workplace tasks.
15. They’ll help you get in your steps.
If you’re in the mood to get a good workout and hang out with your friends while you’re at it, a scavenger hunt is the way to go. Most scavenger hunts are done on foot, which means you’ll be able to record a few thousand steps in your fitness tracker while you solve the clues and riddles. Since you’ll be occupied with the hunt, you’ll likely not tire quickly. This means that you’ll be able to work out and give your brain a workout at the same time.
In Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunt app, you’ll find a live leaderboard to track progress. If you want to make the hunt even more interesting, you can add a time limit!
16. They make the best bar crawls!
There’s no better way to hang out with your friends on a Friday night than by heading out for a pub crawl. When you’re tipsy and looking for a different kind of drinking night with friends, a bar crawl hunt is your best bet. Bar crawls take you and your squad to the hippest and happening watering holes and pubs in the city of your choice. You’ll have to complete challenges and answer questions at four different handpicked pubs around your city, with some backup options in case any place is closed. Since you’ll upload photos and videos of the challenges to the Let’s Roam app, you’ll have some funny moments to laugh about even if you don’t remember what happened!
17. They’re inexpensive.
When adults get together, things can get a tad expensive. Parties, bar meetups, and dinners can get pricey if not done right. A scavenger hunt, on the other hand, does not leave a dent in the wallet. Since it involves just walking, talking, and solving riddles, the participants need not pay a lot of money upfront. For example, when you sign up for one of Let’s Roam’s hunts, you pay less than what you would for a drink at Starbucks!
How to Plan a DIY Adult Scavenger Hunt
1. Choose a theme.
Be it for a party, a birthday, a wedding, or a reunion, decide the theme of the hunt before you start writing down the clues. This will also help you come up with better, customized clues. You’ll also be able to find nice prizes and awards for all the participants.
The theme can be as silly as you want—our favorites are a movie hunt, nature scavenger hunt, photo scavenger hunts, and music hunts. You can also create custom hunts for Christmas and Halloween. Check out some of our best workplace scavenger hunt ideas!
2. Set a date and time.
Once you’ve decided on the theme of the hunt, make a list of participants. Brainstorm and pick a date and time that would be convenient for all the attendees. While you don’t want everyone chipping in and adding too many cooks to the broth, you can narrow it down to a few dates and ask the group to vote on their preferred date. This will make sure that everyone is free and available.
We also recommend planning ahead of time so that everyone can free up their schedules. While impromptu scavenger hunts are exciting and fun, not everyone may be able to attend.
If your entire squad is together and up for a scavenger hunt, just get vouchers from Let’s Roam and begin your hunt; no prep necessary!
3. Send invites.
After you’ve finalized the date and time, send invites to every member of your group through snail mail or email. While a scavenger hunt invite over snail mail adds to the charm and mystery of the event, it might get lost during transit. So, we recommend emailing them copies of the RSVP (in addition to snail mail, if you so prefer). Don’t forget to send reminders a day before the hunt.
In case your hunt is virtual, mention the date and time of your virtual scavenger hunt in the mail. Include the provision to add the event to their digital calendars so they can set reminders as they please.
4. Plan clues.
Now comes the fun part—planning the scavenger hunt clues! The sky is the limit here. You can get as funny and raunchy as you want. Use hokey rhyming riddles or complex head-scratchers.
You can use our list of scavenger hunt riddles as a starting point. If you’re hosting a neighborhood scavenger hunt, walk around the locality to find spots for clues and hints. You can also read up on the history of your city to add some interesting trivia.
If you’re celebrating a special occasion, include personalized clues about the hosts and guests. Wedding dates, birthdays, and anniversaries make great questions.
5. Add hints.
Once you create a list of items and clues, you might also want to add a few hints in case any team needs extra help. Add hints and bonus clues at the end of each round so that your group is even more motivated to do well.
After you’ve created the scavenger hunt list, write them down on pieces of paper and leave them at strategic points along the trail of your scavenger hunt. You can also create a custom map of the locality and hand them over to the team members.
Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunt app lets you do this (and more) with the press of a button. You won’t need to write down any clues—they’re all right in your device!
6. Have a pre-hunt briefing.
This is one of the most important parts of the hunt. A pre-hunt briefing session is essential to tell your participants all the rules of the hunt. For instance, are phones allowed? Can you Google answers? Do you have to follow a particular order while solving puzzles, or can you skip a riddle if you don’t know the answer?
Additionally, you can conduct a few ice breaker games during the briefing session so that the newbies in the group can get to know each other. When you split people into teams, try to introduce new people to each other so that they make new friends.
7. Offer rewards.
We love us some prizes! Motivate the people in your group to finish and ace the scavenger hunt by offering some attractive prizes. The prize doesn’t always have to be money. For starters, we’re certain the winners would love some bragging rights. You can also introduce creative titles like “Best Riddle-Solver,” “Slowest Runner,” “Star Hunter,” and “Pun King/Queen!”
Tips to Keep in Mind
- Have plenty of backups of the clues and hints. You won’t need to worry about this if your hunt is completely app-led, like Let’s Roam’s hunts.
- Once a team finishes a challenge, ask them to send in a text to the group so that everyone can keep track of their progress. You can also ask them to take photos so that they have fun keepsakes (and you’ll be able to record their progress too).
- Ask everyone to bring water, sunscreen, a snack or two, and a bag to carry their essentials while they go on a hunt.
- You can also include a pitstop or two in the middle of your hunt so the entire group can get together, get some snacks, and resume their hunt.
The Bottom Line
The best scavenger hunts are the ones that bring friends closer together, offer unique challenges, and allow you to create memories. They’re perfect for vacations, camping trips, a night on the town. In-home scavenger hunts can help couples bond or give you something to do when you’re snowed in or social distancing. What’s not to love?
Look to ScavengerHunt.com for the best city hunts, pub crawls, ghost hunts, and art walks. Search for a city or, if you still have questions, check out how our scavenger hunts work.
What do you love the most about an adult scavenger hunt? Share your ideas in the comments section, and let’s get talking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Adult scavenger hunts are the perfect mix of adrenaline, fun, and bonding. They let you explore new places at your own pace and solve some riddles while you’re at it. You’ll create new memories too!
Yes, scavenger hunts are fun for people of all ages. Adult scavenger hunts are designed to get you thinking creatively, in unconventional ways. Take a look at why we think they’re perfect for adults!
City scavenger hunts are a lot of fun when done right. We’ve given you the rundown on how you can create the perfect scavenger hunt for adults!