Types of treasure hunts

Treasure hunts have been popular with youth, adults, and children for centuries. With the recent popularity of “The Amazing Race” and reality shows, treasure hunts are as popular today as ever. They can take a variety of forms, be modified with different rules, and accommodate a variety of themes, locations, and age groups. They are great for building community, fostering teamwork, and generating lots of fun and excitement.

These are some of the most common types of scavenger hunts.

Classic treasure hunt

This is the traditional scavenger hunt in which participants are given a list of items to retrieve and bring back within a designated time limit. Examples include common, hard-to-find items like: a basketball, 8-track tape, fork, coin with a specific date, or postage stamp. The treasure hunt consists of a list of selected objects and some rules. Variations may allow photos of an item to replace the actual item or creative substitutions. The rules may prohibit the purchase of items or restrict participants from going to their own homes or shopping malls to pick up items. Various points are assigned to items based on the difficulty required to obtain them. Themes can focus items and add fun to your search. For example, a superhero scavenger hunt may require them to bring costumes, comics, and other collectibles related to specific superheroes.

Unknown destination

In this treasure hunt, clues lead participants to a specific destination where they find a clue to the next location. Successive clues will finally lead them to a specific place where there is a party. Clues can be in the form of riddles or instructions to follow and serve to guide participants to famous landmarks and other locations. Sometimes the helpers are placed at the various locations to deliver the next clue. In other places, the clues may be hidden under a park bench or in other inconspicuous places where the public is unlikely to remove them.

Find the Pieces Scavenger Hunt

Hide puzzle pieces around the designated play area. This could be a school, a church, or even a local park. Instead of a puzzle, you can use any machine or object that has several pieces. As an example, for a Halloween party you could buy plastic skeletons and take them apart, hiding the bones before the party starts. Let the participants find them and then put the skeleton back together. Hide batteries, a recorder, and a cassette tape with a pre-recorded message describing the next clue. Hide chess pieces, ingredients for a meal, or even clothing and accessories. One of the activities can be to dress up as Superman, but for this they will have to collect several pieces of the costume that have been strategically hidden around the game area.

Information Scavenger Hunt

Instead of retrieving items or taking pictures, participants in this treasure hunt must find information. It could be the date on a tombstone, the last item on a restaurant menu, the inscription on a cornerstone, or any other factual information that requires participants to visit a specific location. Victory goes to the first team to correctly collect the most answers or to the team with the most answers in the time limit.

Mystery Photo Search

In this treasure hunt, you explore the location beforehand with a digital camera. Take photos of textures, objects, landmarks, unspecified locations, and items all over the place. Crop them well so they are not easily identifiable. Images should be neatly cropped into a small square that only shows a part of the object. Examples: the last letters of a street sign, a small part of a painting on the wall, a statue from a local park, the nose of a sculpture, the number 8 of an elevator, the intricately carved frame of a door wood, a fire extinguisher hose, a cabinet handle, and others. Participants are then given a printout of all the photos and must identify each object and where it is located within the time limit. Online examples of this can be found at: http://www.mysteryphotos.com

people scavenger hunts

In various incarnations, these scavenger hunts have groups looking for people rather than objects. These can be people the participants know or complete strangers. Participants may be asked to get autographs, business cards, or photos with the people to show they found them. The targets may be in disguise, dressed as certain characters from famous books, or simply wandering around a large shopping mall.

photo scavenger hunt

In this treasure hunt, participants must take photos of their group with objects or in specific situations. The scavenger hunt format is a list of situations and objects to be included in the photos. A common variation is to include an object that must be present in each photograph, such as a school mascot, a flag, a teddy bear, or even something as outrageous as a sofa. Participants may receive a 35mm instant camera or a digital camera. Limits and time limits can be used to limit the scope and duration of the game. Images receive various points based on compliance with the photo stipulations and the creativity of the teams.

preset scavenger hunt

This is similar to the classic scavenger hunt, but the items are placed in the designated play area ahead of time. A traditional Easter egg is a common version of this hunt. Participants can be given a general instruction to “Find all the wrapped Christmas packages” or they can be given a list of specific items to find. In a variation, participants must leave the item in place and simply note the exact location of the item. Alternatively, the first team to locate the item and retrieve it will score the points. There may be more than one hidden item in the play area. You can even hide an item for each team to find. Simply color code the items with a yard scrap or colored yarn. Disqualify any team that interferes with the elements of another team.

sound treasure hunt

Instead of retrieving objects, students are given a tape recorder or other audio recording device and given a list of sounds to record. Sounds can include those made by objects, such as the ticking of a clock, the sound of a church bell, something announced on the radio or a radio commercial, a message from a person, animal sounds, and many others. The team that collects the most sounds from the list in the designated time is declared the winner.

Treasure hunt

On a scavenger hunt, there is one last thing to look for instead of a list of items. Successive clues lead to a final destination where the treasure can be found. Teams compete against each other to solve the clues and follow them to the treasure.

Video treasure hunts

In this treasure hunt, the participants are given a list of actions and situations that must be filmed on video. Teams shoot video footage of themselves or other people in certain locations and perform challenging and sometimes ridiculous tasks. The video usually lasts between 30 and 45 seconds for each situation; otherwise, the time to view the entries will be too long. This can be combined with community service so some of the items could include the team raking leaves, helping someone carry groceries to their car, etc.

Combined Scavenger Hunts

Combine various types of scavenger hunts and tailor them to your theme. In this case, the list will have situations to film or photograph, as well as objects to retrieve, people to find, clues to solve, and facts to discover. Various items will appeal to various personalities for everyone to have fun.