Awesome Scavenger Hunt Ideas!

Some activities require creativity, but not all people are necessarily gifted with enough of it to come up with everything on their own. In the past, this meant teaming up with others and pulling your heads together to figure out just what you should do with your time. Today, thankfully, that is no longer the case. Now you can just give everything a quick search and find articles like this! If you’re having trouble planning your scavenger hunt there’s no need to worry. We’re here to jump start your thinking with a few fun scavenger hunt ideas.

A hunt can be broken down into a few main components: the theme, the objectives, the clues and the rewards. Each one needs to fit well with the others so that the entire affair feels consistent and enjoyable. Otherwise you run the risk of creating a messy, boring, unengaging experience. And who would want to put themselves and others through something like that?

Picking a Scavenger Hunt Theme

The theme is really the thing you should decide upon first when planning your scavenger hunt. It has an influence on the entirety of the hunt, after all. It can mold the format of the clues and the objectives to be hidden, as well as what the rewards will be. It would be strange to have a technology themed hunt with a potted plant as a prize, right? The theme sets the tone for everything and it helps you decide what is and is not appropriate.

That being said, you don’t need to have a specific theme in mind. A general scavenger hunt is fine! If you don’t want to pick a theme while brainstorming scavenger hunt ideas then by all means don’t. Just know that themes can be useful tools for narrowing the focus of the hunt and for giving players an idea of what they’re getting into.

It is also worth noting that the theme should be age appropriate. Do not have a horror movie themed scavenger hunt for toddlers and do not have a Barbie themed hunt for middle aged men (unless, of course, you are with a group of middle aged men who also happen to be Barbie enthusiasts; if this is the case please feel free to make that the theme). Common sense should tell you what is and is not a good idea. If all else fails, ask a friend for their perspective. They’ll probably tell you if you need to adjust the themes of the hunt.

Picking Objectives

The objective should match your theme, assuming you chose one. They don’t need to be perfect in every respect. They can be symbolic or metaphorical if you are having trouble finding literal objectives to collect. Or if you would like to collect objects that do not belong to you then you could turn the hunt into a photo scavenger hunt. This will allow you to include landmarks, people, and non-tangible objectives on your list. It will also give you something fun to look back on a few years from now.

Regardless of what type of objective you choose, try to keep them at least tangentially connected to the theme. It needs to be something that your players will understand without your intervention. It also needs to be a legitimately achievable goal or item to collect.

Some activities require creativity, but not all people are necessarily gifted with enough of it to come up with everything on their own. In the past, this meant teaming up with others and pulling your heads together to figure out just what you should do with your time. Today, thankfully, that is no longer the case. Now you can just give everything a quick search and find articles like this! If you’re having trouble planning your scavenger hunt there’s no need to worry. We’re here to jump start your thinking with a few fun scavenger hunt ideas.

A hunt can be broken down into a few main components: the theme, the objectives, the clues and the rewards. Each one needs to fit well with the others so that the entire affair feels consistent and enjoyable. Otherwise you run the risk of creating a messy, boring, unengaging experience. And who would want to put themselves and others through something like that?

Picking a Scavenger Hunt Theme

The theme is really the thing you should decide upon first when planning your scavenger hunt. It has an influence on the entirety of the hunt, after all. It can mold the format of the clues and the objectives to be hidden, as well as what the rewards will be. It would be strange to have a technology themed hunt with a potted plant as a prize, right? The theme sets the tone for everything and it helps you decide what is and is not appropriate.

That being said, you don’t need to have a specific theme in mind. A general scavenger hunt is fine! If you don’t want to pick a theme while brainstorming scavenger hunt ideas then by all means don’t. Just know that themes can be useful tools for narrowing the focus of the hunt and for giving players an idea of what they’re getting into.

It is also worth noting that the theme should be age appropriate. Do not have a horror movie themed scavenger hunt for toddlers and do not have a Barbie themed hunt for middle aged men (unless, of course, you are with a group of middle aged men who also happen to be Barbie enthusiasts; if this is the case please feel free to make that the theme). Common sense should tell you what is and is not a good idea. If all else fails, ask a friend for their perspective. They’ll probably tell you if you need to adjust the themes of the hunt.

Picking Objectives

The objective should match your theme, assuming you chose one. They don’t need to be perfect in every respect. They can be symbolic or metaphorical if you are having trouble finding literal objectives to collect. Or if you would like to collect objects that do not belong to you then you could turn the hunt into a photo scavenger hunt. This will allow you to include landmarks, people, and non-tangible objectives on your list. It will also give you something fun to look back on a few years from now.

Regardless of what type of objective you choose, try to keep them at least tangentially connected to the theme. It needs to be something that your players will understand without your intervention. It also needs to be a legitimately achievable goal or item to collect.

Writing Your Scavenger Hunt Clues

Of all the scavenger hunt ideas you’ll need to come up with, clues are by far the most difficult. Who can say with all honesty that they can produce a quality list of clues and riddles in a short amount of time? Proper clues and riddles take a lot of time to get just right. Once more, these are also going to need to relate back to the theme somehow, assuming you do indeed have a theme. This is far easier said than done. Riddles can be difficult to come up with on their own, much less with theme constrictions!

The only advice that can really be offered here is to take your audience – in this case the players – into careful consideration when you’re writing the clues. If you are working with a group of children then your job is going to be considerably easier because they will, in all likelihood, have a harder time figuring things out than an grown-up normally would. If you are working with full grown adults, however, you’re in for a harder time.

A good idea is to consider the professions and hobbies of the people involved. Are you playing with a group of people you went to college with? Then do your best to remember their majors. What references would they get? What corners of pop culture could you hint at to get them thinking in the right direction? Are they history buffs or do they prefer science? Will they get that witty pun that you came up with using the periodic table?

It might feel overwhelming to ask yourself all of these questions, but it’s worth it. You don’t want to bore a bunch of your friends with overly simplistic riddles. You also don’t want to stump them with overly complex ones. So be careful just how hard you make them and be sure that each and every clue makes sense.

Lastly, you can always choose not to have clues at all. Your scavenger hunt could be point blank and tell the players exactly what they need to find and where it is. This would turn things into a race of sorts where planning your route and the order of items to collect becomes more important than getting the answer to any sort of riddle.

Alternatively, you can get ready-made photo scavenger hunt clues and riddle clues (just click the link). Our site has tried to make the whole process of creating a scavenger hunt as painless as possible. We even provide awesome infographics that take you through it step by step.

Picking Rewards

Rewards are an unnecessary component of the hunt, really. But they can be a nice incentive to any reluctant players. Telling someone to run around and pick up arbitrary items all day might get you a scoff and an eye roll, but telling them that they’ll be given a prize if they finish in first place will likely raise an eyebrow. It is therefore recommended that you come up with a decent gift for the winner.